Assessment of forest health status of Panca Indah Lestari Community Plantation Forest (case study in Bukit Layang Village, Bakam District, Bangka Regency, Bangka Belitung Province)

Currently, community plantation forests play an essential role in providing wood supply for the timber industry with due regard to sustainability. One way to achieve the sustainability aspects of forest management is by conducting monitoring forest health. This study aims to determine the value of the health status of the Panca Indah Lestari Community Plantation Forest. This community plantation forest is located in Bukit Layang Village, Bakam District, Bangka Regency, Bangka Belitung Province. The stages of this research include: determining the number of cluster-plots using sampling intensity based on the area of community plantation forest, making cluster plots based on Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) cluster-plot design, collecting data by measuring the ecological indicators of forest health (productivity and vitality) based on the FHM method, as well as data analysis and processing using the Forest Health Assessment Information System. The results showed that the health status of the Panca Indah Lestari Community Plantation Forest had a range of values ranging from 1,890 - 5,530. The average health status value of Panca Indah Lestari Community Plantation Forest is 4,210, which was included in the medium category. Thus, the value of the health status of community plantation forests illustrates that the conditions for productivity and vitality indicators are insufficient. Knowing the forest condition’s status value helps managers provide recommendations in making decisions on sustainable community plantation forest management.

How West African countries prioritize health

Background The goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is to ensure that everyone is able to obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. UHC remains a mirage if government health expenditure is not improved. Health priority refers to general government health expenditure as a percentage of general government expenditure. It indicates the priority of the government to spend on healthcare from its domestic public resources. Our study aimed to assess health priorities in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) using the health priority index from the WHO’s Global Health Expenditure Database. Method We extracted and analysed data on health priority in the WHO’s Global Health Expenditure Database across the 15 members of the ECOWAS (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo) from 2010 to 2018 to assess how these countries prioritize health. The data are presented using descriptive statistics. Results Our findings revealed that no West African country beats the cutoff of a minimum of 15% health priority index. Ghana (8.43%), Carbo Verde (8.29%), and Burkina Faso (7.60%) were the top three countries with the highest average health priority index, while Guinea (3.05%), Liberia (3.46%), and Guinea-Bissau (3.56%) had the lowest average health priority in the West African region within the period of our analysis (2010 to 2018). Conclusion Our study reiterates the need for West African governments and other relevant stakeholders to prioritize health in their political agenda towards achieving UHC.

Community Pharmacists’ Measurement of Health-related Quality of Life in Outpatients Taking High-risk Drugs

Background: Patients who develop severe side-effects when taking high-risk drugs may have a significantly reduced health-related quality of life (QOL); therefore, it is important to identify changes in health-related QOL in these patients. This study aimed to determine health-related QOL in community pharmacy outpatients taking high-risk drugs.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at 29 pharmacies in 12 regions and cities in Japan from October to December 2020. Using descriptive questionnaires of EuroQOL-5-dimensions-5-levels (EQ-5D-5L), community pharmacists obtained health-related QOL data from outpatients taking high-risk drugs.Results: In total, 760 outpatients were enrolled. The mean health-related QOL of all outpatients was 0.869. Health-related QOL decreased with increasing age. Outpatient health -related QOL was 0.700, 0.763, 0.785, and 0.817 when taking antiepileptic, antidepressant, digitalis, and antiarrhythmic drugs, respectively, which was lower than the average health-related QOL of all outpatients. Mobility and pain/discomfort accounted for a large proportion of the decline in health-related QOL with increasing age. No difference was found concerning personal care in relation to age; however, the number of outpatients with mobility, normal activity, and pain challenges decreased with age. In contrast, outpatients aged <65 years with anxiety/depression showed lower than overall average health-related QOL.Conclusion: Community pharmacists determined the health-related QOL of outpatients taking high-risk drugs. We clarified the contributions of the 5-dimensions.Trial registration: UMIN-CTR Study Design: trial Number UMIN 000041942. Registered 30 September 2020, https://www.umin.ac.jp

Monitoring compliance with the rules of professional safety medical personnel

Health system are more than three million working now, thousands of treatment-and-prophylactic, pharmaceutical, sanitary and epidemiologic institutions, tens research institutes, centers, highest and average educational institutions at which various household and communication equipment is operated, various medical equipment, are used toxic agents and aggressive liquids. In harmful and adverse working conditions hundreds of thousands workers of health care, including average health workers are occupied. Questions of professional safety of nursing staff on a workplace define a level of quality of labor life of experts and are the most important indicator of quality of the provided medical care. In this regard there is actual a question of means of professional protection of average health workers and observance of rules of professional safety by them.l

Effect of Early Palliative Care on End-of-Life Health Care Costs: A Population-Based, Propensity Score–Matched Cohort Study

PURPOSE This study aimed to investigate the impact of early versus not-early palliative care among cancer decedents on end-of-life health care costs. METHODS Using linked administrative databases, we created a retrospective cohort of cancer decedents between 2004 and 2014 in Ontario, Canada. We identified those who received early palliative care (palliative care service used in the hospital or community 12 to 6 months before death [exposure]). We used propensity score matching to identify a control group of not-early palliative care, hard matched on age, sex, cancer type, and stage at diagnosis. We examined differences in average health system costs (including hospital, emergency department, physician, and home care costs) between groups in the last month of life. RESULTS We identified 144,306 cancer decedents, of which 37% received early palliative care. After matching, we created 36,238 pairs of decedents who received early and not-early (control) palliative care; there were balanced distributions of age, sex, cancer type (24% lung cancer), and stage (25% stage III and IV). Overall, 56.3% of early group versus 66.7% of control group used inpatient care in the last month ( P < .001). Considering inpatient hospital costs in the last month of life, the early group used an average (±standard deviation) of $7,105 (±$10,710) versus the control group of $9,370 (±$13,685; P < .001). Overall average costs (±standard deviation) in the last month of life for patients in the early versus control group was $12,753 (±$10,868) versus $14,147 (±$14,288; P < .001). CONCLUSION Receiving early palliative care reduced average health system costs in the last month of life, especially via avoided hospitalizations.

Avrupa Birliği Ülkelerinin Sağlık Güvenliği Performanslarının Ölçülmesi: MAIRCA Yöntemi ile Bir Uygulama

By analyzing their own and each other's health security performance, countries can develop strategies and methods to increase their health security performance. Therefore, it is important to provide the said performance measurement in order to raise awareness of the health security performance of the countries. In this context, the health security performances of the European Union countries were measured by the MAIRCA method over the values of the Global Health Security Index (GHSI) components for the latest and current 2019. In the research, the relationships were calculated between the health security performance values of the countries determined by the GHSI and MAIRCA method and some multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods (ARAS, BTA, COPRAS, EDAS, MAUT, ROV, TOPSIS, WASPAS, Gray Relational Analysis). According to the findings, it was determined that the first three countries with the highest health and safety performance were Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, while the first three countries with the lowest health and safety performance were Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus. In the study, it was also observed that the countries of Bulgaria, Czechia, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Greece were below the average health protection performance value. Accordingly, it has been concluded that these countries need to increase their health safety performance in order to be in compliance with other European Union countries on health safety. Apart from these, it has been determined that GHSI and MAIRCA methods have significant, positive and very high correlations with each other and with other MCDM methods except MAUT method. Therefore, according to this finding, it was evaluated that GHSI and MAIRCA method could be explained with each other and with other methods except MAUT method.

The economic impact of hypercholesterolemia and mixed dyslipidemia: A systematic review of cost of illness studies

Hypercholesterolemia is a clinically relevant condition with an ascertained role in atherogenesis. In particular, its presence directly correlates to the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). As known, cardiovascular diseases pose a significant economic burden worldwide; however, a clear picture of the economic impact of ASCVD secondary to hypercholesterolemia is lacking. This study aiming at conducting a systematic review of the current literature to assess the economic impact of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), non-familial hypercholesterolemia (non-FH) or mixed dyslipidemia. A literature search was performed in Medline/PubMed and Embase database up to September 1st, 2020, exploring evidence published from 2010. The literature review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. To be included the studies must be conducted on people who have been diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia, non-familial hypercholesterolemia or mixed dyslipidemia, and report data/information on costs attributable to these conditions and their sequelae. A total of 1260 studies were retrieved. After reading the titles and abstract, 103 studies were selected for full reading and eight met the criteria for inclusion. All but one studies were published in the American continent, with the majority conducted in US. An observational design with a prevalence approach were used and all estimated the economic burden of CVD. Direct cost estimates as annual average health expenditure on all population, ranging from $17 to $259 million. Few studies assessing the economic impact of hypercholesterolemia are available in the literature and new researches are needed to provide a more updated and reliable picture. Despite this scarceness of evidence, this review adds important data for future discussion on the knowledge of the economic impact of hypercholesterolemia and costs of care associated to this condition, with important implication for public health researches and novel therapies implementation.

Are Wealthier People Healthier? An Analysis to Indonesian Baby Boomers

The elderly population in Indonesia has doubled in the last five decades, along with an increase in life expectancy and mortality. Those who were born in the 1940s to 1960s or the baby boomer generation are those who are in old age now. There are many studies that analyze the relationship of wealth to one's health level, but not many have looked specifically at the elderly population. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of wealth on elderly’s health condition. Using binomial logistic regression, this study found that the highest average health probability of the elderly was 78.96 percent, i.e. those with working status, above average income and no expenditure on unhealthy commodities such as cigarettes, while the average health probability the lowest was 52.44 percent, i.e. those with non-work status, below-average income, and having expenditures for unhealthy commodities. This study found that wealth affects the health level of the elderly. These conclusions, accompanied by aging conditions in a country have policy implications that must consistently implement efforts to improve social welfare for the elderly, thereby creating healthy and active aging.

Well-Being Economics

A strong social gradient in the experience of health means that a person’s health tends to reflect social position. There is strong evidence that average health outcomes in a country tend to be poorer when income inequality is greater. Consequently, public health policy is influenced by a country’s economic situation. Adopting principles in the Helsinki Statement on Health in All Policies, this means governments should pay attention to the public health implications of its economic policies, moving beyond simple analyses of how policy might support growth in gross domestic product. Since 2009, a global movement has aimed to shift the emphasis of economic policy evaluation from measuring economic production to measuring people’s well-being. This approach is known as well-being economics. Many countries have engaged with citizens to create their own national well-being framework of statistical indicators. Some countries have passed legislation or designed new institutions to focus specific policy areas on promoting the well-being of current and future generations. A small number of countries are attempting to embed well-being in their core economic policies. Further policy work and research are required for the vision of a well-being economy to be realized.

Projecting health-ageing trajectories in Europe using a dynamic microsimulation model

The extent of the challenges and opportunities that population ageing presents depends heavily on the population’s health. Hence, for the development of appropriate strategies that enable countries to adopt the emerging demographic and epidemiological realities, information on future health trajectories of elderly population is a natural requirement. This study presents an innovative methodological framework for projecting the health of individuals using a dynamic microsimulation model that considers interactions between sociodemographic characteristics, health, mortality, bio-medical and behavioral risk factors. The model developed, called ATHLOS-Mic, is used to project the health of cohorts born before 1960 for the period 2015–2060 for selected European Countries using SHARE data to illustrate the possible effects of some selected risk factors and education on future health trajectories. Results show that, driven by a better educational attainment, each generation will be healthier than the previous one at same age. Also, we see that, on average, an individual of our base population will live about 18 more years since the start of the projection period, but only 5 years in good health. Finally, we find that a scenario that removes the effect of having a low level of education on individual health has the largest impact on the projected average health, the average number of years lived per person, and the average number of years lived in good health.