BMC Public Health最新文献

Background: Children with a raised BMI are a major public health challenge in the world that can cause serious consequences for children's physical and mental health. Child health care nurses' responsibility is to promote health and prevent ill-health in children, but because being overweight is stigmatized CHC-nurses find it difficult to talk to the parents about concerns over the children's weight, in fear of losing their trust.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe parents' experiences of when CHC-nurses introduce a conversation related to their child being overweight.

Method: This study was conducted via semi-structured interviews with nine parents and the data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: The result showed that being overweight in childhood is a sensitive topic, and this is presented as four categories A hard time coping, A desire to protect the Children, Changes of Parental Perspective and Trust - a mediating factor. This is a sensitive topic for the parents, who have a hard time accepting the situation and place the blame on themselves, and the nurse's approach and relationship with the parents is of great importance for the outcome of the conversation.

Conclusions: Parents seem to have another perspective on health and weight than the healthcare providers, and both parents and CHC-nurses might benefit from an increased understanding of one another's view. Parents need to gain knowledge about how healthcare providers assess children's growth, and the CHC-nurses need to be aware about how to be responsive to the parents and allow them time to process the information. The focus should be on healthy lifestyle choices regardless of weight.

Background: Digitalization and population aging have had a profound impact on the development of undertakings for the aged, which brings challenges as well as opportunities for elder care system. This study examines the impact of the digital economy on the high-quality development (HQD) of undertakings for the aged in China.

Methods: Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in mainland China from 2013 to 2021, this study explores the influence mechanism of the HQD of undertakings for the aged driven by the digital economy and its spatial spillover effects. The benchmark regression model is used to investigate the impact of the development level of the digital economy on the HQD of undertakings for the aged. The mediation effect model is used to explore the indirect effects of the digital economy on the HQD of undertakings for the aged through the influence of the intermediary variable. The spatial panel model is then used to analyze the spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on the HQD of undertakings for the aged.

Results: The digital economy has a positive effect (coefficient = 0.1530, P-value < 0.01) on the local HQD of undertakings for the aged and a negative effect (coefficient = - 0.1012, P-value < 0.01) on the level of the HQD of undertakings for the aged in neighboring areas after controlling for other variables. The mediation effect of the proportion of the tertiary industry in GDP accounts for 6.6% of the total effect of the digital economy on the HQD of undertakings for the aged.

Conclusions: The digital economy can significantly promote the HQD of undertakings for the aged by transforming the development of the tertiary industry. The improvement in the digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect. This research enriches the existing body of literature by suggesting effective ways to enhance the HQD of undertakings for the aged through the digital economy and the tertiary industry.

Background: The increasing number of young adults seeking cheaper and easily accessible orthodontic treatment from unlicensed practitioners in Malaysia poses significant risks to patients. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate their motivations and awareness regarding such practices. The objective of our study was to assess the knowledge, awareness, and perceptions of non-dentists offering orthodontic treatment among the Malaysian young adult population.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. An online self-administered questionnaire was distributed to Malaysian citizens aged 18-37 years. The questionnaire consisted of 11 questions that investigated their awareness of non-dentists offering orthodontic treatment, the harmful effects of braces fitted by non-dentists, and potential strategies to mitigate this phenomenon.

Results: The study was completed by 426 participants, predominantly Malay, with a mean age of 22.9 years. A total of 76.1% reported awareness of braces fixed by non-dentists, primarily through social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Lower cost emerged as the predominant motive (83.6%) for opting for non-dentist orthodontic treatment, followed by no waiting list (48.8%). Notably, the majority of participants acknowledged the illegality (70%) and potential harm (77%) associated with non-dentists providing orthodontic treatment. Legal enforcement (53.1%) was identified as the preferred method for mitigating this practice. Occupation significantly influenced knowledge of illegal orthodontic treatment (p < 0.05), however no significant association was found for gender and level of education (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: The survey revealed that young adults are aware of and informed about non-dentists offering orthodontic treatment. While they identified cost as the primary reason for seeking such services, they also recognized legislation and public awareness through campaigns and social media as effective strategies to address this issue. Additionally, significant differences in legal awareness were observed among different occupational levels.

Introduction: Housing remains a strategic social determinant of health. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most urban dwellers live in slums with attendant health implications. This study assessed the housing conditions of the slums of Enugu metropolis and the public health implications.

Methods: This is a community-based cross-sectional study of 459 slum residents of the Enugu metropolis. Ethical clearance was obtained from the UNTH, Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC). Data was collected using a pretested semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire and an observational checklist. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS version 23. Data were summarised using mean and standard deviation, frequency and proportion as appropriate and presented in tables and figures. The chi-square test was used for association at p-value ≤ 0.05 significance.

Results: The mean age (SD) of the respondents was 32.93(12.34) years. A higher proportion (N = 180, 39.2%) were 18-27years, females (N = 282, 61.4%), married (N = 297, 64.7%), attained secondary education (N = 273, 59.5%), Igbo (N = 453, 98.7%), and self-employed (N = 327, 71.2%). They demonstrated good knowledge of standard housing specifications (N = 231, 50.3%) and the effects of housing conditions on health (N = 297, 64.7%). Also, most lived in a one-room apartment (N = 201, 43.8%) and cooked in a separate kitchen (N = 150, 32.7%) with a gas cooker as the major source of heat supply for cooking (N = 249, 54.2%). Sixty-three (13.7%) of the respondents didn't have access to suitable toilet facilities. A higher proportion, (N = 171, 37.3%) used pipe-borne water, and electricity as the major source of light (N = 447, 97.4%). The most prevailing health condition was malaria/fever (N = 258, 97.4%). Despite having pests and rodents-infested dwellings, only (N = 156, 34.0%) had insecticides in the house. Equally, (N = 132, 28.8%) of them lived with broken floors.

Conclusions: Despite good knowledge of the public health implications of poor housing, most dwellings remained substandard and unhealthful with associated prevalent health conditions.

Recommendation: There is a need for a health campaign against the poor living conditions in the slums.

Introduction: Resentment towards the Chinese population was perceived during the first months of the pandemic because the pandemic/disease started in that country.

Objective: To determine the factors associated with the perception of resentment towards the Chinese in Latin America during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology: Analytical cross-sectional study conducted during the second semester of the pandemic in more than a dozen countries. Four questions were asked about the perception of resentment towards the Chinese (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.88); those with the highest scores on the sum of the four questions were considered to have "more resentment towards the Chinese," and descriptive and analytical statistics were obtained.

Results: Of the 7721 respondents, in the multivariate analysis, it was found that there was a difference according to the country; compared to Peru, those who had more resentment towards the Chinese were those residing in Paraguay (aPR: 1.29; 95%CI: 1.17-1.42; p-value < 0.001) and Bolivia (aPR: 1.52; 95%CI: 1.37-1.68; p-value < 0.001), while Chile (aPR: 0.78; 95%CI: 0.69-0.88; p-value < 0.001) had less resentment: 0.69-0.88; p-value < 0.001), Mexico (aPR: 0.68; 95%CI: 0.57-0.80; p-value < 0.001), Panama (aPR: 0.71; 95%CI: 0.59-0.86; p-value < 0.001) and Costa Rica (aPR: 0.64; 95%CI: 0.49-0.85; p-value = 0.002).

Discussion: There was a significant difference in resentment for each country.

Background: Magnesium deficiency has been shown to accelerate atherosclerosis. We hypothesized that dietary magnesium intake at a young age is associated with future atherosclerotic lesions and cardiovascular risk in a large, nationally representative cohort of U.S. adults.

Methods: We included U.S. adults aged 20 to 34 years old from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007 to 2018, a population-based cross-sectional study. Dietary magnesium intake was assessed using 24-hour diet recalls. Atherosclerotic lesions in the young adult population were predicted by the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) score that was based on age, sex, smoking status, lipids, blood pressure, and obesity. Information on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors including hypertension, non-HDL-C dyslipidemia, and diabetes was also collected. We used multivariable logistic analysis models to test the association between magnesium intake levels and the PDAY score and CVD risk factors, respectively, after adjusting for several potential confounding factors.

Results: 7,244 eligible participants were included in the analysis. The magnesium intake level was classified into three categories based on the tertile distribution in the population (i.e., ≤ 224, 225-340, and ≥ 341 mg/day). Compared with the lowest tertile, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the PDAY score were 0.83 (95% CI, 0.72 to 0.96) and 0.60 (95% CI, 0.49 to 0.74) in the second and the third tertiles of magnesium intake, respectively (P value for trend < 0.001), and there was a negative dose-response relationship (test for trend P value < 0.001). In addition, the highest dietary magnesium intake was significantly inverse associated with non-HDL-C dyslipidemia compared with the lowest magnesium intake (OR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.91).

Conclusions: Dietary magnesium intake is inversely associated with the risk of future cardiovascular events assessed by the PDAY score and non-HDL-C dyslipidemia in young adulthood years.

Objective: Diet habit plays a vital role in fecal incontinence (FI) progression. However, it remains unknown whether dietary quality is related to FI. Our study sought to explore the relationship between healthy eating index-2015 (HEI-2015) score and FI among US adults.

Methods: An analysis of data from the 2005-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was conducted in our study. The Bowel Health Questionnaire defined FI as losing liquid, solid, or mucus stool at least monthly. The diet's quality was evaluated using HEI-2015 score. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated using multi-variable logistic regression models.

Results: There were 11,452 participants, with 9.3% (1062/11452) who experienced FI. Compared with individuals with inadequate group (HEI score < 50), the adjusted OR values for HEI score and FI in average group (50 ≤ HEI score < 70) and optimal group (HEI score ≥ 70) were 0.89 (95%CI: 0.74-1.07, p = 0.214) and 0.69 (95%CI: 0.52-0.91, p = 0.011), respectively. Subsequent stratified analyses did not reveal any interactions.

Conclusions: High-quality diets are related with a lower risk of FI. Therefore, it is imperative to take into account the potential impact of diet on FI when devising strategies for the treatment and prevention.

Background: Contracts can be an effective lever to implement and manage health-enabling food retail environments. However, guidance for the effective use of contracts in food retail settings is limited. The use of contracts to create healthy food vending environments is one area where policy attention has been focussed in high income countries. We applied a public health regulatory framework to publicly available guidance documents on healthy vending to develop best practice recommendations for using contracts to create healthy food vending environments.

Methods: Document analysis involved i) snowball sampling to identify eligible publicly available healthy vending guidance documents from an identified seed paper; ii) application of a public health regulatory framework to extract data across three domains of form, substance and governance of healthy vending initiatives; and iii) synthesis of data to form best practice recommendations. Eligible documents were those aimed at implementing healthier vending; published from 2000 onwards; accessible online; and included recommendations beyond nutrition standards alone, including a reference to at least one regulatory governance process (administration, implementation, monitoring, enforcement or review).

Results: Twelve of 92 documents identified were eligible and all were from the United States (US). All noted that products need to comply with nutrition standards. Other aspects of regulatory substance (i.e., pricing, promotion, placement, labelling and contract length) were less well considered as were elements of regulatory governance (regulatory rules, administration, implementation, monitoring, enforcement and review). Our adapted framework covers three regulatory domains with nine components, and a further 20 recommendations for best practice application in healthy vending.

Conclusions: To be effective, contracts used to manage healthy food vending should include more than the nutrition standards for healthy food and drinks. Clearly stating the contract objectives, operative terms and conditions, and defining responsibilities for monitoring, review and enforcement within the contract, in addition to the nutrition standards, will assist practitioners in creating effective and sustained contract-based initiatives aimed at improving the healthiness of vending, or potentially other food retail environments.

Background: Bullying remains a serious public health and educational concern among school-going adolescents worldwide. However, no national survey has examined the prevalence and correlates of physical bullying (on and off-school property) among school-going adolescents in the Island country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This study sought to examine the prevalence and correlates of physical bullying among adolescents from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Methods: We analysed data from the 2018 Global School-based Student Health Survey using Pearson Chi-square and Binomial Logistic Regression, with an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) at a 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: Among this population, physical bullying on/off-school property was prevalent among 24% and 18%, respectively. After adjusting for other predictors, we found that males were less likely to be bullied on school property than females. However, being a younger adolescent (≤ 15 years old), being physically attacked, cyberbullied, having close friends, and having suicidal ideas were associated with increased odds of being physically bullied on school property. Also, being physically attacked, cyberbullied, worried, and having suicidal plans increased the odds of being physically bullied off school property.

Conclusion: We recommend a multidisciplinary approach to adolescent bullying prevention in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and countries with similar characteristics based on our findings.

Trail registration: Global School-Based Student Health Survey 2018 (VCT_2018_GSHS_v01) Registered August 20, 2021, https://extranet.who.int/ncdsmicrodata/index.php/catalog/878.