Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene最新文献

Introduction: Adverse pregnancy outcomes pose serious health risks to both periconceptional women and newborns. This study aimed to investigate the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) toward adverse pregnancy outcomes among women of reproductive age in Al-Suwaira, Wasit governorate, Iraq.

Methods: During November 2021 to February 2022, cross-sectional research of randomly selected women was performed. The KAP was evaluated with a standard, self-administered questionnaire. The outcomes were described using a descriptive analysis.

Results: The questionnaire was completed by 118 women. Participants had good knowledge and positive attitudes and practices toward adverse pregnancy outcomes. The findings revealed that the majority of participants were between the ages of 20 and 25 (n = 57, 48.3%) and had a Bachelor's degree (n = 106, 89.8%).Knowledge gaps were discovered in the areas of the danger of pregnancy at a young age of less than 17 years (30.5%), the link between lack of maternal education and poor births (24.6%), and the influence of drug misuse on the fetus (17.8%). The participants learn more around pregnancy-related risk factors via internet (n = 38, 32.2%) and university (n = 34, 28.8%).

Conclusions: The participants in this study had good knowledge, positive attitude, and positive practice regarding adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, there were some knowledge gaps. Therefore, to raise awareness among local women, it seems advisable to strengthen and strictly apply awareness-raising plans.

Background: Overweight has been associated with several social and phycological problems and is perceived as one of the major health care challenges to focus on in the future. The purpose of the study is to investigate the correlations among nutritional status, assessed by the Body Mass Index, the perception of one's own health status and Life Satisfaction, detected in Italian adolescents living in Tuscany Region, and to investigate the influence of gender on them.

Methods: A statistically representative sample of 2760 Tuscan adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 was involved in the 2018 Health Behaviours at School-aged Children survey. The participants were divided into three nutritional status class: underweight, normal weight and overweight (overweight + obese).

Results: The results show that there is a statistically significant difference in all categories between boys and girls aged 13 and 15 years; in girls aged 11 and 13 years, the Life Satisfaction of the overweight group is statistically lower than that of normal and underweight groups; Self-Rated Health is statistically lower in all age groups for overweight individuals compared to normal weight children, except for 11-year-old females.

Conclusions: Viewing the psychosocial problems related to overweight, more attention and care must be placed on adolescents to ensure their healthier development.

Background: Occupation significantly influences oral health, with factors like the work environment, stress levels, access to dental care, and job-related habits playing crucial roles. The oral health of construction workers, especially migrant workers, is a noteworthy concern. Understanding the oral health of this population is crucial for enhancing their quality of life through various means. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of dental caries, oral hygiene status, and deleterious habits in this occupational group of Belagavi district, Karnataka.

Materials and methods: Study design was cross-sectional in nature. Before commencement of the study a pilot study was conducted. Multi-stage random sampling technique was employed, and 610 participants were recruited for the study. Trained and calibrated examiners recorded WHO dentition status and treatment needs (2013) and Oral Hygiene Index Simplified (OHI-S). Collected data was analyzed using descriptive analysis, chi-square, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression analysis.

Results: The prevalence of dental caries among construction workers was significantly high (81%), and poor oral hygiene was observed among 36.9% of them. The prevalence of smoking, the tobacco chewing habit, and alcohol consumption among the construction workers was found to be 21.6%, 59.9%, and 37.3%, respectively. The dependence of OHI-S and DMFT on predictors (age, gender and deleterious habits) was found to be 21.5% and 39.6%, respectively.

Conclusions: Migrant construction workers in Belagavi had a high caries prevalence, poor oral hygiene status, and a high prevalence of deleterious habits such as tobacco use. These results emphasize the necessity of awareness and dental health education programs to improve the oral health of construction workers.

Introduction: The Health District (HD) is a critical component of Italy's National Health Service, responsible for ensuring Primary Health Care (PHC) services in response to community health needs. The Italian government established a national strategic reform program, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), starting in 2022, with a series of health interventions to reorganize the PHC setting, the main reform being the Ministerial Decree 77/2022 (DM77). Our study aimed to provide a description of socio-demographic data and to assess the correlation between HDs, in order to suggest health intervention priorities in PHC reforms.

Materials and methods: We conducted our analysis using a cross-sectional record linkage of data from multiple sources to compare organizational and socio-demographic variables. A dataset was created with each of the 21 Italian Regions' HDs data of population, land area, mean age, ageing index, old-age dependency ratio, birth rate and death rate. The Inland Areas Project data was integrated for a socio-economic perspective.

Results: Our study identified comparable groups of HDs, considering demographical, socio-economic and geographical aspects. The study provides a baseline understanding of the Italian situation prior to the implementation of DM77. It also highlights that inhabitants number cannot be the only variable to take into account for the definition of Italian HDs organisation and PHC reform, providing intercorrelated variables that take into account geographic location, demographic data, and socio-economic aspects.

Conclusion: By acknowledging the interplay of demographic, socio-economic, and geographic factors, policymakers can tailor interventions to address diverse community needs, ensuring a more effective and equitable PHC system.

In recent years, diphtheria has re-emerged in areas with inadequate vaccination coverage, and Europe has not been spared with several cases among migrants. Diphtheria is a potentially fatal infection caused mainly by toxigenic strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Due to the high mortality rate, especially among young children, the fight against diphtheria is considered one of the first conquests of immunization. In the history of medicine, there is a unique case of an unconventional response to a diphtheria outbreak in which sled dogs were used to overcome the supply difficulties of diphtheria antitoxin. The mass media followed the medical response to the outbreak and raised audience awareness of public health issues. The facts of Nome, Alaska, in 1925 can serve as a catalyst to rethink conventional responses to diphtheria outbreaks in low-income countries today and promote mass media awareness of public health importance.

Background: Tobacco use and exposure are leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the past decade, educational efforts to reduce tobacco use and exposure have extended to social media, including video-sharing platforms. YouTube is one of the most publicly accessed video-sharing platforms.

Purpose: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to identify and describe sources, formats, and content of widely viewed YouTube videos on smoking cessation.

Methods: In August to September 2023, the keywords "stop quit smoking" were used to search in YouTube and identify 100 videos with the highest view count.

Results: Collectively, these videos were viewed over 220 million times. The majority (n = 35) were posted by nongovernmental/organization sources, with a smaller number posted by consumers (n = 25), and only eleven were posted by governmental agencies. The format used in the highest number of videos was the testimonial (n = 32 videos, over 77 million views). Other popular formats included animation (n = 23 videos, over 90 million views) and talk by professional (n = 20 videos, almost 43 million views). Video content included evidence-based and non-evidence-based practices. Evidence-based strategies aligned with U.S. Public Health Service Tobacco Treatment Guidelines (e.g. health systems approach in tobacco treatment, medication management). Non-evidence-based strategies included mindfulness and hypnotherapy. One key finding was that environmental tobacco exposure received scant coverage across the videos.

Conclusions: Social media such as YouTube promises to reach large audiences at low cost without requiring high reading literacy. Additional attention is needed to create videos with up-to-date, accurate information that can engage consumers.

In the spring of 1964, polio vaccination with the oral vaccine developed by Albert Sabin began in Italy. Polio was feared in the world and in Italy. Thus, between 1957 and the beginning of 1958, Italian children began receiving the "Salk vaccine", though the results were not particularly convincing. In July 1960, the international scientific community was able to verify the data from the mass testing of the Sabin vaccine. It became clear that the OPV, could prevent the virus from multiplying, thereby providing greater protection and determining the eradication of the disease. In 1960 over 70 million people in the USSR alone had already received the oral vaccine and mass vaccination in the USA would start in March 1961. However, in Italy there was no similar initiative; only later the new vaccine was accepted but was not made compulsory at the beginning. As a result of the commission's report, registration of the "Polioral" vaccine, was authorized in September 1962 but the sale of the vaccine was not authorized until November 1963. At the beginning of 1964, the production of "Polioral" started and the product was marketed and on the 1 st of March 1964, anti-polio vaccination with the "Sabin anti-polio vaccine" also began in Italy. This manuscript focuses on a crucial issue about a historical delay for public health and it points out as the preparation and diffusion of the Sabin polio vaccine demonstrates that decisions regarding health treatments, and specifically vaccination campaigns, must be based exclusively on the results of clinical studies and on independent evaluation by the scientific community. This process ensures trust in vaccines, adequate protection of public health andcitizens' well-being.

Background: The increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight among health workers calls for an appraisal of their lifestyle. This study assessed medical practitioners' workhour feeding and lifestyle practices and explored the relationship between these practices and their body mass index (BMI).

Methods: The survey involved 321 medical practitioners selected from 9 northern Nigeria hospitals in 2021. Data collected included biodata, medication history, workhour feeding characteristics, lifestyle behaviours, blood pressure, height, and weight measurements. Data were analyzed using Epi info software (version 7).

Results: Most respondents were male (70.7%). Their mean age was 38 ± 7.4 years. During their last workhours, 84.1% had lunch, and 46.4% took sugary drinks. Usually, 41.7% source their lunch from the hospital canteen, and 18.7% patronize their canteen at least weekly. Most reported healthy behaviour towards alcohol consumption (99.7%), fruit and vegetable consumption (54.8%) and smoking (98.4%). However, only 22.4% were physically active. Their mean healthy behaviour score and BMI were 2.8 ± 0.7 and 26.1 ± 4.6 kg/m², respectively. The obesity and overweight rates were 18.4% and 37.7%, respectively. Their source of lunch during workhours, age, sex, years of practice, employment duration, marital status, job category, systolic blood pressure, anti-hypertensive, and antidiabetic medication use were significantly associated with mean BMI. However, only antihypertensive medication use, being married, inadequate fruit/vegetable consumption and workhour sugary drinks consumption predicted obesity. The predictors of overweight/obese were years of practice (< 10 y) and use of antihypertensive medications.

Conclusions: Obesity and overweight rates were high. Most were physically inactive. Workhour sugary drink consumption predicted obesity. Effective workplace and community interventions to improve practitioners' lifestyle behaviour and curtail obesity and overweight are needed.

Introduction: Falling is a serious problem for all ages. There are several tests to assess balance. Mini-BESTest and brief-BESTest are balance tests for which there are no normative values for Iranian people. We aimed to provide the normative values of mini-BESTest and brief-BESTest among healthy Iranian adults.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed. Three hundred healthy adults (150 males and 150 females) in six age groups (18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, +70 years) completed the tests using Persian mini-BESTest and brief-BESTest. Normative values were calculated for age groups.

Results: Normative values of mini-BESTest and brief- BESTest decreased significantly with age (from 27 to 21.9 for mini-BESTest and from 22.9 to 15.4 for brief BESTest). There were no significant differences between genders except for females in 30-39 and 40-49 years age groups which scored better on brief-BESTest and mini-BESTest, respectively. Males had significantly scored better in brief- BESTest in 60-69 and ≥ 70 age groups.

Conclusions: The normative values of the mini-BESTest and brief-BESTest provided for healthy Iranian adults can help clinicians when assessing subjects with balance dysfunction.