Recommendations for virtual care in primary care practices: a survey of patients across Ontario, Canada.

Context: The onset of COVID-19 has required the rapid adoption of virtual services in primary care (PC) practices, and virtual care delivery is likely to continue to some extent post-pandemic. Objective: To understand patient experience with synchronous virtual (telephone (Tel)/Video) appointments and elicit recommendations for its future use. Design: Mixed method, including patient survey co-developed with stakeholders and implemented online Feb-Mar 2021 with large promotional efforts through social media, patient and caregiver organizations, and other networks. We report on the survey results. Eligibility: 1+ virtual encounter in PC. Outcome measures: A) Patient experience scale (12/17 questions for Tel/Video) covering 4 sub-dimensions; B) Access related questions. Questions had 5-point Likert scale items (strongly disagree (-2) to strongly agree (+2)) and were converted into percentage (potential range -100%, +100%) Setting : Ontario, Canada which offers universal coverage for PC visits with no co-payment. Results: 534 eligible respondents (402/18/114 had Tel/Video/both): Females (78%), < 55 years (61%), white (75%), employed (61%), bachelor's degree (74%), family income > 100k (52%). Encounters evaluated were with family physicians (vs other health professionals) for 75%/46% of Tel/Video encounters. A) Patient Experience (Tel/Video) overall score: 75%/78%; Sub-dimensions: technology: 92%/84%, patient-provider relationship: 83%/86%, quality of care: 66%/66%, whole-person care: 43%/53%. Factors associated with a statistically significant(*) > 10% higher overall score in tel and/or video were: non-females: (8%*/14%*), French speaking (13%*/16%*), patient-provider relationship >1 year (16%*/7%), provider age < 50 (5%/15%*), having the choice of appointment time (15%*/21%*). Wanting to show problem to the provider was associated with a lower scores (-23%*/NA). B) Access Respondents overwhelmingly reported that Tel/Video visits reduced time (97%/97%), costs (81%/85%), and was more convenient (91%/91%). The majority wanted Tel (69%) and Video (71%) visits at least as often as in person visits post-covid. Only 5% did not want any future virtual care. Conclusions: Patient experience was largely positive and is influenced by patient/provider factors. Patients and providers may benefit from support/training to optimize care experience. We are now evaluating whether the reasons for visits influences care experience.

Improving WHO's understanding of WHO guideline uptake and use in Member States: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: WHO publishes public health and clinical guidelines to guide Member States in achieving better health outcomes. Furthermore, WHO's Thirteenth General Programme of Work for 2019-2023 prioritizes strengthening its normative functional role and uptake of normative and standard-setting products, including guidelines at the country level. Therefore, understanding WHO guideline uptake by the Member States, particularly the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), is of utmost importance for the organization and scholarship. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review using a comprehensive search strategy to include published literature in English between 2007 and 2020. The review was conducted between May and June 2021. We searched five electronic databases including CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase and Scopus. We also searched Google Scholar as a supplementary source. The review adhered to the PRISMA-ScR (PRISMA extension for scoping reviews) guidelines for reporting the searches, screening and identification of evaluation studies from the literature. A narrative synthesis of the evidence around key barriers and challenges for WHO guideline uptake in LMICs is thematically presented. RESULTS: The scoping review included 48 studies, and the findings were categorized into four themes: (1) lack of national legislation, regulations and policy coherence, (2) inadequate experience, expertise and training of healthcare providers for guideline uptake, (3) funding limitations for guideline uptake and use, and (4) inadequate healthcare infrastructure for guideline compliance. These challenges were situated in the Member States' health systems. The findings suggest that governance was often weak within the existing health systems amongst most of the LMICs studied, as was the guidance provided by WHO's guidelines on governance requirements. This challenge was further exacerbated by a lack of accountability and transparency mechanisms for uptake and implementation of guidelines. In addition, the WHO guidelines themselves were either unclear and were technically challenging for some health conditions; however, WHO guidelines were primarily used as a reference by Member States when they developed their national guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: The challenges identified reflect the national health systems' (in)ability to allocate, implement and monitor the guidelines. Historically this is beyond the remit of WHO, but Member States could benefit from WHO implementation guidance on requirements and needs for successful uptake and use of WHO guidelines.

Impact of school policies on non-communicable disease risk factors - a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Globally, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are identified as one of the leading causes of mortality. NCDs have several modifiable risk factors including unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and alcohol abuse. Schools provide ideal settings for health promotion, but the effectiveness of school policies in the reduction of risk factors for NCD is not clear. This study reviewed the literature on the impact of school policies on major NCD risk factors. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted to identify, collate and synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of school policies on reduction of NCD risk factors. A search strategy was developed to identify the relevant studies on effectiveness of NCD policies in schools for children between the age of 6 to 18 years in Ovid Medline, EMBASE, and Web of Science. Data extraction was conducted using pre-piloted forms. Studies included in the review were assessed for methodological quality using the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) quality assessment tool. A narrative synthesis according to the types of outcomes was conducted to present the evidence on the effectiveness of school policies. RESULTS: Overall, 27 out of 2633 identified studies were included in the review. School policies were comparatively more effective in reducing unhealthy diet, tobacco use, physical inactivity and inflammatory biomarkers as opposed to anthropometric measures, overweight/obesity, and alcohol use. In total, for 103 outcomes independently evaluated within these studies, 48 outcomes (46%) had significant desirable changes when exposed to the school policies. Based on the quality assessment, 18 studies were categorized as weak, six as moderate and three as having strong methodological quality. CONCLUSION: Mixed findings were observed concerning effectiveness of school policies in reducing NCD risk factors. The findings demonstrate that schools can be a good setting for initiating positive changes in reducing NCD risk factors, but more research is required with long-term follow up to study the sustainability of such changes.

Guides for facilitating the implementation and evaluation of social prescribing: lessons from the "Access to Resources in the Community" model. / Guides visant à faciliter la mise en oeuvre et l'évaluation de la prescription sociale : leçons tirées du modèle « Accès aux ressources communautaires ¼.

Social prescribing (SP) embodies a comprehensive approach to addressing the social determinants of health. Access to Resources in the Community (ARC) is an innovative SP program offering bilingual services that involves a single point of entry for health and social needs and introduces practice changes to assist primary care providers in engaging patients, along with a nonclinical lay navigator who supports patients in accessing relevant community resources. The ARC team has created a SP toolkit offering practical guidance for setting up, implementing, monitoring the progress of and evaluating SP programs. The four ARC guides can be easily customized for application in diverse practice and research settings.

We developed a set of guides for use in "Access to Resources in the Community" (ARC), one of the first social prescribing (SP) programs established and evaluated in Ontario, Canada. The four guides are: (1) PC Practice Set Up, (2) Navigator Training, (3) Navigation Processes and (4) Evaluation. The guides provide practical guidance for establishing, conducting and monitoring progress, and evaluating SP programs; they form the basis of a toolkit we created to support organizations and researchers in establishing and evaluating SP programs. The guides and toolkit are currently being adopted for the ARC/211- Ontario program that we are cocreating through a nonprofit research partnership with Community Connections, an innovative hub of 211 Ontario in Collingwood. The program will help generate evidence on the feasibility, effectiveness, impact on health inequities and cost-effectiveness of adapting and scaling up SP programs in Canada.

Nous avons mis au point quatre guides à utiliser dans le cadre du programme « Accès aux ressources communautaires ¼ (ARC), l'un des premiers programmes de prescription sociale reconnus et évalués en Ontario (Canada). Les quatre guides sont 1) Préparation du cabinet de soins primaires, 2) Formation des intervenants pivots, 3) Processus d'intervention pivot et 4) Évaluation. Ces guides fournissent des conseils pratiques sur l'établissement, la tenue et l'évaluation de programmes de prescription sociale ainsi que sur le suivi des progrès, constituant ansi la base d'une trousse d'outils créée pour aider les organisations et les chercheurs à établir et à évaluer des programmes de prescription sociale. Les guides et la trousse d'outils sont en cours d'adoption dans le cadre du programme ARC/211-Ontario que nous sommes en train de cocréer grâce à un partenariat de recherche sans but lucratif avec Community Connection, un carrefour novateur situé à Collingwood et qui relève de 211 Ontario. Ce programme contribuera à générer des données probantes sur la faisabilité, l'efficacité, la rentabilité et l'incidence (du point de vue des inégalités en matière de santé) de l'adaptation et de l'application à grande échelle des programmes de prescription sociale au Canada.

Evaluation of Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Surgical Approaches for Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.

Importance: Each approach for primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) has a long learning curve, so a surgeon's choice to change their preferred approach needs to be guided by clear justifications. However, current evidence does not suggest that any of the THA approaches are more beneficial than others, and the choice of approach is mainly based on the knowledge and experience of the surgeon and individual patient characteristics. Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety associated with different surgical approaches for THA. Data Sources: A comprehensive search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases from inception to March 26, 2022; reference lists of eligible trials; and related reviews. Study Selection: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing different surgical approaches, including the 2-incision approach, direct anterior approach (DAA), direct lateral approach (DLA), minimally invasive direct lateral approach (MIS-DLA), minimally invasive anterolateral approach (MIS-ALA), posterior approach (PA), minimally invasive posterior approach (MIS-PA), and supercapsular percutaneously assisted total hip arthroplasty (SuperPath), for primary THA. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, 2 reviewers independently extracted data on study participants, interventions, and outcomes as well as assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation framework. A frequentist framework was used to inform a series of random-effects network meta-analyses. Main Outcomes and Measures: The outcomes were hip score (range, 0-100, with higher scores indicating better overall hip condition), pain score (range, 0-100, with higher scores indicating more pain), hospitalization time, operation time, quality of life score, blood loss, cup abduction angle, and cup anteversion angle. Results: Of 2130 retrieved studies, 63 RCTs including 4859 participants (median [IQR] age, 64.0 [60.3-66.5] years; median [IQR] percentage male, 46.74% [38.64%-54.74%]) were eligible for analysis. Eight surgical approaches were evaluated. For hip score, DAA (mean difference [MD], 4.04; 95% CI, 1.92 to 6.16; moderate certainty), MIS-ALA (MD, 3.00; 95% CI, 0.43 to 5.59; moderate certainty), MIS-DLA (MD, 3.37; 95% CI, 1.05 to 5.68; moderate certainty), MIS-PA (MD, 4.46; 95% CI, 1.60 to 7.31; moderate certainty), PA (MD, 4.37; 95% CI, 1.87 to 6.88; high certainty), and SuperPath (MD, 5.00; 95% CI, 0.58 to 9.42; high certainty) were associated with greater improvement in hip score compared with DLA. DLA was associated with lower decrease in pain score than SuperPath (MD, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.13 to 2.20; high certainty) and MIS-DLA (MD, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.04 to 1.76; moderate certainty). PA was associated with shorter operation times compared with 2-incision (MD, -23.85 minutes; 95% CI, -36.60 to -11.10 minutes; high certainty), DAA (MD, -13.94 minutes; 95% CI, -18.79 to -9.08 minutes; moderate certainty), DLA (MD, -10.50 minutes; 95% CI, -16.07 to -4.94 minutes; high certainty), MIS-ALA (MD, -6.76 minutes; 95% CI, -12.86 to -0.65 minutes; moderate certainty), and SuperPath (MD, -13.91 minutes; 95% CI, -21.87 to -5.95 minutes; moderate certainty). The incidence of 6 types of complications did not differ significantly between the approaches. Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, moderate to high certainty evidence indicated that compared with PA, all surgical approaches except DLA were associated with similar improvements of hip score but longer operation time. DLA was associated with smaller improvement of hip score. The safety of the different approaches did not show significant differences. These findings will help health professionals and patients with better clinical decision-making and also provide references for policy makers.

Impact of policy changes on infant feeding decisions among low-income women participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

OBJECTIVES: We present infant feeding data before and after the 2009 Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food package change that supported and incentivized breastfeeding. We describe the key role of California WIC staff in supporting these policy changes. METHODS: We analyzed WIC data on more than 180,000 infants in Southern California. We employed the analysis of variance and Tukey (honestly significant difference) tests to compare issuance rates of postpartum and infant food packages before and after the changes. We used analysis of covariance to adjust for poverty status changes as a potential confounder. RESULTS: Issuance rates of the "fully breastfeeding" package at infant WIC enrollment increased by 86% with the package changes. Rates also increased significantly for 2- and 6-month-old infants. Issuance rates of packages that included formula decreased significantly. All outcomes remained highly significant in the adjusted model. CONCLUSIONS: Policy changes, training of front-line WIC staff, and participant education influenced issuance rates of WIC food packages. In California, the issuance rates of packages that include formula have significantly decreased and the rate for those that include no formula has significantly increased.

The Feasibility of a Primary Care Based Navigation Service to Support Access to Health and Social Resources: The Access to Resources in the Community (ARC) Model.

Introduction: We established a patient centric navigation model embedded in primary care (PC) to support access to the broad range of health and social resources; the Access to Resources in the Community (ARC) model. Methods: We evaluated the feasibility of ARC using the rapid cycle evaluations of the intervention processes, patient and PC provider surveys, and navigator log data. PC providers enrolled were asked to refer patients in whom they identified a health and/or social need to the ARC navigator. Results: Participants: 26 family physicians in four practices, and 82 of the 131 patients they referred. ARC was easily integrated in PC practices and was especially valued in the non-interprofessional practices. Patient overall satisfaction was very high (89%). Sixty patients completed the post-intervention surveys, and 33 reported accessing one or more service(s). Conclusion: The ARC Model is an innovative approach to reach and support a broad range of patients access needed resources. The Model is feasible and acceptable to PC providers and patients, and has demonstrated potential for improving patients' access to health and social resources. This study has informed a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to evaluate the ARC navigation to an existing web and telephone navigation service (Ontario 211).

School environment assessment tools to address behavioural risk factors of non-communicable diseases: A scoping review.

We aimed to identify, describe and analyse school environment assessment (SEA) tools that address behavioural risk factors (unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco and alcohol consumption) for non-communicable diseases (NCD). We searched in MEDLINE and Web of Science, hand-searched reference lists and contacted experts. Basic characteristics, measures assessed and measurement properties (validity, reliability, usability) of identified tools were extracted. We narratively synthesized the data and used content analysis to develop a list of measures used in the SEA tools. Twenty-four SEA tools were identified, mostly from developed countries. Out of these, 15 were questionnaire based, 8 were checklists or observation based tools and one tool used a combined checklist/observation based and telephonic questionnaire approach. Only 1 SEA tool had components related to all the four NCD risk factors, 2 SEA tools has assessed three NCD risk factors (diet/nutrition, physical activity, tobacco), 10 SEA tools has assessed two NCD risk factors (diet/nutrition and physical activity) and 11 SEA tools has assessed only one of the NCD risk factor. Several measures were used in the tools to assess the four NCD risk factors, but tobacco and alcohol was sparingly included. Measurement properties were reported for 14 tools. The review provides a comprehensive list of measures used in SEA tools which could be a valuable resource to guide future development of such tools. A valid and reliable SEA tool which could simultaneously evaluate all NCD risk factors, that has been tested in different settings with varying resource availability is needed.

Ethnicity, obesity and health pattern among Indian population.

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship of ethnicity with overweight/obesity, variation in adiposity levels, regional distribution of fat and its impact on cardio-respiratory health among selected ethnic groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 300 young adults of three ethnic groups from different geographical regions of India ranging in age from 20 to 30 years. Stature, weight, circumferences, body fat percentage, and skinfold thicknesses were measured. Obesity indices like body mass index (BMI), grand mean thickness (GMT), waist hip ratio (WHR), waist height ratio (WHtR), and conicity index (CI) were computed. Cardio-respiratory health indicators such as lung functions including forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1.0)), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory ratio (FER), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), breath holding time (BHT), and systolic and diastolic BP (blood pressure) were taken and associated with obesity indices. RESULTS: General body fat deposition, assessed by BMI, GMT, and fat percentage, was found to be the highest among Delhi females and males. However, central adiposity as assessed from WHR, WHtR, and CI was found to be significantly higher among the Manipur subjects signifying a relatively more androidal pattern of fat deposition. Most of the inter-group differences for adiposity indices were significant; however, it was not so in the case of blood pressure among different ethnic groups. On the other hand, the respiratory efficiency varied significantly between different ethnic groups. Ethnicity, adiposity, and cardio-respiratory health were found to be interrelated. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects belonging to three ethnic groups showed marked differences in different body dimension, adiposity indices, and cardio-respiratory health. Central obesity has been found to be a better pointer for cardiovascular health risk. There were ethnic and gender differences with respect to adiposity measures and cardio-respiratory health indicators.