Sharing Overdose Data across State Agencies to Inform Public Health Strategies: A Case Study

‘Behaviour Change’ approaches in public health strategies have been used in Pacific Island countries to address the problem of dietary and lifestyle changes that are believed to be the cause of rising rates of obesity and associated NCDS. We consider the limitations of this approach in the context of Samoa’s socioeconomic situation and public health policy and propose that an ‘obesogenic’ environment and structural factors are causational and require policy measures that go beyond the scope of responsibilities of the Samoa Ministry of Health

Download Full-text

A Multi-Site Time Series Study of Hospital Admissions and Fine Particles: A Case-Study for National Public Health Surveillance

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e519172012-018 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Francesca Dominici

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Time Series ◽

Public Health Surveillance ◽

Fine Particles ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Health Surveillance ◽

Time Series Study ◽

National Public Health ◽

Series Study

Download Full-text

Inconsistent with the Intent of Public Health Strategies on Incidence Rates and Case-Fatality Ratio between States with Extra Stay-at-Home and Mandating Face Masks Orders and States Only Following CDC Recommendations During COVID-19 Pandemic in the US

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3706055 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Samuel Xi Wu ◽

Xin Wu

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Case Fatality ◽

Incidence Rates ◽

Case Fatality Ratio ◽

The Us ◽

Public Health Strategies ◽

At Home

Download Full-text

Identifying Public Health Problems

10.1093/oso/9780190681050.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Scott Burris ◽

Micah L. Berman ◽

Matthew Penn, and ◽

Tara Ramanathan Holiday

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Problems ◽

Health Priorities ◽

Disability Adjusted Life Years ◽

Quality Adjusted Life Years ◽

Disability Adjusted Life ◽

Life Years ◽

Study Designs ◽

Quality Adjusted Life

Chapter 5 discusses the use of epidemiology to identify the source of public health problems and inform policymaking. It uses a case study to illustrate how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners detect diseases, identify their sources, determine the extent of an outbreak, and prevent new infections. The chapter also defines key measures in epidemiology that can indicate public health priorities, including morbidity and mortality, years of potential life lost, and measures of lifetime impacts, including disability-adjusted life years and quality-adjusted life years. Finally, the chapter reviews epidemiological study designs, differentiating between experimental and observational studies, to show how to interpret data and identify limitations.

Download Full-text

Modelling Environmental Impact on Public Health using Machine Learning: Case Study on Asthma

2020 5th International Conference on Innovative Technologies in Intelligent Systems and Industrial Applications (CITISIA) ◽

10.1109/citisia50690.2020.9397488 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lakmini Wijesekara ◽

Liwan Liyanage

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Machine Learning ◽

Environmental Impact

Download Full-text

Changes of Walking Activity During the First Cycle Phases of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Seoul, Korea

HERD Health Environments Research & Design Journal ◽

10.1177/19375867211026571 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 193758672110265

Author(s):

Youngjun Park ◽

Haekwon Chung ◽

Sohyun Park

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Physical Inactivity ◽

Voluntary Participation ◽

Walking Activity ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Before And After ◽

Acceleration And Deceleration ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

The Government

Aim: This study explores the changes in regular walking activities during the phases of the pandemic. Background: With the spread of COVID-19 transmission, people are refraining from going out, reducing their physical activity. In South Korea, COVID-19 broke out in the 4th week of 2020 and experienced the first cycle phases of the pandemic, such as outbreak, widespread, and decline. In response to the pandemic, the government encouraged voluntary participation in social distancing campaigns, and people reduced their outside activities. Methods: This article examines the decrease and increase of the Prevalence of Regular Walking (≥30 min of moderate walking a day, on ≥5 days a week) by the COVID-19 phases. This study is based on weekly walking data for 15 weeks in 2020, via the smartphone healthcare app, which is managed by 25 public health offices of the Seoul government. Results: According to the findings, the level of prevalence of regular walking (PRW) has a significant difference before and after the outbreak, and every interval of the four-stage COVID-19 phases, that is, pre-pandemic, initiation, acceleration, and deceleration. The level of PRW sharply decreased during initiation and acceleration intervals. In the deceleration interval of COVID-19, the PRW kept increasing, but it has not yet reached the same level as the previous year when the COVID-19 did not exist. Conclusions: As a preliminary study, this study explains empirically how COVID-19 changed PRW in Seoul. It would be helpful to enhance our understanding of the changes in physical inactivity in the pandemic period.

Download Full-text

Urbanization and greenness in HBSC survey: association with overweight and obesity in adolescents

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckaa165.712 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽

Author(s):

V Bellisario ◽

R Bono ◽

G Squillacioti ◽

M Caputo ◽

I Gintoli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Physical Activity ◽

Risk Factors ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Population Density ◽

Weight Status ◽

Overweight And Obesity ◽

Green Spaces ◽

Children Health ◽

Public Health Strategies

Abstract Background Childhood obesity is an important public health issue worldwide and includes different risk factors, such as environmental pollutants exposure or physical activity. Neighborhood composition and green spaces availability could contrast obesogenic lifestyles and promote healthy habits, whereas, urbanization and traffic volume exposure are inversely associated with physical activity and worsen effects on childhood health. Methods This project analyzed students involved in the HBSC survey from the Piedmont Region. Data were collected in 2018, following the protocol. All the subjects were georeferenced within buffers around schools. Green-spaces availability was measured by Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI-satellite images) while urbanization was calculated by population density, traffic intensity (satellite measurements) and air pollution concentration (sampling stations). Results Overall, the sample included 3022 subjects, with amount 50% male/female and 30% for each age group (11-13-15 years old). Concerning weight status, above 14% of the all sample is obese or overweight, with, respectively, 20% among boys and 11% among girls. Preliminary analyses showed an association between weight status and population density (rural vs urbanized areas). Currently, we are analyzing the association with greenness and the other measures of urbanization. Conclusions Our preliminary findings suggest that high urbanization levels impact health implementing weight in children. We are testing the hypothesis that greenness positively influences weight status and reduce negative effects of urbanization and air pollution. The managing of these risk factors must be deepened and corroborated by active preventive Public Health strategies for improving children health. Key messages Urbanization and greenness may influence weight status in children. Public Health strategies must be improved for children health.

Download Full-text

Examining Australian’s beliefs, misconceptions and sources of information for COVID-19: a national online survey

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043421 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. e043421

Author(s):

Rae Thomas ◽

Hannah Greenwood ◽

Zoe A Michaleff ◽

Eman Abukmail ◽

Tammy C Hoffmann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Online Survey ◽

Health Behaviours ◽

National Sample ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Commercial Television ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

And Gender ◽

Public Health Strategies

ObjectivePublic cooperation to practise preventive health behaviours is essential to manage the transmission of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. We aimed to investigate beliefs about COVID-19 diagnosis, transmission and prevention that have the potential to impact the uptake of recommended public health strategies.DesignAn online cross-sectional survey.ParticipantsA national sample of 1500 Australian adults with representative quotas for age and gender provided by an online panel provider.Main outcome measureProportion of participants with correct/incorrect knowledge of COVID-19 preventive behaviours and reasons for misconceptions.ResultsOf the 1802 potential participants contacted, 289 did not qualify, 13 declined and 1500 participated in the survey (response rate 83%). Most participants correctly identified ‘washing your hands regularly with soap and water’ (92%) and ‘staying at least 1.5 m away from others’ (90%) could help prevent COVID-19. Over 40% (incorrectly) considered wearing gloves outside of the home would prevent them from contracting COVID-19. Views about face masks were divided. Only 66% of participants correctly identified that ‘regular use of antibiotics’ would not prevent COVID-19.Most participants (90%) identified ‘fever, fatigue and cough’ as indicators of COVID-19. However, 42% of participants thought that being unable to ‘hold your breath for 10 s without coughing’ was an indicator of having the virus. The most frequently reported sources of COVID-19 information were commercial television channels (56%), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (43%) and the Australian Government COVID-19 information app (31%).ConclusionsPublic messaging about hand hygiene and physical distancing to prevent transmission appears to have been effective. However, there are clear, identified barriers for many individuals that have the potential to impede uptake or maintenance of these behaviours in the long term. We need to develop public health messages that harness these barriers to improve future cooperation. Ensuring adherence to these interventions is critical.

Download Full-text