Ethnic Differences in Environmental Restoration: Arab and Jewish Women in Israel

Throughout the last few decades, plenty of attention has been paid to restorative environments that positively affect human psychological health. These studies show that restorative environments affect human beings emotionally, physiologically, and cognitively. Some studies focus on the cognitive effects of exposure to restorative environments. A widely used index that measures the cognitive response is the Perceived Restoration Potential Scale (PRS). Most studies employing the PRS have examined differences in human cognitive response between types of urban environments mainly urban versus green ones. We use Hartig’s questionnaire to expose differences between types of urban environments and ethnic groups. Variances between Arab and Jewish women were calculated in four environments: home; park; residential and central city environments. The effect of intervening variables such as exposure to thermal, noise, social and CO loads and social discomfort were tested. We find that dissimilar to urban typical built-up environments, green areas are highly restorative. Furthermore, differences in the restorativeness of different urban environments are low though significant. These differences depend on their function, aesthetic qualities, and amount of greenery. Ethno-national differences appear to affect the experience of restoration. While both ethnic related groups experienced a tremendous sense of restoration in parks, Jewish women enjoyed slightly higher levels of restoration mainly at home and in residential environments compared to Arab women who experienced higher sense of restorativness in central city environments. Jewish women experienced higher sense of being away and fascination. From the intervening variables, social discomfort explained 68 percent of the experience of restoration, noise explained 49 percent, thermal load explained 43 percent and ethnicity 14 percent of the variance in PRS.

Promoting psycho-social wellbeing for engaging inflammatory bowel disease patients in their care: an Italian consensus statement

Background Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are remitting and relapsing diseases that mainly interest the gastrointestinal tract. IBD is associated with a condition of psycho-social discomfort that deeply compromises the quality of life and the competence of patient to be fully engaged in their self-management. As a consequence, effective care of IBD patients should include not only medical but also psychological support in order to improve patients' wellbeing. Although this, to date there is no standardized approach to promote psychological wellbeing of IBD patients in order to improve the perception of the quality of the care. To fill this gap, a consensus conference has been organized in order to define the psychosocial needs of IBD patients and to promote their engagement in daily clinical practice. This paper describes the process implemented and illustrates the recommendations deriving from it, which focus on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in IBD management. Results The consensus conference has been organized in three phases: (1) literature review about life experiences, engagement, and psychosocial needs of IBD patients; (2) workshops with IBD experts and patients’ representatives; (3) drafting of statements and voting. Seventy-three participants were involved in the consensus conference, and sixteen statements have been voted and approved during the consensus process. Conclusions The main conclusion is the necessity of the early detection of – and, in case of need, intervention on- psycho-social needs of patients in order to achieve patient involvement in IBD care.

Comprehensive sexuality education to reduce pregnancy and STIs in adolescents in the United States: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background. The United States has a higher rate of teen pregnancy than any other developed country with 30% of American girls becoming pregnant before the age of 20. Laws regarding the inclusion and content of sexuality education vary across the country, which are associated with differences in pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates between states. This systematic review aims to determine whether comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is more effective than abstinence-only or no sexuality education at reducing teenage pregnancy. Secondary objectives include analyzing the effect of CSE on STI incidence, sexual activity, safe-sex behaviors, and social discomfort. Methods. We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE (Ovid), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Scopus for studies published from 1990–2021. Additionally, we searched ClinicalTrials.gov and Google Scholar and manually searched reference lists of included papers. Results. Twenty-nine studies met our inclusion criteria. Only seven included pregnancy as an outcome, with three fitting our meta-analysis criteria. There was a decrease in pregnancy rates for participants in the CSE intervention compared to the control (n = 3, risk ratio = 0.89, 95%CI 0.79- 1.00, I2 = 0%). Fifteen of 21 studies reporting safe-sex behaviors, 8 of 24 reporting sexual activity, and 0 of 3 reporting STI rates found statistically significant results favoring CSE. In the narrative synthesis, we found an increase in safe-sex behaviors, specifically condom use, in adolescents receiving CSE compared to no intervention. Conclusions. CSE is likely to reduce pregnancy rates; however, there was limited data available on this outcome. CSE increased safe-sex behaviors but did not have a notable impact on sexual activity or STIs. Future research should include the effects of CSE on social discomfort as well as more studies comparing CSE to abstinence-only education. This review can serve as evidence for the implementation of CSE in the US.

Peer review in team-based learning: influencing feedback literacy

Background Peer review in Team-based learning (TBL) exists for three key reasons: to promote reflection on individual behaviours; provide opportunities to develop professional skills; and prevent ‘free riders’ who fail to contribute effectively to team discussions. A well-developed process that engages students is needed. However, evidence suggests it remains a difficult task to effectively incorporate into TBL. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students’ ability to provide written feedback to their peers in TBL, and to explore students’ perception of the process, using the conceptual framework of Biggs ‘3P model’. Methods Year 2 students (n = 255) participated in peer review twice during 2019. We evaluated the quality of feedback using a theoretically derived rubric, and undertook a qualitative analysis of focus group data to seek explanations for feedback behaviors. Results Students demonstrated reasonable ability to provide positive feedback, but were less prepared to identify areas for improvement. Their ability did not improve over time, and was influenced by the perceived task difficulty; social discomfort; and sense of responsibility in providing written feedback. Conclusions To increase student engagement, we require a transparent process that incorporates verbal feedback and team discussion, with monitoring of outcomes by faculty and adequate training.

The evolution of IBD perceived engagement and care needs across the life-cycle: a scoping review

Background The chronic and progressive evolution of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), with its prototypical fluctuating trend, creates a condition of psycho-social discomfort, impacting the quality of life in terms of personal, working, and interpersonal. Aims In this article, we want to identify the nature and extent of the research evidence on the life experiences, the perceived engagement, the psychological, social care and welfare needs of people affected by IBD across the lifecycle. Methods Following the approach set out by Arksey and O’Malley and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, we conducted a scoping review in March 2019 and closed the review with an update in October 2019. It was performed using electronic databases covering Health and Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Medical Sciences, such as PubMed, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science, PsycInfo. Results We identified 95 peer-reviewed articles published from 2009 to 2019, that allowed to detection the main needs in children (psychological, need to be accepted, physical activity, feeding, parent style, support, social needs), adolescents (to understand, physical and psychological needs, protection, relational, gratitude, respect, and engagement) and adults (information, medical, psychological, social, work-related, practical, future-related, engagement). Although the literature confirms that the majority of the IBD units have planned provision for the different types of transitions, the quality and appropriateness of these services have not been assessed or audited for all the kinds of challenges across the life cycle. Conclusions The literature shows the relevance of organizing a flexible, personalized health care process across all the critical phases of the life cycle, providing adequate benchmarks for comparison in a multidisciplinary perspective and ensuring continuity between hospital and territory.

Novel methods of continuous glucose monitoring and telehealth in the improvement of diabetes care: a narrative review.

Standard markers of glycaemic control, such as glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and self-measurement of blood glucose (SMBG), have proven insufficient. HbAc1 is an averaged measurement that does not give information about glucose variability. SMBG provides limited, intermittent blood glucose (BG) values over the day and is associated with poor compliance because of invasiveness of the method and social discomfort. In contrast to glucometers, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices do not require finger-stick blood samples, but instead measure BG via percutaneous or subcutaneous sensors. The immediate benefits of CGM include prevention of hypoglycaemia or hyperglycaemia, and automated analysis of long-term glycaemic data enables reliable treatment adjustments. This review describes the principles of CGM and how CGM data have changed diabetes treatment standards by introducing new glycaemic control parameters. It also compares different CGM devices and examines how the convenience of sharing CGM data in telehealth applies to the current coronavirus-19 pandemic.

Italian Consensus Statement for Promoting Psycho-Social Wellbeing and Engagement in the Care of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are remitting and relapsing diseases that mainly interest the gastrointestinal tract. This is associated with a condition of psycho-social discomfort that prevents the affected person from living normally and deeply compromises the quality of life in terms of personal, work, and interpersonal well-being. Management of IBD patients should include not only clinical but also psychosocial aspects not only clinical but also psychosocial aspects in order to improve patients' wellbeing and quality of life. The promotion of patient engagement is an effective strategy to achieve a better patient's quality of life. Although the undoubted role of patient involvement in the decision making process, to date there is no standardized approach to promote the engagement between physicians and patients and little attention is paid to social and psychological needs of subjects with IBD.To fill this gap, a consensus conference has been organized involving both gastroenterologists, healthcare professionals expert in IBD care and IBD patients in order to define the psychosocial needs of IBD patients and to promote their engagement in daily clinical practice.

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME AS A FOUNDATION OF HAPPINESS-ORIENTED ECONOMIC POLICY OF A CONTEMPORARY STATE

The contemporary capitalistic social order has reached its apogee and starts to decline. COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated economic and financial problems. Digitalization of production processes, automation and robotization of production leads to the elimination of jobs, and hence, to a reduction of the tax base that leads to the destruction of existing institutions of social security. Universal Basic Income or Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) as a way of distribution of public goods and a form of social welfare has been considered in recent decades as the foundation for a social component of a new social order. We interpret UBI in terms of the Ukrainian citizens’ happiness. The main task of the government in this respect is to eliminate factors of social discomfort in citizens’ lives. UBI as a passive income provides a citizen with the feeling of dignity, creates favourable conditions for self-accomplishment, strengthens national identity, provides economy and the Ukrainian commodity producers with solvent customers. The Single Digital Fiscal Accounting Payment System (SDFAPS) is introduced as a tool for UBI implementation; it elimination corruption and serves as a foundation for a new social justice. Keywords: Universal Basic Income (UBI), happiness, a new social order, Single Digital Fiscal Accounting Payment System (SDFAPS).