scholarly journals The Problems Experienced by Employees with Chronic Disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author(s):  
Dilaver Tengilimoğlu ◽  
Uğur Gönüllü ◽  
Oğuz Işık ◽  
Nurperihan Tosun ◽  
Aysu Zekioğlu ◽  
...  

Chronic diseases served as a silent global epidemic before the pandemic, and individuals living with chronic disease now form one of the groups most affected by COVID-19. This study aims to determine the problems that employees with chronic disease face during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the study, data were collected from 952 individuals who live with chronic disease in Turkey. Of these, 76.6% of respondents worked for the public sector, a large majority of whom (67.7%) have worked full time during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that the COVID-19 fear level of employees living with chronic disease was higher than moderate (21.061 ± 7.607). When the variables affecting the COVID-19 fear level are listed in order of relative significance, eating problems, residing in the Mediterranean region, having asthma, and working as a female employee made the greatest impact, respectively. Necessary conditions of work should be provided to those living with chronic disease who could adapt themselves to working flexibly or working from home, so that they would not feel isolated from business life. This group should be provided with essential protective equipment, their working conditions must be reviewed and vaccination priority could be given to them.

Crisis ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Bilici ◽  
Mehmet Bekaroğlu ◽  
Çiçek Hocaoğlu ◽  
Serhat Gürpınar ◽  
Cengiz Soylu ◽  
...  

Summary: Objective: Studies of completed and attempted suicide in Turkey are based on data of State Institute of Statistics (SIS) and emergency clinics of the large hospitals. This study seeks (1) to find, independent of the SIS and hospital data, the annual incidences of completed and attempted suicide in Trabzon, Turkey; (2) to examine the associated factors between the incidence of completed and attempted suicide. Method: The data are derived by using a method specially designed for this study. Data sources include emergency clinics in all hospitals, village clinics, the Forensic Medical Center of Trabzon, the Governorship of Trabzon, “mukhtars” (local village representatives) of neighborhoods, the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Trabzon, the Police Headquarters and Gendarmerie, and the local press organs. Results: The incidences of completed and attempted suicide per 100,000 inhabitants turned out to be 2.60 and 31.5, respectively, whereas the SIS reported the incidence of completed suicide to be 1.11 per 100,000 inhabitants in Trabzon in 1995. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that SIS data are inadequate for suicide research in Turkey. Our findings show that the risk of completed and attempted suicide is high in young, unmarried, and unemployed persons, and that these groups must be carefully evaluated for suicide risk. The study highlights the need for culture-specific research on suicidal behavior in Turkey.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1458-1464
Author(s):  
Sweta Kamboj ◽  
Rohit Kamboj ◽  
Shikha Kamboj ◽  
Kumar Guarve ◽  
Rohit Dutt

Background: In the 1960s, the human coronavirus was designated, which is responsible for the upper respiratory tract disease in children. Back in 2003, mainly 5 new coronaviruses were recognized. This study directly pursues to govern knowledge, attitude and practice of viral and droplet infection isolation safeguard among the researchers during the outbreak of the COVID-19. Introduction: Coronavirus is a proteinaceous and infectious pathogen. It is an etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Coronavirus, appeared in China from the seafood and poultry market last year, which has spread in various countries, and has caused several deaths. Methods: The literature data has been taken from different search platforms like PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, who.int portal and complied. Results: Corona virology study will be more advanced and outstanding in recent years. COVID-19 epidemic is a threatening reminder not solely for one country but all over the universe. Conclusion: In this review article, we encapsulated the pathogenesis, geographical spread of coronavirus worldwide, also discussed the perspective of diagnosis, effective treatment, and primary recommendations by the World Health Organization, and guidelines of the government to slow down the impact of the virus are also optimistic, efficacious and obliging for the public health. However, it will take a prolonged time in the future to overcome this epidemic.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J Kearns ◽  
Sabrina S Plitt ◽  
Bonita E Lee ◽  
Joan L Robinson

BACKGROUND: There are limited recent data on rubella immunity in women of childbearing age in Canada. In the present paper, the proportion of rubella seroreactivity and redundant testing (testing of women previously seropositive when tested by the same physician) in the Alberta prenatal rubella screening program were studied.METHODS: In the present retrospective observational study, data on all specimens submitted for prenatal screening in Alberta between August 2002 and December 2005 were extracted from the Provincial Laboratory for Public Health database. The proportion of rubella screening and immunoglobulin G (IgG) seroreactivity were determined. Demographic variables were compared between rubella seroreactors and nonseroreactors. The proportion of redundant testing was determined.RESULTS: Of 159,046 prenatal specimens, 88.3% (n=140,473) were screened for rubella immunity. In total, 8.8% of specimens tested negative for rubella IgG. Younger women (23.2% of women younger than 20 years of age versus 4.7% of women between 35 and 39 years of age; P<0.001) and women from northern Alberta (11.9% versus 8.1% [overall]; P<0.001) were significantly more likely to have seronegative specimens. Of the 20,044 women who had multiple rubella immunity screenings, 88.1% (n=17,651) had multiple positive test results. In total, 20.7% of the 42,274 specimens submitted from women with multiple screenings were deemed redundant.DISCUSSION: Younger women were most likely to be seronegative for rubella. The public health significance of women entering their childbearing years with low or undetectable rubella IgG levels remains to be determined. A large number of women with documented rubella immunity were unnecessarily retested.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka Chun Chong ◽  
Hong Fung ◽  
Carrie Ho Kwan Yam ◽  
Patsy Yuen Kwan Chau ◽  
Tsz Yu Chow ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The elderly healthcare voucher (EHCV) scheme is expected to lead to an increase in the number of elderly people selecting private primary healthcare services and reduce reliance on the public sector in Hong Kong. However, studies thus far have reported that this scheme has not received satisfactory responses. In this study, we examined changes in the ratio of visits between public and private doctors in primary care (to measure reliance on the public sector) for different strategic scenarios in the EHCV scheme. Methods Based on comments from an expert panel, a system dynamics model was formulated to simulate the impact of various enhanced strategies in the scheme: increasing voucher amounts, lowering the age eligibility, and designating vouchers for chronic conditions follow-up. Data and statistics for the model calibration were collected from various sources. Results The simulation results show that the current EHCV scheme is unable to reduce the utilization of public healthcare services, as well as the ratio of visits between public and private primary care among the local aging population. When comparing three different tested scenarios, even if the increase in the annual voucher amount could be maintained at the current pace or the age eligibility can be lowered to include those aged 60 years, the impact on shifts from public-to-private utilization were insignificant. The public-to-private ratio could only be marginally reduced from 0.74 to 0.64 in the first several years. Nevertheless, introducing a chronic disease-oriented voucher could result in a significant drop of 0.50 in the public-to-private ratio during the early implementation phase. However, the effect could not be maintained for an extended period. Conclusions Our findings will assist officials in improving the design of the EHCV scheme, within the wider context of promoting primary care among the elderly. We suggest that an additional chronic disease-oriented voucher can serve as an alternative strategy. The scheme must be redesigned to address more specific objectives or provide a separate voucher that promotes under-utilized healthcare services (e.g., preventive care), instead of services designed for unspecified reasons, which may lead to concerns regarding exploitation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira Bell ◽  
◽  
Jacqueline Campbell ◽  
Jackie McDonald ◽  
Martin O’Neill ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Infection with the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to a worldwide pandemic with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, overwhelming healthcare systems globally. Preliminary reports suggest a high incidence of infection and mortality with SARS-CoV-2 in patients receiving kidney replacement therapy (KRT). The aims of this study are to report characteristics, rates and outcomes of all patients affected by infection with SARS-CoV-2 undergoing KRT in Scotland. Methods Study design was an observational cohort study. Data were linked between the Scottish Renal Registry, Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group national data sets using a unique patient identifier (Community Health Index (CHI)) for each individual by the Public Health and Intelligence unit of Public Health, Scotland. Descriptive statistics and survival analyses were performed. Results During the period 1st March 2020 to 31st May 2020, 110 patients receiving KRT tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 amounting to 2% of the prevalent KRT population. Of those affected, 86 were receiving haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis and 24 had a renal transplant. Patients who tested positive were older and more likely to reside in more deprived postcodes. Mortality was high at 26.7% in the dialysis patients and 29.2% in the transplant patients. Conclusion The rate of detected SARS-CoV-2 in people receiving KRT in Scotland was relatively low but with a high mortality for those demonstrating infection. Although impossible to confirm, it appears that the measures taken within dialysis units coupled with the national shielding policy, have been effective in protecting this population from infection.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073346482110310
Author(s):  
Esteban Calvo ◽  
Ariel Azar ◽  
Robin Shura ◽  
Ursula M. Staudinger

Chronic disease and multimorbidity are growing health challenges for aging populations, often coinciding with retirement. We examine late-life predictors of multimorbidity, focusing on the association between retirement sequences and number of chronic diseases. We modeled the number of chronic diseases as a function of six types of previously identified 10-year retirement sequences using Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data for 7,880 Americans observed between ages 60 to 61 and 70 to 71. Our results show that at baseline, the adjusted prevalence of multimorbidity was lowest in sequences characterized by late retirement from full-time work and highest in sequences characterized by early labor-force disengagement. Age increases in multimorbidity varied across retirement sequences, though overall differences in prevalence persisted at age 70 to 71. Earlier life disadvantages did not moderate these associations. Findings suggest further investigation of policies that target health limitations affecting work, promote continued beneficial employment opportunities, and ultimately leverage retirement sequences as a novel path to influence multimorbidity in old age.


2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-98
Author(s):  
Roland Zullo

I investigate the feasibility of completely privatizing prison physical and mental health service. The study is based on bid documents from Michigan’s 2012 exploration of privatized health care, along with historical documents. Five lessons are reported: (1) Price differences are largely attributable to staffing strategies, with private agents using fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) and less-qualified staff; (2) privatization ushers in personnel practice that is less structured for long-term employee retention; (3) managed competition is impractical due to qualified provider scarcity and desirability of client-patient continuity; (4) tension between best practice medicine and the profit motive is unresolvable, which necessitates diligent monitoring; and (5) privatization ideology is a powerful force that is external to the public interest but one that can be challenged by “good government” coalitions.


1865 ◽  
Vol 11 (55) ◽  
pp. 327-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Edmund Anstie

The present seems to be a favorable moment for directing the attention of the profession to the condition of those insane paupers who are confined in workhouses. A general disposition to criticise the management of these establishments exists in the public mind, and the profession has given unequivocal evidence that it shares in this feeling and is determined to carry out the inquiry thoroughly. If may be safely affirmed that, if this is to be done, there is no part of the subject which demands earlier attention than the condition of those workhouse-inmates who are insane; for the circumstances which call so loudly for reform in the management of “indoor” paupers, especially those who are sick, exist in an extreme degree in the instance of the insane. The upshot of all careful inquiries into these matters, and notably of that inquiry now proceeding in the columns of ‘The Lancet’, is to make prominent the fact that those workhouses which are situated in populous cities are rapidly becoming great hospitals, instead of refuges for tired or lazy vagrants: while, as yet, the guardians who manage them cannot (or will not) understand that this is the case, but persist in treating the inmates as much as possible on the old system, by which the workhouse was a penal residence intended to disgust and repress the applicants for public relief. Under such a régime it has been shown that numbers of acutely sick persons suffer great hardship and have their chances of recovering health and strength materially interfered with; while as for the patients suffering from chronic disease and debility, it can hardly be said that they receive any proper care at all; and it is my purpose in the present paper to show particularly that the insane are the most deeply injured of all classes of indoor paupers by the system usually followed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Dong ◽  
Yali Du ◽  
Xianhua Wu

Based on the PPP efficiency system which consists of allocation efficiency, process efficiency, and individual efficiency, we use qualitative comparison analysis of fuzzy sets to study the efficiency advantages of the public-private partnership under the Chinese scenario. The findings are as follows: (1) like public-private partnerships, Chinese-style PPPs have also failed to achieve cooperation. (2) High allocation efficiency can be achieved if competition in bidding processes can be ensured; when bidding procedures cannot be guaranteed to compete, alternatives to high allocation efficiency are either privatized or allocated directly to enterprises that can enable economies of scale; individual effort is a source of allocation efficiency. (3) Competition and economies of scale are necessary conditions for high process efficiency. The private sector’s ownership of assets is a sufficient condition for high process efficiency. (4) High individual efficiency can be achieved if individual efforts can be ensured, and high individual efficiency can also be achieved by the competition of bidding procedures or economies of scale when it is impossible to ensure high levels of individual effort. Privatization is the perfect incentive for high individual efficiency when the competition in the bidding process, individual efforts, and economies of scale cannot be guaranteed.


Author(s):  
Manasseh M. Mokgolo ◽  
Patricia Mokgolo ◽  
Mike Modiba

Orientation: The implementation of transformational leadership in public services after national elections has been well recorded in other parts of the world. However, this is not the case in South Africa. Research purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine whether transformational leadership has a beneficial relationship with subordinate leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction.Motivation for the study: Leadership is a critical issue that the public sector needs to address in order to survive and succeed in today’s unstable environment. According to Groenewald and Ashfield (2008), transformational leadership could reduce the effects of uncertainty and change that comes with new leaders and help employees to achieve their objectives.Research design, approach and method: The sample comprised 1050 full-time employees in the public sector based in head offices. The measuring instruments included the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Leadership Acceptance Scale (LAS), the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and the Job Performance Survey (JPS).Main findings: Transformational leadership had a positive correlation with subordinate leadership acceptance, performance and job satisfaction.Practical/managerial implications: Managers can train public sector leaders to be transformational leaders because of the adverse effect lack of transformation can have on employees’ attitudes in areas like satisfaction, performance and commitment.Contribution/value-add: This study makes an important contribution to our understanding of transformational leadership processes and to how the public service can improve its practices in order to render quality service to South Africans.


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