Journal of Public Health Research最新文献

Background: Understanding of public awareness on public health issues is very crucial, including the current health crisis of COVID-19. This research aimed to examine the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices among Students towards COVID-19.

Design and methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among secondary school students in grades 10-12. Proportional sample allocation was used in 16 randomly selected schools. Moreover, the schools were recruited by using a systematic random sampling technique. Socio-demographic data and questions of the knowledge, attitude and practice were collected by interview. Logistic regression analyses were employed to identify the associated factors and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Among the 357 participants the level of good knowledge, positive attitude, and optimal practice were 65.2%, 66.7% and 89.4% respectively. Regression analyses showed that being in the adolescent age group (15-16 years old), living with >5 family size, and family with a good income effectively predicted knowledge level. Attitudes towards COVID-19, male students were pessimistic about COVID-19 prevention and control measures as opposed to their female counterparts [aOR = 0.39; 95% CI: 0.21-0.71). Students with awareness of the virus demonstrated greater (two-fold) odds of a positive attitude as opposed to their less-conscious counterparts. The urban-area male students were demonstrated a higher (three-fold) odds of good practice level towards COVID-19 prevention and control measures as opposed to their rural-area female counterparts.

Conclusion: A good knowledge level denoted a positive attitude despite the lack of information. Meanwhile, good preventive measure practices and behaviours reflected high levels.

Terrorism has emerged as an increasingly pressing global issue, giving rise to escalating casualties and devastating implications for peace and security. The low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), already grappling with inadequate healthcare services and an estimated annual mortality toll ranging from 5.7 to 8.4 million, face further setbacks as terrorism exacerbates their prevailing healthcare deficiencies. Among the aspects of how terrorism affects healthcare in LMICs are high morbidity, mortality, and treatment wait times. The four principal areas of reverberation encompass amplified vulnerabilities in healthcare systems, financial shortfalls in LMIC healthcare systems, worsened personnel shortages in healthcare, and the devastating impact on healthcare facilities. In response to these challenges, international organizations and countries have played a pivotal role in mitigating the impact of terrorism on healthcare systems. Additionally, to improve healthcare in these regions, investing in infrastructure, supporting healthcare workers, and ensuring safety are paramount. Implementing mobile health interventions, traditional medicine, and mobile laboratories may enhance healthcare accessibility. Further, employing blockchain technology for data security and supply chain management may strengthen healthcare systems in these areas.

In 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the treatment and rehabilitation process faced problems and challenges. One of the most efficient therapy approaches in this period was telerehabilitation. Telepractice in speech therapy presents many challenges and opportunities. In this article, we review published articles up to June 2023 and summarize the challenges and opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic for speech therapy. Researchers and clinicians have found that tele-speech therapy is an effective tool for improving access to high-quality services and a viable mechanism for delivering speech and language interventions. The results of teletherapy or telepractice during the COVID-19 pandemic were divided into opportunities and challenges. Speech therapy has moved toward telerehabilitation to improve treatment competence during the pandemic. Finally, teletherapy methods were more suitable for speech and language pathology.

Tobacco use and exposure has been known as one of the leading causes of premature mortality worldwide. Tobacco control measures have been considered one of the strategies for reducing the burden of NCDs, improving public health, and strengthening the health system's response to threats and pandemics. The State of Qatar has put tobacco control a national public health priority as it has adopted various tobacco control measures that the WHO classified as high-impact measures. This has resulted in achieving tobacco control milestones which led to constant monitoring of tobacco use and the provision of smoking cessation services at all healthcare levels. However, there is still much work to be done to fill the gaps and respond to the emergence of novel tobacco products and market strategies in an effective way. This review highlights the status of tobacco use and exposure in the State of Qatar, and focus on the progress, and challenges in the implementation of tobacco control policies and smoking cessation services between 2002 and 2022.

Background: Medical students are prone to high levels of perceived stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact their academic performance, as well as their physical and mental health. This study aimed to assess the main stressors, levels of perceived stress and anxiety, and their predictors among medical students.

Design and methods: A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 1696 medical students at Helwan University. A cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate their perceived stress, stressors, and anxiety using the Perceived Stress Scale, Medical Students Stressor Questionnaire, and Beck Anxiety Inventory, respectively.

Results: Approximately 93% of medical students experienced moderate to high levels of stress, while 54.9% of medical students experienced moderate to concerning levels of anxiety. The main stressors were academic, teaching, social, intrapersonal, group activity, and desire-related stressors. Risk factors associated with higher perceived stress included being female, young age, living away from the family, obtaining lower academic percentages, having psychiatric, neurological, or other chronic medical illnesses, and experiencing higher levels of academic, intrapersonal, drive, and group activities-related stressors. Risk factors for higher anxiety included being female, residing in rural areas, having psychiatric, neurological, or other chronic medical illnesses, perceiving a high level of stress, and experiencing higher levels of academic, intrapersonal, and social-related stressors.

Conclusions: The findings indicate that a significant proportion of medical students experience various levels of stress and anxiety. These results underscore the urgent need for a stress management program, to help medical students to cope with different stressors.

Background: The high number of smokers in Indonesia, including adolescents, causes high morbidity due to smoking. Reducing the incidence of smoking-related disease in Indonesia needs to be done by reducing the number of smokers. This can be done by preventing smoking as early as possible, including during adolescence. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of adolescent male smokers and determine the social environment and facility support that influences smoking behavior in adolescent males aged 15-18 years in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Design and method: A cross-sectional study was performed from 1st October 2021 to 31st January 2022 on adolescent males aged 15 to 18 from senior high schools in Surabaya. 369 respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire about social environment and facility support that influence smoking behavior. The questionnaire result of the questionnaire was computed using bivariate analysis to examine the relationship between social environment, facility support, and smoking behavior.

Result: Of the 369 eligible participants, 95 (25.7%) were smokers, while the remaining 274 were not. The factors affecting smoking among adolescents were families influence (p = 0.000; PR = 4.805; CI = 2.923-7.900), friends influence (p = 0.000; RP = 3.987; CI = 2.4906.383), and advertisements influence (p = 0.000; RP = 3.137; CI = 2.275-4.325). Facility support was not found to be too influential (p = 0.399; RP = 0.767; CI = 0.472-1.245). Familia influence was the strongest factor in smoking among adolescent males aged 15 to 18.

Conclusions: Integrated programs and policies are needed to prevent and rehabilitate adolescents from smoking behavior. Improving their understanding of the health impacts of smoking is also needed.

Backgrounds: Effective risk communication depends on the government's ability to deploy the latest communication technologies to promptly educate its citizens of new hazards and assist them in making informed decisions. This study investigates the influence of risk information seeking, social media competency and trust in the government on the intention to adopt e-government apps for communicating public health risks.

Design and methods: To achieve the study's objective, a convenience sample of 149 Malaysian residents residing in Shah Alam was obtained via a structured questionnaire and subsequently analyzed using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Method. The validity and reliability of the study were evaluated through the outer loadings, Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Composite Reliability (CR). The influence of underlying factors on the outcome was evaluated by examining path coefficients, standard errors, and t-values.

Results: The measurement model suggested to use three items to measure the risk information seeking and five to measure trust in the government information and social competence. Loadings ranged from 0.681 to 0.972. The three factors explained the 43.2% of the outcome variability, and all had a positive effect on the intention to adopt information from the e-government application with coefficients estimates ranging from 0.133 to 0.541. The model showed an adequate predictive relevance with Q² = 0.381.

Conclusion: Public health risk communication via e-government applications rely on the active and accountable engagement of the citizens. To stimulate higher acceptance and utilization of government digital services for sustainable health risk communication and management, the government must raise the public's level of digital literacy and proficiency. By offering training programs and demonstrations, the government may also need to think about making investments in education about digital and technological skill levels.