Perspectives in Public Health最新文献

In this piece Nunes addresses the importance of population health approaches and Multi-Hazards Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) in public health, particularly considering climate change and its associated risks and hazards. The article aims to highlight the challenges posed by climate change to public health and how integrating MHEWS with population health approaches can help address these challenges effectively.

The positive outcomes of engaging in the arts are increasingly reported in the research literature, supporting the use of the arts to enhance individual and community health and wellbeing. However, little attention is given to the less positive aspects of arts engagement. In some countries, healthcare practitioners and link workers can refer service-users experiencing mental health issues to social interventions such as Arts on Prescription (AoP) programmes. This critical review identifies problematic issues across such social prescriptions and AoP, including failures in arts and health projects, participants' negative experiences, and an absence of ethical guidelines for arts and health practice. Furthermore, it is evident that there is a lack of awareness and knowledge within healthcare systems, leading to inappropriate referrals, failure to take account of individual preferences, and a lack of communication between the third sector and healthcare services. Significantly, it is also unclear who holds the health responsibility for AoP participants. This article raises more questions than it answers, but for AoP to be effectively embedded in healthcare practice, the issues highlighted need to be addressed in order to safeguard participants and support the effective implementation of programmes more widely.

This article argues that despite significant advancements in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, efforts to address sleep-related illnesses have lagged, particularly on a global scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted numerous health disparities, and as we move towards recovery, there is a critical opportunity to enhance public health initiatives by incorporating robust sleep medicine practices.

Aims: Polling indicates the public has fairly good knowledge of times when hygiene is needed in their homes and everyday life in public spaces, but limited understanding of hygiene risk; this results in omitting some key behaviours and incorrectly applying untargeted behaviours. This poll explores how the public responded to government advice, and information from other sources, to address a specific disease threat - that is, COVID-19 infection.

Methods: An online poll was developed, and data were collected from 1730 respondents in England aged 18 and above.

Results: Data suggest that the UK public has a high level of concern about the importance of hygiene to prevent spread of COVID-19. They had good recall of advice given during the pandemic and were able to identify routes of infection transmission. When asked to identify key times for handwashing, most people (86%-90%) identified 'after coughing, sneezing etc., before eating food with fingers, after touching contact surfaces and when returning home', but a similar number also identified using the toilet, food handling and pet handling, despite the fact that government advice does not identify these as risk actions for COVID-19. This suggests they were unable to use their knowledge of how the virus spreads to make informed decisions about when to practice hygiene. Despite government guidance, public practices are still influenced by a conviction that deep cleaning, including non-targeted disinfectant usage on environmental surfaces, gives added protection, leading them to practise additional cleaning and disinfection in situations where there is little benefit.

Conclusions: New insights from public polling, together with the nine moments Targeted Hygiene approach, offer a more robust communications approach to enable the public to make cognitive links between when, where, how and why to practise good hygiene, and in doing so, promote more effective and sustainable behaviours.

Aim: There is a growing recognition of the contribution that participation in group-based arts and creativity interventions makes to our health and wellbeing. Despite this acknowledgement, more empirical investigation is required to more fully understand its impact. The aim of this mixed-method systematic review was to develop a better understanding of the evidence on the impact of arts and creativity on older people's physical and psychological health and wellbeing.

Method: Extensive searches of 14 electronic bibliographic databases were carried out using predefined search criteria for the period 2013-2020. Ninety-three studies were included within the review and appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).

Results: Dance was the most common form of arts identified within studies, followed by music and singing. Dance was associated with improved balance, lower body physical strength, flexibility, and aerobic fitness in older adults. Promising evidence showed that music and singing on a regular basis were associated with improved cognitive function, quality of life, affective states and a sense of wellbeing in older adults. Preliminary evidence showed that visual and creative arts were associated with reduced feelings of loneliness, improved sense of community and social connectedness. Initial evidence showed that theatre and drama were associated with emotional wellbeing; however, more evidence is required in this area.

Conclusion: The evidence shows that participation in group-based arts and creativity can have positive physical, mental, and social health impacts for older adults, ageing and for population health. These findings support the importance of participation in the arts for older adults, especially for the promotion of positive health and for the prevention, or mitigation, of ill health in later life for both public health and the arts and creativity agenda.

This paper brings together all the PHE outputs from a 10 year collaboration on Healthy Communities. This will help to retain the knowledge during organisational and government change.

Objectives: The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are significant among the Pakistani ethnic group in the UK. Existing literature has identified food and exercise practices as contributing factors. This qualitative inquiry investigates food and exercise practices among this group. The study also identifies any cultural resistance to changing prevailing unhealthy practices.

Methods: Five qualitative semi-structured interviews with local Pakistani community leaders, two focus group discussions, and 40 individual interviews with participants of both genders. Bourdieu's theory of practice was used to analyse the data.

Results: The lifestyle choices of the participants mainly follow the cultural practices of their home country. In particular, three cultural phenomena might have been contributing to CVDs among this community: a culture of consuming fatty and calorie-dense food, complexity in joint decision-making among family members, and a lack of motivation and cultural support for healthy physical activities, especially among women and older adults.

Conclusion: It would be challenging to significantly influence this unhealthy lifestyle in the short term. Integrating religious discourse within health promotion, adopting a whole-family approach, and working with the community on healthier cooking and making exercise options culturally relevant could be helpful for reducing the prevalence of CVDs among the Pakistani community in the UK.

Aims: Evidence demonstrates that people who are seeking asylum and refugees face individual, institutional and system-level barriers when accessing health services. Health Access for Refugees' Project (HARP) is a UK initiative increasing access to health care within this community through a series of interventions. This study explored the impact of HARP on health service access, experiences and outcomes for clients, and how volunteers and staff addressed institutional and system-level barriers.

Methods: In summer 2020, we conducted qualitative telephone interviews with four HARP clients, eight clients who became volunteers, seven further volunteers and three staff members.

Results: The educational aspect of the interventions supported clients navigating the complex UK health care system while promoting independence in accessing health care. Advocacy by volunteers and staff was important in challenging barriers at individual and institutional levels. Staff challenged the asylum system, by improving information around entitlement to health care and addressing barriers to registering with a General Practitioner (GP).

Conclusions: Interventions such as those provided by HARP can address different levels of barriers to support people accessing health care provision. This can be achieved through training health professionals and working with peers to support access to care and to develop self-advocacy. However, stable long-term funding is essential to ensure the sustainability of these initiative.