WHO Perspective Research Articles

Trial Analysis of the Encounter of Japanese and Korean Pop Culture in Local Variety Art from the Perspective of Cultural Integration TakeSisters Who Make Waves for Example

Since the 1980s, Japanese and Korean pop culture has been widely disseminated in China in the form of film and television productions. This created a wave of popularity among young people, and led to the formation of two typical Chinese youth subcultures that have had a great influence on television programmes to this day: the Ha-Japanese and the Ha-Korean subcultures. In the era of new media, both online and traditional programmes have emerged simultaneously, and most of the audiences favourite variety shows have left their mark only by virtue of their initial novelty, and have been quickly replaced by new programmes and faded into obscurity. However, the emergence of Ride the Wind 2023 seems to have broken the law of three seasons of decline for domestic variety shows. Taking Ride the Wind 2023 as an example, this paper adopts the methods of literature research, comparative research, questionnaire survey and case study to clarify the influence of Japanese and Korean popular culture in domestic variety arts. It explores the fit between variety arts and the ideological development of real society, the presentation effect of the programmes audiovisual content, and the way of localisation of the introduced variety arts. Attempts are made to find a feasible way to effectively achieve a good influence of world culture in Chinese localised variety arts. It also discusses the compatibility of variety arts with the ideological development of real society, the effect of audiovisual content presentation, and the way of localisation of variety arts in China.

Monitoring healthy ageing for the next decade: South Korea's perspective.

South Korea is the fastest ageing country among OECD countries. Unlike the older generation growing up in the aftermath of the Korean war, the first and second baby boomer generations have heightened expectations regarding public services. In addition to the demand in higher quality of both social and health services by these newer older population, there is a concomitant increased quantitative demand. It is imperative that Korea reimagines their health, social welfare and economic policies to reflect the rapidly changing needs of such generations. One way to do this is to mainstream and continually monitor healthy ageing in all aspects of future policies. In 2021, the Korean Longitudinal Healthy Aging Study was launched in this context, to better understand the needs of the new-older age generation and to produce evidence to support formulation of better tailored policies that could promote healthy ageing. However, Korea is only in its early stage in developing a monitoring system that looks into the performance level of policies that support healthy ageing. As a country that is preparing for such rapid demographic transition and has already commenced developing its healthy ageing indicators, it will be important to assess and monitor uniformly the level of healthy ageing from the framework perspective of WHO. Korea welcomes WHO's development of an internationally applicable M&E framework for healthy ageing. We hope that WHO's M&E framework on healthy ageing will help Korea align to the international standards in its journey through the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 and beyond.

7.I. Skills building seminar: Applying behavioural sciences to public health policy-making

Abstract The complexity of health issues, ranging from infectious diseases to chronic illnesses, calls for effective public health policies to improve health outcomes. Almost all public health strategies involve encouraging behaviour change. However, policy development and adoption often fail to consider the behaviour change principles that influence individuals’ decisions and actions related to health. This omission can lead to policies that are not feasible, acceptable, effective, sustainable, or equitable. Applying behaviour change principles in health policy development and adoption can lead to more effective policies that promote health behaviour change at the individual, community, and population levels. Examples of behaviour change principles include using evidence-based techniques to encourage healthy behaviours, addressing social determinants of health, and leveraging social networks. Also, communication between scientists and policy makers, including using effective communication tools such as policy briefs, plays an important role in informing political decision-making and creating impact for researchers. Incorporating behaviour change principles in health policy development and adoption require interdisciplinary collaboration, engagement with stakeholders, and attention to the cultural and social context. Aim This skills-building seminar seeks to contribute to capacity building in knowledge translation and evidence-informed decision-making in public health applying behavioural insights. More specifically, it will tackle two main questions: 1. What public health researchers need to know to impact policy? 2. How can using behaviour change principles in health policy help to bridge the implementation gap? Workshop structure This workshop will consist of two parts. In the first part, three presentations will set the scene. The first presentation will introduce the most recent advancements and future perspectives in applying behavioural insights and sciences to public health policy-making from the WHO perspective. The second presentation will highlight how behaviour change principles were used for the development and adoption of health policies in Canada. The third presentation will deal with behavioural insights for more effective communication between academics and policy makers, including a practical guide to develop effective and high-quality policy briefs. This will be followed by a reflections from representatives of academia/advisory bodies (Prof. Kim Lavoie, Co-Director, Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, Canada and Canada's COVID-19 Expert Advisory Panel) and WHO/Europe (Dr. Katrine Bach-Habersaat; Regional Advisor for Behavioural and Cultural Insights). Further to the reflection on the current knowledge base a structured interactive world-café methodology will be used to explore attendees’ opinions regarding the challenges and opportunities in public health policy-making to improve people's health and well-being. Key messages • Viewing policy development and adoption through the lens of behaviour change theory can help improve the effectiveness of policies and increase their impact. • By applying behaviour change principles, policymakers can better understand the motivations, barriers, and enablers of different stakeholders and tailor their policies accordingly.

3.O. Workshop: Students avoiding school toilets: a universal, unrecognized & rarely discussed public health issue

Abstract Based on recent statistics, access to school toilets can be considered no more an issue in the European region (UNICEF, 2020). However, presence is not equivalent to use. Four complementary perspectives will illustrate this universal yet unrecognised and underdiscussed public health issue: the avoidance of school toilets by children and adolescents. The workshop will be introduced by a presentation about WHO initiatives, perspectives and recommendations on sanitation and handwashing facilities in schools. Putting the European specificities in a global context will allow us to understand the difference between access and use that will drive the other presentations. The next presentation, will question Youth popular culture regarding school toilets. For many adolescents, popular culture is the primary way in which they learn about people's experiences, therefore, the way toilets are pictured in popular culture such as books or films may influence adolescents’ use of school toilets, even if they are not aware of that. This presentation will analyse some examples of how school toilets are presented in Young Adults’ fictions and popular films. This will help finding ways to talk about and alleviate concerns about the use of toilets in school by adolescents. The next presentation will give a Dutch insight: in 2023, master students under the supervision of a health sociologist and a paediatrician conducted an online survey on school toilets use by secondary pupils and reasons not to use them. The findings aim at advising schools on how they can adapt so that pupils use school toilets more often, but as well they may serve to advocate the topic to general practitioners, paediatricians, and youth health care physicians about health issues related to this public health problem. The last presentation will be driven by a health promotion and pedagogical perspective, through the example of the training of French school doctors. Since 40 years they have periodically addressed the issue of underuse of school toilets by children and adolescents, with the same negative findings. In 2022, 24 school doctors have worked again on the topic with health promotion's methods. Overall, their health priority stood as: “School toilets, a place of challenges and a reflection of the well-being of each and every pupil”. From there, some have built a tool to assess toilets in schools and the readiness of the staff to act upon the findings in a health promotion perspective. In conclusion, our perspectives, based on findings from different EU countries are rather complementary and coherent: children and adolescents underuse school toilets, despite their presence, leading to medical problems, lower well-being at school with the risk to endanger their learning availability. This confirms, if needed, that this is still a true public health issue. Some of the findings around the issue of safety (environmental as well as psychological) seem to be universal and will be discussed with the audience. Key messages • Underuse of school toilets by pupils is a true yet under-addressed public health issue even in Europe. • Safety (environmental and psychological), could be a lever to improve the use of school toilets by pupils.

Negative Data, Oh No What Should I Do? How Publication of Negative Data Removes Roadblocks to Productive Research from the Perspective of Scientists Who Perform the Experiments.

Negative Data, Oh No What Should I Do? How Publication of Negative Data Removes Roadblocks to Productive Research from the Perspective of Scientists Who Perform the Experiments.

Making Meaning of Women Who Have Late-Term Abortions from the Perspective of Mothers Who Terminated Wanted Pregnancies

ABSTRACT Women who have late-term abortions not only have to cope with losing a child but also the stigma associated with termination. Understanding the ways stigmatizing ideologies are resisted by alternatives has the potential to disrupt meanings that disenfranchise populations. Interested in ideological resistance, we framed this study in relational dialectics theory, which highlights how marginalized discourses resist dominant ones to make meaning of a semantic object. We used RDT’s corresponding method, contrapuntal analysis, which revealed two discourses that competed to illuminate the meanings of women who terminate wanted pregnancies due to health complications (WTHC): the Discourse of Independent Murder (DIM) and the Discourse of Collective Sacrifice (DCS). These discourses interplayed through contractive practices (i.e., disqualification, naturalization, ideal violation), synchronic interplay (i.e., entertaining, countering, negating), and dialogic transformation (i.e., hybridization and aesthetic moment) illustrating a struggle that both reified and resisted the DIM. Theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed.

Design Proposal for Sign Language Services in TV Broadcasting from the Perspective of People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Sign language services are provided so that people with hearing loss are not alienated from socially and politically important information through TV broadcasting. In this paper, we conducted a user survey and evaluation of the current sign language services for deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) people, and solutions were proposed for the problems found in the course of the analyses. To this end, a total of five stages of research were conducted. First, the communication problems experienced by DHH individuals and previous studies on their language and information acquisition were investigated. Second, the most typical types of information delivery channels via TV were defined as news, discussions, and weather reports, and by investigating the actual sign language service cases for each type, three visual information delivery elements were identified: sign language interpreters, reference videos, and subtitles. Third, a preference survey, an interview survey, and an eye tracker experiment on the DHH participants were conducted with varying arrangement options of information delivery elements. Fourth, based on the results of the investigations and experiments, the options to be considered when arranging information delivery elements were compiled. The results showed that the sign language interpreter, which is the first element of information delivery, should be presented in a size clearly visible because the visibility of their facial expressions is important. In addition, it is recommended to present the interpreter without a background since DHH participants did not prefer the presence of a background. As for subtitles, which is the third element of information delivery, it was confirmed that the provision of sign language interpretation and subtitles together helped DHH participants to understand the contents more quickly and accurately. Moreover, if there are multiple speakers, individual subtitles for each speaker should be provided so that the viewers can understand who is talking. Reference videos, which are mainly placed on the screen background, the second information delivery element, were considered less important to DHH participants compared to sign language interpreters and subtitles, and it was found that DHH participants preferred reference videos to be visually separated from sign language interpreters. Fifth, based on the overall results of the study, a screen layout design was proposed for each type of information delivery element for DHH people. Contrary to the general conception that there would be no problem in viewing information-delivering TV broadcasts by DHH people simply by placing a sign language interpreter on the screen, the results of this study confirmed that a more delicate screen layout design is necessary for DHH people. It is expected that this study will serve as a helpful guide in providing better sign language services for TV broadcasts that can be conveniently viewed by both DHH and non-disabled people.

PERSON-CENTERED CARE PLANNING AND SHARED DECISION MAKING FOR MENTAL AND COMORBID CONDITIONS

Developments in person-centered coordinated care are essential given the challenges of the growing epidemic of physical comorbidity in the mentally ill population. Excessive deaths due to comorbidity, especially cardiovascular disease, continue to contribute to the significant reduction in life expectancy in people with mental health problems. Contemporary and proposed models are now available to provide evidence for a way forward in this field. Practical guidance on implementation using person-centered care planning has now been developed to promote a more collaborative and integrated approach as a solution to the current single disease focused model of care, which is failing this patient group. The WHO perspective supports this strategy with the recent global objectives outlining proactive and preventative strategies and interventions to tackle comorbidity. The emphasis is on a transformation of current systems using evidence-based approaches for more integration to support the delivery of more effective and efficient care for those with mental disorders and other comorbid chronic diseases. Coordinated, collaborative, system-wide strategies encompass transparent shared decision making in prevention, early intervention, treatment options, lifestyle management and pharmacological rationalization. Hence urgent action is required to help create the conditions to enable the delivery of person-centered coordinated care in health care systems by involving commissioning bodies, clinicians, patient groups along with voluntary and other community providers. Contemporary models of care for comorbidity emphasize the importance of coordination in the management of physical well-being from the onset of treatment of people with mental health problems in order to ensure better outcomes, improved overall well-being, and a longer life expectancy. Illustratively, no further funds are available to implement this shift in the model of care in the United Kingdom, so redesign and redistribution of current resources will be key to promote this more seamless coordinated system of care to improve the quality of life and life expectancy for this population.

“She’s Me”: An Exploration of Pet Ownership from the Perspective of People Who Are Homeless

“She’s Me”: An Exploration of Pet Ownership from the Perspective of People Who Are Homeless

‘Socialising’ primary care? The Soviet Union, WHO and the 1978 Alma-Ata Conference

In September 1978, the WHO convened a momentous International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata, capital of the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. This unprecedented gathering signalled a break with...

Adaptation of a Voice-Centered Relational Framework to Explore the Perspective of Parents Who Have Transitioned to Home with a Child With Complex Care Needs

ABSTRACTParents of children with complex care needs are generally willing to participate in research studies about their experiences; however, they are often challenged in their capacity to participate as they struggle to find time for family life. In our research with parents to explore their experience of transitioning to home, we deliberately sought an approach that would reduce the imposition on parents, while gaining insightful interpretations of their experiences. This article reflects on our experience of the process of discovering, analyzing, and interpreting parents’ perspectives of their journey to home, when interviewed by telephone. Applying the voice-centered relational method of qualitative analysis, accounts from parents were explored by the research team using 4 perspectives: the plot and evaluator responses to the narrative; the voice of the “I”; relationships; and placing people within cultural contexts and social structures. Parents interviewed were very receptive to being interviewed by phone. We found that this enhanced their trust in the interview process and subsequently led to our ability to gather rich data. The use of multiple lenses of analysis gave insightful interpretations of their journey to home.

The Impact of the Birth of a Child with Intellectual Disabilities on Pre-Existing Parental Christian Faith from the Perspective of Parents Who Have Parented Their Child to Adulthood.

Faith in the lives of UK families with an adult with intellectual disabilities is an under-researched area with little existing literature. Research in the United States with Christian parents suggests that they draw on their faith for coping (Rogers-Dulan 1998) and for understanding (Skinner et al. 1999). In this study, grounded theory methodology has been used to examine the impact on pre-existing parental faith of the birth of a child with intellectual disabilities from the perspective of parents who have parented their children to adulthood. Seventeen parents or couples took part in semistructured qualitative interviews about their faith. The majority of parents after their child were diagnosed with intellectual disabilities went through a period of flux when they questioned the role of God in the disability. The positive or negative connotations of the attempts at meaning-making did not impact on the eventual outcome for the parents. They eventually put such existential questions aside, accepted their child, and continued in their faith. The implications of the research for health professionals, church organizations and researchers are considered.

Local Production of Pharmaceutical Products in Africa: The WHO approach

The WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action mandated the Director General to support transfer of technology and local production of medicines in developing countries. This paper briefly lays out the conditions for local production in Africa and describes the on-going work program of the WHO Department of Public Health, Innovation, Intellectual Property and Trade (PHI) directed at supporting local production efforts. Encouragement of local production is not without controversy as governments must weigh their interest in pursuing the potential holistic benefits of security of supply, support for research and training, manufacturing employment and balance of payments improvements, with assuring that supplies are purchased at prices competitive with global lowest-priced supplies of assured quality. Ultimately, for local production efforts to be successful medicines must be provided at prices competitive with, and of comparable quality to, imported products. The African Union and national governments within Africa are promoting local production, and are working with the support of a number of multilateral organizations including UNIDO, UNCTAD, UNAIDS and WHO, with increasing interest of the African Development Bank. There is considerable attention both from local investors and multinational industry, and there are opportunities for technology leapfrogging. From the WHO perspective, the key element is to focus attention on the promotion of public health objectives, including through the strengthening of regulatory capacity. The author is consultant adviser to WHO PHI.

Editorial: Health preparedness and legacy planning at mass gatherings in the EMR: a WHO perspective

Editorial: Health preparedness and legacy planning at mass gatherings in the EMR: a WHO perspective

Preventing Errors in Oncology: Perspective of a Physician Who Is Also a Cancer Patient

This article presents my personal experiences as a physician who underwent laryngectomy for hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. I describe the numerous medical and surgical errors that occurred during my hospitalization at three different medical centers. It is my hope that my presentation will contribute to the reduction of such errors and lead to a safer hospital environment for patients.

Key challenges of housing and health from WHO perspective

Housing and health, often referred to in more general terms as ‘‘healthy buildings’’, is an area of work that is based on contributions from many technical and professional disciplines: housing, engineering and construction, public health, environment, social welfare, urban planning, and building management. The combination of actions from all these sectors is necessary to provide healthy housing and shows the complexity of the subject, as well as its great potential to increase the quality of life of citizens through providing adequate and safe homes. In historic perspective, the housing improvement campaigns undertaken in many European countries during the 19th century to respond to inadequate housing conditions in relation to crowding, hygiene and sanitation, and the lack of ventilation and light can be recognized as some of the early large-scale public health interventions of modern times. However, notwithstanding the large health improvements that were associated with the quality increase in housing and urban settlements, we still face large challenges in identifying and documenting the impact of housing on health, and especially in assessing health benefits associated with housing improvement schemes (see recently published WHO (2011) report on the environmental burden of disease associated with inadequate housing). Without doubt, housing and health has received increasing interest by the public health community in recent years, and is now considered one of the major environmental, as well as social determinants of population health. This increasing interest follows two recent trends in public health sciences (the rising concern on indoor exposures as a public health risk, and the rediscovery of setting approaches to target health action) and is further enhanced by the report of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health which identified daily living conditions as a major cause of inequalities (WHO 2008). Public health actors interested in this field will have recognized that during the last decade, the availability of housing and health information and the publication of associated evidence have increased significantly. National reports, reviews and surveys have added to the evidence base as have sophisticated academic research work and contributions from international agencies such as UN and EU. Most of the work on the health relevance of housing seems to be contributed from health-focused actors who are increasingly aware of the negative health impacts of inadequate housing conditions. In contrast, there seems much less evidence generated from the typical ‘‘building-related’’ professions such as engineering, construction, architecture etc., who are in a better position to shape a healthy building stock than the public health actors. However, the wealth of available evidence provides various new opportunities to the housing and health community, as it enables a more detailed housing and health risk assessment, which must form the basis for adequate and targeted risk management on technical as well as policy level. Based on the available evidence, we can identify and confirm a range of housing and health challenges that we This paper belongs to the special issue ‘‘Housing for health promotion’’.

International collaboration in toxicosurveillance: A WHO perspective

International collaboration in toxicosurveillance: A WHO perspective

The History of Social Psychology in the Perspective of the Student Who did not Make the “Task of Always”

EnglishIn this article, we narrate Social Psychology history from a student�s perspective, based in the meanings that were produced in Social Psychology lectures at the State University of Londrina (Brazil). Lucas Paolino, the first author of this text, wrote an essay in an original way, using humor and a literary style to discuss some theoretical and historical aspects in the understanding of Social Psychology and its history. We aim to present this original way of telling the history of social psychology, keeping the creative narrative of the text and being coherent with this theme. We suggest that humor, as well as the literary expression of this essay, can facilitate the understanding of theoretical and historical contents in the context of teaching Social Psychology, in order to stimulate the pupils to think the psychological universe with its theoretical and methodological diversity, always stimulating critical reflection, dialogue and fidgety. portuguesEsse artigo relata a historia da psicologia social contada da perspectiva de um aluno de Graduacao em Psicologia da Universidade Estadual de Londrina-PR, a partir das significacoes produzidas nas aulas de Psicologia Social I. Um ensaio escrito produzido pelo primeiro autor e apresentado com originalidade, ao revelar intencao humorada e literaria para tratar dos aspectos teoricos e historicos envolvidos na compreensao da psicologia social e sua historia. O objetivo e apresentar o modo bastante original de relatar a historia da psicologia social, mantendo o formato narrativo criativo do texto em coerencia com a tematica abordada. Sugere-se que a expressao humorada e literaria do texto pode facilitar a compreensao dos conteudos teoricos e historicos envolvidos no contexto do ensino de psicologia social, a fim de estimular os alunos a pensarem o universo psi na presenca de sua diversidade teorica e metodologica, sempre incentivando a reflexao critica, o dialogo e inquietacao.

The History of Social Psychology in the Perspective of the Student Who did not Make the “Task of Always”

The History of Social Psychology in the Perspective of the Student Who did not Make the “Task of Always”

The WHO perspective on integration of traditional medicine into health system

The reality of health care systems is that there is a strong demand for traditional medicine (TM), as shown in the WHA 56.31 resolution on traditional medicine in 2003 the popular use of TM demonstrates that it is widely accessible, affordable, and culturally accepted in large parts of developing countries, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where TM is often deeply rooted in the local culture. In Europe and North America, people are increasingly using TM as complementary to or as an alternative for western medicine (WM) treatments. TM has a distinct appeal to broad populations of people. TM systems often have specific theories, diagnoses and treatments which may be different than the methods and treatments of WM. Recognizing these differences, it is essential to understand that both systems of TM and WM have their advantages and weakness. The advantage of TM may be found in their utilization for chronic diseases, improving quality of life and health maintenance, as well as for some health conditions that could not be treated well with WM. There are significant challenges facing this integration. There is lack of appropriate standards and measures to control the quality of TM, especially herbal medicines. There is also a lack of appropriate accepted research methodology to evaluate TM based on TM characteristics. Therefore, the cooperation and collaboration between the experts of both TM and WM is necessary. WHO encourages countries to integrate TM into health systems so that patients will obtain the health benefits from both TM and WM. In support of integrating TM into their existing health systems, WHA 62.13 resolution on TM adopted in May 2009 urges the Member States to respect, preserve and communicate, as appropriate, the knowledge of traditional medicine, treatments and practices, appropriately based on the circumstances in each country, and on evidence of safety, efficacy and quality; to consider, where appropriate, including traditional medicine into their national health systems based on national capacities, priorities, relevant legislation and circumstances, and on evidence of safety, efficacy and quality; to further develop traditional medicine based on research and innovation, giving due consideration to the specific actions related to traditional medicine in the implementation of the Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property resolution which was adopted in 2008. This abstract can be surmised by a statement made by Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, during the WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine in 2008. “The two systems of traditional and western medicine need not clash. Within the context of primary health care, they can blend together in a beneficial harmony, using the best features of each system, and compensating for certain weaknesses in each.”