Efficacy of a medical food on cognition in Alzheimer’s Disease: Results from secondary analyses of a randomized,controlled trial

Objective  

To investigate the extent that baseline cognitive impairment and intake adherence affected the 13-item Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale — cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) intervention response of a medical food in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients.     

The influence of individual and contextual psychosocial work factors on the perception of the indoor environment at work: a multilevel analysis

Purpose  

The aims of this study was to investigate the role of the psychosocial work environment—at the individual level as well as the workplace level—in explaining the variability in the employees’ perception of the indoor environment.     

Community stroke knowledge: a new information strategy using a joint project of the public health service and the hairdressers’ guild of the Wesel district

Objectives  

The public health programme “Healthy Lower Rhine…against Stroke” is aimed at improving the population’s knowledge about stroke and thus at reducing the prehospital phase in patients with suspected stroke. First evaluation results indicate that apart from providing information through the mass media, there is an urgent need to further develop the face-to-face communication approach. This has to be achieved by efficient but also effective means, given that financial and personnel resources are scarce.     

Community-based health promotion for socially disadvantaged mothers as health managers of their families: strategies for accessing the target group and their effectiveness

Aim  

Children from socially disadvantaged families are deprived concerning their health status as well as their cognitive and emotional development. They show less positive health-related behaviors and less psycho-social resources. Socially disadvantaged families can hardly be reached by conventional health services and health promoting measures, and even if they are reached, the measures’ effectiveness is only limited. Therefore, aim of the BMBF-funded research project “GO–Healthy in east Leipzig” is to develop a community-based approach for health promotion by which, in particular, the access to the target group of the socially disadvantaged is improved.     

Patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives: assessing an intensive rehabilitation programme and outcomes in Huntington’s disease

Aim  

To investigate the subjective evaluation of an intensive rehabilitation programme and outcomes by people with Huntington’s disease (HD) and their caregivers.     

Specific antibodies to cow’s milk proteins in infants: effect of early feeding and diagnosis of cow’s milk allergy

Purpose  

To investigate whether specific IgA, IgG, IgG1 and IgG4 responses to cow’s milk proteins differ between infants with cow’s milk allergy and infants with cow’s milk related symptoms (control subjects), and whether early feeding affects these responses as well as specific IgE.     

Is parental unemployment related to an increased risk for stillbirths?

Aims  

Although the association between employment status and health has been examined extensively, there is a paucity of research on the association between parental unemployment and the risk for stillbirth. The few existing studies did not access relevant confounders. We explored whether maternal, paternal or both parents’ employment status is related to stillbirth by comparing the stillbirth rates of professional mothers, fathers and couples to mothers, fathers and couples who were homemakers or unemployed, adjusting for maternal age, parity, nationality, chronic conditions, smoking, psychosocial stress and year of observation.     

Empowering employees with chronic diseases: process evaluation of an intervention aimed at job retention

Purpose  

Employees with a chronic disease may experience work-related problems that contribute to the risk of job loss. We developed a group-based intervention programme aimed at clarifying problems, making these a subject of discussion at work, and realizing solutions. This process evaluation investigates the intervention’s feasibility and the satisfaction of 64 participants in eight groups.     

Exceptionally low smoking rates among a university community in Estonia—a country with highly sustained national rates

Aim  

To test the assumption that smoking rates among Estonia’s academic community are lower than presupposed by high education levels alone and to review their changes during the country’s transition.     

Money,Case Complexity,and Wait Lists: Perspectives on Problems and Solutions at Children’s Mental Health Centers in Ontario

Senior managers of children’s mental health centers across Ontario, Canada were interviewed regarding the challenges and solutions of access and delivery of care. The central challenges—funding, case complexity, waitlists, staffing, and system integration—revealed a complex interplay between the policies and financing of children’s mental health services and the provision of clinical services at the agency level and within the community. The desire for integration and collaboration was countered by competition for funding and service demands. A need for policies that allow for local solutions while providing leadership for sustained improvements in the ease and timeliness of access to care and effective clinical services emerged.

Wege zu Familien in sozial benachteiligten Regionen

Background

The study evaluated an intervention program aiming at the healthy upbringing of children in a disadvantaged region through the empowerment of mothers. Women from the neighbourhood were trained as community mothers (CMs) to impart their knowledge in home visitations to families perceived as hard to reach.

Method

The study investigated, among other things, if and how the CMs succeeded in gaining access to the target group.

Results

The 67 recruited CMs reached 118 families via home visitation. Gaining access to families through this method, however, turned out to be more difficult than expected. Reasons included hostility of husbands, fear of child protective services, or of social control. Successful transfer of knowledge and competencies as well as referral to help agencies were based on the establishment of trustful relationships to the women which the CMs achieved by empathy, emotional and practical support. Familiy cafés and single contacts proofed to be a meaningful complement to the program.     

India's integrated child development services scheme: challenges for scaling up

Background

India had around 158 million children under the age of 6 and about 26 million births in 2015. In the same year, India's Integrated Child Development Services Scheme served about 82 million children under 6 years and over 19 million pregnant women and lactating mothers. These 102 million beneficiaries received services in about 1.3 million centres.

Method

This paper reviews the growth of the Scheme and considers challenges to scaling up quality with equity based on results of large‐scale national or multistate studies.

Results

The Scheme is associated with decreased malnutrition and better child development. The size and diversity of the country, the policy context, funding mode and lack of community awareness and engagement have hindered scaling up access while the approach to service delivery, low institutional capacity and poor infrastructure have impeded scaling up of implementation quality.

Conclusions

This review illustrates the challenges associated with scaling‐up access and implementation quality of a multicomponent, integrated early childhood programme in a large, diverse country. The future success of the Integrated Child Development Services will depend on how well it adheres to quality standards and how well it evolves to address current weaknesses.     

Anti-smoking parenting practices: recall by and effect on children’s risk of smoking after 3 years

Objectives  

Parent engagement in anti-smoking parenting practices was examined as a predictor of children’s recalled exposure to these practices, the presence of pro-smoking risk factors in children’s social environments, and children’s odds of initiating smoking.     

The CASP-19 as a measure of quality of life in old age: evaluation of its use in a retirement community

Purpose  

The CASP-19 is a quality-of-life measure comprising four domains (‘control’, ‘autonomy’, ‘pleasure’ and ‘self-realization’), developed initially in a population aged 65–75 years. This study tested the scale for use in a population whose demographic profile and residential status differed markedly from the original population.     

Development of a weighted scale to assess the quality of cost-effectiveness studies and an application to the economic evaluations of tetravalent HPV vaccine

Aim  

Interest in the quality of economic analyses is increasing in the field of decision-making. Drummond’s checklist is a useful tool. This study aimed to use a weighted version of Drummond’s checklist together with a consensus of experts to derive a new scoring system to improve the evaluation of economic analyses of tetravalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine as a case study.     

Discharge of Infants from NICU to Latino Families with Limited English Proficiency

Assess the needs of Latino families with limited English proficiency (LEP) whose infant is discharged from the NICU. Parent interviews at discharge and 1 month later. Thirty-six mothers were interviewed. Thirty nine percentage had <8th grade education; half earned <$10,000 annually. Twenty-eight percentage had no primary support person inside the US. Only half felt very prepared for their infants’ discharge. Many expressed general worry about their infant’s medical condition (53%) and development (81%), but few (15%) could identify specific risk factors. One-third of families sought emergency medical care for their infant within 1 month of discharge. Less than half were aware of early intervention programs. Safe infant discharge from the NICU must address families’ needs. Latino parents with LEP have deficits in knowledge about their infant’s medical condition and available resources that place these vulnerable infants at further risk.     

Evaluation of maternal and child health services in El-Minia City, Egypt

Background  

Primary health-care centers provide outpatient health care and primary preventive activities for people in general and for mothers and children in particular. Medical care aims not only to improve health status, but also to respond to patients’ needs and wishes and to ensure their satisfaction with care. The patient-clinician relationship is a central feature of primary care.     

Introduction of Solid Food to Young Infants

Timing of the first introduction of solid food during infancy may have potential effects on life-long health. To understand the characteristics that are associated with the timing of infants’ initial exposure to solid foods. The 2000 National Survey of Early Childhood Health (NSECH) was a nationally representative telephone survey of 2,068 parents of children aged 4–35 months, which profiled content and quality of health care for young children. African-American and Latino families were over-sampled. Analyses in this report include bivariate tests and logistic regressions. 62% of parents reported introducing solids to their child between 4–6 months of age. African-American mothers (OR = 0.5 [0.3, 0.9]), English-speaking Latino mothers (OR = 0.4 [0.2, 0.7]), White mothers with more than high school education (OR = 0.5 [0.2, 1.0]), and mothers who breastfed for 4 months or longer (OR = 0.4 [0.3, 0.7]) were less likely to introduce solids early. Most parents (92%) of children 4–9 months of age reported that their pediatric provider had discussed introduction of solids with them since the child’s birth, and provider discussion of feeding was not associated with the timing of introduction of solids. Although most parents recall discussing the introduction of solid foods with their child’s physician, several subgroups of mothers introduce solid foods earlier than the AAP recommendation of 4–6 months. More effective discussion of solid food introduction linked to counseling and support of breastfeeding by the primary health care provider may reduce early introduction of solids.     

Measuring outcomes in Parkinson’s disease: a multi-perspective concept mapping study

Purpose  

To identify and develop a conceptual map of prioritized areas and to determine their relative importance for outcome measurement in clinical Parkinson’s disease (PD) trials, from the perspectives of health care professionals and people with PD.     

Intersectoral action for health at a municipal level in Cuba

Objective  

To consider how Cuba’s acknowledged achievement of excellent health outcomes may relate to how health determinants are addressed intersectorally.