Disease Prevention Activities Research Articles

E-health literacy and associated factors among chronic patients in a low-income country: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundChronic patients persistently seek for health information on the internet for medication information seeking, nutrition, disease management, information regarding disease preventive actions and so on. Consumers ability to search, find, appraise and use health information from the internet is known as eHealth literacy skill. eHealth literacy is a congregate set of six basic skills (traditional literacy, health literacy, information literacy, scientific literacy, media literacy and computer literacy). The aim of this study was to assess eHealth literacy level and associated factors among internet user chronic patients in North-west Ethiopia.MethodsInstitutional based cross-sectional study design was conducted. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 423 study participants among chronic patients. The eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS) was used for data collection. The eHEALS is a validated eight-item Likert scaled questionnaire used to asses self-reported capability of eHealth consumers to find, appraise, and use health related information from the internet to solve health problems. Statistical Package for Social science version 20 was used for data entry and further analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between the eHealth literacy skill and associated factors. Significance was obtained at 95% CI and p < 0.05.ResultIn total, 423 study subjects were approached and included in the study from February to May, 2019. The response rate to the survey was 95.3%. The majority of respondents 268 (66.3%) were males and mean age was 35.58 ± 14.8 years. The multivariable logistic regression model indicated that participants with higher education (at least having the diploma) are more likely to possess high eHealth literacy skill with Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 3.48, 95% CI (1.54, 7.87). similarly, being government employee AOR: 1.71, 95% CI (1.11, 2.68), being urban resident AOR: 1.37, 95% CI (0.54, 3.49), perceived good health status AOR: 3.97, 95% CI (1.38, 11.38), having higher income AOR: 4.44, 95% CI (1.32, 14.86), Daily internet use AOR: 2.96, 95% CI (1.08, 6.76), having good knowledge about the availability and importance of online resources AOR: 3.12, 95% CI (1.61, 5.3), having positive attitude toward online resources AOR: 2.94, 95% CI (1.07, 3.52) and higher level of computer literacy AOR: 3.81, 95% CI (2.19, 6.61) were the predictors positively associated with higher eHealth literacy level.ConclusionBesides the mounting indication of efficacy, the present data confirm that internet use and eHealth literacy level of chronic patients in this setting is relatively low which clearly implicate that there is a need to fill the skill gap in eHealth literacy among chronic patients which might help them in finding and evaluating relevant online sources for their health-related decisions.

Perception of effective access to health services in Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation, one year after the peace accords in Colombia: a cross-sectional study.

Backgrounds: The signing of the peace accords in Colombia created challenges that are inherent to post-conflict transitions. One of those is the process of reintegrating ex-combatants into society, in which ensuring their rights to health is a particularly significant challenge in rural areas affected by armed conflict. These areas, known as Territorial Spaces for Training and ReintegrationReincorporation (ETCR, in Spanish), are geographically dispersed throughout 24 municipalities and 13 departments in Colombia. This study aimed to describe how ex-combatants in ETCR regions perceived access to health services one year after the signing of the peace accords. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed between September and October 2018. It included 591 adults and their families, from 23 ETCRs. The study was designed, culturally validated, and piloted. Interviewers were trained and a structured survey was administered containing five dimensions that characterized the perception of effective access to health services. Results: The majority of interviewees were women, heads of household, young adults, ex-combatants, and residents in an ETCR. In total of 96.4% were enrolled in Colombia's subsidized health system, and 20.8% indicated that a member of their household required emergency health services. The regional health center provided the majority of the services. Most of those surveyed (96.0%) reported that they did not have to pay for the services, and that they received respectful (91.6%) and good quality (66.6%) care. There were few referrals to disease prevention and health promotion activities, and only 19.0% of households reported having been visited by extramural health care teams, whose activities were highly valued (80%). Lastly, there was little knowledge about community health activities. Conclusions: While residents of ETCR regions have a favorable perception of their access to health services, they need to be made aware of extramural and public health activities.

Perception of effective access to health services in Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation, one year after the peace accords in Colombia: a cross-sectional study

Backgrounds: The signing of the peace accords in Colombia created challenges that are inherent to post-conflict transitions. One of those is the process of reintegrating ex-combatants into society, in which ensuring their rights to health is a particularly significant challenge in rural areas affected by armed conflict. These areas, known as Territorial Spaces for Training and ReintegrationReincorporation (ETCR, in Spanish), are geographically dispersed throughout 24 municipalities and 13 departments in Colombia. This study aimed to describe how ex-combatants in ETCR regions perceived access to health services one year after the signing of the peace accords. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed between September and October 2018. It included 591 adults and their families, from 23 ETCRs. The study was designed, culturally validated, and piloted. Interviewers were trained and a structured survey was administered containing five dimensions that characterized the perception of effective access to health services. Results: The majority of interviewees were women, heads of household, young adults, ex-combatants, and residents in an ETCR. In total of 96.4% were enrolled in Colombia’s subsidized health system, and 20.8% indicated that a member of their household required emergency health services. The regional health center provided the majority of the services. Most of those surveyed (96.0%) reported that they did not have to pay for the services, and that they received respectful (91.6%) and good quality (66.6%) care. There were few referrals to disease prevention and health promotion activities, and only 19.0% of households reported having been visited by extramural health care teams, whose activities were highly valued (80%). Lastly, there was little knowledge about community health activities. Conclusions: While residents of ETCR regions have a favorable perception of their access to health services, they need to be made aware of extramural and public health activities.

Atenção as ações comunitárias na formação de Biomédicos

Os tradicionais conceitos metodológicos na formação de biomédicos e outros profissionais de saúde são obsoletos na atual conjectura social. A linearidade das atividades técnicas são insuficientes e impedem a indissociabilidade entre a teoria e a prática no âmbito social e laboral, elaborando um paradigma mecanicista que se sobrepõe aos aspectos sociais de saúde. O ensino diferencial em saúde pública permite desenvolver uma nova perspectiva de saúde e doença, à medida que entende-se que esse processo é coletivo e consequência de aspectos biológicos resultantes de uma agressão externa de um meio social insalubre. A atual pesquisa de campo visa demonstrar a importância de se atuar ativamente em ações comunitárias em prol do desenvolvimento da atenção a saúde pública com atividades técnicas para diagnóstico laboratorial, através da análise coproparasitológica estatística e aplicação de medidas orientativas de saúde e higiene em público alvo de mesmo perfil socioeconomico, a partir de práticas educacionais que vinculem ações de promoção de saúde e prevenção de doenças decorrentes de intervenções periódicas definidas que atuem de formas estruturalmente distintas, otimizando as estratégias utilizadas em prol de um mesmo fim. Por meio de metodologia ativa autodidática, foram elaboradas estratégias de ações de prevenção a enteroprasitoses infantis para a prática avaliativa de coleta de materiais biológicos, analisados em laboratório pelos educandos através das técnicas de Hoffman, Pons &amp; Janner e Ritchie, concomitantemente a criação de atividades lúdicas para a promoção de saúde, evidenciando os hábitos de bem-estar com aplicação supervisionada periódica, considerando-se a prática observacional das atividades, para posterior correlação de eficiência e eficácia dos métodos utilizados. As ações preventivas foram evidenciadas a partir dos dados obtidos, nos quais 34,6% das amostras foram positivas, sendo 12,5% infecções por helmintos e 87,5% por protozoários, estando em conformidade com a literatura científica, enquanto a percepção resultante da promoção à saúde permitiu inferir que o desenvolvimento de práticas de cunho profilático exercem mudanças nos hábitos quando há comunicação clara e didática, devidamente exposta e compreendida, impactando, assim, na rotina da população da região, contribuindo à construção de atividades colaborativas que antecedem a formação de indivíduos comportamental e analiticamente preparados para o dinamismo encontrado na saúde pública.

Well-being and health perception of university students in Portugal: the influence of parental support and love relationship

BackgroundThe mental health of university students has been the subject of great attention from scientific investigations, not only to provide contextualised information, but additionally since high levels of well-being predicted a quality education. This study aims to evaluate the perception of well-being and health of university students, exploring the psychometric properties of the Well-being and Health Perception Scale (WbHPS) and analysing the influence of sociodemographic variables.Participants and procedureA questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of 840 university students in Portugal stratified by year of academic attendance and scientific area of study. The WbHPS consists of 5 items measured on a 5-point Likert scale. We considered as explanatory variables the year of study and scientific area, sex, age, love rela-tionship, professional situation and BMI.ResultsThe WbHPS showed good psychometric properties, indicating the presence of an explanatory factor of 58.45% of variance and a good internal consistency (α = .81). The obtained results identified WbHPS as being inde-pendently associated with being in a love relationship, having a normal weight and not being displaced after starting at university.ConclusionsIt is necessary to (re)think about disease prevention and health promotion actions in higher education, with psy-chosocial interventions that truly reflect on the well-being and health of university students.

Prevalence and speciation of brucellosis in febrile patients from a pastoralist community of Tanzania

Brucellosis is an endemic zoonosis in sub-Saharan Africa. Pastoralists are at high risk of infection but data on brucellosis from these communities are scarce. The study objectives were to: estimate the prevalence of human brucellosis, identify the Brucella spp. causing illness, describe non-Brucella bloodstream infections, and identify risk factors for brucellosis in febrile patients from a pastoralist community of Tanzania. Fourteen (6.1%) of 230 participants enrolled between August 2016 and October 2017 met study criteria for confirmed (febrile illness and culture positivity or ≥four-fold rise in SAT titre) or probable (febrile illness and single SAT titre ≥160) brucellosis. Brucella spp. was the most common bloodstream infection, with B. melitensis isolated from seven participants and B. abortus from one. Enterococcus spp., Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae were also isolated. Risk factors identified for brucellosis included age and herding, with a greater probability of brucellosis in individuals with lower age and who herded cattle, sheep or goats in the previous 12 months. Disease prevention activities targeting young herders have potential to reduce the impacts of human brucellosis in Tanzania. Livestock vaccination strategies for the region should include both B. melitensis and B. abortus.

Abstract P501: Mobile Daily Physical Activity and Fall Risk Monitor for Lifestyle Management, Disease Prevention and Risk Alert Generation

Mobile health monitoring is driving many smart health innovations. In this research, we focus on the daily physical activity and fall risk monitoring, for intelligent activity tracking and fall risk detection purpose. Physical activity is of a tremendous value to cardiac and brain health, and has been widely agreed as a metric to improve human health, foster healthy lifestyle, and mine the impacts on diverse health issues. The risk of death can actually be lowered by 20 to 30% with moderate activities for one and half an hour per week (WHO). Besides, fall risk detection is also of huge importance since each year, there are 29% of older adults having around 29 million falls and causing 7 million fall injuries (CDC). The challenge we target is how to accurately recognize diverse physical activities and fall patterns from the biomechanical dynamics sensed by the phone. More specifically, the phone sensor is leveraged to provide real-time always-on streaming of biomechanical dynamics. Then, the data is learned by a deep learning framework (long short-term memory) for activity type and fall pattern recognition. To consider real-world scenarios, the users can put the phone in either left or write waist pockets. The users have performed 9 different kinds of activities such as walking, standing up, going upstairs and jumping, as well as 8 different kinds of fall patterns such as falling backward, sitting and falling, and falling forward with protection. A total of 11,770 activities performed by 30 subjects aging from 18 to 60 have been used to evaluate the framework, yielding an accuracy as high as 95.4%. This encouraging result shows the potential of the mobile monitor in real-world application scenarios.

Conhecimento e satisfação dos usuários de uma unidade básica sobre os serviços de saúde

Este é um estudo quantitativo, realizado em 2015, com o objetivo de verificar o conhecimento e satisfação dos usuários de uma Unidade Básica de Saúde do Município de Uberaba, MG sobre os serviços do Sistema Único de Saúde. Foi aplicado um questionário semiestruturado a usuários que aguardavam atendimento na sala de espera. Participaram 370 usuários, sendo 273 (73,8%) mulheres, com idades idade entre 18 e 99 (45,19±16,47) anos. A média de satisfação com os serviços em uma escala de 0 a 10 foi de 7,26±2,21. A investigação do conhecimento dos participantes sobre a os serviços oferecidos pela Unidade Básica de Saúde indicou que a vacinação (88,4%), acompanhamento pré-natal (81,6%), tratamento dentário (81,4%), saúde bucal (75,4%) e exame preventivo para câncer de colo de útero (74,3%) foram os mais reconhecidos. A maioria desconhece o serviço de acompanhamento para cessação tabágica (53%). Na avaliação do conhecimento dos serviços da Rede de Atenção à saúde (55,1%) e que cuidados de baixa complexidade e gravidade poderiam ser resolvidas na Unidade Básica (60,8%) responderam adequadamente. Os usuários são esclarecidos quanto: à universalidade e a gratuidade, ações de prevenção de doenças e promoção da saúde, mas demonstraram dificuldade em associar a atenção básica como assistência integral à saúde.

Employment and Chronic Diseases: Suggested Actions for The Implementation of Inclusive Policies for The Participation of People with Chronic Diseases in the Labour Market.

In recent decades, the number of people living with one or more chronic diseases has increased dramatically, affecting all sectors of society, particularly the labour market. Such an increase of people with chronic diseases combined with the aging of working population affects income levels and job opportunities, careers, social inclusion and working conditions. Both legislation and company regulations should take into account the difficulties that workers experiencing chronic diseases may face in order to be able to formulate innovative and person-centred responses to effectively manage this workforce while simultaneously ensuring employee wellbeing and continued employer productivity. The European Joint Action “CHRODIS PLUS: Implementing good practices for Chronic Diseases” supports European Union Member States in the implementation of new and innovative policies and practices for health promotion, diseases prevention and for promoting participation of people with chronic diseases in labour market. Therefore, a Toolbox for employment and chronic conditions has been developed and its aim is to improve work access and participation of people with chronic diseases and to support employers in implementing health promotion and chronic disease prevention activities in the workplace. The Toolbox consists of two independent instruments: the Training tool for managers and the Toolkit for workplaces that have been tested in different medium and large companies and working sectors in several European countries.

The Effects of Job Stress and Subjective Health Status on Satisfaction on Workplace Environment

본 연구는 우리나라 근로자의 근무환경 만족도, 업무 스트레스, 주관적 건강상태 현황을 파악하고, 업무 스트레스와 주관적 건강상태가 근로환경 만족도에 미치는 영향을 분석한다. 제5차 한국근로환경조사에 응답한 만 15세 이상 취업자 총 50,205명을 대상으로 실증분석한 결과, 직업에 따라 주관적으로 느끼는 근로환경 만족도, 업무 스트레스, 건강상태에는 상당한 개인적인 차이가 발견되었다. 또한, 근로환경 만족도는 여성이 상대적으로 높고, 업무 스트레스는 남성이 높으며, 주관적 건강상태는 여성이 남성보다 좋지 않다고 생각하는 경향을 확인하였다. 그리고 우리나라 근로자의 근로환경만족도는 업무 스트레스와 주관적 건강상태에 상당히 영향을 받고 있다. 특히 업무관계에서 오는 스트레스, 좀 더 세부적으로는 인격적 존중과 전신피로가 근로환경 만족도에 상당한 영향을 미치는 것으로 분석되어, 직업별 근로자의 내·외부 특성을 반영하여 효율적인 근로환경 만족도 개선방안이 강구되어야 한다. 특히, 기업조직에서는 근로자 간의 인격적 존중을 높일 수 있는 방안을 도입하고, 건강 증진 및 질병 예방 활동을 적극적으로 시행해야 한다.We identified interactions between job stress and subjective health status of Korean workers and their satisfaction level on work environment by analyzing the data for a total of 50,205 employees aged 15 or older collected from the 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey. The main results of the study were as follows: Firstly, the patterns of interaction among work environment satisfaction, job stress and health status depended on occupation and gender. Secondly, work environment satisfaction among Korean workers was heavily affected by the levels of job stress and subjective health status. Stress from relationship with coworkers, specifically personal disrespect and excessive fatigue, mainly affected their satisfaction on workplace environment. Therefore, the proper actions to enhance personal respects and reduce fatigue at workplace should be seriously considered and implemented, along with active health promotion and disease prevention activities.

Chronic Disease Screening and Prevention Activities in Mental Health Clinics in New York State: Current Practices and Future Opportunities.

To understand mental health clinics' chronic disease screening and prevention activities, we surveyed mental health clinics in New York State regarding 16 preventive services. Both numerical and qualitative data were collected. Responding clinics (123, 24.7%) were most likely to report having up-to-date screening/management of tobacco use (114, 92.7%) and were most likely to refer out for infectious disease and cancer screening (57.7%-62.6%). Compared to private/non-profit clinics, county- and state-operated clinics were more likely to refer out for infectious disease screening and to ensure up-to-date: lipid disorder screening, abnormal glucose screening, HIV screening, and cancer screenings. Clinics reported a need for: (1) hiring more (dedicated) medical staff; (2) providing staff trainings; (3) educating patients; and (4) integrating with patients' primary care providers. Implementing proven approaches-and developing new ones-for enhanced chronic disease prevention activities through improvements in policy, staffing, and reimbursement is warranted in mental health clinics.

Tuberculosis Prevention Model in Developing Countries based on Geospatial, Cloud and Web Technologies

Information is important when making decisions. Decisions which are based on gut feeling and made in the absence of evidence always tend to be less effective in most situations. This is also the case when it comes to Tuberculosis (TB) disease control and prevention intervention planning and implementation. The lack of evidence-based information upon which decisions for action to help with the prevention of spread of TB has proved to be less effective in the prevention of the disease as TB keeps spreading. The aim of this paper was to design and develop a prototype system that would provide TB program managers with information and tools which can be used to make decisions which can effectively influence the fight against the spread of TB through the application of cloud computing, geospatial data analysis and web technologies. The system would improve disease monitoring and tracking through the use of the identified technologies, by displaying the geographical distribution of TB cases in the communities on a mapping application as well as providing reports which TB program managers can use to make decisions when planning and implementing disease control and prevention activities.

Beneficial Biological role of Allium hirtifolium on various diseases

Allium hirtifolium (A. hirtifolium), a member of the Amaryllidaceae family, is generally known as Persian shallot. It usually grows in hilly areas and took place in most of Persian cuisine. The parts of A. hirtifolium used in folk medicine and recently the constituents have been identified and documented. The compounds present in A. hirtifolium possess various beneficial biological effects such as antibacterial, antioxidant and antidiabetic. Naringenin is the major compound found among all flavonoids with diverse pharmacological activities. In addition, the constituents present in this plant plays various roles in modulating signaling pathways to prevent cancer, diabetes and heart diseases. Thus, A. hirtifolium and the compounds present in this plant may be promising candidate for various disease due to its wide pharmacological activities. In this review, we discussed pharmacological activities and disease prevention activities of A. hirtifolium by its modulating role of biochemical and molecular mechanisms.

Perception of effective access to health services in Territorial Spaces for Training and Reintegration, one year after the peace accords in Colombia: a cross-sectional study.

Backgrounds: The signing of the peace accords in Colombia created challenges that are inherent to post-conflict transitions. One of those is the process of reintegrating ex-combatants into society, in which ensuring their rights to health is a particularly significant challenge in rural areas affected by armed conflict. These areas, known as Territorial Spaces for Training and Reintegration (ETCR, in Spanish), are geographically dispersed throughout 24 municipalities and 13 departments in Colombia. This study aimed to describe how ex-combatants in ETCR regions perceived access to health services one year after the signing of the peace accords. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed between September and October 2018. It included 591 adults and their families, from 23 ETCRs. The study was designed, culturally validated, and piloted. Interviewers were trained and a structured survey was administered containing five dimensions that characterized the perception of effective access to health services. Results: The majority of interviewees were women, heads of household, young adults, ex-combatants, and residents in an ETCR. In total of 96.4% were enrolled in Colombia's subsidized health system, and 20.8% indicated that a member of their household required emergency health services. The regional health center provided the majority of the services. Most of those surveyed (96.0%) reported that they did not have to pay for the services, and that they received respectful (91.6%) and good quality (66.6%) care. There were few referrals to disease prevention and health promotion activities, and only 19.0% of households reported having been visited by extramural health care teams, whose activities were highly valued (80%). Lastly, there was little knowledge about community health activities. Conclusions: While residents of ETCR regions have a favorable perception of their access to health services, they need to be made aware of extramural and public health activities.

DISPARITIES OF DENTAL CARE AND CONSEQUENCE OF POOR ORAL HEALTH AMONG OLDER ADULTS IN THE U.S.

Oral health is an essential part of staying healthy. Neglect of dental care may lead to tooth decay/ loss, poor nutrition, and affects individuals’ quality of life. Over the past decades, dental care utilization has risen considerably, however, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities still persist in the U.S. Additionally, poor oral health is a contributing factor to, and a consequence of chronic diseases such as cognitive impairment, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Faced with the complex and intertwined health and social challenges, it’s imperative to understand the disparities of dental care utilization and the relationships among oral health and chronic diseases so that effective policies and preventions can be implemented to improve quality of care. In this symposium, we present findings for older adults from diverse racial/ethnic populations in the U.S. We begin with results from two national-wide trend analyses: a 15-year review of dental care utilization and the evaluation of dental care performance over a 16-year period in nursing homes. The next study presents the barriers of dental care utilization in Hawaii. Finally, we present results of the negative effects of diabetes and poor oral health on cognitive function. Our studies address the disparities of dental care utilization among minority and under-represented ethnic groups as well as the connections between oral health and chronic conditions. Our results are helpful in educating policy makers and health practitioners about how to improve dental care and how dental care can be effectively integrated into chronic disease prevention and health promotion activities.

Sharing responsibility between public and private sectors for the management of aquatic emergency animal diseases.

Aquatic animal disease outbreaks affect both the public (represented by the government) and the private sector (represented by the aquaculture and fisheries industry). However, all too often, the responsibilities and costs of responding to an outbreak may not be shared. Without a mechanism for public and private sectors to work together, the outcomes of an emergency response may not be ideal, or of common benefit to all potentially affected parties. In Australia, a mechanism is being developed for public and private sectors to share the responsibilities and costs of responding to aquatic animal disease outbreaks, through an industry- government aquatic emergency animal disease response agreement. The agreement provides an approach for both public and private sectors to share the responsibilities and costs of responding to a disease outbreak and to coordinate disease prevention activities to reduce their shared risk. The key elements of the agreement include provisions to incentivise faster notification of disease outbreaks, facilitate a faster response, share decision-making and costs (including compensation for affected businesses), clarify the responsibilities of all parties and, most importantly, strengthen risk mitigation activities. This paper describes how the draft agreement has been developed among 18 industry and government parties, how key elements of the agreement may contribute to improved aquatic animal health outcomes, and the principles which could be applied by other OIE Member Countries.

Physical activity, dietary calcium to magnesium intake and mortality in the National Health and Examination Survey 1999-2006 cohort.

Calcium and magnesium affect muscle mass and function. Magnesium and calcium are also important for optimal vitamin D status. Vitamin D status modifies the associations between physical activity and risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD mortality. However, no study examined whether levels of magnesium and calcium and the ratio of dietary calcium to magnesium (Ca:Mg) intake modify the relationship between physical activity and mortality. We included 20,295 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants (1999-2006) aged >20 years with complete dietary, physical activity and mortality data (2,663 deaths). We assessed physical activity based on public health guidelines and sex-specific tertiles of MET-minutes/week. We used Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for potential confounding factors and stratified by the intakes of magnesium, calcium, Ca:Mg ratio. We found higher physical activity was significantly associated with reduced risk of total mortality and cause-specific mortality, regardless of Ca:Mg ratio, magnesium or calcium intake. In contrast, both moderate and high physical activity were significantly associated with substantially reduced risks of mortality due to cancer when magnesium intake was above the RDA level. We also found higher physical activity was significantly associated with a reduced risk of mortality due to cancer only when Ca:Mg ratios were between 1.7 and 2.6, although the interaction was not significant. Overall, dietary magnesium and, potentially, the Ca:Mg ratio modify the relationship between physical activity and cause-specific mortality. Further study is important to understand the modifying effects of the balance between calcium and magnesium intake on physical activity for chronic disease prevention.

Socio-spatial heterogeneity in participation in mass dog rabies vaccination campaigns, Arequipa, Peru.

To control and prevent rabies in Latin America, mass dog vaccination campaigns (MDVC) are implemented mainly through fixed-location vaccination points: owners have to bring their dogs to the vaccination points where they receive the vaccination free of charge. Dog rabies is still endemic in some Latin-American countries and high overall dog vaccination coverage and even distribution of vaccinated dogs are desired attributes of MDVC to halt rabies virus transmission. In Arequipa, Peru, we conducted a door-to-door post-campaign survey on >6,000 houses to assess the placement of vaccination points on these two attributes. We found that the odds of participating in the campaign decreased by 16% for every 100 m from the owner’s house to the nearest vaccination point (p = 0.041) after controlling for potential covariates. We found social determinants associated with participating in the MDVC: for each child under 5 in the household, the odds of participating in the MDVC decreased by 13% (p = 0.032), and for each decade less lived in the area, the odds of participating in the MDVC decreased by 8% (p<0.001), after controlling for distance and other covariates. We also found significant spatial clustering of unvaccinated dogs over 500 m from the vaccination points, which created pockets of unvaccinated dogs that may sustain rabies virus transmission. Understanding the barriers to dog owners’ participation in community-based dog-vaccination programs will be crucial to implementing effective zoonotic disease preventive activities. Spatial and social elements of urbanization play an important role in coverage of MDVC and should be considered during their planning and evaluation.

Healthy Public Policy Options to Promote Physical Activity for Chronic Disease Prevention: Understanding Canadian Policy Influencer and General Public Preferences.

Attitudes and beliefs of policy influencers and the general public toward physical activity policy may support or impede population-level action, requiring improved understanding of aggregate preferences toward policies that promote physical activity. In 2016, the Chronic Disease Prevention Survey was administered to a census sample of policy influencers (n = 302) and a stratified random sample of the public (n = 2400) in Alberta and Québec. Using net favorable percentages and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' intervention ladder framework to guide analysis, the authors examined support for evidence-based healthy public policies to increase physical activity levels. Less intrusive policy options (ie,policies that are not always the most impactful) tended to have higher levels of support than policies that eliminated choice. However, there was support for certain types of policies affecting influential determinants of physical activity such as the built environment (ie,provided they enabled rather than restricted choice) and school settings (ie,focusing on children and youth). Overall, the general public indicated stronger levels of support for more physical activity policy options than policy influencers. The authors' findings may be useful for health advocates in identifying support for evidence-based healthy public policies affecting more influential determinants of physical activity.

Application of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents in the Extraction of Quercetin from Vegetables.

Quercetin is a phytochemical with disease prevention and health promotion activities that has attracted significant research attention. In this study, choline chloride and betaine-based natural deep eutectic solvents were prepared using a heating method. Their physical and chemical properties were also tested. Then, they were applied to extract quercetin from onion and broccoli with ultrasonic-assisted solid liquid method coupled with HPLC. Three factors (temperature, amount, and time) were considered for the optimization of the extraction assays. In the optimal conditions, the extraction recoveries were 88.91–98.99%, 88.45–99.01%, and 89.56–98.74% for quercetin, isorhamnetin, and kaempferol. Tailor-made natural deep eutectic solvents could be applied as sustainable and safe extraction media for biochemical applications.