scholarly journals Enhancing Survey Participation among Foreign-Born Populations

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 89-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anu Castaneda ◽  
Shadia Rask ◽  
Tommi Härkänen ◽  
Teppo Juntunen ◽  
Natalia Skogberg ◽  
...  

The Finnish Migrant Health and Wellbeing Study (Maamu) is the first large-scale population-based health examination survey among the foreign-born population in Finland, unique also at the European level. It provides information on wellbeing of three major foreign-born groups: Russian, Somali, and Kurdish. In data collection, extra effort was put into reaching the sampled persons (n=3,000), for example by recruiting bilingual personnel to carry out the data collection, reaching participation rates as high as 70%, 51%, and 63%, respectively. A comparison group of the general population was available from a general population survey. The main challenges in fieldwork included reaching sampled persons, supervision of the fieldwork personnel, and special linguistic or cultural needs. Our experiences show that participation rate can be improved by engaging the target groups in all stages of the survey process and using several recruitment strategies, ending up with succeeding in pointing out health inequalities in the population.

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 2774-2785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silva Holtfreter ◽  
Dorothee Grumann ◽  
Veronika Balau ◽  
Annette Barwich ◽  
Julia Kolata ◽  
...  

Population-based studies onStaphylococcus aureusnasal colonization are scarce. We examined the prevalence, resistance, and molecular diversity ofS. aureusin the general population in Northeast Germany. Nasal swabs were obtained from 3,891 adults in the large-scale population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-TREND). Isolates were characterized usingspagenotyping, as well as antibiotic resistance and virulence gene profiling. We observed anS. aureusprevalence of 27.2%. NasalS. aureuscarriage was associated with male sex and inversely correlated with age. Methicillin-resistantS. aureus(MRSA) accounted for 0.95% of the colonizingS. aureusstrains. MRSA carriage was associated with frequent visits to hospitals, nursing homes, or retirement homes within the previous 24 months. All MRSA strains were resistant to multiple antibiotics. Most MRSA isolates belonged to the pandemic European hospital-acquired MRSA sequence type 22 (HA-MRSA-ST22) lineage. We also detected one livestock-associated MRSA ST398 (LA-MRSA-ST398) isolate, as well as six livestock-associated methicillin-susceptibleS. aureus(LA-MSSA) isolates (clonal complex 1 [CC1], CC97, and CC398).spatyping revealed a diverse but also highly clonalS. aureuspopulation structure. We identified a total of 357spatypes, which were grouped into 30 CCs or sequence types. The major seven CCs (CC30, CC45, CC15, CC8, CC7, CC22, and CC25) included 75% of all isolates. Virulence gene patterns were strongly linked to the clonal background. In conclusion, MSSA and MRSA prevalences and the molecular diversity ofS. aureusin Northeast Germany are consistent with those of other European countries. The detection of HA-MRSA and LA-MRSA within the general population indicates possible transmission from hospitals and livestock, respectively, and should be closely monitored.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Youn Young Park ◽  
Kil‑yong Lee ◽  
Seong Taek Oh ◽  
Sang Hyun Park ◽  
Kyung Do Han ◽  
...  

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. e028843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danmeng Liu ◽  
Yue Cheng ◽  
Shaonong Dang ◽  
Duolao Wang ◽  
Yaling Zhao ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo report the situation of maternal micronutrient supplementation before and during pregnancy in Northwest China and to examine the rates of and factors related to the adherence to micronutrient supplementation among pregnant women in this region, where dietary micronutrient intake is commonly insufficient.DesignA large-scale population-based cross-sectional survey.SettingTwenty counties and ten districts of Shaanxi Province.ParticipantsA sample of 30 027 women were selected using a stratified multistage random sampling method. A total of 28 678 women were chosen for the final analysis after excluding those who did not provide clear information about nutritional supplementation before and during pregnancy.Main outcome measuresMaternal adherence to micronutrient supplementation (high and low) were the outcomes. They were determined by the start time and duration of use according to Chinese guidelines (for folic acid (FA) supplements) and WHO recommendations (for iron, calcium and multiple-micronutrient (MMN) supplements).ResultsIn total, 83.9% of women took at least one kind of micronutrient supplement before or during pregnancy. FA (67.6%) and calcium (57.5%) were the primarily used micronutrient supplements; few participants used MMN (14.0%) or iron (5.4%). Adherence to supplementation of all micronutrients was low (7.4% for FA, 0.6% for iron, 11.7% for calcium and 2.7% for MMN). Higher educational levels, higher income levels, urban residence and better antenatal care (including pregnancy consultation and a higher frequency of antenatal visits) were associated with high adherence to micronutrient supplementation.ConclusionMaternal micronutrient supplementation before and during pregnancy in Northwest China was way below standards recommended by the Chinese guidelines or WHO. Targeted health education and future nutritional guidelines are suggested to improve this situation, especially in pregnant women with disadvantaged sociodemographic conditions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 1367-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linnea Ståhlberg ◽  
Eva Palmquist ◽  
Steven Nordin

This study tested the hypotheses of irritable bowel syndrome showing (1) comorbidity with chemical and sound intolerance, other types of functionally somatic syndromes, and psychiatric disorders and (2) stronger than normal affective reactions to and behavioral disruptions from odorous/pungent chemicals and sounds in daily life. These hypotheses were tested by means of data from a large-scale population-based questionnaire study. The results showed comorbidity in irritable bowel syndrome with chemical and sound intolerance, fibromyalgia, migraine, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic syndrome, and depression as well as strong reactions/disruptions from odorous/pungent chemicals and sounds in irritable bowel syndrome.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youwen Qin ◽  
Aki S Havulinna ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Pekka Jousilahti ◽  
Scott C Ritchie ◽  
...  

Co-evolution between humans and the microbial communities colonizing them has resulted in an intimate assembly of thousands of microbial species mutualistically living on and in their body and impacting multiple aspects of host physiology and health. Several studies examining whether human genetic variation can affect gut microbiota suggest a complex combination of environmental and host factors. Here, we leverage a single large-scale population-based cohort of 5,959 genotyped individuals with matched gut microbial shotgun metagenomes, dietary information and health records up to 16 years post-sampling, to characterize human genetic variations associated with microbial abundances, and predict possible causal links with various diseases using Mendelian randomization (MR). Genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified 583 independent SNP-taxon associations at genome-wide significance (p<5.0×10-8), which included notable strong associations with LCT (p=5.02×10-35), ABO (p=1.1×10-12), and MED13L (p=1.84×10-12). A combination of genetics and dietary habits was shown to strongly shape the abundances of certain key bacterial members of the gut microbiota, and explain their genetic association. Genetic effects from the LCT locus on Bifidobacterium and three other associated taxa significantly differed according to dairy intake. Variation in mucin-degrading Faecalicatena lactaris abundances were associated with ABO, highlighting a preferential utilization of secreted A/B/AB-antigens as energy source in the gut, irrespectively of fibre intake. Enterococcus faecalis levels showed a robust association with a variant in MED13L, with putative links to colorectal cancer. Finally, we identified putative causal relationships between gut microbes and complex diseases using MR, with a predicted effect of Morganella on major depressive disorder that was consistent with observational incident disease analysis. Overall, we present striking examples of the intricate relationship between humans and their gut microbial communities, and highlight important health implications.


BMC Neurology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Hagen ◽  
Lars Jacob Stovner ◽  
Kristian Bernhard Nilsen ◽  
Espen Saxhaug Kristoffersen ◽  
Bendik Slagsvold Winsvold

Abstract Background Increased high sensitivity C- reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels have been found in many earlier studies on migraine, and recently also in persons with migraine and insomnia. The aim of this study was to see whether these findings could be reproduced in a large-scale population-based study. Methods A total of 50,807 (54%) out of 94,194 invited aged ≥20 years or older participated in the third wave of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study study performed in 2006–2008. Among these, 38,807 (41%) had valid measures of hs-CRP and answered questions on headache and insomnia. Elevated hs-CRP was defined as > 3.0 mg/L. The cross-sectional association with headache was estimated by multivariate analyses using multiple logistic regression. The precision of the odds ratio (OR) was assessed with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results In the fully adjusted model, elevated hs-CRP was associated with migraine (OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.04–1.25) and migraine with aura (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.03–1.29). The association was strongest among individuals with headache ≥15 days/month for any headache (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.08–1.48), migraine (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.21–2.17), and migraine with aura (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.27–2.67). No clear relationship was found between elevated hs-CRP and headache less than 7 days/month or with insomnia. Conclusions Cross-sectional data from this large-scale population-based study showed that elevated hs-CRP was associated with headache ≥7 days/month, especially evident for migraine with aura.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H Tolonen ◽  
A M Andersson ◽  
S Agergaard Holmboe ◽  
S Namorado ◽  
L Rambaud ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In many European countries, parallel to health examination surveys (HES), human biomonitoring (HBM) studies are conducted to monitor chemical exposures of the population. HES and HBM studies use survey based data collection with similarities in sample selection and recruitment, ethics and data protection, collection of data by questionnaire and through biological samples. Methods In the framework of European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU), evaluation of opportunities and potential obstacles related to combining HES and HBM surveys has been conducted. Experiences and expectations of principal investigators (PI) of studies from 19 European countries have been evaluated. Results The most common reasons for omitting an HBM module from a HES were lack of knowledge related to chemical measurements, lack of funding and capacities for chemical analysis. Many PIs feared that adding an HBM module to their survey would increase the participant burden and decrease participation rate. In surveys where these two different modules were already combined, the biggest benefits were seen on use of same infrastructure for recruitment of survey invitees, collection of questionnaire information and biological samples, and additional information on health, resulting more cost-effective data collection with more information on each participant. Combining these two modules had challenges on fitting together needs from the two study objectives. While survey content broadens, balancing participant burden and research interest of both HES and an HBM module is challenging. The amount of collected biological samples such as blood samples is limited. Coordination of the activities between several research groups can be challenging and time consuming. Conclusions Several examples have shown that combining HBM and health surveys is possible and provide several benefits. However, it requires a good preparation and planning and sufficient coordination capacity to be successful. Key messages Combining HES and HBM is possible but requires detailed planning and good collaboration between research groups. Combined HES and HBM studies provide a wide range of information about population health status and its determinants as well as chemicals levels of exposure.


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