Introduction The evaluation of practices is a valuable source of evidence in the context of an evidence-based approach to public health. Best practice portals (BPPs) are promising tools for facilitating access to recommended programmes, monitoring and improving the quality of interventions. There are several such portals in Europe, but there is little work in the scientific literature on the subject. The study aimed to identify and characterise BPPs in health promotion and disease prevention and analyse the approaches, definitions, and criteria for evaluating interventions. Methods To identify portals, websites of public health institutions and organisations, the PubMed database and grey literature were searched. The material consisted of elements of each portal’s design, information available on their websites, and collected publications. The study applied a qualitative analysis with a descriptive approach and covered a detailed description of the four selected portals. Results Among the analysed BPPs, three were from the European region, and one was from Canada (pioneer in developing best practice tools). The dates of launching the portals ranged from the year 2003 to 2016. The number of interventions collected in the databases ranged from 120 to 337. Portals were useful, well-designed, and developed tools. BPPs differed in terms of their objectives and roles, adopted standards and criteria for assessing practices, and other operational factors. In each portal, interventions underwent a rigorous and multilevel assessment process conducted by independent experts in the field and based on intervention evaluation criteria. Generally, the analysed catalogues described similar issues, e.g., Selection of the issue addressed by the practice, Description of a particular element of the practice, Theoretical foundation, or Evaluation/Effectiveness. However, we identified both similarities and differences in the adopted terms (names of criteria) and their definitions. It was shown that sometimes the same criterion had different names depending on the catalogue. On the other hand, criteria with identical or similar names could be defined differently within the detailed thematic scope. Conclusion The similarities and differences presented in this work can serve as a valuable starting point for designing such tools to support practice-based and evidence-based decision-making in health promotion and disease prevention.
Congenital herpes simplex virus infection (cHSV) is a rare entity and may pose a life-threatening disease for the newborns. Due to the public health and clinical importance of cHSV infection in infants, the recent data on this disease in Poland should be investigated. The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence and other factors related to cHSV.The study is retrospective, population-based that utilised the hospital discharge records of cHSV patients. Data were obtained from National Institute of Public Health NIH - National Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland, covering the period 2014-2019.The study group consisted of 1,573 cHSV newborns (841 males and 732 females). Among this group, 70.1% were infants up to 90 days of age and 3.6% were neonates up to 28 days of age. The mean and median age was 98 days (95% CI: 94.5-101.8, SD 74) and 70 days (IQR: 53-104), respectively. Based on the hospital registry the overall average cHSV incidence over the study period was estimated to be 69 per 100,000 live births. The number of cHSV infection fluctuated over the years 2014-2019 with a significant decreasing trend from 2015-2019 (P<0.01). A significantly higher cHSV incidence was observed among patients from urban than rural areas of Poland (88 vs 40/100,000 live births; P<0.001).CHSV incidence may be related to multifactorial conditions for the occurrence of this disease. Further studies on changes in the incidence of cHSV are needed.
Introduction Intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalizations are one of major burdens on the healthcare system, and they may be related to high risk of in-hospital fatality. The aim of the study was to describe long-term trends in ICU hospitalizations and related fatality rates in Poland. Material and methods Our study is a population-based study based on 738,579 ICU hospitalization records in 2012-2021. Results Based on the hospital registry and data on general population, the mean annual ICU hospitalization incidence was estimated at 1.9 per 1,000 (SD: 0.18) and a significant increase trend in hospitalizations was observed from 1.6 per 1,000 in 2012 to 2.2 per 1,000 in 2021, P<0.005. We observed a significant predominance of male patients (56.6% P<0.001) in the study group when compared to general population. The mean and median age in the study group were 61.6 (SD: 18.2) and 65 years (IQR: 53-74), respectively. The trend in fatal hospitalizations increased significantly from 37.7% in 2012 to 46.5% in 2021, P<0.05. However, the trend in fatal hospitalization rates during the ICU stay increased significantly from 31.2% in 2012 to 42.5% in 2021, P<0.01. The mean length of ICU stays increased from 8.7 in 2012 to 10.1 days in 2021, P<0.001. Conclusions The paper presents the recent trends in quantitative and qualitative changes in ICU hospitalizations in Poland. The presented data may be the basis for comparative analyzes in a global context. Reported data may indicate the need to perform adaptive systemic changes to improve health care.
Assessment of the development and description of the characteristics of social marketing in Poland and the United States with regard to the prevention of gynecological cancers and achievements of these countries.Collective case study based on an analysis of five social campaigns in Poland and five social campaigns in the United States that were focused the gynecological cancers prevention.In the United States, there are more materials available on social campaigns dedicated to the prevention of gynecological cancers, and there are more public organizations that are involved in health promotion activities than in Poland. As opposed to American campaigns, Polish social campaigns did not cover all types of gynecological cancer. The study revealed that Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform by the social campaign organizers.Social marketing tools still have not been fully implemented in the prevention of gynecological cancers either in Poland or in the United States. However, social marketing in the US seems to be more effective in gynecological cancers prevention than Poland.
Pregnancy places otherwise healthy women at an increased risk of complications arising from an influenza infection. It is suggested that physiological changes such as immunological changes, increased cardiac output and oxygen consumption, as well as lung tidal volume might increase the susceptibility to influenza complications if infection occurs during pregnancy. Immunization of pregnant women against influenza is currently recommended in many countries and has been proven to be safe and effective in reducing rates and severity of the disease in vaccinated mothers and their children. Influenza vaccination is also cost-effective. Nevertheless, influenza vaccine coverage remains low in pregnant women. This might stem from the lack of healthcare workers' education, a feeling among the general public that influenza is not a serious disease and a failure of prenatal care providers to offer the vaccine. In order to protect pregnant women and infants from influenza related morbidity and mortality an educational programme targeting healthcare workers in charge of pregnant women should be implemented.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a prevalent endocrine disorder with numerous hormonal, metabolic, and reproductive manifestations. Because of the variety of adverse consequences associated with the condition, women with PCOS suffer emotional distress, resulting in reduced health-related quality of life. Similar to other chronic conditions, eating patterns have been shown effective in impacting the quality of life of PCOS patients. Therefore, lifestyle modifications are recommended as a first-line therapy for PCOS, before prescribing any pharmaceutical management of the PCOS. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between dietary patterns, emotional distress, and perceived quality of life in women with diagnosed PCOS.The cross-sectional study included 130 women with PCOS aged 18 - 60 years from the Polish population. The respondents were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire developed for the purpose of the study, inspired by the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (PCOSQ), Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R18), and the Eating attitude questionnaire (Eat-26).Respondents were found to experience emotional distress regardless of how healthy their diet. Nonetheless, the results showed that women who followed a healthier eating pattern had lower occurrence of experiencing mood swings, and less often felt triggered in the social context. The group did not show a tendency to over-eat, gain weight, or binge eating.Healthier eating habits, besides providing advantages in weight management, may mitigate symptoms of emotional distress and improve the quality of life in women with PCOS.
Background: The aim of the study was to determine the correlation between hard and soft competences of primary care physicians and the effectiveness of patient care, which may be of significant importance both in the process of managing medical entities and in order to take appropriate actions aimed at increasing the effectiveness of care. Methods: The population studied in this study were primary care physicians employed at the Medical and Diagnostic Center (MDC) in Siedlce, Poland. In the study, doctors' qualifications were measured by the number of specializations held by a physician, and experience was measured by the total number of years of work as a doctor and the length of work as a specialist at MDC (in years). The data was collected in a questionnaire survey. Physicians' social competences were measured by the Social Competence Profile (PROKOS). As there are no measures of treatment effectiveness at the level of individual workplaces, apart from measuring patient satisfaction, its original definition was adopted and 14 indexes were developed, which were calculated on the basis of anonymized data from CMD information systems. Results: The social competences of the surveyed primary care physicians were clearly lower than the competences of the doctors surveyed in the standardization study. The exception was social activism. The scales of individual dimensions of social competences were characterized by very high reliability. The individual dimensions of soft skills of all surveyed primary care physicians were strongly correlated with each other. The overall work experience and work experience of primary care physicians at MDC, analyzed under hard competences, showed no correlation. The factor analysis performed for 14 original indexes of effectiveness showed that 5 of the original indexes created a very reliable scale. Conclusions: The selection of a strong scale consisting of five original effectiveness indexes is a step towards the development of a uniform index of the effectiveness of patient care in primary care, which will be a significant contribution to science.
