bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the Coronavirus-Related Health Literacy Scale
Authors: Soylar P , Öztürk F , Sönmez S 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
This study aims to assess the validity and reliability of the Coronavirus-Related Health Literacy Questionnaire adapted to Turkey and examine the levels of coronavirus-related health literacy among the adults.

Methods
This cross-sectional study was carried out in Turkey. The tools were applied to a total sample population of 452 people. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were calculated to determine the construct validity of the questionnaire with the IBM SPSS Amos program version 24.0.

Results
The validity and reliability analyses of the Coronavirus-Related Health Literacy (HLS-COVID-Q22) questionnaire were adapted to Turkish. Internal consistency was very high (α = 0,963) and construct validity suggests a sufficient model fit, making HLS-COVID-Q19 a feasible tool for assessing coronavirus-related health literacy in population surveys. The findings show that the questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool consisting of 19 items and 3 subdivisions. The mean coronavirus-related health literacy score of the participants was found to be 2.92 (±0.51), meaning that it was on average. The coronavirus-related health literacy level of 18.8% of the participants was found to be ‘inadequate’ while 37.8% had ‘problematic’ and 43.4% ‘sufficient’ health literacy. The HLS-COVID-Q19-TR scores of those in the young age group (18-29 years old), married, employed, university graduates, and vaccinated against COVID-19 were found to be higher, and a statistically significant difference was found (p = 0.049, p = 0.009, p = 0.029, p = 0.012 and p = 0.051, respectively).

Conclusions
The results of the research reveal that the HLS-COVID-Q19-TR is a valid and reliable tool. In this study, more than half of the participants were found to have “inadequate” or “problematic” coronavirus-related health literacy levels. For this reason, studies aimed at improving society's coronavirus-related health literacy should be conducted.

Key messages
Multi-method analysis of gender differences in psychological distress among the elderly during COVID
Authors: Queen C , Pasupathy R , Reine I 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

As COVID swept through Europe, and the world, with high rates of illness and death, so did symptoms of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, stress, and psychological distress. This study examines the relationship between gender and psychological distress among Latvians over 50 years old within the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from Wave 8 COVID-19 data of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) as an early data version of the SHARE Corona survey conducted between June and August 2020. It features the data collected by telephone (CATI) on topics related to COVID-19 for a large sub-sample of SHARE panel respondents. This study examined a sample of 980 adults over 50 years old in Latvia. Bivariate analysis were performed utilizing the Pearson chi-square test for association to examine differences in symptoms of psychological distress by gender during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Level of significance was determined by the p-value test statistic. Alpha level was established at .05. A chi-square test for association shows that there were statistically relationships between gender and feeling nervous (X2 (2, N = 976) = 22.11, p &lt; .001), feeling depressed (X2 (3, N = 976) = 10.95, p &lt; .01), and trouble sleeping (X2 (2, N = 976) = 20.40, p &lt; .001). This study rejects the null hypothesis that no differences exist between the genders, as women reported greater psychological distress during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional multi-method analysis is consistent with these findings and concludes that this is due to the greater concern women report for family, and the burden which placed limitations on meeting their children and grandchildren.

Key messages
Essential Medicines for Dental Caries: Cost-Effectiveness of ART and SDF
Authors: Gierth J , Coughlan J , Gkekas N , Hofbauer T , Listl S , Pattamatta M , Pold A 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
Untreated tooth decay (caries) is the most common global health condition and one of the largest preventable disease burdens for society. It concerns both children and adults, particularly in low resource settings whereout of pocket expenditures for oral care often cause catastrophic health expenditures. The 2021 WHO Oral Health Resolution emphasized the relevance of developing so-called “Best Buys” for oral health. The purpose of this study was to identify the cost-effectiveness of Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) and Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) as potential treatments to reduce the caries burden worldwide.

Methods
Leaning on WHO CHOICE methodology, evidence scoping and an expert consensus were facilitated to extract model input parameters which were then fed into cost-effectiveness-analyses (CEA) for ART and SDF. The cost-effectiveness of the interventions was expressed as Cost per DALY averted.

Results
The evidence scoping revealed relevant, information on the effectiveness and costs of ART and SDF. The CEA identified both ART and SDF to be potentially cost-efficient treatment strategies in settings with limited resources. SDF was found to provide a cost-efficient treatment alternative in settings where the comparably larger (human) resource requirements for ART cannot be met.

Conclusions
The findings suggest that ART and SDF represent potentially cost-efficient strategies to reduce the caries burden in settings with limited resources. While ART has previously been proposed as part of WHO’s essential package of oral care, SDF could provide a comparably inexpensive treatment alternative.

Key messages
• Untreated tooth decay (caries) is the most common global health condition and one of the largest preventable disease burdens for society.
• The CEA identified both ART and SDF to be potentially cost-efficient treatment strategies in settings with limited resources.
Women’s experiences of accessing vaccines during pregnancy and for their babies during COVID-19
Authors: Skirrow H , Barnett S , Bell S , Mounier-Jack S , Kampmann B , Holder B 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
COVID-19 changed access to healthcare, including vaccinations, in the United Kingdom (UK). This study explored UK women’s experiences of accessing pertussis vaccination during pregnancy and infant vaccinations during COVID-19.

Methods
An online cross-sectional survey was completed, between 3rd August-11th October 2020, by 1404 women aged 16+ years who were pregnant at some point after the first UK lockdown from March 23rd 2020. Ten follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted.

Results
Most women surveyed were pregnant (65.7%) and a third postnatal (34.3%). Almost all women (95.6%) were aware that pertussis vaccination is recommended in pregnancy. Most pregnant (72.1%) and postnatal women (84.0%) had received pertussis vaccination however, access issues were reported. Over a third (39.6%) of women had a pregnancy vaccination appointment changed. COVID-19 made it physically difficult to access pregnancy vaccinations for one fifth (21.5%) of women and physically difficult to access infant vaccinations for almost half of women (45.8%). Nearly half of women (45.2%) reported feeling less safe attending pregnancy vaccinations and over three quarters (76.3%) less safe attending infant vaccinations due to COVID-19. The majority (94.2%) felt it was important to get their baby vaccinated during COVID-19. Pregnant women from ethnic-minorities and lower-income households were less likely to have been vaccinated. Minority-ethnicity women were more likely to report access problems and feeling less safe attending vaccinations for both themselves and their babies. Qualitative analysis found women experienced difficulties accessing antenatal care and relied on knowledge from previous pregnancies to access vaccine appointments.

Conclusions
COVID-19 disrupted access to vaccinations in the UK. Vaccine services must ensure equitable access to vaccine appointments during ongoing and future pandemics including tailoring services for lower income and ethnic minority families.

Key messages
• Pregnancy and infant vaccines was disrupted by COVID-19 with women feeling less safe and having difficulties accessing vaccinations with ethnic minority women more likely to report access issues.
• Equitable access to routine pregnancy and infant vaccine appointments must be prioritised during future pandemics, including considering tailoring services for different population groups.
Decolonising global health in Africa: research agendas in public health, law, and human rights
Authors: Patterson D , Woldeyes M , Schuck N , Henricson E , Njuguna N , Oduor M 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
In recent years the Groningen Centre for Health Law (‘GCHL’ - formerly the Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre), Netherlands, has held annual summer schools on global health, law, and human rights. Responding to calls to decolonise global health (Fofana, 2021), in February 2022 GCHL convened an online academic colloquium to explore the issues in Africa. Panellists and discussants comprised leading African academics and advocates for public health, law, and human rights.

Objectives
1. Identify priority current and emerging issues in global health, law, and human rights in the African region with, where possible, reference to the climate crisis.
2. Explore opportunities for identifying academic institutions, networks, and researchers working these issues across Africa.
3. Identify opportunities to support collaboration between institutions, networks and researchers and other actors to address the issues identified across the region

Results
Top public health issues identified for further research included: public health law frameworks in Africa; One Health and climate change; inequality in the distribution of the determinants of health and disease; international trade and public health; the right to benefit from scientific progress (e.g. in accessing vaccines for COVID-19); gender-based violence; public health and agri-food systems; noncommunicable diseases; healthy diets; poverty; mental health; social protection; and plastic pollution. The first meeting of the network on health, law and human rights in Africa was held in May 2022. The second academic colloquium was held in July 2022, co-hosted with Moi University and the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Conclusions
Public health and legal academics in Africa are ready to engage systematically with European partners to address key health-related law and human rights issues of global interest. Research agendas should reflect African priorities, and collaboration should be led by African institutions.

Key messages
• Capacity must be built to understand the links between public health, law and human rights in Africa.
• Collaboration with European institutions to build capacity in public health, law and human rights is welcome, however priorities should be identified by - and responses led by - African academics.
SDG5 Gender Equality during the COVID-19 pandemic: an international comparative policy assessment
Authors: Kuhlmann E , Lotta G , Fernandez M , Herten-Crabb A , Maple J-M , MacFehr L , Paina L , Wenham C , Willis K 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
The COVID-19 pandemic caused severe disruptions in healthcare systems and societies and exacerbated existing inequalities for women and girls across every sphere. Our study explores health systems responses to gender equality goals during the COVID-19 pandemic and which role these goals play in pandemic recovery policies.

Methods
We apply a qualitative comparative approach. Country case studies (expert information, secondary sources) were collected in March/April 2022. The sample comprised Australia, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom and USA, reflecting conditions of high to upper-middle income countries with established public health systems, democratic political institutions and gender equality policies. Selected topics: maternity care/reproductive services, violence against women, and gender equality/female leadership.

Results
All countries tried to keep essential maternity and reproductive services open, but strong limitations applied especially for prevention and counselling services; at the same time, digitalisation/telemedicine supported service expansion. Violence against women and children strongly increased during the pandemic. Routine services were partly kept open and new helplines occasionally established, but no action was taken to scale-up mental health support and respond to new demand. A push-back of gender equality was observed across countries in all areas of health and social care, often coupled with strong increase in intersecting social inequalities; participation of women in decision-making bodies was generally weak and not monitored.

Conclusions
Across countries, gender equality policies cracked under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic; this is true for countries with male and female political leaders, and for different areas of SDG5 and health. There is an urgent need for more effective intersectional gender equality policies and improved participation of women in global health and in health system recovery plans.

Key messages
• Health systems failed to take action to protect SDG5 goals; gender and intersecting inequalities strongly increased during the pandemic.
• Building back better after COVID-19 will only be possible with an intersectional gender equality programme and feminist policy approaches.
Trends of hospital admissions and mortality of patients with dementia: descriptive study in Lombardy
Authors: Blandi L , Amorosi A , Bertuccio P , Odone A 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
In 2017 the amount of people globally affected by dementia was estimated about 50 million and is predicted to increase to 132 million by 2050. Coping with dementia is one of the most important challenges of governmental organizations’ agenda. The objective of this study is to analyse the hospital admissions trends and monitor the overall mortality in a population of older patients with dementia over the last two decades in northern Italy.

Methods
This study is based on the healthcare utilization database of the Lombardy region (Italy), considering on hospital discharge records and death registry flows. Primary or secondary diagnosis at admission of dementia was coded according to the ICD9-CM. We carried out descriptive analyses of hospital admissions’ data from 1 Jan 1999 to 31 Dec 2020 of older patients aged 65 or more. We then conducted a temporal analysis of mortality rate over the study period.

Results
A total of 15,683,024 hospital admissions occurred during the study period. Over the last two decades, the prevalence of dementia among patients admitted to acute care hospitals remained around 1.1-1.3%. Considering the total of 183,268 patients with dementia over the study period, the average age at admission increased from 80.2 in 1999 to 83.3 years old in 2020, whereas annual mortality rate increased from about 1,950 to 3,230 deaths per 10,000 person-years. The mortality rate ratio of patients with versus without dementia fluctuated between 1.28 and 1.70.

Conclusions
Our findings suggest that there is an ever-greater appropriateness of hospitalizations over the last two decades, supported by out-of-hospital care that led patients to hospitalization in increasingly late and serious phases of the disease. The present study has a great future potential as well as limitations, due to the dependence on a correct coding of cases by clinicians according to the ICD9-CM system.

Key messages
• We observed an increased mortality among older people with dementia admitted to hospital over the last two decades.
• Our descriptive study, based on the Lombardy regional healthcare database, provides evidence of an increasing appropriateness of hospitalizations.
Short-term exposure to PM2.5 and hospital admissions for respiratory causes in the Czech Republic
Authors: Tomaskova H , Slachtova H , Tomasek I , Polaufova P , Hellebrandova L , Splichalova A 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background and Aims
The Regions Ostrava and Karvina are the most polluted areas in the Czech Republic. The aim of this study was the analysis of effect of ambient fine particles (PM2.5) on acute hospital admissions for respiratory causes.

Methods
In the period 2013-2019, a total of 20,490 cases of acute hospitalization from respiratory causes (J00-99 according to ICD-10) was registered. The daily PM2.5 concentrations were measured at 5 stations. The analyses were performed in two ways: i) including extreme values (max. 224 μg.m-3) and ii) for PM2.5&lt;60 μg.m-3 (5% of the highest values were cut off). The generalized additive model (GAM) for Poisson distribution was used for the analyses; the „thin plate regression spline“ was applied to smooth the pressure, relative humidity and a temperature. The model was adjusted for meteorological conditions, incidence of acute respiratory infections, days off, the order of a day in a week and the area. The calculation was done for lag0 to lag3 days. The analyses were completed using the SW Stata v.14 and SW R v.3.6.1 with the use of mgcv package v.1.8-28.

Results
The median age of patients was 57 years (IQR 4-75 years), 56% were men. The annual PM2.5 values ranged from 18.5 to 31.0 μg.m-3. Based on the fully adjusted model, a10 μg.m-3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with an increase in hospital admission of 1.0% (95% CI: 0.2-1.8%) for lag0 and lag2, 1.2% (95% CI: 0.5-1.9%) for lag3. The percentage changes for models with values of PM2.5&lt;60 μg.m-3 were higher - 1.8% (95% CI: 0.3-3.2%) for lag0 and 3.3% (95% CI: 2.0-4.7%) for lag1-lag3.

Conclusions
The analyses confirmed the effect of ambient fine particulates (PM2.5) on acute hospital admissions for respiratory causes in the regions Ostrava and Karvina.
This presentation was supported by the project TH03030195 of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and the project Healthy Aging in the Industrial Environment CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000798 (HAIE).

Key messages
• A positive association was confirmed between short-term concentrations of PM2.5 and acute hospital admissions for respiratory causes (lag0-lag3).
• No statistically significant difference was found between the identified C-R functions and C-R functions published by the WHO for the relationship between respiratory hospitalizations and PM2.5.
Drivers of Energy Consumption in Portuguese Hospitals - a panel analysis
Authors: Chen-Xu J , Moutinho V 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Background
Buildings represent about 40% of global energy consumed, playing an important role in sustainable transformation. Health institutions account for 10% of the energy consumed by the commercial sector, however public policies do not cover energy management in this setting. Energy poverty in hospitals, such as poor heating, affect patients’ and workers’ health and wellbeing. As such, this study aims to analyse drivers of electricity and natural gas consumption of Portuguese hospitals.

Methods
Data regarding 25 hospitals in Portugal’s National Health Service from 2015-2020 were analysed as logarithms in a panel of 18 trimesters, using Panel-corrected Standard Errors estimators. The PSAR model considers the presence of an autocorrelation within the panel, and the Hetonly modeling deals with heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation.

Results
There is an elastic elasticity and a statistical significance of electricity and natural gas consumption in relation to the number of beds occupied, with a greater variation of natural gas than electricity consumption. In turn, there is a predominance of an inelastic elasticity of electricity and natural gas consumption in relation to the number of workers and number of emergency episodes.

Conclusions
Energy consumption is highly influenced by the number of beds occupied, highlighting the need for a strategic management of energy and planning of hospital capacity. Overall, the positive absolute effects of the elasticities for energy consumption reveal that hospitals do not use effective measures aimed at rational and cleaner energy consumption, requiring a paradigm shift in the energy matrix. Increasing energy efficiency policies and environmental practices, such as autonomous energy production and renewable energies, might effectively contribute in reducing conventional energy consumption and associated energy poverty, which in turn improve patients’ and workers’ conditions within the hospital and their health and wellbeing.

Key messages
• Strategic energy management and capacity planning can contribute to lower energy poverty and a paradigm shift in the energy matrix.
• Hospital sustainability policies must include energy management, including autonomous energy production and investment in renewable energies.
Excess mortality during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Poland
Authors: Pikala M , Burzyńska M 
Published: October 2022

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, has begun a global changes in the mortality model, exceeding its predicted levels under standard conditions. The aim of the study was to assess the phenomenon of excess mortality in Poland in 2020 and in the first half of 2021 compared to 2016-2019 based on the data of the Central Statistical Office. The number of excess deaths was defined as the difference between the deaths in 2021 and the average number of deaths in the previous years. In accordance with the Eurostat methodology the 2016-2019 average was taken as the reference point. In 2020, the number of deaths in Poland amounted to 485,259 and was higher by 14.9% than expected on the basis of mortality in 2016-2019 (the absolute excess number of deaths amounted to 67,112). 43% of the excess deaths were deaths caused by Sars-Cov-2, 27% other deaths among infected people, and 30% deaths among those without confirmed infection. In this group, the highest increases were recorded for deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases and mental disorders. In the first half of 2021, 270,662 people died in Poland, i.e. 23.9% more than in the corresponding period in 2016-2019 and 22.9% more than in the first half of 2020, whereas 58,096 people died due to COVID-19 (22% of all deaths). The highest increases for non-viral deaths compared to 2016-2019 were recorded for blood diseases and immune mechanisms (121.53%), infectious and parasitic diseases (90.76%), mental disorders (34.93%) and cardiovascular diseases (11.65%). Excess mortality is a very serious problem of the public health. The increased mortality in 2020 and 2021 was closely related to the pandemic, as direct COVID-19 victims accounted for the majority of the observed increases in mortality. However, attention should be paid to the growth in mortality related to other causes, mainly mental disorders, for which mortality increases most rapidly, which requires immediate action.

Key messages
• The increased mortality in 2020 and 2021 was closely related to the pandemic, as direct COVID-19 victims accounted for approximately 90% of the observed increases in mortality in Poland.
• In the group of no-related with COVID-19 deaths the highest increases were recorded for mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases and mental disorders.