Good Health Practices Research Articles

Lifelong health effects

Mark Greener presents recent studies exploring good health practice during pregnancy

Dependency of Quality Education for Attaining the Health-related Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

Dependency of Quality Education for Attaining the Health-related Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

A felicidade da população trabalhadora de Cascavel/PR segundo a métrica do índice de Felicidade Interna Bruta

Resumo O presente estudo objetiva identificar quais as variáveis que mais influenciam na felicidade dos trabalhadores do município de Cascavel, no Estado do Paraná. Para tanto, aplicou-se a estatística descritiva sobre dados coletados a partir da aplicação de um questionário, elaborado com base na metodologia adaptada do índice de Felicidade Interna Bruta (FIB). Dentre os questionamentos, os indivíduos foram perguntados: sobre a frequência com que praticavam atividade física; se tinham boas noites de sono, tranquilo e profundo; quanto ao uso do tempo, que é um dos mais significativos fatores na qualidade de vida, especialmente para lazer e socialização com família e amigos. A gestão equilibrada do tempo foi avaliada incluindo tempo no trânsito, no trabalho, nas atividades educacionais, no lazer etc. Dos resultados, ser otimista, praticar exercícios físicos e participar de algum grupo social foram fatores que afetavam positivamente a felicidade dos indivíduos. E, ainda, como resposta à pergunta sobre o que os deixavam mais felizes, identificou-se a preferência por fatores não materiais, despontando especialmente aqueles associados à família, aos bons sentimentos, às boas práticas em sociedade, à saúde, à solidariedade e à espiritualidade.

A miscarriage of justice: why is policy not implemented for young offenders?

In her recent State Opening of Parliament statement (May 2016), Her Majesty the Queen announced that action will be taken to ensure better mental health provision for individuals in the criminal justice system. We are optimistic that this welcome initiative means that all offenders, including those under 18 years old, will soon benefit from much needed and improved mental health services. Young offenders are known to have high levels of unmet and untreated mental health needs; they have frequently been in care and often come from violent and neglected backgrounds. This year's legislative programme is the opportunity to implement prevention, early intervention and treatment that suits young offenders and will improve young people's life outcomes.BACKGROUNDIn many countries, young offenders have some of the worst health of any group of young people. Deaths of young offenders are 10 times higher than in other adolescents due to drug overdose, suicide, accidental injury and homicide.1 In England, there are widespread concerns about organisational fragmentation and poor care in secure services for young people. This came to light on film at the private sector Medway centre.2 In relation to custody across all ages, the policymakers responsible for mental health have 'taken their eye off the ball': in Parliament, recently, Luciana Berger3 (Shadow Cabinet) requested information on the number of people with diagnosed mental health conditions receiving a custodial sentencing in the last five years. Jeremy Hunt (Secretary of State for Health) was unable to give an answer.Young people with mental health disorders are especially vulnerable while in custody. The board responsible for monitoring their care since 2000 (Youth Justice Board) has failed to implement good mental health practices.4Research funded by the Wellcome Trust shows there has been a gulf between well-intentioned policies on mental health in prisons and their implementation for over a century.5 Deaths of young people in custody demands effective implementation6 - this year, the whole system of youth justice is currently under review.7 In addition, young people have given their priorities through the Association for Young People's Health (AYPH). AYPH8 underlines two measures from the Public Health Outcomes Framework: reducing first time entrants to the youth justice system and reducing the suicide rate.WISHFUL THINKING?Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012,9 NHS England has the overall responsibility for health including mental health in prisons and immigration detention centres. This year, the government introduced a Five year Forward view on Mental Health.10 There is acknowledgement that half of all mental health problems are established by the age of 14 and this rises to three quarters by the age of 24. The risk factors for a mental illness are similar to the risk factors for becoming a young offender. In 2016, the National Audit Office estimates 90% of prisoners have mental health, drug and/or alcohol problems.11 The limited evidence we have from youth justice suggests this could be true for young offenders,12 who may have similar levels of unmet mental health needs. This could be aggravated by high levels of traumatic brain injury, recently estimated to be between 49% and 72% in young offenders.13 A risk factor for childhood traumatic brain injury is violence in the home and having come from a violent home is a risk factor for later offending. Longitudinal and inter-generational studies have shown that the more adverse events a growing child experiences, the more likely they are to develop mental disorders and antisocial behaviours. Of the sons of male prisoners, 60% are eventually imprisoned.There is insufficient provision for prevention, early intervention or continuing treatment of mental illness in young offenders. In this population, government fails to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 3 is to ensure healthy lives and to promote wellbeing for all at all ages. …

Oral health knowledge and practices of dentists practicing in a teaching hospital in Nigeria.

To assess the oral health practices and knowledge of practicing dentists at a tertiary health institution in Nigeria, and the possible association of age and sex with caries prevention practices. A cross-sectional study was conducted. All practicing dentists in the institution were eligible to participate in the study. A questionnaire that assessed oral health practices and knowledge was administered. Respondents were expected to select the most appropriate responses that reflected their knowledge of oral health practices and caries prevention practices. Questions included assessment of knowledge and practice of tooth brushing, flossing, refined carbohydrate intake, and dental service utilization. Participants' responses were scored and dichotomized to poor and good knowledge, and poor and good practices, using the median scores. Bivariate analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with good and poor oral health practices, and good and poor knowledge. Fifty-two eligible study participants were accessible at the time of questionnaire administration. Only 46 respondents returned the filled questionnaire giving a response rate of 88.5%. The age of respondents ranged between 25 and 48 years. The majority of respondents had good oral health practices (65.2%) and good oral health knowledge (85%). However, few respondents had good caries prevention practices: 39.2% brushed at least twice daily, 45.7% took refined carbohydrate less than once daily, 36.9% used dental floss at least once daily, and 60.9% undertook preventive dental care. The correlation between the dentists' oral health knowledge score and oral health practices score was insignificant (0.90; P = 0.55). A large number of dentists practicing in the tertiary hospital had good oral health practices and good oral health knowledge. However, the proportion of dentists with good caries prevention practices was low.

Morbidity pattern of geriatric population in rural areas of western Uttar Pradesh

Background: Aging is a complex, multifactorial, and inevitable process that begins before birth and continues throughout the life. It is an inevitable truth that older people in Indian society has been well perceived. Although age pyramid with wider top obviously narrates a success story of socioeconomic development and good public health practice in country, there is need to know the problem burden comprehensively. Objective: To study the morbidity pattern of the elderly. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2014 to June 2014. Sample size calculated was 855 and simple random sampling was used to select the villages. The information was collected on predesigned and pretested questionnaires and analysis was carried out with the help of Microsoft Excel and SPSS 20.0. Result: Of the total 855 respondents, 48.8% were men and 51.2% were women. Most deviated sex ratio was seen in the age group of 76–80 years where 57.5% population comprised women. Overall hypertension (52.8%) was the most common morbidity found in geriatric population followed by anemia (32.8%) and diabetes (32.3%). The overall morbidity status of elderly significantly associated with age, gender, working status, and type of family. Conclusion: There is an urgent need of dealing with the geriatric health problems in compressive and coordinated approach by health personals and good compliance by the elderly people.

Oral health practices and oral hygiene status of undergraduate students at Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Background: Good oral hygiene is necessary for optimal oral health and sound systemic health. Oral hygiene practices of undergraduates in various disciplines are well documented, but little is known about their oral hygiene status in relation to the oral hygiene practices. Objective: The objective of the present study was to determine the oral hygiene status and practices of undergraduate students at the Obafemi Awolowo Obafemi University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Methods: Demographic details and oral health practice information were obtained from consenting participants using structured, examiner-administered questionnaires. The participants were randomly selected from all the university undergraduate students and examined. Oral hygiene status was determined using simplified Green and Vermilion Oral Hygiene Index (OHI). Data were analysed using STATA 11 statistical software. Results: A total of 150 participants, comprising 78 (52.0%) females and 72 (48.0%) males, participated in the study. The mean (standard deviation) age of the participants was 22.8 (2.7) years with a median age of 23 years. Seventy-three (48.7%) of the 150 participants had good oral hygiene with mean OHI of 0.86 (0.9). Majority (148, 98.7%) of the participants cleaned their teeth with toothpaste and toothbrush. Seventy (46.6%) attended dental care only on account of pain. Faculty of Dentistry had the highest proportion of students with good oral hygiene. Conclusions: Less than 50% of the participants had a good oral hygiene. This was rather not encouraging for undergraduate students. The fact that Faculty of Dentistry had the highest proportion of students with good oral hygiene suggests that long-term exposure to oral health education and knowledge of good oral health practices are important for oral health hygiene. This was supported by the fact that those with longer stay in university had higher proportion of students with oral hygiene.

Improving performance of the Tariff Method for assigning causes of death to verbal autopsies.

BackgroundReliable data on the distribution of causes of death (COD) in a population are fundamental to good public health practice. In the absence of comprehensive medical certification of deaths, the only feasible way to collect essential mortality data is verbal autopsy (VA). The Tariff Method was developed by the Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) to ascertain COD from VA information. Given its potential for improving information about COD, there is interest in refining the method. We describe the further development of the Tariff Method.MethodsThis study uses data from the PHMRC and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia studies. Gold standard clinical diagnostic criteria for hospital deaths were specified for a target cause list. VAs were collected from families using the PHMRC verbal autopsy instrument including health care experience (HCE). The original Tariff Method (Tariff 1.0) was trained using the validated PHMRC database for which VAs had been collected for deaths with hospital records fulfilling the gold standard criteria (validated VAs). In this study, the performance of Tariff 1.0 was tested using VAs from household surveys (community VAs) collected for the PHMRC and NHMRC studies. We then corrected the model to account for the previous observed biases of the model, and Tariff 2.0 was developed. The performance of Tariff 2.0 was measured at individual and population levels using the validated PHMRC database.ResultsFor median chance-corrected concordance (CCC) and mean cause-specific mortality fraction (CSMF) accuracy, and for each of three modules with and without HCE, Tariff 2.0 performs significantly better than the Tariff 1.0, especially in children and neonates. Improvement in CSMF accuracy with HCE was 2.5 %, 7.4 %, and 14.9 % for adults, children, and neonates, respectively, and for median CCC with HCE it was 6.0 %, 13.5 %, and 21.2 %, respectively. Similar levels of improvement are seen in analyses without HCE.ConclusionsTariff 2.0 addresses the main shortcomings of the application of the Tariff Method to analyze data from VAs in community settings. It provides an estimation of COD from VAs with better performance at the individual and population level than the previous version of this method, and it is publicly available for use.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0527-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

3.G. Round table: What is good public health practice?<subtitle>Organised by: EUPHA Practice Pillar</subtitle>

3.G. Round table: What is good public health practice?<subtitle>Organised by: EUPHA Practice Pillar</subtitle>

3.G. Round table: What is good public health practice?

3.G. Round table: What is good public health practice?

Why do we need to develop public health good practices in Europe

Why do we need to develop public health good practices in Europe

Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases Detection and Multiple Antibiotic Resistance Indexing of Escherichia Coli from Urine Samples of Patients from a Referral Hospital of Eastern Nepal

Background: Escherichia coli is the most common causative agent of urinary tract infection. Antibiotic resistance among uropathogens has become a prominent public health problem. Multidrug resistance bacteria have limited the therapeutic possibilities by producing Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases (ESBL). Objective: Since routine monitoring of ESBL producers are not conducted in clinical laboratories their true prevalence is still unknown. So the objective of this research was to assess multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) indices and determine ESBL production among Escherichia coli isolated from urine samples. Methods: Standard microbiological techniques and antibiotic sensitivity test were performed by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method to identify E. coli. ESBL screening was done by using Ceftriaxone, Aztreonam, Cefotaxime, Ceftazidime and Cefpodoxime whereas confirmation by combined disc assay. SPSS 16 software was used to analyze data. Results: 86.95% E. coli isolates were MDR strains. 27 isolates had multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of 0.2 and 5 isolates had MAR index of 0.7. E. coli isolates showed higher degree of resistance towards Amoxicillin (100%) while 100% were sensitive towards Gentamicin followed by Nitrofurantoin (62.31%). The reliable screening agent for ESBL detection with sensitivity 100% and positive predictive value of 80% was Cefotaxime. Combined disc assay detected 12/69 (17.31%) of E. coli isolates as confirmed ESBL producers. Conclusion: The ubiquity of ESBL-producing E. coli was observed emphasizing the necessity of regular surveillance of ESBL producing clinical isolates in clinical samples to minimize multi-drug resistance strains and avert the ineffectiveness of antimicrobial agent for good health practices.\Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(3): 423-426

Timetable for oral prevention in childhood-a current opinion.

Dental caries in young children remains a public health problem particularly for children whose families are socioeconomically deprived. A child's first dental visit should be at approximately 12 months of age and this should facilitate the provision of anticipatory guidance concerning oral health and dental development to the child's parents/guardians. Compliance with dietary advice is of key importance and motivational interviewing shows promise in relation to parents adopting good oral health practices for their children. Twice daily toothbrushing using toothpaste that contains in the range of 1000- 1500ppmF is a most important preventive measure. It is important to use a minimal amount of toothpaste, insure that it is not swallowed, have parental or adult supervision during toothbrushing and avoid rinsing with water following brushing with toothpaste. The professional application of topical fluoride varnish twice yearly is a proven caries preventative measure. The application of pit and fissure sealants to teeth with deep pits and fissures is recommended.

Syringe exchange programs: Pharmacies have increasing role

Syringe exchange programs operate across the country to help curb the problem that's been making national news headlines: an HIV outbreak of more than 160 confirmed cases in the small southeastern Indiana town of Austin has been tied to needle sharing among I.V. drug users.

Patient safety culture in a teaching hospital: differences in perception existing in the different scenarios of this institution

This quantitative descriptive-exploratory study aimed to evaluate the perception of nursing professionals regarding the patient safety culture and to identify differences in perception in the hospital's units. A total of 301 nursing professionals participated. The collection instrument was the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality questionnaire, titled 'Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture'. Data analysis was undertaken through descriptive and analytical statistics. As a result, it was observed that there were significant differences between the units, emphasis being placed on the pediatric units, which had better perceptions of safety (mean: 3.43 and median: 3.44). These findings make it possible to outline models for quality improvement which are more specific for each department, and the analysis of the contexts makes it possible to build good practices in health which are directed towards each work process performed in the institution.

O30. Raising Teenagers’ Awareness of Musculoskeletal Health Through Lifelab: A Collaboration Between School Students, Teachers and Clinical Academic Researchers.

Background: Musculoskeletal (MSK) disease is the major cause of years lived with disability in the UK. The UK is behind other comparable countries in confronting consequences of long-term diseases. One potentially effective approach is by educating people to become more health literate. Early life interventions relating to exercise and good MSK health practices may be an effective addition to traditional approaches. LifeLab is a science-based approach to improving teenagers’ health-related attitudes and behaviour. The LifeLab approach was developed at the University of Southampton and combines educationalists, scientists, clinical researchers and school children and has been effective in improving young peoples’ understanding of the nature of diseases and reasoning about health issues. However, no specific MSK health education components have previously been included in LifeLab. Methods: In 2014 the first MSK LifeLab workshop was designed with educationalists and researchers in biomechanics, occupational therapy, podiatry, and physiotherapy from the MSK Research Cluster at Southampton for year 8 (age 12-13) school students. The workshops aimed to promote young peoples’ health literacy in musculoskeletal health and integrated experiential learning using 3D motion analysis, real-time ultrasound scanning of muscles contracting; radiographs of normal and osteoarthritis foot joints; anatomy models and hand and hip joint implants. The workshops covered a) the impact of osteoarthritis joint disease on daily life b) capturing and illustrating joint movement using state of the art 3D motion analysis technology and c) an in-depth look at muscles using ultrasound imaging. Learning objectives included students being able to: 1. Identify key components of active healthy living for bones, muscles and joints 2. Observe patterns in how healthy joints can move and contrast patterns with injured joint movement 3. Discover what role muscles play in healthy joints 4. Compare healthy joint structures with arthritic joint structures Results: 58 students from 3 state secondary schools, attended a university widening participation outreach day within which the MSK LifeLab workshop was run. On the same day the students also attended workshops in Humanities and Oceanography. When asked which workshop of the outreach day was their favourite 43 % of the students identified the MSK workshops. Feedback on why the workshops were enjoyable included; “I enjoyed biomechanics because I like looking at how things work and move”; “Ostioarphritus. I'm into sports & find the body interesting”; “The bones because you got to find out about the body”. The interactive nature of the workshop with teenagers having hands on learning was also well received “My favourite was bones because they made it fun”; “The bones experiments because the technology involved was awesome.” Conclusions: Using interactive MSK workshops as part of LifeLab presents an exciting health literacy approach to encourage young people to start to engage in understanding their MSK health. Acknowledgements: These are not included in the abstract but will appear if we get a paper accepted. LifeLab, has been developed as a joint initiative, involving, in addition to the University of Southampton and the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust; the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, the University of Southampton (UoS) Faculty of Medicine and Southampton Education School, the Mathematics and Science Learning Centre (MSLC), the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre and the Garfield Weston Foundation. KWT is supported by the National Institute for Health Research through the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre Some facilities and personnel in the MSK Research Cluster are funded by Arthritis Research UK.

English

Maternal environmental exposures to certain specific chemicals during early pregnancy, including pesticides, air pollutants and others, are known to increase the incidence of autism and autism spectrum disorder in offspring. The prevalence of these diseases can be reduced by taking steps to reduce environmental chemical exposures. Obstetricians and family practice physicians typically counsel patients on good health practices during pregnancy, including proper nutrition, the need for exercise, weight control, avoidance of drugs and other safeguards. It is proposed here that physician counseling of patients include information about the identification and avoidance of exposures to environmental neurotoxins that have been identified as causative agents for autism and autism spectrum disorder and that such counseling will lead to a decrease in the incidence of these diseases.

Mapping to Assess Health Inequity at the Local Level Report: Local Action First Sub-Committee

Canada is characterized by a diversity of health inequity, social determinants and population health good practices, but is without a single model or approach that can be replicated across the country, it is generally messy and complicated. There are numerous instances of initiatives informing health inequity decision making at local levels and this study conducted an E-Scan which reviewed fifteen initiatives and conducted two in-depth case studies: Espace montrealais d’informations sur la sante (EMIS) and the Saskatoon CommunityView Collaboration (CVC). These are well established multispectral and collaborative CGDI compliant WebMapping data and information infrastructures. Recommendations are derived from the E-SCAN and the two case studies.The challenge facing the Local Action First Sub-Committee of the Canadian Reference Group of the Public Health Agency of Canada is to support a Canadian system that is diverse, grounded in local practices and that is a multi-sectoral collaboration. To support such initiatives requires an understanding and the acceptance that the effort required to enable/lead/coordinate multi-sector and multi-stakeholder collaboration is tremendous, cannot be under-estimated, and requires a degree of community development sophistication.The report identified seven dimensions that need to be considered to develop, support, grow and sustain a local health inequality mapping initiative which are described throughout the report and are reflected in the recommendation. These are:1. Focus, Approach and Health Inequity Variables2. Collaboration, Partnerships, Stakeholders and Users3. Governance4. Funding5. Local Geographies6. Mapping Systems7. Data and System AccessA series of recommendations are provided for each dimension.

Repairing the broken market for antibiotic innovation.

Multidrug-resistant bacterial diseases pose serious and growing threats to human health. While innovation is important to all areas of health research, it is uniquely important in antibiotics. Resistance destroys the fruit of prior research, making it necessary to constantly innovate to avoid falling back into a pre-antibiotic era. But investment is declining in antibiotics, driven by competition from older antibiotics, the cost and uncertainty of the development process, and limited reimbursement incentives. Good public health practices curb inappropriate antibiotic use, making return on investment challenging in payment systems based on sales volume. We assess the impact of recent initiatives to improve antibiotic innovation, reflecting experience with all sixty-seven new molecular entity antibiotics approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 1980. Our analysis incorporates data and insights derived from several multistakeholder initiatives under way involving governments and the private sector on both sides of the Atlantic. We propose three specific reforms that could revitalize innovations that protect public health, while promoting long-term sustainability: increased incentives for antibiotic research and development, surveillance, and stewardship; greater targeting of incentives to high-priority public health needs, including reimbursement that is delinked from volume of drug use; and enhanced global collaboration, including a global treaty.

Assessment of the Determinants of Healthy Ageing among the Rural Elderly of North-Eastern Nigeria

Healthy ageing is a lifelong process optimizing opportunities for improving and preserving health and physical, social and mental wellness, independence, quality of life and enhancing successful life-course transition. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that the number of elderly persons will rise from about 37.1 million in 2005 to 155.4 million in 2050. The elderly population in Nigeria is estimated at 4 percent and is expected to triple by the year 2020. The increasing number of the older population will increase the burden on the health resources. The objective of this study was to evaluate the determinants of healthy ageing among rural elderly in northern Nigeria in order to promote those that have positive correlation with healthy aging. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 1600 rural elderly aged ≥60 years using interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire between June and July, 2011. Majority (53.8%) are 60 - 64 years, 24.6% >69 years, 72.4% are males while most are Muslims (85.6%) and 81. 4% are still married. Most are farmers (48.9%) while 73.6% have no formal education. 85.3% earn less than $100 monthly while 47.6% have no income. 93.5% do not take alcohol, 92.1% do not smoke and 89.8% are physically active. 83.1% have normal blood pressure (on examination), 88.3% normal blood glucose level (on examination). Diet, no smoking, high physical activity and adequate sleep are positively correlated with healthy aging (p < 0.05). Good health practices and family support should be sustained while special care for the aged should be established by the government.