Sociodemographic Determinants, Health Conditions, and Mental Status as Predictors of the Functional Status of Older Saudi People

The increasing population of Saudi elderly demands adequate assessment of their functional health status and mental status to improve their health and quality of life. This study aimed to determine the functional status of older Saudi people in performing basic activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and its influencing factors. This quantitative, descriptive-correlational study surveyed a total of 203 participants using the Mini-Mental State Examination, Katz Index of ADL, and Lawton IADL. Overall, the participants had moderate cognitive impairment and were able to perform basic ADLs and IADLs independently, but they needed assistance in doing housework. Functional status was sensitive to their sociodemographic characteristics, presence of health problems, and mental status. Mental status, education, employment, marital status, and source of support were significantly associated with their ability to perform basic ADLs and IADLs. This study suggests that more efforts are needed to understand the sociodemographic characteristics, presence of health problems, and mental status that support the development of evidence-based public health policy on the functional status among older Saudi people. The findings can be utilized by hospital and nursing administrators to initiate educational and training programs for healthcare professionals including nurses and to create healthcare policies so that the health concerns and functional difficulties of older patients are adequately addressed.

Social Mobility, Health and Wellbeing in Poland

Recently there has been a surge of interest in the consequences of intergenerational social mobility on individuals’ health and wellbeing outcomes. However, studies on the effects of social mobility on health, using high-quality panel survey data, have almost exclusively been conducted in Western welfare democracies. To account for this gap, and using empirical data from one of the largest and most eventful post-communist countries, Poland, in this study we investigate how individuals’ origin and destination socio-economic position and social mobility are linked to self-rated health and reported psychological wellbeing. We use the Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN) data to construct self-rated health and psychological wellbeing measures, origin, destination and occupational class mobility variables, and account for an extensive set of sociodemographic determinants of health. We employ diagonal reference models to distinguish social mobility effects from origin and destination effects, and account for possible health selection mechanisms. Our results suggest that there is an occupational class gradient in health in Poland and that both parental and own occupational class matter for individual health outcomes. We also find a positive reported psychological wellbeing effect for upward social mobility from the working to the professional class.

Sociodemographic determinants of internet use and its impact on family planning behavior among young male in Ethiopia: evidence from EDHS 2016

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Internet was preferred source of health information to retrieve relevant information. The study investigated sociodemographic determinants of internet and its impact on family planning behavior among young male in Ethiopia, 2016.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> The study was based on data from Ethiopia health and demographic survey 2016. The sample size was 4550 male youth age between 15-24 years include in EDHS 2016. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine sociodemographic factor associated with internet utilization. The impact of internet use on family planning behaviors was assessed by propensity score matching using average treatment effect.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> The magnitude of internet use in Ethiopia was 14% and factor associated with internet use included age between 20-24 years (AOR=0.60; CI=0.46-0.79), urban resident (AOR=3.94; CI=2.75-5.64), higher educational level (AOR=12.98; CI=2.69-62.66), lived in city administrative region (AOR=2.18; CI=1.46-3.28), respondent own mobile phone (AOR=8.00; CI=95.58-11.48), respondent who able to read whole sentence (AOR=4.04; CI=2.54-6.44) and respondent who has computer in household (AOR=2.03, CI=1.22-3.40) more likely to use internet. In other hand respondent occupation of agricultural and manual has 56% (AOR=0.44; CI=0.3-0.61) and 46% (AOR=54, CI=0.36-0.81) less likely to use internet. The average treatment impact of internet use on exposure to internet about FP, male condom uses and knowledge about FP increase by 12%, 7.2% and 4.5% percent point respectively.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> In spite of fast-growing nature of internet and popularity among youth people. In the future, integrating health information to different platforms on the internet will be a most effective way of health promotion.</p>

Revisiting Provider Role in Patient Use of Online Medical Records

Objectives Provider encouragement for patient use of online medical record (OMR) systems is poorly understood. The study examines temporal trends and predictors of provider encouragement and the effects of encouragement on OMR use. Methods Health Information National Trends Survey administered in 2017 and 2020 were used. Subjects were 18 to 75 years old with access to the Internet or smart devices. From 2017 and 2020, 2,558 and 3,058 subjects were included, respectively. Results In 2020, 52.8% reported receiving provider encouragement within the last year for OMR use compared with 41.3% in 2017 (p < 0.001). For respondents with chronic diseases (such as diabetes, hypertension, heart, or lung diseases [CVMD]), encouragement increased from 45.5 to 57.2% (p < 0.001). Sociodemographic determinants and clinical attributes (e.g., provider office visits, cancer history, or CVMDs) significantly (p < 0.05) predicted encouragement. Among CVMD subjects, gender and visit frequency were significant predictors. OMR use within a year grew recently (73.3% in 2020 vs. 60.6% in 2017, p = 0.002) among CVMD subjects reporting encouragement. Provider encouragement was associated (p < 0.05) with secure communication and viewing results using OMRs controlling for other predictors in the overall cohort and among CVMD subjects. Conclusion Many respondents reported not receiving provider encouragement for OMR use. These subjects represent millions of U.S. adults, including those participating during the pandemic, with CVMDs or cancer history. Encouragement rates grew over time and was associated with demographic or disease attributes and with OMR use. Future research should assess the optimality of encouragement. Resources enabling provider encouragement should continue and help prevent disparity in health technology use.