Electronic Bulletins Research Articles

Learning to make informed health choices: Protocol for a pilot study in schools in Barcelona.

Introduction: The Informed Health Choices (IHC) project has developed learning resources to teach primary school children (10 to 12-year-olds) to assess treatment claims and make informed health choices. The aim of our study is to explore both the students' and teachers' experience when using these resources in the context of Barcelona (Spain). Methods: During the 2019-2020 school year, we will conduct a pilot study with 4 th and 5 th-year primary school students (9 to 11-year-olds) from three schools in Barcelona. The intervention in the schools will include: 1) a workshop with the teachers, and 2) lessons to the students. The data collection will include: 1) initial assessment of the resources by the teachers, 2) non-participatory observations during the lessons, 3) semi-structured interviews with the students after a lesson, 4) assessment of the lessons by the teachers, 5) treatment claim assessment by the students, and 6) final assessment of the resources by the teachers. We will use ad hoc questionnaires and guides to register the data. We will perform a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data to explore understandability, desirability, suitability, usefulness, facilitators and barriers of the resources. The most relevant results will be discussed and some recommendations on how to use, how to adapt (if needed), and how to implement the IHC resources to this context will be agreed. We will publish the study results in a peer-reviewed journal and in several Internet resources (web pages, electronic bulletins, and social media), and we will present them to the different users of interest in conferences, workshops, and meetings. Ethical considerations: The study protocol has obtained an approval exemption from the Ethics Committee of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Barcelona, Spain).

Online Self-Management Support for Family Caregivers to Help Them Manage Behavior Changes in Their Relative With Dementia: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial and a Process Evaluation.

BackgroundOnline interventions are potentially effective ways to support family caregivers in the management of behavior changes in their relative with dementia.ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to present the design of a study evaluating and comparing 3 intervention arms for online self-management support.MethodsA randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted with a total of 81 family caregivers of community-dwelling people with dementia in the Netherlands. Family caregivers will be randomly allocated to one of the following intervention arms: (1) a major self-management support intervention consisting of personal email contacts with a nurse specialized in dementia care, online videos, and electronic bulletins (e-bulletins); (2) a medium self-management support intervention consisting of only online videos and e-bulletins; and (3) a minor self-management support intervention with only e-bulletins. The primary outcome is the self-efficacy of the family caregiver. The secondary outcomes are the behavior problems of the person with dementia as reported by the family caregiver, and positive and negative aspects of the relationship. Background characteristics (eg, type of family relationship) will also be assessed. All data for the RCT will be collected via online questionnaires, administered before the intervention (T0), after 6 weeks (T1), and after 12 weeks (T2). Alongside the RCT, a process evaluation will be conducted, based on a number of evaluation questions and semi-open interviews with family caregivers.ResultsData collection will be completed in August 2017. Study results will be reported in early 2018.ConclusionsThe study will shed more light on the effect of online self-management support interventions and insights will be gained into whether a major intervention, consisting of personal email contacts with specialized nurses, videos, and e-bulletins, has more effect than smaller online interventions. This is relevant in an age with increasing numbers of people with dementia, growing pressure on family caregivers, more and more people using the Internet, and increasing healthcare costs.Trial RegistrationNederlands Trial Registry (NTR): NTR6237; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=6237 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6v0S4fxTC)

Using ICT for fish marketing: the EFMIS model in Kenya

Small-scale fisheries in developing countries often perform sub-optimally owing to lack of vital market information, leading to inefficiencies, inequity, and post-harvest losses. The mobile phone, which is the fastest growing communications media in Africa, may be most suited for addressing market information gaps. The Enhanced Fish Market Information Service (EFMIS), an ICT pilot project based on mobile phones, has been implemented in Kenya's Lake Victoria fisheries for 3 years. The objective of the project is to enhance fish trade and incomes for the fisher community through improved access to market information. Through the system, data from fish landing sites and inland urban markets is continuously relayed to a central database where it is appropriately packaged into a format that users can access in real time by sending a query through mobile phone SMS. The system is automated and responds within 10 seconds. Market information is also disseminated through monthly electronic bulletins. The EFMIS mode...

Information Literacy for Users at the National Medical Library of Cuba: Cochrane Library Course for the Search of Best Evidence for Clinical Decisions

The National Medical Library of Cuba is currently developing an information literacy program to train users in the use of biomedical databases. This paper describes the experience with the course “Cochrane Library: Evidence-Based Medicine,” which aims to teach users how to make the best use of this database, as well as the evidence-based medicine concept for making better decisions about medical care. During the course, the Big 6TM Model is also introduced for finding and organizing the evidence-based medical information; it also enables students to create information products (electronic bulletins) that will allow the presentation of search results as well as promoting information for healthcare in the future.

English, Globalization, and Identity Construction of Landless Workers

Access to power in globalized societies can be gained through the control over discourse practices made possible by the use of a powerful tool like the English language. This is true for Brazil's Landless Workers Movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), which demands, among other things, agrarian reform in Brazil. This paper examines the identity conflicts stemming from MST's use of English in the articulation of local and global resistance against cultural, political, social, and hegemonic forces. Examining the identity conflicts in the MST is crucial because globalization has redefined its adversaries from local Brazilian large landowners to transnational agricultural companies. As a result, the movement was forced to forge alliances with social groups and movements worldwide. By using English as a tool for international communication, the landless may jeopardize their own identity since this language is usually related to their opponents. Such a contradiction implies an ongoing conflict between nationalism and globalization, the local and the global. The new technologies of communication have also played an important role in that process, and a brief discussion of that subject is included in the paper. Texts for analysis are from the movement's official website and electronic bulletins sent by the MST and the Friends of the MST, as well as texts from Revista Sem Terra , a bimonthly magazine, and Jornal Sem Terra , a monthly newspaper.

EpiSouth: a network for communicable disease control in the Mediterranean region and the Balkans

The countries around the Mediterranean Sea share epidemiological characteristics and public health problems. In 2006 the EpiSouth Project was started as a framework for collaboration for communicable diseases surveillance and training in the Mediterranean Basin. As of December 2008, 26 countries from southern Europe, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle-East are members of EpiSouth and several international organisations and institutions collaborate: the European Commission (EC), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Italian Ministry of Work, Health and Social Policies and the World Health Organization (WHO). The project is coordinated by the Italian national public health institute and three work packages (WPs) Cross-border epidemic intelligence, vaccine preventable diseases and migrants and Cross-border emerging zoonoses are operated by the national institutes of France, Bulgaria and Greece. These WPs constitute technical pillars on which the project develops. Networking and Training are WPs dedicated to capacity building and are run by the Padua Teaching Hospital (Italy) and the Spanish national public health institute. A steering committee guides EpiSouth's activities while all countries collaborate through WP steering teams and focal points. A number of outcomes have been accomplished and documents with results are available from the EpiSouth website which hosts a public website and a restricted area for direct sharing of information among the participants. Five electronic bulletins were published, two trainings for 63 participants performed, national epidemic intelligence systems were evaluated, a preliminary survey on vaccine-preventable diseases and migrants performed, and a list of priorities for emerging zoonoses in the Mediterranean area was selected. Overall the network succeeded in creating cohesion, mutual trust and concrete collaboration on cross-border public health issues in a geographical area that is not addressed as a whole by any other initiative or organisation.