scholarly journals Effectiveness of Social Prescribing Programs in the Primary Health-Care Context: A Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreia Costa ◽  
C Joana Sousa ◽  
Paulo Rosário Carvalho Seabra ◽  
Ana Virgolino ◽  
Osvaldo Santos ◽  
...  

Social prescribing (SP) is an approach that promotes the use of local non-clinical activities by people. The referral is usually made by primary health-care professionals, in a process wherein local providers play a pivotal role. The main objective of this study was to identify domains of intervention and evidence about the effectiveness of SP programs regarding health-related outcomes. A systematic literature review was carried out following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, CINHAL, and SCOPUS. Inclusion criteria of the reviewed papers were as follows: (i) effectiveness studies of interventions designated as SP or interventions entailing SP conceptual components; (ii) interventions with adults. Quality assessment was performed with the Cochrane tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized trials; an assessment tool developed by the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute was applied to observational studies. Overall, 13 articles were included for analysis, with a total of 4603 patients. Although three studies comprised a control group, only two followed a randomized controlled trials (RCT) design. Nine principal domains of intervention within SP were identified, with three categories of outcome measures: Physical and psychological wellbeing; Health behaviors and self-efficacy; and Health care resources end economic evaluation. SP is an emergent and promising health-care intervention, and it has been used to promote different health behaviors. Evidence of SP effectiveness on patient’s health and wellbeing is not strong. Further research is needed for understanding how SP can be applied efficiently.

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Maria Keller ◽  
Christina Derksen ◽  
Lukas Kötting ◽  
Martina Schmiedhofer ◽  
Sonia Lippke

Abstract Background Patient-centered care and patient involvement have been increasingly recognized as crucial elements of patient safety. However, patient safety has rarely been evaluated from the patient perspective with a quantitative approach aiming at making patient safety and preventable adverse events measurable. Objectives The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a questionnaire assessing patient safety by perceived triggers of preventable adverse events among patients in primary health-care settings while considering mental health. Methods Two hundred and ten participants were recruited through various digital and print channels and asked to complete an online survey between November 2019 and April 2020. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify domains of triggers of preventable adverse events affecting patient safety. Furthermore, a multi-trait scaling analysis was performed to evaluate internal reliability as well as item-scale convergent–discriminant validity. A multivariate analysis of covariance evaluated whether individuals below and above the symptom threshold for depression and generalized anxiety perceive triggers of preventable adverse events differently. Results The five factors determined were information and communication with patients, time constraints of health-care professionals, diagnosis and treatment, hygiene and communication among health-care professionals, and knowledge and operational procedures. The questionnaire demonstrated a good total and subscale internal consistency (α = 0.90, range = 0.75–0.88), good item-scale convergent validity with significant correlations between 0.57 and 0.78 (P < 0.05; P < 0.01) for all items with their associated subscales, and satisfactory item-scale discriminant validity between 0.14 and 0.55 (P > 0.05) with no significant correlations between the items and their competing subscales. The questionnaire further revealed to be a generic measure irrespective of patients’ mental health status. Patients older than 50 years of age perceived a significantly greater threat to their own safety compared to patients below that age. Conclusion The developed Perceptions of Preventable Adverse Events Assessment Tool (PPAEAT) exhibits good psychometric properties, which supports its use in future research and primary health-care practice. Further validation of the PPAEAT in different settings, languages and larger samples is needed. The results of this study need to be considered when assessing patient safety in the context of health-care research.


Author(s):  
Romeu Mendes ◽  
Marlene Nunes Silva ◽  
Catarina Santos Silva ◽  
Adilson Marques ◽  
Cristina Godinho ◽  
...  

Background: This paper aims to discuss how physical activity (PA) brief assessment, brief counseling, and self-monitoring tools were designed and implemented in the Portuguese National Health Service (NHS), and to report on their current use by health professionals and citizens. Methods: Three digital tools to facilitate PA promotion in primary health care (PHC) were developed: 1) a PA brief assessment tool was incorporated in the electronic health record platform “SClínico Cuidados de Saúde Primários“; 2) a brief counseling tool was developed in the software “PEM—Prescrição Eletrónica Médica” (electronic medical prescription); and 3) a “Physical Activity Card” was incorporated in an official NHS smartphone app called “MySNS Carteira”. Results: From September 2017 to June 2019, 119,386 Portuguese patients had their PA assessed in PHC. Between December 2017 and June 2019, a total of 7957 patients received brief intervention for PA by a medical doctor. Regarding the app “MySNS Carteira”, 93,320 users activated the “Physical Activity Card”, between February 2018 and December 2018. Conclusions: These tools represent key actions to promote PA among Portuguese citizens using PHC as a priority setting. Further initiatives will follow, including proper assessment of their clinical impact and training programs for health care professionals on PA promotion.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-369
Author(s):  
Katie A. Willson ◽  
Gerard J. FitzGerald ◽  
David Lim

AbstractObjective:This scoping review aims to map the roles of rural and remote primary health care professionals (PHCPs) during disasters.Introduction:Disasters can have catastrophic impacts on society and are broadly classified into natural events, man-made incidents, or a mixture of both. The PHCPs working in rural and remote communities face additional challenges when dealing with disasters and have significant roles during the Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (PPRR) stages of disaster management.Methods:A Johanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review methodology was utilized, and the search was conducted over seven electronic databases according to a priori protocol.Results:Forty-one papers were included and sixty-one roles were identified across the four stages of disaster management. The majority of disasters described within the literature were natural events and pandemics. Before a disaster occurs, PHCPs can build individual resilience through education. As recognized and respected leaders within their community, PHCPs are invaluable in assisting with disaster preparedness through being involved in organizations’ planning policies and contributing to natural disaster and pandemic surveillance. Key roles during the response stage include accommodating patient surge, triage, maintaining the health of the remaining population, instituting infection control, and ensuring a team-based approach to mental health care during the disaster. In the aftermath and recovery stage, rural and remote PHCPs provide long-term follow up, assisting patients in accessing post-disaster support including delivery of mental health care.Conclusion:Rural and remote PHCPs play significant roles within their community throughout the continuum of disaster management. As a consequence of their flexible scope of practice, PHCPs are well-placed to be involved during all stages of disaster, from building of community resilience and contributing to early alert of pandemics, to participating in the direct response when a disaster occurs and leading the way to recovery.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Mauldon

This paper reports on the attitudes of a sample of health care providers towards the use of telehealth to support rural patients and integrate rural primary health and urban hospital care. Telehealth and other information technologies hold the promise of improving the quality of care for people in rural and remote areas and for supporting rural primary health care providers. While seemingly beneficial for rural patients, study participants believed that telehealth remains underused and poorly integrated into their practice. In general, participants thought that telehealth is potentially beneficial but places constraints on their activities, and few actually used it. Published literature usually reports either on the success of telehealth pilot projects or initiatives that are well resourced and do not reflect the constraints of routine practice, or has an international focus limiting its relevance to the Australian context. Because of the paucity of systematic and generalisable research into the effects of the routine use of telehealth to support rural patients, it is unclear why health care professionals choose to provide such services or the costs and benefits they incur in doing so. Research and policy initiatives continue to be needed to identify the impact of telehealth within the context of Australian primary health care and to develop strategies to support its use.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Vera Kurnia ◽  
Desti Nataria

Hypertension is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality  all over the world, also known as “the silent killer” because people with hypertension are without symptoms. West Sumatera Province reported that the prevalence of hypertension at the age 18 years has increased from 25,8% in 2013 to 31,7% in 2018. Successful strategies to manage the blood preasure depends on patients self-care management or the ability and willingness of the patient to change and maintain certain behavior.The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of self-education management of hypertension patients in the working area of primary health care in Bukittinggi.Design of this research is a quasi experimental design with pretest-posttest with control group. The sample which used were 62 respondents consist of 31 people in the intervention group and 31 people in the group control. Sampling was done by consecutive sampling technique. Data was analyzed Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann Whitney test. The result of this research shows that there isn’t any effect of self education management to healthy behavior which includes exercise and healthy diet of the intervention group and the control group at community health center in Bukittinggi (mean rank after the intervention < 10; p> 0,05). Based on the result of this research it can be concluded that the habits of respondents who carry out light and medium activities every day and also education provided by primary health care  have given big impact to respondent’s habits where they always do exercise and healthy diet in their daily life.The result of this research can be used as an input for primary health care to maintain and improve education of healthy behavior for hypertension patients.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajer Arbabi ◽  
Jessie Johnson ◽  
Daniel Forgrave

Background and objective: The Primary Health Care Corporation in Qatar was established in 2012 and is comprised of 23 Health Centers. One of its goals is to create excellence in its workforce. A preceptorship program needs to be initiated at the Primary Health Care Corporation to ensure a high level of training for its nurses. The purpose of these preceptorship programs is to ensure nurses are equipped to carry out Qatar’s National Health Strategy and in doing so the Primary Health Care Corporation has this as its goal. This study amis to assess the effectiveness of preceptorship program models that can eventually be used for adoption as training programs for nurses in Health Centers in Qatar.Methods: A literature review of twenty articles published between 2006 and 2017 that focused on different models of preceptorship programs was conducted. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool was used to assess the quality of these studies. The data was analyzed by categorizing the included articles in a matrix sheet based on study design.Results and conclusions: Preceptorship programs are effective in four key areas: increasing nursing knowledge, supporting effective and safe care delivery by newly graduated nurses, increasing organizational support, and decreasing turnover rate and cost. 


Author(s):  
Alfonso M. Cueto-Manzano ◽  
Héctor R. Martínez-Ramírez ◽  
Laura Cortés-Sanabria ◽  
Enrique Rojas-Campos

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