Health Performance Indicators Research Articles

Evaluation of School Occupational Health and Safety Practices Performance Indicators by School Administrators

Evaluation of School Occupational Health and Safety Practices Performance Indicators by School Administrators

Evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on routine childhood immunizations coverage in Zambia.

There are growing concerns about the comeback of vaccine-preventable diseases. Epidemics exert shocks which affect other health performance indicators such as routine immunizations. Early model forecasts indicate decreased use of immunization services, which puts children at greater risk. Concerns about an increase in morbidity and mortality for illnesses other than COVID-19, particularly in children missing routine vaccinations, are of public health interest. In this study, we evaluate COVID-19 effects on the uptake of routine immunization in Zambia.This was an interrupted time series study. National data on routine immunization coverage between January 2017 and December 2022 were analyzed. Interrupted time series analysis was performed to quantify changes in immunization utilization. To determine if changes in the underlying patterns of utilization of immunization service were correlated with the commencement of COVID-19, seasonally adjusted segmented Poisson regression model was utilised.Utilization of health services was similar with historical levels prior to the first case of COVID-19. There was a significant drop in immunization coverage for measles dose two (RR, 0.59; 95% CI: 0.43-0.80). A decreased slope was observed in immunization coverage of Rotavirus dose one (RR, 0.97; 95% CI: 0.96-0.98) and Rotavirus dose two (RR, 0.97; 95% CI: 0.96-0.98). A growing slope was observed for Oral Poliovirus two (RR, 1.007; 95% CI: 1.004-1.011) and Oral Poliovirus three (RR, 1.007; 95% CI: 1.002-1011). We also observed a growing slope in BCG Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) (RR, 1.001; 95% CI: 1.000-1011) and Pentavalent one (RR, 1.00; 95% CI: 1.001-1008) and three (RR, 1.004; 95% CI: 1.001-1008).The COVID-19 pandemic has had a number of unintended consequences that have affected the use of immunization services. Ensuring continuity in the provision of health services, especially childhood immunization, during pandemics or epidemics is crucial. Therefore, Investing in robust healthcare infrastructure to withstand surges, training and retaining a skilled workforce capable of handling emergencies and routine services simultaneously is very cardinal to avoid vaccine-preventable diseases, causing long-term health effects especially child mortality.

Prototype development of the Mental Health benchmarking Industry Tool for residential aged Care (MHICare Tool): a protocol paper of a two-stage sequential and mixed methods codesign study

ObjectivesCurrent mental health practices for people living in residential aged care (RAC) facilities are poor. In Australia, there are no mechanisms to monitor and promote mental health for people living...

Incorporating uncertainty in Indigenous sea Country monitoring with Bayesian statistics: Towards more informed decision-making.

Partnerships in marine monitoring combining Traditional Ecological Knowledge and western science are developing globally to improve our understanding of temporal changes in ecological communities that better inform coastal management practices. A fuller communication between scientists and Indigenous partners about the limitations of monitoring results to identify change is essential to the impact of monitoring datasets on decision-making. Here we present a 5-year co-developed case study from a fish monitoring partnership in northwest Australia showing how uncertainty estimated by Bayesian models can be incorporated into monitoring management indicators. Our simulation approach revealed there was high uncertainty in detecting immediate change over the following monitoring year when translated to health performance indicators. Incorporating credibility estimates into health assessments added substantial information to monitoring trends, provided a deeper understanding of monitoring limitations and highlighted the importance of carefully selecting the way we evaluate management performance indicators.

Evaluation of Health Systems Performance of OECD Countries Using MOORA Method

International comparison of health systems performance provides evidence to countries, policymakers and decision-makers. This study was conducted in order to rank and compare the health systems performance levels of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) countries according to the determined health performance indicators. In the study, the data of the countries between the years of 2000–2017 were used and evaluated. The study consists of 36 member countries of the OECD. The data was analysed with the MOORA (Multi-Objective Optimization on the basis of Ratio Analysis) method, which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods, allowing the comparison of the performance of health systems across countries is compared. As a result of the health system performance evaluations of OECD countries. As a result of the health system performance evaluations of OECD countries, it has been concluded that countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Sweden have a high level of health systems performance, and Mexico, Colombia and Turkey have a lower performance compared to other countries. It is expected that countries with lower health system performance levels due to health system structures, demographic characteristics, education levels and technological development levels can still develop by selecting alternative countries suitable for their purpose and adopting the policies and strategies of such countries to their own systems.

Access to DTP-Based Combination Vaccines in Asia-Pacific Countries between 2019 and 2022.

The Asia-Pacific countries are highly diverse in health and economic conditions that may impact vaccine access and uptake. Our study aimed to characterize patterns of health access to DTP-based combination vaccines in 10 countries from 2019 to 2022 using the IQVIA-MIDAS database. The availability, affordability, and accessibility were compared across countries by national health and economic performance indicators using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Our findings showed that the three aspects of access to DTP-based vaccines varied substantially in the Asia-Pacific region, with higher levels in countries with better health and economic performance. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine accessibility fluctuates significantly in lower-income countries, with DTP coverage rates falling by more than 14% in the Philippines and Indonesia between 2019 and 2021. For availability and affordability, Singapore and Malaysia from high-income groups were largely affected, which may be related to health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (Coefficient = 0.39, p = 0.03). Our study indicates that greater attention needs to be paid to national health expenditure and routine immunization services to improve vaccine disparities and increase the robustness and resilience of the vaccine supply chain during public health emergencies.

The relationship between labour-only procurement and health and safety performance of construction projects

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of the characteristics of procurement strategies, in this instance labour-only, on project performance concerning health and safety (H&S), a project performance indicator.Design/methodology/approachUsing non-probability purposeful and snowballing sampling methods, questionnaires were used to collect data from construction professionals in Nigeria. This was then analysed using descriptive (frequency and mean scores) and inferential statistics (Mann–Whitney-U and Kendall's Tau_b tests).FindingsThe findings indicate a statistically significant negative correlation between ‘the level of client involvement and ‘fatalities' and a positive one with ‘conducting of health and safety risk assessment' and ‘conducting employee surveys on health and safety attitude’. Poor hygiene is found to be the worst lagging indicator, while conducting of inspection is the most adopted leading indicator of project health and safety performance. It also emerged that there is no significant difference in the health and safety performance of projects procured through the procurement strategy in urban and rural areas.Practical implicationsThe study provides valuable insight into the complexities in H&S management due to the high level of client involvement in labour-only procurement system (LoPS) projects and the level of diversity in their responsibilities therein. It creates a fundamental direction for developing a detailed framework or guidance notes for client involvement in the integration of H&S into LoPS projects.Originality/valueThis is the first study that examines the influence of the characteristics of procurement strategy on project health and safety performance. Evidence in the literature shows that project delivery outcomes significantly improve if procurement is strategically used, including when it is considered early in projects. However, integrating H&S into procurement strategies has received little attention.

Adult Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Services and Associated Factors Among Admitted Patients at Saint Paul's Hospital, Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Providing comprehensive nursing care and ensuring patient satisfaction are essential health performance indicators worldwide. Despite some efforts to improve patient satisfaction with nursing care, the approach in developing countries, including Ethiopia, remains insufficient. This study aimed to assess the level of adult patient satisfaction and identify the factors affecting satisfaction. This cross-sectional study included 407 participants selected using a simple randomization technique. The samples were distributed using proportional allocation to each selected adult inpatient department. The participants were interviewed using a modified structured Amharic version of the Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scale. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were also performed. The overall level of patient satisfaction with nursing care services was 54.3%. Respondents without formal education (P=0.010), male sex (P=0.041), free service consumers (P0.001), and health insurance users (P0.001) were significantly associated with satisfaction with nursing care. In addition, previously hospitalized patients (P=0.001), governmental workers (P0.001), and patients admitted to the medical ward (P=0.010) were associated with patient dissatisfaction with nursing care services. This study revealed that adult patient satisfaction with nursing care services is low. A previous admission history, higher education level, paying cash for services, and private and governmental workers were significant predisposing factors for dissatisfaction with nursing care. On the other hand, patients without formal education, free-service consumers, and male sex were significant predictors of satisfaction with nursing care services. Therefore, hospital administrators are encouraged to focus on patients' needs and expectations.

Health Digital Indicators’ Juxtaposition

A study is discussed the comparison of main health performance indicators in two different countries: New Zealand and Republic of Cyprus, and globally by approaches from the particular to the general, and multi-dimensional measures of global health indication. The objective was to establish the content validity, the reliability and sensitivity, and the validity of rank order comparisons. This study analyzed 2021-2023 annual reports World Health Organization, European Union Commission, and NZ government. The finding of this work is synopsis of Health Digital Indicators. The result of synopsis has shown that there are so many different kinds of Health Indicators that unite by digital technology to collect data for them. Author juxtaposed regional (European and Pacific) and global health indicators counted for health goals.

Status of udder health performance indicators and implementation of on farm monitoring on German dairy cow farms: results from a large scale cross-sectional study.

Regional benchmarking data enables farmers to compare their animal health situation to that of other herds and identify areas with improvement potential. For the udder health status of German dairy cow farms, such data were incomplete. Therefore, the aim of this study was (1) to describe the incidence of clinical mastitis (CM), (2) to describe cell count based udder health indicators [annual mean test day average of the proportion of animals without indication of mastitis (aWIM), new infection risk during lactation (aNIR), and proportion of cows with low chance of cure (aLCC); heifer mastitis rate (HM)] and their seasonal variation, and (3) to evaluate the level of implementation of selected measures of mastitis monitoring. Herds in three German regions (North: n = 253; East: n = 252, South: n = 260) with different production conditions were visited. Data on CM incidence and measures of mastitis monitoring were collected via structured questionnaire-based interviews. Additionally, dairy herd improvement (DHI) test day data from the 365 days preceding the interview were obtained. The median (Q0.1, Q0.9) farmer reported incidence of mild CM was 14.8% (3.5, 30.8%) in North, 16.2% (1.9, 50.4%) in East, and 11.8% (0.0, 30.7%) in South. For severe CM the reported incidence was 4.0% (0.0, 12.2%), 2.0% (0.0, 10.8%), and 2.6% (0.0, 11.0%) for North, East, and South, respectively. The median aWIM was 60.7% (53.4, 68.1%), 59.0% (49.7, 65.4%), and 60.2% (51.5, 67.8%), whereas the median aNIR was 17.1% (13.6, 21.6%), 19.9% (16.2, 24.9%), and 18.3% (14.4, 22.0%) in North, East, and South, respectively with large seasonal variations. Median aLCC was ≤1.1% (≤ 0.7%, ≤ 1.8%) in all regions and HM was 28.4% (19.7, 37.2%), 35.7% (26.7, 44.2%), and 23.5% (13.1, 35.9%), in North, East and South, respectively. Participation in a DHI testing program (N: 95.7%, E: 98.8%, S: 89.2%) and premilking (N: 91.1%, E: 93.7%, S: 90.2%) were widely used. Several aspects of udder health monitoring, including exact documentation of CM cases, regular microbiological analysis of milk samples and the use of a veterinary herd health consultancy service were not applied on many farms. The results of this study can be used by dairy farmers and their advisors as benchmarks for the assessment of the udder health situation in their herds.

Using Structural Equation Modelling to Predict Safety and Health Status among Stone Industries.

The creation of a working organization with a high safety level ensures employees' health in their workplaces, therefore current study evaluated effect the organizational structure on the safety and health in the stone industry. The study was done among the 100 stone industries in Isfahan, Iran. We asked selected participants to complete the organizational structure questionnaire and ELMERI checklists. tested the hypothesis with Smart PLS 3.0. The model fit index showedthe standardized root mean square (SRMR=0.08), the normalized fit index (NFI=0.9), The coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.362), Effect size (ƒ2 was less than 0.2), and the Predictive relevance of the model (Q2=0.216) which is considered a good fit for mode. Also, the relation between formalization and health and safety was significant (β = -0.47). findings suggest that Organization factors are the basic reasons associated with occupational accidents and the main indicator of safety and health performance.

Pakistan needs an equitable investment in the health system and collaborative efforts

Pakistan needs an equitable investment in the health system and collaborative efforts

Dietary inosine monophosphate improved growth, feed utilization, blood biochemical characteristics, and intestinal histo-morphology of slow growing golden mahseer (Tor putitora)

A 10-week long feeding trial was run to determine the effects of inosine monophosphate (IMP) as functional nutrient on growth, feed utilization, haemato-immunological characteristics, and intestinal morphology of juvenile T. putitora. Casein and fishmeal based semi-purified basal diet (control) was formulated to contain 40 % protein and 10 % lipid. Four levels of IMP nucleotide viz., 0.05 %, 0.1 %, 0.2 % and 0.4 % were added to the basal diet for diet groups IMP-0.05, IMP-0.1, IMP-0.2 and IMP-0.4, respectively. Each diet was assigned randomly to triplicate groups of fish occupying an initial average weight of 9.1 ± 0.02 g. The results indicated that dietary IMP significantly enhanced the growth performance of fish and fish fed IMP-0.05 and IMP-0.1 diets showed significantly highest values. Compared to the control, IMP-0.05 diet group showed significantly lower feed conversion ratio, while protein efficiency ratio (PER) was significantly higher in fish fed IMP-0.05 and IMP-0.1 diet groups followed by IMP-0.2 diet group. Control and IMP-0.4 groups showed significantly lower PER. Higher IMP included group (IMP-0.4) showed significantly lower feed intake value. Again, the whole-body lipid content was significantly influenced by dietary IMP inclusion among major whole-body nutrients. Significantly reduced plasma glucose, bilirubin, and alanine aminotransferase level accounted for in IMP supplemented units compared to the control. IMP supplementation also significantly improved total immunoglobulin and hematocrit content. Supplementation of IMP significantly increased and decreased peroxidase and catalase activity, respectively. Fish fed 0.05–0.15 % IMP supplemented diets showed significant improvement in fold height (hF), enterocyte height (hE) and microvillus height (hMV) of anterior intestine compared to the control. In posterior intestine, similar supplementation level of IMP (0.05–0.15 %) showed significant improvement in hE and hMV, while hF showed numerically higher values except in fish fed IMP-0.05 diet group. Based on the current experimental conditions, a dietary IMP of 0.05 % resulted in improved outcomes in the majority of the fish growth and health performance indicators. However, quadratic regression analysis of all the significantly influenced fish performance parameters disclosed that the optimal level of dietary IMP was 0.17 % and this is also consistent with the majority of fish growth and health performance measures.

Monoclonal antibodies and Fc-fusion protein biologic medicines: A multinational cross-sectional investigation of accessibility and affordability in Asia Pacific regions between 2010 and 2020

SummaryBackgroundMonoclonal antibody (mAb) and Fc-fusion protein (FcP) are highly effective therapeutic biologics. We aimed to analyse consumption and expenditure trends in 14 Asia-Pacific countries/regions (APAC) and three benchmark countries (the UK, Canada, and the US).MethodsWe analysed 440 mAb and FcP biological products using the IQVIA-MIDAS global sales database. For each year between 2010 and 2020 inclusive, we used standard units (SU) sold per 1000 population and manufacture level price (standardised in 2019 US dollars) to evaluate consumption (accessibility) and expenditure (affordability). Changes of consumption and expenditure were estimated using compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Correlations between consumption, country's economic and health performance indicators were measured using Spearman correlation coefficient.FindingsBetween 2010 and 2020, CAGRs of consumption in each region ranged from 7% to 34% and the CAGRs of expenditure ranged from 9% to 31%. The median consumption of biologics was extremely low in lower-middle-income economies (0·29 SU/1000 population) compared with upper-middle-income economies (1·20), high-income economies (40·94) and benchmark countries (109·55), although the median CAGRs of biologics consumption in lower-middle-income economies (31%) was greater than upper-middle-income (14%), high-income economies (13%) and benchmark countries (9%). Consumption was correlated with GDP per capita [Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (r) = 0·75, p < 0·001], health expenditure as a percentage of total (r = 0·83, p < 0·001) and medical doctors’ density (r = 0·85, p < 0·001).InterpretationThere have been significant increases in mAb and FcP biologics consumption and expenditure, however accessibility of biological medicines remains unequal and is largely correlated with country's income level.FundingThis research was funded by NHMRC Project Grant GNT1157506 and GNT1196900; Enhanced Start-up Fund for new academic staff and Internal Research Fund, Department of Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong.

A Review of the Use of Wearables in Indoor Environmental Quality Studies and an Evaluation of Data Accessibility from a Wearable Device

An understanding of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and its effects on occupant well-being can inform building system design and operation. The use of wearables in field studies to collect subjective and objective health performance indicators (HPIs) from a large number of occupants could deliver important improvements in IEQ. To facilitate the use of wearables in IEQ studies, there is a need to identify which HPIs should be collected and to evaluate data accessibility from these devices. To address this issue, a literature review of previous IEQ studies was conducted to identify relationships between different IEQ factors and HPIs, with a focus on HPIs that were collected using wearables. A preliminary assessment of data accessibility from a selected wearable device (Fitbit Versa 2) was performed and documented. The review suggested the need to further investigate and collect sleep quality parameters, heart rate, stress response, as well as subjective ratings of comfort using wearables. The data accessibility assessment revealed issues related to missing data points and data resolution from the examined device. A set of recommendations is outlined to inform future studies.

EFISIENSI PENGGUNAAN BANGSAL PADA MASA PANDEMI COVID-19 DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN STANDAR BARBER JOHNSON

Hospitals are part of a cooperation of health services to achieve health performance indicators set by the regions. In improving the quality of hospital services, it requires an increase in good supporting facilities including bed management. Based on observations conducted at RSUD Cililin, it shows that the use of beds before and during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been efficient. So that the hospital needs to evaluate the optimal use of beds.The purpose of this study was to determine and identify the significant effect of the Barber Johnson Chart on the efficiency of bed use and management at RSUD Cililin.This research method uses quantitative research with a descriptive approach. The subjects of this study included the reporting section and the head of the medical record. The object of this research is the in-patient register book. Research data collection techniques are by interviews and observations.Based on the results of the study, it is known that the average BOR value is 46,73%. The AVLOS value is 3, while the average TOI value is 4,98. The average BTO value is 14,14.Keywords: Efficiency, bed, covid-19 pandemic, barber Johnson

Relating indicators to soil health functions in conventional and organic Mediterranean cropping systems

AbstractAccurate assessment of the benefits of soil health building practices to soil function and crop performance requires region‐specific data and locally relevant indicators. In this study, we used a long‐term experiment to measure the effect of 25 yr of differing management on soil health and crop performance indicators in organic and conventionally farmed annual crops in a Mediterranean climate. We measured the strength and consistency of the relationships between several indicators and three functions of a healthy agroecosystem—C storage, net N mineralization, and yields—over two growing seasons and two crop types. Lastly, we used path analysis to test the hypothesis that healthier soils lead to healthier plants and higher yields. Organic plots had greater C stocks and net N mineralization compared with the conventional plots, but lower yields. The path analysis suggested that yields were limited by factors other than N deficiency. The relationships between soil health indicators and soil function were unaffected by crop type but were moderated by yearly changes in weather and operations timing. The indicators most strongly and consistently related to C stocks were permanganate oxidizable C and microbial biomass C, and to N mineralization were CO2 mineralized from rewet soil and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis. Our results highlight that (a) different indicators are appropriate for assessing different aspects of soil health, (b) using several years of data in developing robust ranges for indicator interpretation is important, and (c) links between soil and crop health must be assessed mechanistically within a given system.

The challenges of administering a new treatment: the case of direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C virus

ObjectivesWe develop a patient prioritization scheme for treating patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and study under which scenarios it outperforms the current practices in Spain and Chile. Study designWe use simulation to evaluate the performance of prioritization rules under two HCV patient cohorts, constructed using secondary data of public records from Chile and Spain, during 2015–2016. MethodsWe use the results of a mathematical model, which determines individual optimal HCV treatment policies as an input for constructing a patient prioritization rule, when limited resources are present. The prioritization is based on marginal analysis on cost increases and health-outcome gains. We construct the Chilean and Spanish case studies and used Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the performance of our methodology in these two scenarios. ResultsThe resulting prioritizations for the Chilean and Spanish patients are similar, despite the significant differences of both countries, in terms of epidemiological profiles and cost structures. Furthermore, when resources are scarce compared with the number of patients in need of the new drug, our prioritization significantly outperforms current practices of treating sicker patients first, both in terms of cost and healthcare indicators: for the Chilean case, we have an increase in the quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) of 0.83 with a cost reduction of 8176 euros per patient, with a budget covering 2.5% of the patients in the cohort. This difference slowly decreases when increasing the available resources, converging to the performance indicators obtained when all patients are treated immediately: for the Spanish case, we have a decrease in the QALYs of 0.17 with a cost reduction of 1134 euros per patient, with a budget covering 20% of the patients in the cohort. ConclusionDecision science can provide useful analytical tools for designing efficient public policies that can excel in terms of quantitative health performance indicators.

Development of leading indicators for the assessment of occupational health performance using Reason's Swiss cheese model.

BACKGROUND:The Swiss cheese model of accident causation is a model used in risk analysis and risk management, including aviation safety, engineering, healthcare, and emergency service organizations, and as the principle behind layered security, as used in computer security and defense in-depth. This study aimed to develop and weight the occupational health leading indicators using the Swiss cheese model.MATERIALS AND METHODS:The present study was a descriptive, cross-sectional study; occupational health performance assessment indicators were classified into five main groups of chemical, physical, ergonomic, psychosocial, and biological harmful agents. In addition, potential hazards and their prevention methods were identified using the Swiss cheese model. The leading performance measurement indicators (n = 64) were developed based on preventive methods and were weighted and rated by fuzzy analytic hierarchy process.RESULTS:Thirty-six out of 64 indicators were related to the management measures, 25 indicators were related to exposure to harmful occupational agents, and the remaining indicators were occupational-related illnesses and diseases rate. Considering the importance and frequency of indicators, psychological agents were the most important indicators (40%) and physical agents had the greatest frequency (59%).CONCLUSIONS:Process of indicators' development has demonstrated that the major occupational health prevention measures in the oil and gas industry are concentrated on physical, psychological, and chemical agents, respectively. Thus, to provide protection for employees against occupational diseases and improve health performance indicators, paying special attention to mentioned agents is essential in the oil and gas industry.

Analysis on the development level of Eco-Cars in China

This paper first analyzes the development environment of China’s Eco-Cars from the government guidance and industry status quo, and points out that the Eco-Car has become the development trend. Secondly, it introduces the vehicle ecological and health performance indicators that the industry pays attention to. On this basis, it makes statistical analysis on the performance of the main ecological performance indicator. In addition, the proportion of vehicles with excellent ecological performance is analyzed. Finally, this paper expounds the development suggestions of the Eco-Car in China.