Health and education: a partnership required for school success

PURPOSE: To investigate the association between home environment resources and the school performance of children from a public school in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, enrolled in the fourth year of the second cycle of Elementary School. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study in which 48 children aged between 8 and 12 years old participated. It included 28 boys, 20 girls, and their respective guardians. The children were evaluated in hearing and school performance regarding reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the home environment, the resources that promote proximal processes, activities that indicate stability in family life, parent's practices that promote a family-school connection, the resources that may contribute to the development of academic learning, the child's health, the presence of altered communication, family literacy, and socioeconomic data were assessed. RESULTS: There is a relationship between the home environment resources and the academic performance in reading and writing (for all categories of the Home Environment Resources Scale, HERS). The statistical relationship between performances in arithmetics was found in two of HERS' categories: home environment resources and family-school connection. CONCLUSION: The home environment influenced the learning development of the assessed children.

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Bullying Behavior, Parents’ Work Hours and Early Adolescents’ Perceptions of Time Spent With Parents

Youth & Society ◽

10.1177/0044118x10388261 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 1570-1595 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

C. André Christie-Mizell ◽

Jacqueline M. Keil ◽

Mary Therese Laske ◽

Jennifer Stewart

Keyword(s):

School Performance ◽

Home Environment ◽

Early Adolescents ◽

Work Hours ◽

Sufficient Time ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Change Models ◽

Maternal Work ◽

Bullying Behavior

This research investigates the relationships among bullying behavior, mother’s and father’s work hours, and early adolescents’ perceptions of whether they spend sufficient time with their parents. In cross-sectional models, we find maternal work hours are modestly associated with increases in bullying behavior. However, in more rigorous change models, our findings indicate that over time maternal work hours bear no direct relationship to bullying behavior. Moreover, in our final models, an interaction between father’s work hours and perceptions of time spent with him has one of the most robust associations with bullying for adolescents. When paternal employment is full- or overtime and youth perceive they do not spend enough with their fathers, bullying behavior increases. Other important factors that shape bullying behavior are the quality of the home environment and the adolescent’s school performance.

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Role of Dental Nutrition Knowledge and Socioecological Factors in Dental Caries in Low-Income Women

Health Education & Behavior ◽

10.1177/10901981211004149 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 109019812110041

Author(s):

Prageet K. Sachdev ◽

Jeanne Freeland-Graves ◽

Nalini Ranjit ◽

Mahsa Babaei

Keyword(s):

Dental Caries ◽

Home Environment ◽

Low Income ◽

Emotional Eating ◽

Nutrition Knowledge ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Environment Scale ◽

Scale Scores ◽

Low Income Women

Dental caries is a chronic oral condition that disproportionately affects low-income women. The aim of this research was to investigate relationships between dental nutrition knowledge, socioecological factors, and prevalence of dental caries in low-income women. This quantitative cross-sectional study involved 220 women who were recruited from Central Texas. Participants completed demographics, the Dental Nutrition Knowledge Competency Scale, United States Adult Food Security Survey Module, and the Multidimensional Home Environment Scale. Two dentists measured dental caries via the Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth Index. Regression models were conducted to test the effects of dental nutrition knowledge and Multidimensional Home Environment Scale factors on dental caries. Finally, mediation analysis explored relationships between dental nutrition knowledge and dental caries, adjusting for Multidimensional Home Environment Scale scores. Results showed that dental nutrition knowledge and Multidimensional Home Environment Scale score were significantly associated with dental caries. Subscales of self-efficacy for eating healthy, oral hygiene practices, emotional eating, availability of unhealthy foods at home, and social support were related to dental caries. The relationship between dental nutrition knowledge and caries was mediated by Multidimensional Home Environment Scale scores. This research emphasizes the role of dental nutrition knowledge and socio-ecological factors on prevalence of dental caries. Public health interventions to reduce dental caries should involve strategies that increase dental nutrition knowledge and encourage behavior change in low-income populations.

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Evaluation and comparison of pain questionnaires for clinical screening of osteoarthritis in cats

Veterinary Record ◽

10.1136/vr.105115 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 185 (24) ◽

pp. 757-757 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sarah Stadig ◽

B Duncan X Lascelles ◽

Gorel Nyman ◽

Anna Bergh

Keyword(s):

Physical Examination ◽

Home Environment ◽

Internal Consistency ◽

Internal Consistency Reliability ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Behavioural Response ◽

Lifestyle Changes ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Discriminatory Ability ◽

Physical Dysfunction

BackgroundFeline osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of long-standing pain and physical dysfunction. Performing a physical examination of a cat is often challenging. There is a need for disease-specific questionnaires or the so-called clinical metrology instruments (CMIs) to facilitate diagnosis and evaluation of treatment of feline OA. The CMI provides the owners an assessment of the cat’s behavioural and lifestyle changes in the home environment. The purpose of the study was to evaluate readability, internal consistency, reliability and discriminatory ability of four CMIs.MethodsThis is a prospective, cross-sectional study with 142 client-owned cats. Feline OA was diagnosed based on medical history, orthopaedic examination and radiography.ResultsThe results indicate that all four instruments have sound readability, internal consistency, are reliable over time and have good discriminatory ability. Preliminary cut-off values with optimal sensitivity and specificity were suggested for each instrument. The osteoarthritic cats showed significant changes in behavioural response to pain during orthopaedic examination, compared with sound cats.ConclusionThe results indicate that all four questionnaires make an important contribution in a clinical setting, and that the cat’s behavioural response to pain during physical examination should be a parameter to take into account as a possible indication of chronic pain.

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Teacher Discrimination Reduces School Performance of African American Youth: Role of Gender

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci8100183 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 183 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Shervin Assari ◽

Cleopatra Howard Caldwell

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

School Performance ◽

African American Youth ◽

National Sample ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Grade Point ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Males And Females

Background: Gender may alter African Americans’ vulnerability to discrimination. The type of outcomes that follow exposure to discrimination may also be gender-specific. Although teacher discrimination is known to deteriorate school performance, it is yet unknown whether male and female African American youth differ in the effect of teacher discrimination on school performance. Objective: This cross-sectional study explored the moderating role of gender on the effect of teacher discrimination on school performance in a national sample of African American youth. Methods: The National Survey of American Life-Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A) enrolled a nationally representative sample (n = 810) of 13–17-year-old African American youth. Demographic factors, socioeconomic status, teacher discrimination, and school performance (grade point average, GPA) were measured. Linear multivariable regression models were applied for data analysis. Results: Males and females reported similar levels of perceived teacher discrimination. In the pooled sample, higher teacher discrimination was associated with lower school performance among African American youth (b = −0.35; 95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.49 to −0.22). Gender interacted with perceived teacher discrimination (b = 12; 95% CI = 0.24–2.02), suggesting a significant difference between males and females in the magnitude of the association between perceived teacher discrimination and GPA. In stratified models, perceived teacher discrimination was associated with worse school performance of females (b = −12; 95% CI = −0.03 to −2.78) but not males (b = 0.01; 95% CI = −0.07 to 0.08). Conclusion: In line with previous studies, gender was found to alter the vulnerability of African American youth to perceived discrimination. African American boys and girls may differ in their sensitivity to the effects of teacher discrimination on school performance.

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Comparative study of the prevalence of sepsis in patients admitted to dermatology and internal medicine wards

Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia ◽

10.1590/abd1806-4841.20131912 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 88 (5) ◽

pp. 739-747

Author(s):

Luiz Mauricio Costa Almeida ◽

Michelle dos Santos Diniz ◽

Lorena dos Santos Diniz ◽

Jackson Machado-Pinto ◽

Francisco Chagas Lima Silva

Keyword(s):

Internal Medicine ◽

Comparative Study ◽

Medical Records ◽

Skin Barrier ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Internal Medicine Ward ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Systemic Corticosteroids ◽

Internal Medicine Wards ◽

Belo Horizonte

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a common cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. The prevalence of this condition has increased significantly in different parts of the world. Patients admitted to dermatology wards often have severe loss of skin barrier and use systemic corticosteroids, which favor the development of sepsis. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the prevalence of sepsis among patients admitted to a dermatology ward compared to that among patients admitted to an internal medicine ward. METHODS: It is a cross-sectional, observational, comparative study that was conducted at Hospital Santa Casa de Belo Horizonte. Data were collected from all patients admitted to four hospital beds at the dermatology and internal medicine wards between July 2008 and July 2009. Medical records were analyzed for the occurrence of sepsis, dermatologic diagnoses, comorbidities, types of pathogens and most commonly used antibiotics. RESULTS: We analyzed 185 medical records. The prevalence of sepsis was 7.6% among patients admitted to the dermatology ward and 2.2% (p = 0.10) among those admitted to the internal medicine ward. Patients with comorbidities, diabetes mellitus and cancer did not show a higher incidence of sepsis. The main agent found was Staphylococcus aureus, and the most commonly used antibiotics were ciprofloxacin and oxacillin. There was a significant association between sepsis and the use of systemic corticosteroids (p <0.001). CONCLUSION: It becomes clear that epidemiological studies on sepsis should be performed more extensively and accurately in Brazil so that efforts to prevent and treat this serious disease can be made more effectively.

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Compreensão da prescrição de medicamentos em uma unidade básica de saúde: autorrelato do usuário e aferição pelo pesquisador

Scientia Medica ◽

10.15448/1980-6108.2016.4.24934 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 24934

Author(s):

Cristiane Olinda Coradi ◽

Jussara Dos Santos Cardoso ◽

Ronara Camila de Souza Groia ◽

Karina Cristina Lima Silva ◽

Maria das Graças Braga Ceccato ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Drug Prescriptions ◽

Self Report ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Proper Understanding ◽

Kappa Test ◽

Belo Horizonte ◽

The City ◽

Selection Of

Aims: To evaluate the understanding of drug prescriptions by patients, comparing the user self-report with the researcher assessment.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2013 to February 2014 at a Basic Health Unit in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Users 18 years of age or older who sought medicines in the unit's pharmacy, for themselves or for minors under their care, were interviewed. The selection of the sample was non-probabilistic, for convenience. During the interview, the users informed if they had understood the following data of the prescriptions: drug name, dose and frequency of administration. Participants then repeated the data for researchers, being allowed to check the prescriptions at the same time. After the interviews, the answers to the questions were interpreted by the researchers, who evaluated the agreement between the information provided by the users and the actual instructions of the recipes, using the Kappa test.Results: Data were collected from 69 users of the unit's pharmacy (corresponding to 69 delivered prescriptions). Fifty-nine (85.5%) users reported having understood all the prescriptions data (self-report), while according to the measurement of the researchers, 23 (33.3%) were the respondents who simultaneously understood all data, relating to the name of the drug, number of daily doses and schedule. Kappa test indicated a degree of agreement between self-report and measurement of researchers of 0.138 (slight) considering all items of the prescription, and specifically on the number of doses the agreement was -0.055 (poor).Conclusions: Self-reported rate of patient's understanding of drug prescriptions was higher than the assessed by the researchers. This result suggests that self-report of patients with respect to the understanding of prescriptions has limitations and should be interpreted with caution both in research and in clinical practice. It is recommended to enhance the means of providing information to patients, in order to contribute to the proper understanding of drug prescriptions.

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Anemia and functional capacity in elderly Brazilian hospitalized patients

Cadernos de Saúde Pública ◽

10.1590/s0102-311x2013000700007 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 29 (7) ◽

pp. 1322-1332 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Raquel de Macedo Bosco ◽

Elisa Priscila Souza Assis ◽

Renata Rosseti Pinheiro ◽

Luiza Cristina Viana de Queiroz ◽

Leani S. M. Pereira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Activities Of Daily Living ◽

Functional Capacity ◽

Daily Living ◽

Strong Association ◽

Population Based ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Fisher Exact Test ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Belo Horizonte ◽

The Impact

This study evaluated the association between anemia and physical functional capacity in a cross-sectional population-based sample of 709 hospitalized elderly patients aged 60 years and over admitted to the Madre Teresa Hospital, Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Mann-Whitney or "t" test, and chi-square or Fisher exact test were used for quantitative and categorical variables, respectively, and hierarchical binary logistic regression was used to identify significant predictors. The presence of anemia was found in 30% of participants and was significantly associated with decreased functionality according to the two measures which were used - ADL (activities of daily living) and IADL (instrumental activities of daily living). Anemia was also independently associated with older age. The results of this study demonstrate a strong association between the presence of anemia and lower levels of functional capacity. Further investigations are needed to assess the impact of anemia treatment on the functionality and independence of older people.

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Asian Attitudes and Perceptions Toward Hospital-At-Home: A Cross-Sectional Study

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.704465 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Yi Feng Lai ◽

Yee Wei Lim ◽

Win Sen Kuan ◽

Joel Goh ◽

John Tshon Yit Soong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Environment ◽

The United States ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Attitudes And Perceptions ◽

Hospital At Home ◽

Medical Wards ◽

Survey Responses ◽

At Home

Introduction: Hospital-at-Home (HaH) programmes are well-established in Australia, Europe, and the United States. However, there is limited experience in Asia, where the hospital is traditionally seen as a safe and trusted space for healing. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore attitudes and perceptions among patients and caregivers in Singapore toward this care model.Methods: A quantitative study design was adopted to collect data among patients and their caregivers from medical wards within two acute hospitals in Singapore. Using a series of closed-ended and open-ended questions, the investigator-administered survey aimed to explore barriers and facilitators determining patients' and caregivers' responses. The study questionnaire was pretested and validated. Data were summarised using descriptive statistics, and logistic regression was performed to determine key factors influencing patients' decisions to enrol in such programmes.Results: Survey responses were collected from 120 participants (101 patients, 19 caregivers; response rate: 76%), of which 87 respondents (72.5%) expressed willingness to try HaH if offered. Many respondents valued non-quantifiable programme benefits, including perceived gains in quality of life. Among them, reasons cited for acceptance included preference for the comfort of their home environment, presence of family members, and confidence toward remote monitoring modalities. Among respondents who were unwilling to accept HaH, a common reason indicated was stronger confidence toward hospital care.Discussion: Most patients surveyed were open to having acute care delivered in their home environment, and concerns expressed may largely be addressed by operational considerations. The findings provide useful insights toward the planning of HaH programmes in Singapore.

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Exploring resident thriving in relation to the nursing home environment: A cross‐sectional study

Journal of Advanced Nursing ◽

10.1111/jan.13812 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 74 (12) ◽

pp. 2820-2830 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Sabine Björk ◽

Marie Lindkvist ◽

Hugo Lövheim ◽

Ådel Bergland ◽

Anders Wimo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nursing Home ◽

Home Environment ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional

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Designing and Implementing Interactive, Collaborative Family Literacy Events

Gifted Child Today ◽

10.1177/10762175211050700 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 13-23

Author(s):

Kerrigan Mahoney ◽

Jane Patrick ◽

Leighann Pennington ◽

Alicen Brown ◽

Tonya Moon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

English Learners ◽

Family Literacy ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Learning Activity ◽

Academic Learning ◽

Literacy Events ◽

School Communities ◽

Environmental Print ◽

Gifted Learners ◽

Theory Of Intelligence

Shared experiences through school-hosted events, such as family literacy events, can afford opportunities to support and extend academic learning while fostering positive home–school relationships. This article describes the importance of developing primary-grade students’ literacy skills through a talent development lens and explains several ways to nurture students’ literacy skills and recognize potential, gifts, and talents during family literacy events. This article features one of the activities from the family literacy events, Environmental Print Bingo, a modification of I-Spy and Bingo which uses rich and varied environmental print resources. A description of this activity, necessary resources, and implementation tips are provided. Options for differentiating this learning activity to provide more challenge for gifted learners are suggested. Throughout the article, the application of a pedagogy for early childhood gifted education and Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence as a framework are discussed; these approaches informed the design of all family literacy activities. A brief overview of nine additional family literacy event activities is also shared. Welcoming and involving families of English learners is an important consideration in many communities, and therefore, preparation tips and considerations for facilitators that will help maximize the participation of all families are included. Finally, reflections and helpful advice for implementing family literacy events in your school communities are presented, including advice for implementing online family literacy events. Ultimately, this article should help readers conceptualize, plan, and implement family literacy events in their school communities.

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