scholarly journals PECSRL 2018: European landscapes for quality of life, 3-9 September 2018, Clermont-Ferrand and Mende, France

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-198
Author(s):  
Maria Bostenaru Dan

This article presents a review of the 28th session of the biannual conference of the Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape which was organized in cooperation with the COST action TU1401 “Renewable energy and landscape quality”, building the final conference of the later, after a previous cooperation at the 27th session. The conference was held in Clermont-Ferrand and Mende, around the Chaîne des Puys UNESCO landscape. The landscape, although in France, is one of the remote landscapes in Europe, and was explored by means of the study tours which built the transfer between the first part of the conference in Clermont-Ferrand and the second one in Mende. These tours were various, but emphasized a dimension already present in the session, the agricultural landscape as rural landscape. The agricultural landscape stays also in connection with the geo-products of the UNESCO geopark, and contributes to the quality of life. As management committee substitute in the COST action, a networking scheme funded at European level, the author attended the sessions related to the topic of the action and presented a contribution highlighting the romantic of historic renewable energy landscapes. Their perception contributes to the quality of life as well. Other participants from Romania participated to a dedicated session on Eastern Europe.

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Frolova ◽  
Csaba Centeri ◽  
Karl Benediktsson ◽  
Marcel Hunziker ◽  
Robert Kabai ◽  
...  

Landscape quality has become a fundamental issue in the development of renewable energy (henceforth abbreviated RE) projects. Rapid technological advances in RE production and distribution, coupled with changing policy frameworks, bring specific challenges during planning in order to avoid degradation of landscape quality. The current work provides a comprehensive review on RE landscapes and the impacts of RE systems on landscape for most European countries. It is based on a review by an interdisciplinary international team of experts of empirical research findings on landscape impacts of RE from thirty-seven countries that have participated in the COST Action TU1401 Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality (RELY).


2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (12) ◽  
pp. 1021-1034
Author(s):  
Natalia Hounsome ◽  
Mersha Kinfe ◽  
Maya Semrau ◽  
Oumer Ali ◽  
Abraham Tesfaye ◽  
...  

Abstract We conducted an implementation research study to integrate a holistic package of physical health, mental health and psychosocial care for podoconiosis, lymphatic filariasis and leprosy into routine healthcare in Gusha cluster, Guagusa Shikudad district, northwest Ethiopia. The healthcare package included training patients in lower limb hygiene and skin care and provision of shoes, hygiene supplies and medication. The implementation activities included training events, workshops, awareness raising, self-help groups, supportive supervision, staff secondments and advisory board meetings. The cost of implementing the care package in Gusha cluster, with a population of 30 558 people, was 802 655 Ethiopian birr (ETB) (£48 159) and the cost of delivering care to 235 participants was 204 388 ETB (£12 263), or 870 ETB (£52) per person. There was a 35% decrease in the mean disability scores (measured using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0) and a 45% improvement in the dermatology-specific quality of life (measured using the Dermatology Life Quality Index) at the 3-month follow-up compared with baseline. There were reductions in the number of days with symptoms, days off usual activities/work and days with reduced activity due to illness, all of which were statistically significant. Our pilot suggests that integration of the care package into routine healthcare in Ethiopia may be effective in improving health-related quality of life and disability and reducing time out of economic activity due to illness.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron N. Winn ◽  
Matthew Kelly ◽  
Shannon Ciprut ◽  
Dawn Walter ◽  
Heather T. Gold ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 209 ◽  
pp. 104000
Author(s):  
Reto Spielhofer ◽  
Marcel Hunziker ◽  
Felix Kienast ◽  
Ulrike Wissen Hayek ◽  
Adrienne Grêt-Regamey

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
Henry O’Lawrence ◽  
Rohan Chowlkar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the cost effectiveness of palliative care on patients in a home health and hospice setting. Secondary data set was utilized to test the hypotheses of this study. Home health care and hospice care services have the potential to avert hospital admissions in patients requiring palliative care, which significantly affects medicare spending. With the aging population, it has become evident that demand of palliative care will increase four-fold. It was determined that current spending on end-of-life care is radically emptying medicare funds and fiscally weakening numerous families who have patients under palliative care during life-threatening illnesses. The study found that a majority of people registering for palliative and hospice care settings are above the age group of 55 years old. Design/methodology/approach Different variables like length of stay, mode of payment and disease diagnosis were used to filter the available data set. Secondary data were utilized to test the hypothesis of this study. There are very few studies on hospice and palliative care services and no study focuses on the cost associated with this care. Since a very large number of the USA, population is turning 65 and over, it is very important to analyze the cost of care for palliative and hospice care. For the purpose of this analysis, data were utilized from the National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS), which has been conducted periodically by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Descriptive statistics, χ2 tests and t-tests were used to test for statistical significance at the p<0.05 level. Findings The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilized for this result. H1 predicted that patients in the age group of 65 years and up have the highest utilization of home and hospice care. This study examined various demographic variables in hospice and home health care which may help to evaluate the cost of care and the modes of payments. This section of the result presents the descriptive analysis of dependent, independent and covariate variables that provide the overall national estimates on differences in use of home and hospice care in various age groups and sex. Research limitations/implications The data set used was from the 2007 NHHCS survey, no data have been collected thereafter, and therefore, gap in data analysis may give inaccurate findings. To compensate for this gap in the data set, recent studies were reviewed which analyzed cost in palliative care in the USA. There has been a lack of evidence to prove the cost savings and improved quality of life in palliative/hospice care. There is a need for new research on the various cost factors affecting palliative care services as well as considering the quality of life. Although, it is evident that palliative care treatment is less expensive as compared to the regular care, since it eliminates the direct hospitalization cost, but there is inadequate research to prove that it improves the quality of life. A detailed research is required considering the additional cost incurred in palliative/hospice care services and a cost-benefit analysis of the same. Practical implications While various studies reporting information applicable to the expenses and effect of family caregiving toward the end-of-life were distinguished, none of the previous research discussed this issue as their central focus. Most studies addressed more extensive financial effect of palliative and end-of-life care, including expenses borne by the patients themselves, the medicinal services framework and safety net providers or beneficent/willful suppliers. This shows a significant hole in the current writing. Social implications With the aging population, it has become evident that demand of palliative/hospice care will increase four-fold. The NHHCS have stopped keeping track of the palliative care requirements after 2007, which has a negative impact on the growing needs. Cost analysis can only be performed by analyzing existing data. This review has recognized a huge niche in the evidence base with respect to the cost cares of giving care and supporting a relative inside a palliative/hospice care setting. Originality/value The study exhibited that cost diminishments in aggressive medications can take care of the expenses of palliative/hospice care services. The issue of evaluating result in such a physically measurable way is complicated by the impalpable nature of large portions of the individual components of outcome. Although physical and mental well-being can be evaluated to a certain degree, it is significantly more difficult to gauge in a quantifiable way, the social and profound measurements of care that help fundamentally to general quality of care.


Author(s):  
Temitope Ben-Ajepe ◽  
Ifechukwu Benedict Nwogu ◽  
Damilola Quazeem Olaoye ◽  
Abdulhafeez Ayodele Mustapha ◽  
Theogene Uwizeyimana ◽  
...  

AbstractAfrica as a continent has experienced a continuous increase in the cost of healthcare as its demands increase. With many of these African countries living below the poverty threshold, Africans continue to die from preventable and curable diseases. Population increases have led to an increase in demands for healthcare, which unfortunately have been met with inequitable distribution of drugs. Hence, the outcomes from healthcare interventions are frequently not maximized. These problems notably call for some economic principles and policies to guide medication selection, procurement, or donation for population prioritization or health insurance. Pharmacoeconomics drives efficient use of scarce or limited resources to maximize healthcare benefits and reduce costs. It also brings to play tools that rate therapy choice based on the quality of life added to the patient after a choice of intervention was made over an alternative. In this paper, we commented on the needs, prospect, and challenges of pharmacoeconomics in Africa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-47
Author(s):  
Marian Woźniak ◽  

Electricity is one of the factors shaping the quality of life of society. The Polish energy sector is to a large extent identified with fossil fuel used in conventional energy, based mainly on hard coal, which is not fully in line with the current energy policy of the European Union. Therefore, today it is necessary to use renewable energy more efficiently, which, in addition to the clearly indicated economic effect, also accentuates environmental effects. The purpose of the work is to show the opinions of young people aged 15–24 in terms of their awareness of the interpretation of myths about renewable energy, which is a key problem in the development of the modern energy sector, and to indicate the directions of development of the energy policy in Poland.


2019 ◽  
pp. 91-97

Análisis de las actitudes hacia la actividad minera en la comunidad de Combayo, región Cajamarca Analysis of attitudes towards the mining activity in Combayo’s community, Cajamarca Region Jorge L. Vásquez pacheco Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Empresa de Servicios Organizacionales, Educativos y Comunitarios Green planet DOI: https://doi.org/10.33017/RevECIPeru2010.0026/ RESUMEN Estudio de tipo descriptivo que aplica la metodología transversal mediante una escala original de actitudes, tipo Likert, compuesta inicialmente de 32 reactivos, reducidos a 29 ítems tras el análisis estadístico por medio de la correlación item-test. Dicha escala obtuvo un coeficiente Alfa de Cronbach de ,938, determinando así su consistencia y su validez para el propósito del presente estudio. Los participantes fueron 120 pobladores oriundos de la comunidad de Combayo, región Cajamarca, cuyas edades fluctuaban entre 18 a 60 años (hombres y mujeres), elegidos al azar. No se dio preferencia a uno u otro sexo y todas las dudas fueron resueltas de manera personalizada. Asimismo, tras la aplicación del instrumento se realizaron entrevistas breves a un subgrupo (30) elegido de manera aleatoria con el fin de complementar y contrastar la información obtenida y conocer así si el comunero de Combayo fundamenta la posición que asume. Se obtuvieron cinco factores: calidad de vida, desarrollo comunal, prospección comunal, bienestar psicológico y bienestar físico, cuyos indicadores han permitido establecer los niveles de aprobación respecto a la actividad minera, con los siguientes resultados: para el 80%, la actividad minera es desfavorable; para el 14%, la actividad minera es favorable; mientras que para el 6%, la influencia de la actividad minera le resulta neutral. Se concluye que a pesar de la actitud desfavorable hacia la actividad minera en su comunidad, los pobladores la aceptan a nivel conductual, pues mediante las entrevistas se pudo conocer que en general percibían que dicha actividad podía contribuir a su bienestar pero a costa de su calidad de vida (primer factor), siendo mayor la consideración (puntajes de las medias aritméticas) que tienen respecto al desarrollo de su comunidad (segundo factor), la prospección comunal (tercer factor), el bienestar psicológico (cuarto factor) y el bienestar físico (quinto factor). Sin embargo, dicha consideración disminuye respecto a factores contribuyentes a mejorar su calidad de vida. De esta expresión se puede notar que los comuneros de Combayo tienen mayor interés por la obtención de resultados a corto plazo y de satisfacción inmediata respecto a los beneficios que esperan obtener del desarrollo de actividades mineras en su comunidad, lo cual evidencia la presencia de una disonancia cognitiva en dicha comunidad, puesto que estarían reconociendo sus necesidades y también el costo de satisfacer las mismas. Descriptores: actitud, actividad minera, comunidad, disonancia cognitiva. ABSTRACT This is a descriptive study that applies a cross research methodology through the application of an original scale of attitudes, likert like, composed originally of 32 reagents, reduced to 29 items after the statistical analysis through the item-test correlation. The scale obtained a cronbach alpha coefficient of, 938 thereby determining the consistency and validity for the purpose of this study. The participants were 120 people natives from the combayo’s community, region cajamarca, ranging in age from 18 to 60 years (men and women) selected randomly. no preference was given to any gender and all doubts were resolved in an individual manner. also, after application of the instrument brief interviews were conducted with a subgroup (30) randomly chosen in order to complement and contrast the information obtained, thus disclosing whether the villager from combayo has a basis for the position taken. We looked into five factors: Quality of life, community development, community prospecting, psychological wellbeing, and physical wellbeing. Where indicators serve to establish approval levels on mining, with the following results: For 80% of the subjects mining is unfavorable, for 14% of the subjects mining is favorable, and for 6% of the subjects the influence of mining is neutral. We conclude that despite the negative attitude towards mining in this community, residents accept it since they generally perceived that this activity could contribute to their welfare but at the cost of their quality of life (First Factor), but it is of their greater consideration (scores of arithmetic mean) the development of their community (second factor), the communal prospects (third factor), the psychological wellbeing (fourth factor), and physical wellbeing (Fifth Factor). nevertheless, such consideration falls on contributing to improve their quality of life. one can see that the commoners of combayo are more interested in obtaining short-term results and immediate satisfaction regarding the benefits expected from the development of mining activities in their community, which shows the presence of cognitive dissonance in that community since they would be recognizing their needs and also the cost of meeting them. Keywords: attitude, mining activity, community, cognitive dissonance.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Limona

Fall-related injuries are a serious public health issue among older adults. In addition to having a significant impact on our economy, these injuries are associated with considerable morbidity. Each year, 1 out of every 3 adults aged 65 and older fall; of these adults, 10% to 20% sustain serious injuries such as fractures or head traumas. Such injuries account for about 6% of medical expenditures for adults 65 years and older. Pharmacist interventions can prevent falls, thereby improving the quality of life of these older adults, preserving their independence, and significantly reducing health care costs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document