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Regional Health and Social Care Personal and Public Involvement Forum: Annual Update Report 2013/14

The Regional HSC PPI Annual Report for 2013/14 provides an up-date of the work of the Forum and outlines the key areas that have been progressed including the development of PPI standards and the advancement of a generic PPI awareness raising and training programme.

Prevention and Early Intervention in Children and Young People’s Services- Child Health and Development

IPH developed this report for the Centre for Effective Services (CES). The report explores learning from evaluations of 10 programmes operated as part of the Prevention and Early Intervention Initative funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and others. The report provides insights into the outcomes of prevention and early intervention initiatives relevant to early child development, school-based programmes and the integration of child services. A briefing paper is also available.

Brain Health and Dementia Prevention in Ireland - a discussion paper

Joint discussion paper funded by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and authored by the Institute of Public Health Approximately 47,849 people were living with dementia in Ireland in 2011. This number is expected to double by 2031 to about 90,000 as incident rates of dementia are set to rise with population ageing (Pierce et. al. 2014). Although much remains to be established at a causal level, epidemiological research indicates that there is scope for reducing dementia prevalence and age-specific incidence through addressing modifiable risk factors. There is a growing consensus for the mobilisation of public health approaches to attempt to reduce the prevalence of dementia through primary prevention. This discussion paper presents a rapid review of evidence on the primary prevention of dementia and presents estimates for the number of dementia cases that could potentially be preventable through modifying specific risk factors in Ireland. The paper focuses only on primary prevention which relates to delaying or preventing the onset of dementia. Specifically, the discussion paper presents: a rapid review of the current evidence-base on dementia prevention internationally estimates of the number of dementia cases that might be prevented by addressing modifiable risk factors considerations for integrating a brain health and dementia prevention perspective into public health research, policy and practice in Ireland.

Occurrence and composition of class 1 and class 2 integrons in clinical and environmental O1 and non-O1/non-O139 Vibrio cholerae strains from the Brazilian Amazon

This study identified and characterised class 1 and 2 integrons in clinical and environmental Vibrio cholerae O1 and non-O1/non-O139 strains isolated from the Brazilian Amazon. The aadA2 and aadA7 gene cassettes were found in class 1 integrons in two genotypes of environmental V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139. Empty integrons were found in strains from the Brazilian cholera epidemic. A class 2 integron was detected in one strain from the V. cholerae Amazonia lineage harbouring sat1 and aadA1 genes. All isolates were resistant to aminoglycosides, indicating aadA functionality. These findings suggest that environmental bacteria act as cassette reservoirs that favour the emergence of resistant pathogens.

Physical activity, bodyweight, health and fear of negative evaluation in primary school children.

Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is regarded as being the core feature of social anxiety. The present study examined how FNE is associated with physical activity (PA), body mass index (BMI) and perceived physical health (PPH) in children. Data were collected in a sample of 502 primary school children in first and fifth grades taking part in a randomized-controlled trial ("Kinder-Sportstudie KISS") aimed at increasing PA and health. PA was assessed by accelerometry over 7 days, PPH by the Child Health Questionnaire and FNE by the Social Anxiety Scale for Children--Revised. BMI z-scores were calculated based on Swiss norms. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that children high in FNE exercised less, reported lower levels of PPH and had higher BMI z-scores (P<0.01). Using mixed linear models, the school-based PA intervention did not manage to reduce FNE scores. Overweight children demonstrated a greater increase in FNE (P<0.05) indicating that enhanced weight may be a risk factor for FNE. In conclusion, the associations among high FNE, low PA and increased BMI should be considered when promoting an active lifestyle in children.

The relationships of stress, health and wellbeing among workers

The precise relationship between the positive psychological state of work (i.e. engagement ) and the negative psychological state (i.e. burnout) has recently received research attention. Some view these as opposite states on the same similar continuum, while others take the position that they represent different biobehavioral spheres. This study expands our knowledge of the phenomenta engagement and burnout by analyzing their separate and joint manifestations. Using a sample of 2094 nurses, respondents were analyzed to determine the configuration of antecedents leading to separate and joint states of engagement and burnout, the configuration of engagement and burnout leading to mental, physical and organizational outcomes, and the relationship between engagement, bornout, and risk of metabolic syndrome. The study found that while both work engagement and burnout are highly correlated to health and organizational outcomes, the relative statistical power of burnout has a greater direct effect on health. It is important for workers and managers to adress the sources of burnout before addressing the positive psychological aspects of worker engagement.

Monitoring procedures in environmental geochemistry and compositional data analysis theory

First discussion on compositional data analysis is attributable to Karl Pearson, in 1897. However, notwithstanding the recent developments on algebraic structure of the simplex, more than twenty years after Aitchison’s idea of log-transformations of closed data, scientific literature is again full of statistical treatments of this type of data by using traditional methodologies. This is particularly true in environmental geochemistry where besides the problem of the closure, the spatial structure (dependence) of the data have to be considered. In this work we propose the use of log-contrast values, obtained by asimplicial principal component analysis, as LQGLFDWRUV of given environmental conditions. The investigation of the log-constrast frequency distributions allows pointing out the statistical laws able togenerate the values and to govern their variability. The changes, if compared, for example, with the mean values of the random variables assumed as models, or other reference parameters, allow definingmonitors to be used to assess the extent of possible environmental contamination. Case study on running and ground waters from Chiavenna Valley (Northern Italy) by using Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3-, SO4 2- and Cl- concentrations will be illustrated

Adaptação transcultural e validação do World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire para enfermeiros brasileiros

Estudo com objetivo de adaptar transculturalmente o instrumento Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ ) e avaliar as propriedades psicométricas da versão brasileira para enfermeiros. O processo de adaptação seguiu o Protocolo de Tradução da Organização Mundial da Saúde. Os dados para a avaliação das propriedades psicométricas foram coletados em um hospital público e de ensino de Ribeirão Preto em 2011. As propriedades psicométricas analisadas foram: validade de face e conteúdo (grupo de especialistas), confiabilidade pelo Alfa de Cronbach e estabilidade por teste-reteste. Na avaliação das propriedades psicométricas, a consistência interna da versão adaptada do HPQ, o alfa de cronbach foi de 0,94 para a seção A e 0,86 para a seção B do instrumento. Na análise das concordâncias da estabilidade teste-reteste, as concordâncias foram positivas e estatisticamente significativas. Dessa forma, a versão adaptada do HPQ mostrou-se válida e confiável na amostra estudada.

Health and (other) Asset Holdings

The empirical literature on the asset allocation and medical expenditures of U.S. households consistently shows that risky portfolio shares are increasing in both wealth and health whereas health investment shares are decreasing in these same variables. Despite this evidence, most of the existing models treat financial and health-related choices separately. This paper bridges this gap by proposing a tractable framework for the joint determination of optimal consumption, portfolio and health investments. We solve for the optimal rules in closed form and show that the model can theoretically reproduce the empirical facts. Capitalizing on this closed-form solution, we perform a structural estimation of the model on HRS data. Our parameter estimates are reasonable and confirm the relevance of all the main characteristics of the model.

Self-perceived health and clinical characteristics in young adult students from the brazilian northeast

Objective To analyze the association between socioeconomic situation, clinical characteristics referred and the family history of cardiovascular disease, with the Self-perceived health of young adults education and their implications for clinical characteristics observed. Method Analytical study conducted with 501 young adults who are students in countryside city in the Brazilian Northeast. We used binary logistic regression. Results The final model explained 83.3% of the self-perceived positive health, confirming the association of Self-perceived health with male, residence in the community, have excellent/very good lifestyle and does not have or do not know that there are cases of stroke in the family. Conclusion Health perception was often optimistic, being important to identify devices to be worked closer to their perception of their actual health condition, increasing the effectiveness of health promotion activities undertaken by professionals.