Awareness Projects Research Articles

Reduction in all-cause medical and caregiving costs through innovative health awareness projects in a rural area in Japan: a retrospective cohort study

BackgroundThis study evaluates cost reduction in participants of a health awareness program (the Center of Healthy Aging Program, CHAP) in a Japanese rural area, characterized by an annual check-up and personalized interview on health issues and related risks immediately after the check-up.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study using medical and caregiving costs and Japan-specific health check-up results in Hirosaki residents stored by the local government, which were individually-based linked to the CHAP information collected by Hirosaki University. This is the first study that used anonymized data with individually-based linkages to both a research institute and a local government in Japan under a strict limitation regarding linking to third-party data. We included residents who had been continuously enrolled for > 6 months as of 1 July 2015. We compared 5-year all-cause costs between three groups (with CHAP, with Japan-specific health check-up, and no check-up) using a multivariate negative binomial regression model considering risk factors including lifestyle habits and an inverse probability weight to adjust for baseline characteristics: age, sex, Charlson comorbidity index, baseline care level, and risk score of coronary heart diseases.ResultsA total of 384, 9805, and 32,630 residents aged 40–74 years were included for the CHAP, Japan-specific health check-up, and no check-up groups, respectively. The Japan-specific health check-up group showed older and higher Charlson comorbidity index than the others. After inverse probability weight adjusting, the amount of all-cause medical costs was significantly lower only in the CHAP group. Faster walking speed and exercise habits were independently associated with lower all-cause medical and caregiving costs.ConclusionsWe demonstrated a 5-year all-cause cost reduction in residents who participated in the CHAP and also suggested the effect of exercise habits in Hirosaki, which indicated the significance of individually-based data linkages to external third-party data for all local governments to improve the health condition of residents.

Outstanding and Awareness Projects for the Homeless People in California: Hope for the World’s Homeless

Outstanding and Awareness Projects for the Homeless People in California: Hope for the World’s Homeless

Patterns of Drug Utilization and Self-Medication Practices: A Cross Sectional Study.

Self-medication (SM) is a growing phenomenon worldwide that has recently been classified as one of the most serious public health problems. SM can result in an incorrect self-diagnosis, inappropriate treatment, potential adverse reactions, interactions, and the masking of more sinister disease. To assess the prevalence of SM practices amongst healthcare professionals and the general population in Saudi Arabia and to identify the sociodemographic contributing factors to this practice. A total of 540 participants were enrolled in this study. Participants were asked to complete the study questionnaire comprising two sections to gather demographic information and to collect data regarding SM practice. The prevalence of SM practice among the study participants was 78.6%, and it was the highest among the middle age groups of (21-40 years) 82% compared to the younger and older age groups. The observed prevalence was higher in the female participants (53.7%) and those who live alone. Type of education did not affect the attitude of SM (p = 0.374); however, level of education strongly affected the prevalence of the SM, with higher incidence among university graduates (p < 0.001). Analgesics with antipyretics properties were the most self-medicated drugs. Patients considering their illnesses minor was the main reason behind the high prevalence of this practice. Among healthcare professions the highest prevalence of SM was found among pharmacists (95%), followed by physicians, nurses, and other medical practitioners. The general population should be better educated and made conscious about the consequences, risks, and side effects of SM. Awareness campaigns may prove to be useful in this matter, allowing the patient to consider the appropriateness of this practice. Individuals in the age group of 21-40 years, females, and those who live alone should be considered priority target populations in the design and implementation of SM awareness projects.

Cybersuicide: Online-Assisted Suicide

Suicide is a major public health problem around the world, with an estimated 800,000 deaths from suicide each year. Research suggests that the ever-growing use of the Internet is contributing to and facilitating suicide. A thematic analysis was conducted on the final communications of three individuals aged between 18 and 21 to obtain an understanding of why people commit suicide online, how the Internet is involved, and how individuals who are online can influence a person’s choice of life or death. The analysis found that all three suicides were encouraged and baited by their audience, often as the audience doubted the legitimacy of the events, which resulted in pride issues for the victim. The issue of excitement from the audience was also present in all three cases, suggesting that online communications feel more like entertainment than real life. Other themes include social disorders, hesitation, manipulation, and attention seeking behaviour related to low self-esteem. The finding showed that those who die online by suicide have moments of hesitation, which are relevant for suicide-prevention strategies. The limitations of this study in terms of generalisability are discussed, and recommendations for the future of public awareness projects and research are given.

Structural equation modeling analysis of risk factors for digital game addiction in adolescents: A web-based study

AimDigital game addiction warrants study as it has serious negative impacts on adolescents' lives. This study aims to examine digital game addiction in adolescents and its factors. MethodsThis cross-sectional study sample consisted of 297 students among 2400 students enrolled in four high schools located in Turkey's Mediterranean region. Data were collected from the adolescents using the Digital Game Addiction Scale for Children between September and December 2021. The STROBE checklist was used for reporting. ResultsThe study found that adolescents who are male, who started playing digital games before the age of six, whose play is unlimited and unsupervised, who play for >10 h a day, who play digital games on the computer, and who do not participate in any other activities are the most at-risk group for digital addiction. ConclusionsStarting to play digital games in early childhood, and having unlimited and unsupervised play increases the risk of digital game addiction. It is recommended that school-based intervention programs are designed to prevent and reduce digital game addiction. In this regard, awareness projects, involving teachers, adolescents, and parents should be planned.

Reduction in medical costs for cardiovascular diseases through innovative health awareness projects in a rural area in Japan.

To promote health awareness and improve life expectancy in Hirosaki, a Japanese rural area, the Center of Healthy Aging Program (CHAP) was founded in 2013. The most important characteristic of CHAP is a personalized interview just after the checkup to discuss individual results. We evaluated the clinical and economic effects of CHAP by analyzing the cohort data of voluntary participants from annual health checkups since 2005 in the Iwaki district of Hirosaki. We calculated 10-year incidence risk scores for coronary heart diseases (CHDs) and stroke, and compared the risk-score trend before and after the start of CHAP by adjusting other risk factors using multivariate generalized linear regression analyses. We also predicted the 10-year incidences of CHDs and stroke based on the risk scores, for future scenarios of the two conditions, with and without CHAP, and compared them to their treatment costs between scenarios. The number of participants ranged between 808 and 1,167, from 2008 to 2016. The mean age (55 years) and proportion of women (60%) did not significantly change throughout the period. After adjusting for sex, age, outside temperature on the checkup date, the preparation effect of CHAP in 2012, and risk scores in the previous year, the annual increases in risk scores of CHDs and stroke were significant even after CHAP (+0.413, p <0.001; +0.169, p <0.001, respectively), but slightly less compared to before CHAP (+2.638, p <0.001; +1.155, p <0.001, respectively). Assuming the trend continued until 2021, the 10-year incidences of CHDs and stroke have decreases by 22,486 and 9,603, respectively, and treatment costs decreased by JPY 21,973 and 16,056 million, respectively. CHAP contributes to a significant decrease in the incidences of CHDs and stroke, and reduces economic burden on the local government.

Open Access Initiatives in Western Asia

ABSTRACT This paper highlights open access activities and resources from Western Asia. The development of open access journals from this region is analyzed through regional listings in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and information about the development and implementation of open access repositories is taken from the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) platform. Additional information about OA resources and development projects was found through UNESCO’s Global Open Access Portal. The study’s findings show that, even with support from international groups like EIFL and OpenAIRE, the region’s open access market lags behind that of more developed countries. Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stand out among Western Asian states, and Cyprus took the important step of instituting a national public open access policy. Awareness projects and workshops will be a vital step in helping the countries of Western Asia to see the value of open access and to build a stronger OA infrastructure.

The Experience of Organizing Blood Donation Camp through Student Initiative.

Introduction:A blood donation camp was organized in the institute which was a student initiative and a street play on blood donation awareness was carried out at different parts of the institute. For this reason, the study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practises among the voluntary donors was carried out to bring out further awareness programs.Materials and Methods:The study is a Cross-sectional analysis to know about the knowledge, attitude, and practises among the donors as well as collect information regarding the rare blood groups. The idea to conduct a blood donation camp at a tertiary care hospital in Amritsar was initiated by the students of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th professional year and was implemented on February 8, 2018. On this day, two awareness street plays were carried out, first at the outpatient department area and then near the college entrance to spread the message about the benefits and necessity of blood donation. The activity of blood donation was executed by a group of 15 team members and the staff posted in the blood bank of the institute. Each donor was taken care of by looking after any postdonation weakness or nausea plus were also provided with refreshments. At the end, feedback forms were handed over and 50 such filled forms were collected.Results:Out of the 50 donors, there were 21 male (42%) and 29 females (58%), with a mean age of 21.45 ± 1.35 years. It was recognized that, among 50 donors, 52% of the donors have not donated in the last 2 years while 58% of the donors would voluntarily like to donate blood again. It was seen that 52% of the donors had fear of needles acting as a hindrance for the blood donation.Conclusion:My experience during the whole journey of the initiative was quite enlightening. Looking at the enthusiasm of the donors and the organizing team, it also encouraged the patients' relatives and professors to come forward for the donation. The success of the event has further encouraged me to carry out such more awareness projects in the future.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MODULE DIGITAL YOUTH (DY) AS YOUTH EMPOWERMENT THROUGH CRIME AWARENESS: A CASE STUDY OF SOUTH MALAYSIA

Throughout the world, crime is predominantly devastating among the youth age group, and such is the case in the Malaysian context. Studies have shown that some youth get involved in crime unknowingly especially crimes involving cyberbullying, spousal physical violence, forced intimacy, and verbal abuse simply because of lack of knowledge on what is considered a crime. The issue of crime affects the youth themselves, their families, and the community at large. It is against this background that the study shares the concept of raising awareness on crime amongst youth’s cybercrime, drug abuse, and sexual abuse through the digital youth program. The study was guided by the structural functionalism theory. The research took a quantitative quasi-cross-sectional study design and raised awareness among 100 students between the ages of 18-23 (emerging adults) at College Genius, Klang, Selangor, divided into the experimental group and the control group. The ratings of awareness projects can be assessed before and after using police standardized crime awareness appraisal questionnaire. Results of the study show a significant difference in crime knowledge before and after intervention for the experimental group and no difference significant for the control group after the intervention highlighting the Digital Youth Program to be significant in raising awareness on crime to the youth. The study recommends for future studies to expand the Digital Youth Program to various parts of Malaysia among the youth.

Does public awareness about invasive plants pays off? An analysis of knowledge and perceptions of environmentally aware citizens in Portugal

Biodiversity is severely declining worldwide and one of its main threats is invasion by exotic species. Successful management of these species requires citizens to be aware and engaged to prevent new introductions and support control interventions. We used questionnaires to investigate the knowledge and perceptions of Portuguese citizens aware of environmental issues, regarding invasive alien plants (IAPs). The influence of formal training in environmental areas vs. informal education about IAPs on the knowledge and perceptions of respondents was analysed. The results (735 responses) showed that environmentally conscious citizens have a great knowledge and awareness of IAPs (and biodiversity). While most respondents realize that IAPs negatively alter the landscape and cause negative impacts, some recognize that they can also have positive impacts and benefit the landscape. Formal training in environmental areas influences perception and increases knowledge about IAPs. In general, the opinion of whether a species should be removed or not was greatly influenced by the recognition of its invasive status, and less so by whether respondents liked or considered the species beautiful, suggesting that if citizens are informed about the invasive status of a species they are more willing to support its removal. More surprisingly, our results suggest that knowing the “Invasive Plants in Portugal” (Invasoras.pt) project, used as a proxy for higher awareness/informal education, increases knowledge and alters perceptions. Besides increasing understanding of IAPs' knowledge and perceptions among citizens, our work show that investing in public awareness projects pays off and can be focused on improving the planning of IAPs management strategies.

Educate, Re-educate, Then Re-educate: Organ Donation-centered Attitudes Should Be Established in Society

The objectives of the study are to evaluate knowledge and attitudes toward organ and tissue donation, to pursue a deeper understanding of attitudes toward organ donation, and to gain an understanding of the underlying, personal reasoning for the desired action in organ donation among the adult population. Four thousand people were interviewed who were selected by the simple random sample type. A survey was conducted by voluntary, face-to-face interviews using a printed 25-item questionnaire form presented to street-recruited individuals over 18 years of age. In the study, where male/female distribution was represented equally, the majority of participants consisted of young and middle-aged, primary school graduates between the ages of 25 to 44 years. Although 91.1% of the respondents stated that they support organ donation, only 75.3% stated they wanted to donate organs. Organ donation-centeredness rates were low in those who did not finish a primary school education, people with a low household income, and those ≥65 years age group. A majority of the respondents (91.2%) were found to be against financial incentives for organ donation. Although 91.4% of the participants stated that organ donation is important if the recipient is a relative, this ratio decreased to 86.7% for a nonrelative. In our study, the level of accepting an organ as a recipient from an unknown person was 9.1% higher than the rate of willingness to donate to an unknown person. Surprisingly, despite 84% saying their religion is not against organ donation, 38.4% of the respondents cited religious concerns as the main reason for unwillingness and 58% of them indicated that they were reluctant to donate organs due to religious beliefs. It is important to know that it is not certain that anyone who is hypothetically in favor of organ donation will donate when faced with a real choice. Increasing the number of donors is the most important issue in order to benefit more patients in transplantation, which has achieved a very important success level through serious efforts. The majority of Turkey's population know about organ donation, support transplantation, and would be willing to donate their organs. Most of the respondents find it religiously correct and believe that it is an acceptable lifesaving procedure. However, a high percentage did not know how to donate, and they indicated that the information available on the subject is insufficient. Mass media campaigns and educational activities could resolve this matter and increase organ donation. According to the results of our study, when considering the number of patients who died while waiting for transplantation, organ donation awareness projects that are focused on converting knowledge to behavior are believed to be very critical. It is important to provide organ donation-oriented training at every educational level.

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Systematic Review and Meta-Ethnography Exploring Women’s Views of Why It Exists and Persists

Objectives: Despite well-documented negative consequences, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) continues to be widely practised. In this systematic review, we investigated women's views of why FGM/C exists and persists. Methods: A meta-ethnographic approach was used in this systematic review of qualitative research. Results: Twenty-seven studies were included in this review and they represented the views and experiences of 823 women. FGM/C was considered a ‘rite of passage’ which was enforced to curb the expression of their sexuality and maintain social and gender norms within its communities. Nevertheless, attitudes towards FGM/C were changing among migrant populations. Conclusions: Creating community awareness projects, enforcing strict laws coupled with increasing health professional involvement may reduce the incidence of FGM/C.

Oral Hygiene Perceptions and Practices among Population of Al-Qassim Region, KSA

Oral health knowledge is considered to be an essential prerequisite for health related behavior. Studies have shown that there is an association between knowledge and better oral health. Although many studies have been carried out from time to time to assess the knowledge and behavior of people about oral health, there is still a dearth of education regarding the same especially for rural people in Saudi Arabia. The aim of the present study is to identify the daily performed oral hygiene practices and awareness of Saudi dental patients towards oral hygiene maintenance and to assist Saudi dental authorities to provide and enhance the governmental dental services. After obtaining the Institutional Ethical Committee approval, 199 Saudi nationals (male & female) visiting the dental clinics, College of dentistry, Qassim University were selected randomly and questionnaires were handed over for the needed information. The data was statistically evaluated using Chi square test. p value of 0.05 will be considered as level of significance. The results showed statistically significant results with respect to the parameters such as methods and frequency of tooth brushing, responses related to use of other dental cleaning Aids, Awareness for oral-systemic health relations, frequency and cause of visiting dentist and awareness about bleeding gums & oral Mal-odor. It is concluded that even though there is fair knowledge about the oral health awareness among the people, more awareness projects are needed by the higher Saudi authorities in implementing and following them meticulously for better overall oral and general health.

Teachers’ voices on language awareness in pre-primary and primary school settings: implications for teacher education

ABSTRACTThis paper shares the voices of six teachers regarding two language awareness projects carried out in one pre-primary and one primary school in Portugal. These projects present innovative practices in teaching young and very young learners to reflect upon language and linguistic diversity and to become aware of world issues (e.g. poverty, discrimination and climate changes). Based upon interviews conducted with the teachers after the staging of the two projects, we analyse teachers’ discourses regarding the learning outcomes of the activities, their beliefs and knowledge about language awareness and the possibilities for including this approach in the curriculum. Results suggest that teachers acknowledge the relevance of language awareness in the education of more engaged and respectful citizens; however, they feel insecure and unprepared to include it in their teaching practice and in their professional knowledge. Implications of these findings for pre-service and in-service teacher education are discussed.

Successful deployment and operational experience of using linear state estimator in wide‐area monitoring and situational awareness projects

The US power industry has been pushing forward the adoption of synchrophasor technology for wide-area monitoring and situational awareness. Many applications have been developed to take advantage of the GPS time-stamped synchrophasor data. Linear state estimator (LSE) is one of the recent developments in the synchrophasor industry that has been gradually accepted and adopted by several US utilities under pilot projects. This study is aimed to provide the insights of successful deployments at the utility level, and to present key applications and business values of using LSE. One major contribution of this study is that the LSE has been enhanced to a production-grade application for real-time operation at control centre. The other major contribution of this study is to demonstrate the benefits and use cases of the LSE application based on first-hand implementation and deployment experience at utilities. The LSE can (i) validate and condition phasor measurement unit data, (ii) provide an independent non-iterative state estimator (SE) to complement the SE in Energy Management System for situational awareness, data analytics and grid resiliency and (iii) expand synchrophasor measurement observability for down-stream synchrophasor applications. Several use cases are demonstrated in real time by pilot projects deployed at Bonneville Power Administration, Duke Energy, and Southern California Edison. LSE application's use cases and business values are presented to illustrate its successful deployment and operational experience in wide-area monitoring and situational awareness system.

Internet-based monitoring of public perception of conservation

Monitoring public perception of conservation is essential to ensure successful conservation outcomes. However, evaluating attitudes towards conservation projects presents daunting challenges because it is time consuming, expensive and open to social biases and small sample-size errors. Here, we present a recently developed approach to overcome these limitations – Internet-based methods - in particular offsite and onsite metrics. Offsite methods refer to Internet data mining tools that extract Internet search queries, such as Google Trends, while onsite methods refer to programmes that monitor traffic within websites, such as Google Analytics. We explore the potential of these methods rather than focus on the particular details of the case-studies provided to illustrate them. We used offsite methods to determine patterns in public interest in a reintroduced flagship species and in conservation awareness projects in the UK. We employed onsite metrics to assess the success in communicating a conservation outcome and to evaluate the success in online public engagement of a conservation NGO. Our results indicate that both offsite and onsite metrics are able to track changes in public interest across time and space. In particular, onsite metrics provide high levels of temporal and spatial resolution with a high degree of flexibility. These tools could add reliable information to traditional social surveys and represent an opportunity to improve our understanding of the drivers of interest in conservation.

The role of social learning in fostering farmers’ pro-environmental values and intentions

In interventions to achieve sustainability, social learning plays a prominent and growing role as a framework strategy in changing behaviors and intentions. Many interventions have been designed to achieve better performances in natural resource management, but the literature studying the effects on values and intentions is scarce. This paper studies the effects of the Local Agrarian Innovative Programme, which aims to promote sustainability, in two regions of Cuba. It is a long-term, on-going intervention in which learning, cooperation and social interactions play key roles. In this paper, outcomes and actions are considered a first category of learning (single loop learning), and subjective perceptions and intentions imply a superior category of learning (double loop learning). The data, mainly based on primary information collected from a representative sample, are analyzed in terms of differences in values and intentions, and reveal noticeable inter-regional diversity, while intervention duration appears as a decisive variable. From a policy point of view, this research calls into question the efficacy of short-term awareness projects and proposes the integration of social learning programmes when designing pro-environmental interventions.

Selection of a sustainability awareness project in an academic institution using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP )

Abstract The past decade (2005–2014) was the decade for the Education for Sustainability (EfS) declared by the United Nations, in view of the spread of sustainability awareness. The literature argued that one of the rapid ways of achieving spread of sustainability awareness is to educate students who are more adaptive and eager to learn and who could be turned into more aggressive and revolutionary spreading agents of the ‘sustainability awareness’ practices. In that too, lead might be taken by management and social sciences students because their working field is society itself, and thus they could be more confronted and inclined towards decision-making and social interactions role, as compared to other disciplines. This article demonstrates one of such efforts where selection decision about the sustainability awareness projects lies in root in an academic institution to make students learn about sustainable development concepts and practices. The finding of the study suggests that out of three significantly relevant projects the ‘Reuseactivity Project’ was found to be the best alternative when evaluated on multiple criterion like cost, faculty involvement, time and impact. The analysis used was the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), being one of the highly used multi-criteria decision analyses. The findings were further cross-checked under what-if (sensitivity) scenarios for its robustness amidst different criteria variations.

Özel Eğitim Üzerine Yapılan Proje Çalışmalarının Değerlendirilmesi

This study aims to state the distribution of the special education projects done in Turkey between the years 2000-2012 according to different criteria. This study is thought to be useful to see the general framework of the projects by examining them from different aspects. Descriptive method is used, and content analysis is done for special education projects done between the years 20002012 in Turkey. While analyzing the data, projects are encoded. Document review is done and these projects are collected under six headings; according to their (1) institutions and organizations that supports, (2) subjects, (3) years, (4) sustainability-generalization, (5) target audience, (6) originality.As a result of this study, it is determined that the 38.5% of the projects were concluded via European Union grants, 43.5% were about the education of disabled individuals, 88% were awareness projects that can only be applied once, 95.7% were on classical subjects and 45.8% were held between the years 2008-2011

Shaping Morally Responsible Leaders: Infusing Civic Engagement into Business Ethics Courses

Civic engagement in the form of social and moral awareness projects has grown in popularity among higher education practitioners in the past decades, and even more among business schools as a response to the many embarrassingly self-centered business CEO acts in recent years. Research thus far shows a wide variety of advantages tied to social and moral awareness projects, varying from greater understanding of students about the needs in society, and improved connections between the sponsoring institution and the community, to more focus in students’ selection of future careers, and greater personal and professional emotional intelligence levels among these students. This article reviews the achievements of 156 undergraduate and graduate business students in regards to their social and moral responsibility projects, and the preferences they displayed in selecting the topics of these projects.