Incentives for Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy: An Ethical Framework.

INTRODUCTION: Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of morbidity and mortality of the mother and child. The inability of the unborn child to protect itself, raises the social and academic responsibility to protect the child from the harmful effects of smoking. Interventions including rewards (incentives) for lifestyle changes are an upcoming trend and can encourage women to quit smoking. However, these incentives can, as we will argue, also have negative consequences, for example the restriction of personal autonomy and encouragement of smoking to become eligible for participation. To prevent these negative consequences, we developed an ethical framework that enables to assess and address unwanted consequences of incentive-based interventions whereby moral permissibility can be evaluated. AIMS AND METHODS: The possible adverse consequences of incentives were identified through an extensive literature search. Subsequently, we developed ethical criteria to identify these consequences based on the biomedical ethical principles of Beauchamp and Childress. RESULTS: Our framework consists of 12 criteria. These criteria concern (1) effectiveness, (2) support of a healthy lifestyle, (3) motivational for the target population, (4) stimulating unhealthy behavior, (5) negative attitudes, (6) personal autonomy, (7) intrinsic motivation, (8) privacy, (9) fairness, (10) allocation of incentives, (11) cost-effectiveness, and (12) health inequity. Based on these criteria, the moral permissibility of potential interventions can be evaluated. CONCLUSIONS: Incentives for smoking cessation are a response to the responsibility to protect the unborn child. But these interventions might have possible adverse effects. This ethical framework aims to identify and address ethical pitfalls in order to avoid these adverse effects. IMPLICATIONS: Although various interventions to promote smoking cessation during pregnancy exist, many women still smoke during pregnancy. Interventions using incentives for smoking cessation during pregnancy are a promising and upcoming trend but can have unwanted consequences. This ethical framework helps to identify and address ethical pitfalls in order to avoid these adverse effects.It can be a practical tool in the development and evaluation of these interventions and in evaluating the moral permissibility of interventions using incentives for smoking cessation during pregnancy.

How to distinguish medicalization from over-medicalization?

Is medicalization always harmful? When does medicine overstep its proper boundaries? The aim of this article is to outline the pragmatic criteria for distinguishing between medicalization and over-medicalization. The consequences of considering a phenomenon to be a medical problem may take radically different forms depending on whether the problem in question is correctly or incorrectly perceived as a medical issue. Neither indiscriminate acceptance of medicalization of subsequent areas of human existence, nor criticizing new medicalization cases just because they are medicalization can be justified. The article: (i) identifies various consequences of both well-founded medicalization and over-medicalization; (ii) demonstrates that the issue of defining appropriate limits of medicine cannot be solved by creating an optimum model of health; (iii) proposes four guiding questions to help distinguish medicalization from over-medicalization. The article should foster a normative analysis of the phenomenon of medicalization and contribute to the bioethical reflection on the boundaries of medicine.

Disease awareness campaigns in printed and online media in Latvia: cross-sectional study on consistency with WHO ethical criteria for medicinal drug promotion and European standards.

BACKGROUND: European legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases. Our aim was to measure the frequency of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media and assess their compliance with international and European standards. METHODS: Materials on health/disease and treatments were collected between April and September 2015 from 12 newspapers and magazines and six online portals. Disease awareness campaigns were assessed using a previously developed instrument based on the WHO Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug promotion and European standards (EU law and pharmaceutical industry self-regulatory guidelines). Collected materials were used to examine the information provided on medical conditions and their diagnosis and treatment. The inter-rater reliability was calculated. RESULTS: We collected 263 materials from print (n = 149) and online media (n = 114); 94 were news items and 169 were disease-awareness advertisements. Cancer, cardiovascular problems, allergies and respiratory diseases were common topics. Of the 157 campaigns assessed, non-compliance was identified in 149 cases (inter-rater reliability 90%), mainly due to misleading or incomplete information, lack of balance and the absence of a listed author/sponsor. Six disease awareness campaigns directly mentioned a pharmaceutical product by brand name and other four included the logo or name of a manufacturer, referred to a condition and indirectly mentioned a treatment, all in contravention with European law. CONCLUSIONS: The compliance of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media with international and European standards is low. This raises concerns about the nature of information being conveyed. Through lack of balance, missing sponsorship information, and misleading or incomplete information, these campaigns could contribute to inaccurate self-diagnosis and generate demand among those who might not need medical treatment.

Addressing Medical Students' Negative Bias Toward Patients With Obesity Through Ethics Education.

Context: Negative bias toward patients with obesity is an ethical challenge in patient care. Several interventions to mitigate medical students' negative weight bias have been tried but none with an explicit focus on ethics. Here we describe first-year medical students' attitudes toward obesity and our effort to improve their attitudes through an innovative ethics session embedded within the required course, "Obesity, Nutrition, and Behavior Change," at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Methods: Precourse survey data were collected from 6 first-year cohorts (2012-2017). Before the ethics session, students take the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit weight bias. During the session, students discuss their classmates' personal struggles with weight, beliefs about causes of obesity, and the IAT results. They also watch and discuss video clips from the TV show House depicting negative weight bias. In addition, the 2017 cohort was surveyed 4 months later to evaluate the impact of different components of the session on students' self-reported attitudes. Results: All students responded to the precourse survey. Across cohorts, IAT results revealed that 70% of students held a thin preference, 18% were neutral and 12% held a fat preference. Forty-seven percent had personally struggled with weight loss. While most students thought obesity is a disease (89%) or behavioral (88%), 74% thought it results from ignorance, and 28% thought people with obesity are lazy. Among the 59 respondents to the follow-up survey, 30% reported improvement in their attitudes after the session. Over 40% thought it was useful to discuss students' personal struggles with weight and the IAT and survey results, and over 70% thought the House video clips were useful. Conclusions: Medical students have negative attitudes about obesity that are consistent over time. Providing opportunities for students to discuss their personal experiences and beliefs about obesity within an ethics framework and using popular media as a basis for discussion might improve their attitudes toward obesity.

How Should Primary Care Physicians Respond to Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Test Results?

In this case, a primary care physician is presented with direct-to-consumer genetic test results and asked to provide counseling and order follow-up diagnostics. In order to deal effectively with this situation, we suggest physicians need look no further than the practice principles that guide more routine clinical encounters. We examine the rationale behind 2 major clinical ethical considerations: (1) physicians have obligations to help their patients achieve reasonable health goals but are not obligated to perform procedures that are not medically indicated; and (2) primary care physicians do not need to know everything; they just need to know how to get their patients appropriate care.

The Ethics of Making Patients Responsible.

In their daily clinical work, healthcare professionals generally apply what seems to be a double standard for the responsibility of patients. On the one hand, patients are encouraged to take responsibility for lifestyle changes that can improve their chances of good health. On the other hand, when patients fail to follow such recommendations, they are not held responsible for the failure. This seeming inconsistency is explained in terms of the distinction between task responsibility and blame responsibility. The double standard for responsibility is shown to be epistemologically rational, ethically commendable, and therapeutically advantageous. However, this non-blaming approach to patient responsibility is threatened by proposals to assign lower priority in healthcare to patients who are themselves responsible for their disease. Such responsibility-based priority setting requires that physicians assign blame responsibility to their patients, a practice that would run into conflict with the ethical foundations of the patient-physician relationship. Therefore, such proposals should be rejected.

La promoción de salud desde el enfoque de gestión de la calidad en la Universidad de La Habana / Health promotion from the perspective of quality management at the University of Havana

Fundamento: La humanidad está afrontando el incremento de algunas enfermedades, prevenibles y curables, de ahí la importancia de la promoción de salud para elevar la percepción de riesgo de la población; debido a ello en la Universidad de La Habana se diseñó un Festival Recreativo Educativo en Salud a partir del sistema de gestión de la calidad de la extensión universitaria implementado. Objetivo: Sistematizar el Festival Recreativo Educativo en Salud como experiencia de gestión de la calidad en promoción de salud. Metodología: Se realizó una sistematización prospectiva empleándose elementos de la investigación-acción-participativa en el período septiembre 2012 a febrero 2016. Se aplicó la técnica positivo-negativo-interesante y un cuestionario para evaluar el grado de satisfacción de los participantes. Resultados: Se diseñaron, organizaron y ejecutaron, trece tipologías de actividades en diez ediciones del Festival, alcanzando 4259 personas, de las que el 87,8 % mostró un alto grado de satisfacción. Conclusiones: A través de esta experiencia se propone una nueva metodología para trabajar la promoción de salud en la comunidad universitaria, no como herramienta, sino como proceso de promoción cultural, dirigido a despertar en la comunidad universitaria y la población, el interés por la salud y la asunción de la responsabilidad individual y colectiva.

Background: Humanity is facing the increase of certain diseases, preventable and curable, hence the importance of health promotion to raise the risk perception of the population; due to this, it was designed a Health Education Recreation Festival at the University of Havana based on the quality management system of the university extension implemented. Objective: To systematize the Health Education Recreation Festival as an experience of quality management in health promotion. Methodology: A prospective systematization was carried out using elements participatory action research from September 2012 to February 2016. PNI technique and a questionnaire to assess the degree of satisfaction of participants were applied. Results: Thirteen types of activities were designed, organized and executed in ten editions of the Festival, reaching 4259 people, of which 87.8 % showed a high degree of satisfaction. Conclusions: Through this experience, a new methodology is proposed to work on health promotion in the university community, not as a tool, but as a process of cultural promotion, aimed at awakening in the university community and the population, interest in health and the assumption of individual and collective responsibility.

La persona y el Estado como agentes de responsabilidad para la producción de sociedades saludables: análisis temático desde la perspectiva de profesionales de la salud en Cataluña (España) / The individual and the State as agents responsible for the production of healthy societies: a thematic analysis from the perspective of health professionals in Catalonia (Spain)

RESUMEN El objetivo del artículo es analizar los sentidos a partir de los cuales se articulan las prácticas de intervención en promoción de la salud y sus consecuencias en la atribución de responsabilidades en salud. La aprobación de la Ley 18/2009 de Salud Pública de Cataluña propició la realización del Projecte demostratiu de l’Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya el cual incluyó, durante 2009 y 2010, el Pla transversal d’educació i promoció de la salut en infants i joves en La Garrotxa (comarca de Cataluña), marco en el que se realizaron 20 entrevistas a informantes claves. Mediante un análisis temático, encontramos que se identifica al Estado y a la persona como los principales agentes responsables de la producción de sociedades saludables. Asimismo, evidenciamos que, a partir de diferentes articulaciones entre los discursos que refieren a la toma libre y racional de decisiones, y aquellos que refieren al entorno social, político y económico, se configuran diferentes enfoques sobre la responsabilidad, cuyos efectos se relacionan con la potenciación (o no) del Estado como garante de la salud poblacional en contraste con la culpabilización personal.

ABSTRACT This article aims to analyze the meanings upon which health promotion intervention practices are based, and the consequences of these meanings in the identification of responsibilities in health. The passage of Catalonia’s Public Health Law 18/2009 facilitated the development of the Demonstrative Project of the Public Health Agency, in the framework of which fieldwork for the Plan for Health Education and Promotion in Children and Adolescents in La Garrotxa (region of Catalonia) was carried out. In this way, 20 interviews with key informants were conducted. Through a thematic analysis, it was found that the State and the individual are identified as the primary agents responsible for the production of healthy societies. It was also evidenced that, in the articulation between the discourses referring to free and rational decision-making and those referring to the social, political and economic environment, different approaches towards responsibility are construed, with effects related to the potentiation (or lack thereof) of the State as a guarantor of the population’s health in opposition to blaming of the individual.

Ethical Issues in Using Social Media to Deliver an HIV Prevention Intervention: Results from the HOPE Peru Study.

Social media technologies have become increasingly useful tools for research-based interventions. However, participants and social media users have expressed ethical concerns with these studies, such as risks and benefits of participation, as well as privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent issues. This study was designed to follow up with and assess experiences and perceptions of ethics-related issues among a sample of 211 men who have sex with men who participated in the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) Peru study, a randomized controlled HIV prevention intervention conducted in Peru. We found that after adjusting for age, highest educational attainment, race, sexual orientation, and prior HIV research experience, participants in the intervention group were more likely than those in the control group to have safe sex (p = 0.0051) and get tested for HIV regularly (p = 0.0051). As a result of their participation, those in the intervention group benefited more positively than participants in the control group in improving HIV care (p = 0.0077) and learning where to receive sexual health services (p = 0.0021). Participants in the intervention group expressed higher levels of comfort than those in the control group in joining and seeing other people in the Facebook group (p = 0.039), seeing other people's posts (p = 0.038) and having other group members talk to them online (p = 0.040). We discuss the implications of these results as they relate to social media-based HIV research.

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns.

Controversy has swirled over the past three decades about the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns. The HIV/AIDS epidemic provided a context in which advocacy groups were almost uniformly hostile to any use of fear, arguing that it was inherently stigmatising and always backfired. Although this argument was often accepted within public health circles, surprisingly, the bioethicists who first grappled with this issue in terms of autonomy and coercion in the 1980s were not single-minded: fear could be autonomy-enhancing. But by the turn of the 21st century, as opponents of fear-based appeals linked them to stigmatisation, ethicists typically rejected fear as inherently unethical. The evidence has increasingly suggested that fear-based campaigns 'work.' Emotionally charged public health messages have, as a consequence, become more commonplace. We conclude that an ethics of public health, which prioritises population well-being, as contrasted with the contemporary focus of bioethics on autonomy, provides a moral warrant for ensuring that populations understand health risk 'in their guts.' This, we argue, does not relieve public health authorities from considering the burdens their efforts may impose on vulnerable populations.

Making Healthy Choices Easier: Regulation versus Nudging.

In recent years, the nudge approach to behavior change has emerged from the behavioral sciences to challenge the traditional use of regulation in public health strategies to address modifiable individual-level behaviors related to the rise of noncommunicable diseases and their treatment. However, integration and testing of the nudge approach as part of more comprehensive public health strategies aimed at making healthy choices easier are being threatened by inadequate understandings of its scientific character, its relationship with regulation, and its ethical implications. This article reviews this character and its ethical implication with a special emphasis on the compatibility of nudging with traditional regulation, special domains of experience, and the need for a more nuanced approach to the ethical debate. The aim is to advance readers' understanding and give guidance to those who have considered working with or incorporating the nudge approach into programs or policies aimed at making healthful choices easier.

La violencia contra la mujer: abordaje en profesionales de la Atención Primaria desde una perspectiva bioética / Violence against Women: Approach to Primary Care Professionals from A Bioethical Perspective

Introducción: la violencia contra la mujer es considerada por organizaciones internacionales y gobiernos como un problema de salud pública de primer orden, que requiere de una voluntad política para establecer objetivos y estrategias eficaces en función de la prevención y un seguimiento constante. Objetivo: reflexionar sobre la necesidad de que los profesionales de la atención primaria en su accionar, tanto en consulta como en visita a terreno, utilicen los principios de la bioética como un instrumento esencial para la obtención de un diagnóstico integral y la imperiosa solución preventiva de los conflictos de valores morales que se puedan presentar o de transgresión de principios éticos en el abordaje de tal problemática. Métodos: revisión bibliográfica sobre aspectos éticos y bioéticos necesarios para el abordaje del problema de la violencia contra la mujer por parte de los profesionales de la Atención Primaria de Salud. Conclusiones: los conocimientos sobre violencia contra la mujer en los profesionales de la atención primaria tienen un limitado alcance para afrontar las disímiles manifestaciones de este fenómeno en función de un accionar comunitario transformador, a partir de la realización de acciones de prevención y promoción de salud que permitan análisis y comprensión de actividades de prevención con una visión intersectorial(AU)

Introduction: Violence against women is considered a public health problem of the first order by international organizations and governments. This problem requires political will establish effective goals and strategies in terms of prevention and constant monitoring. Objective: Reflect on the need for primary care professionals in their actions, both in consultation and field visits, using the bioethics principles as an essential tool for obtaining comprehensive diagnosis and urgent preventive solution on moral values conflicts that may arise and / or violation of ethical principles in addressing such issues. Methods: A literature review was conducted on ethical and bioethical aspects needed to address the problem of violence against women by the professionals of Primary Health Care. Conclusions: Knowledge on violence against women of primary care professionals are limited in scope to address the disparate manifestations of this phenomenon in terms of transforming community action, from performing prevention and health promotion, which allow analysis and understanding of prevention activities with a cross-cutting vision(AU)

Saúde mental e fatores emocionais nas campanhas brasileiras da semana mundial de aleitamento materno / Mental health and emotional factors in brazilian campaigns of world breastfeeding week

Reduzir a mortalidade infantil tem sido o foco das campanhas da Semana Mundial de Aleitamento Materno. Por outro lado, a amamentação e o desmame são considerados pela psicanálise como momentos fundamentais na profilaxia em saúde mental. Nosso objetivo é investigar como os aspectos emocionais envolvidos no aleitamento são abordados no material de divulgação das campanhas brasileiras, de 1999 (ano de sua criação) a 2010. O método adotado foi a análise categorial de conteúdo e os resultados indicam que (1) os benefícios emocionais da amamentação são tratados de modo periférico, (2) o desmame é empobrecido em sua dimensão relacional (separação), sendo apresentado como um conceito pragmático, cronológico e baseado na introdução de novos alimentos, (3) o termo "saúde mental" é mencionado uma única vez e sem definição precisa. O vínculo entre amamentação e desenvolvimento emocional, assim como a perspectiva de profilaxia em saúde mental não foram plenamente exploradas nas campanhas analisadas.

The reduction of child mortality has been the focus of World Breastfeeding Week campaigns. On the other hand, breastfeeding and weaning are considered by psychoanalysis as key moments in the prophylaxis in mental health. Our goal is to investigate how the emotional aspects involved in breastfeeding have been addressed on the promotional material of Brazilian campaigns from 1999 (year of its creation) to 2010. The method adopted was the categorical content analysis and the results indicate that (1) the emotional benefits of breastfeeding are treated superficially, (2) weaning is depleted of its relational dimension (separation), being presented as a chronological and pragmatic concept, based on the introduction of new foods, (3) the term "mental health" is mentioned only once, without a precise definition. The relationship between breastfeeding and emotional development, besides the prophylaxis of mental health, has not been fully exploited in the analyzed campaigns.

Determining who responds better to a computer- vs. human-delivered physical activity intervention: results from the community health advice by telephone (CHAT) trial.

BACKGROUND: Little research has explored who responds better to an automated vs. human advisor for health behaviors in general, and for physical activity (PA) promotion in particular. The purpose of this study was to explore baseline factors (i.e., demographics, motivation, interpersonal style, and external resources) that moderate intervention efficacy delivered by either a human or automated advisor. METHODS: Data were from the CHAT Trial, a 12-month randomized controlled trial to increase PA among underactive older adults (full trial N = 218) via a human advisor or automated interactive voice response advisor. Trial results indicated significant increases in PA in both interventions by 12 months that were maintained at 18-months. Regression was used to explore moderation of the two interventions. RESULTS: Results indicated amotivation (i.e., lack of intent in PA) moderated 12-month PA (d = 0.55, p < 0.01) and private self-consciousness (i.e., tendency to attune to one's own inner thoughts and emotions) moderated 18-month PA (d = 0.34, p < 0.05) but a variety of other factors (e.g., demographics) did not (p > 0.12). CONCLUSIONS: Results provide preliminary evidence for generating hypotheses about pathways for supporting later clinical decision-making with regard to the use of either human- vs. computer-delivered interventions for PA promotion.

Clinical uncertainties, health service challenges, and ethical complexities of HIV "test-and-treat": a systematic review.

Despite the HIV "test-and-treat" strategy's promise, questions about its clinical rationale, operational feasibility, and ethical appropriateness have led to vigorous debate in the global HIV community. We performed a systematic review of the literature published between January 2009 and May 2012 using PubMed, SCOPUS, Global Health, Web of Science, BIOSIS, Cochrane CENTRAL, EBSCO Africa-Wide Information, and EBSCO CINAHL Plus databases to summarize clinical uncertainties, health service challenges, and ethical complexities that may affect the test-and-treat strategy's success. A thoughtful approach to research and implementation to address clinical and health service questions and meaningful community engagement regarding ethical complexities may bring us closer to safe, feasible, and effective test-and-treat implementation.

Tobacco endgame strategies: challenges in ethics and law.

There are complex legal and ethical tradeoffs involved in using intensified regulation to bring smoking prevalence to near-zero levels. The authors explore these tradeoffs through a lens of health justice, paying particular attention to the potential impact on vulnerable populations. The ethical tradeoffs explored include the charge that heavy regulation is paternalistic; the potentially regressive impact of heavily taxing a product consumed disproportionately by the poor; the simple loss of enjoyment to heavily addicted smokers; the health risks posed by, for example, regulating nicotine content in cigarettes--where doing so leads to increased consumption. Turning to legalistic concerns, the authors explore whether endgame strategies constitute a form of 'regulatory taking'; whether endgame strategies can be squared with global trade/investment laws; whether free speech rights are infringed by aggressive restrictions on the advertisement and marketing of cigarettes.

[The complexity of obesity--some ethical perspectives]. / Zum themenkomplex adipositas--einige ethische perspektiven.

The clinically oriented debate in the context of obesity is often blurred when in comes to morality, professional ethos and societal values. Surgeons, for example, might bring different normative approaches to the operation rooms than psychiatrists to their therapeutic sessions. These values often remain unspoken, but might change the medical conveyor belt of the patients affected. In this text, we want to focus on this so called "implicit normativity" of different stake holders. In addition, we question the concept of "illness" as obesity can be labelled as an illness and/or symptom - depending on the eyes of the observer. From a more societal perspective, any effort of prevention also comes with normative strings attached. Thus we plea for a stronger awareness of one's own values related to obesity, either in a clinical, personal or societal setting.