Web-based questionnaire survey for exploring engagement characteristics of advance care planning in Japan: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Definitive promotion of advance care planning (ACP) practices will require policy interventions tailored to the characteristics of the Japanese population and society. However, effective policies for promoting ACP are currently lacking in Japan. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of Japanese people who engaged in ACP activities through a web-based questionnaire survey, which was administered to individuals aged 25-64 years and classified into four occupational categories (non-medical/non-caregiving professionals [general population], physicians, nurses, and caregivers). RESULTS: The total sample size was 1,648, with equal occupational category and age group distributions. Respondents in the general population group were less likely to discuss or document ACP than those in the other groups. Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed a significant difference in the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of the independent variables of "attended cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training session(s)" (aOR: 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18-3.15) and "having experience in performing CPR" (aOR: 2.61; 95% CI: 1.51-4.54) for respondents who discussed ACP with their families. A significant difference was observed in the aOR of the independent variable of "having experience in performing CPR" (aOR: 4.58; 95% CI: 2.30-9.13) for respondents who documented a written record of ACP.

Influence of Brazil's public health policies on physical activity promotion in urban areas

The research aims to determine the influence of Brazil's public health policies on promoting physical activity in urban areas. An overview of the impact of Brazilian public health initiatives on encouraging physical exercise in metropolitan areas is given in the study. Brazil has put in place a wide range of regulations to combat non-communicable disease and promote healthy living. The cornerstone of the approach is the National Health Promotion Policy, which highlights the incorporation of physical exercise into everyday activities. Research used smart PLS software to measure the research and generated informative results, including descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, and smart PLS Algorithm model. The goal of infrastructure development, urban planning, and educational initiatives is to provide settings that support active living. Campaigns for health promotion and community involvement support these initiatives by raising awareness and encouraging behavioral change. These policies will only be successful if they are implemented well, are continuously assessed, and are flexible. Overall result found the positive and significant influence of Brazil's public health policies on physical activity promotion in the urban areas. Brazil's dedication to encouraging physical exercise indicates the global recognition of the significance of preventative health measures. Sustained endeavors towards this end might foster a more robust and engaged urban populace in Brazil (AU)

Hesitação vacinal infantil e COVID-19: uma análise a partir da percepção dos profissionais de saúde / Childhood vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19: an analysis based on the perception of health professionals / La reticencia vacunal infantil y la COVID-19: un análisis a partir de la percepción de los profesionales de la salud

Resumo: Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa sobre a percepção dos profissionais de saúde sobre a hesitação vacinal infantil relacionada à COVID-19. Baseado no constructo teórico da hesitação vacinal, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa com 86 trabalhadores da atenção primária à saúde (APS) em quatro municípios de quatro estados brasileiros e no Distrito Federal. A análise temática foi realizada e obtiveram-se três categorias: medo, desinformação em vacina e papel dos profissionais de saúde. O medo como motivo de hesitação vacinal gerou reflexões sobre a condução da pandemia pelo Governo Federal, principalmente no que tange à governabilidade por meio desse afeto, e sobre as consequências do uso das plataformas digitais na população. O medo relacionou-se ao fato de a vacina ainda ser percebida como experimental; às possíveis reações adversas; à ausência de estudos de longo prazo; à falsa percepção de risco reduzido da COVID-19 em crianças; e às condutas do Governo Federal geradoras de insegurança nos efeitos da vacina. A desinformação em vacina relacionou-se às fake news sobre a vacina e suas reações; ao fenômeno da infodemia e desinformação; e à ausência de orientação e conhecimento sobre vacinas. Por fim, o trabalho discute o papel fundamental dos profissionais de saúde da APS no aumento da cobertura vacinal devido à confiabilidade perante a população e à proximidade com os territórios, fatores que possibilitam reverter o medo e a desinformação diante das vacinas. Ao longo do trabalho, buscou-se apresentar as convergências entre o conteúdo dos temas delineados e os determinantes da hesitação vacinal e refletir sobre possibilidades para a reconstrução da alta adesão às vacinas infantis.

Abstract: This article presents the results of a study on health professionals' perceptions of childhood vaccine hesitancy related to COVID-19. Based on the theoretical construct of vaccine hesitancy, a qualitative study was conducted with 86 primary health care (PHC) workers in four municipalities in four Brazilian states and in the Federal District. A thematic analysis was performed and three categories were obtained: fear, misinformation about vaccines, and the role of health professionals. Fear as a reason for vaccine hesitancy has led to reflections on the Brazilian Federal Government's management of the pandemic, especially regarding governability and the consequences of the use of digital platforms on the population. Fear was related to the vaccine still being perceived as experimental; to the adverse reactions it may cause; to the lack of long-term studies; to the false perception of reduced risk of COVID-19 in children; and to the Federal Government's behavior, which creates uncertainty about the effects of the vaccine. Vaccine misinformation was related to fake news about the vaccine and its reactions; the phenomenon of infodemic and misinformation; and the lack of guidance and knowledge about vaccines. Finally, the article discusses the fundamental role of PHC workers in increasing vaccination coverage due to the trust among the population and proximity to the territories, factors that enable the reversal of fear and misinformation about vaccines. Throughout the study, authors' sought to show the convergences between the content of the themes outlined and the determinants of vaccine hesitancy and to consider possibilities for rebuilding high adherence to childhood vaccines.

Resumen: Este artículo presenta los resultados de una encuesta sobre la percepción de los profesionales de la salud acerca de la reticencia vacunal infantil relacionada con la COVID-19. Con base en el constructo teórico de la reticencia vacunal, se realizó una encuesta cualitativa con 86 trabajadores de la atención primaria de salud (APS) en 4 municipios de 4 estados brasileños y en el Distrito Federal. Se realizó un análisis temático y se obtuvieron tres categorías: miedo, desinformación sobre vacunas y papel de los profesionales de la salud. El miedo como motivo de reticencia vacunal dio lugar a reflexiones sobre el manejo de la pandemia por parte del Gobierno Federal, sobre todo en lo que respecta a la gobernabilidad por medio de esta afección y las consecuencias del uso de plataformas digitales en la población. El temor se relacionó con el hecho de que la vacuna todavía se percibe como experimental; con las reacciones adversas que puedan provocar; con la ausencia de estudios a largo plazo; con la falsa percepción de riesgo reducido de COVID-19 en niños y con las conductas del Gobierno Federal que generan inseguridad sobre los efectos de la vacuna. La desinformación sobre las vacunas se relacionó con noticias falsas sobre la vacuna y sus reacciones; el fenómeno de la infodemia y la desinformación; y la ausencia de orientación y conocimiento sobre las vacunas. Finalmente, el trabajo discute el papel fundamental de los profesionales de la salud de la APS en el aumento de la cobertura vacunal debido a su confiabilidad entre la población y cercanía a los territorios, factores que permiten revertir el miedo y la desinformación respecto a las vacunas. A lo largo del trabajo, se buscó presentar las convergencias entre el contenido de los temas delineados y los determinantes de la reticencia vacunal y reflexionar sobre las posibilidades para la reconstrucción de una alta adhesión a las vacunas infantiles.

A grounded theory-based qualitative approach for examining local implementation of public health policies during crises.

Background: COVID-19's emergence questions the agility of health policy deployment in a context of urgency. This exceptional pandemic offers a unique Implementation Science study opportunity. It reveals how actors adapt, coordinate, and mitigate an unknown global threat to safeguard populations from an initially mysterious virus. Limited research has explored how involved players act and adapt their practices to fulfil health protection missions during a global health crisis. Bridging the gap between public policy expectations and achievements requires a methodology for stakeholder identification and implementation practice description. Objective: Focusing on COVID-19 management in France's second-largest region, we investigate ministerial recommendation implementation and the emergence of new links, coordination modes, and practices. Methods: Due to the novel subject, we adopted grounded theory. Initial documentary data collection identifies stakeholders for subsequent interviews. Open-ended coding of collected discourse enables content analysis. Results: Findings reveal a crisis-driven re-evaluation of stakeholder relationships. This research identifies three levels of implementation of health policies at the local level (administrative, organizational and operational) and reveals different types of coordination specific to each of these levels. Our results provide insights on how to better coordinate and implement healthcare policies in a period of crisis. Recommendations include real-life simulations of large-scale crises. Conclusion: Our work establishes a methodological foundation for analysing coordination dynamics. Future research could compare these findings with other unpredictable health emergencies, such as episiotomic veterinary health crises.•The first step of the method is to analyse the guidelines of health policy implementation during the Covid-19 crisis and to identify the main stakeholders in charge of the local health policy implementation.•The second step consists of interviewing these stakeholders using a co-constructed sample and structural coding of their speech to reveal the forms of coordination between stakeholders.

Assessing Obesogenic School Environments in Sibiu County, Romania: Adapting the ISCOLE School Environment Questionnaire.

The impact of the school environment on childhood weight status has garnered significant attention in recent years. This study aimed to adapt and validate the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE) School and Environment questionnaire in order to assess the potential obesogenic impact of school environments in Sibiu County, Romania. The ISCOLE questionnaire was chosen for its rigorous methodology. It was derived from a comprehensive study conducted across 12 countries which aimed to capture multifaceted influences on childhood weight while emphasizing educational settings in the collection of data. To guide the translation and adaptation of the questionnaire, a multidisciplinary committee was assembled which comprised experts in teaching and school administration to ensure target responder relevance, experts in clinical research to ensure methodological robustness, experts in language adaptation to preserve the original intent of the survey, and experts in public health to steer the interpretation of the results, with potential policy implications. The data were analyzed by distinguishing between urban and rural settings, and a two-step cluster analysis was implemented to identify potential intervention targets. To assess the validity of the adapted tool, the questionnaire's construct validity and internal consistency were explored. A response rate of 71.2% of the approached schools in Sibiu County was achieved. Of the 84 responding school representatives, 37 (44%) were from a rural setting. The rural schools had significantly more limited access to gymnasiums, secured lockers, showers, and bicycle racks, and exhibited more serious problems regarding the inadequate disposal of garbage in the school vicinity. A two-step cluster analysis revealed distinct school categories, providing opportunities for public policy interventions. One of these primarily concerned rural schools with limited infrastructure but with proactive practices and policies which were termed "unable but willing"; on the opposing spectrum, the category "able but unwilling" mainly comprised urban schools which had available facilities but lacked local proactive initiatives. The findings emphasize the urgent need for targeted measures to bridge these discrepancies by investing in infrastructure in rural schools and promoting active school practices and policies in urban settings. The assessment of obesogenic school environments in Sibiu County provides a pilot model for broader applications due to the diverse school landscape and supportive local authorities. The results, which were achieved using low-cost methods, can guide future educational policies, health promotion initiatives, and preventive interventions.

Big data-driven public health policy making: Potential for the healthcare industry.

The use of healthcare data analytics is anticipated to play a significant role in future public health policy formulation. Therefore, this study examines how big data analytics (BDA) may be methodically incorporated into various phases of the health policy cycle for fact-based and precise health policy decision-making. So, this study explores the potential of BDA for accurate and rapid policy-making processes in the healthcare industry. A systematic review of literature spanning 22 years (from January 2001 to January 2023) has been conducted using the PRISMA approach to develop a conceptual framework. The study introduces the emerging topic of BDA in healthcare policy, goes over the advantages, presents a framework, advances instances from the literature, reveals difficulties and provides recommendations. This study argues that BDA has the ability to transform the conventional policy-making process into data-driven process, which helps to make accurate health policy decision. In addition, this study contends that BDA is applicable to the different stages of health policy cycle, namely policy identification, agenda setting as well as policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Currently, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics are used for public health policy decisions on data obtained from several common health-related big data sources like electronic health reports, public health records, patient and clinical data, and government and social networking sites. To effectively utilize all of the data, it is necessary to overcome the computational, algorithmic and technological obstacles that define today's extremely heterogeneous data landscape, as well as a variety of legal, normative, governance and policy limitations. Big data can only fulfill its full potential if data are made available and shared. This enables public health institutions and policymakers to evaluate the impact and risk of policy changes at the population level.

Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C is a disease with a strong social component, as its main transmission route is via blood, making it associated with lifestyle. Therefore, it is suitable to be worked on from the perspective of public health policy, which still has a lot of room to explore and improve, contrary to diagnoses and treatments, which are already very refined and effective. OBJECTIVE: An interactive gamified policy tool, designated as Let's End HepC (LEHC), was created to understand the impact of policies related to hepatitis C on the disease's epidemiology on a yearly basis until 2030. METHODS: To this end, an innovative epidemiological model was developed, integrating Markov chains to model the natural history of the disease and adaptive conjoint analysis to reflect the degree of application of each of the 24 public health policies included in the model. This double imputation model makes it possible to assess a set of indicators such as liver transplant, incidence, and deaths year by year until 2030 in different risk groups. Populations at a higher risk were integrated into the model to understand the specific epidemiological dynamics within the total population of each country and within segments that comprise people who have received blood products, prisoners, people who inject drugs, people infected through vertical transmission, and the remaining population. RESULTS: The model has already been applied to a group of countries, and studies in 5 of these countries have already been concluded, showing results very close to those obtained through other forms of evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: The LEHC model allows the simulation of different degrees of implementation of each policy and thus the verification of its epidemiological impact on each studied population. The gamification feature allows assessing the adequate fulfillment of the World Health Organization goals for the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030. LEHC supports health decision makers and people who practice patient advocacy in making decisions based on science, and because LEHC is democratically shared, it ends up contributing to the increase of citizenship in health. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR1-10.2196/38521.

Avaliação de condição de saúde bucal de idosos institucionalizados: revisão integrativa / Assessment of oral health conditions of institutionalized elderly: integrative review / Evaluaciónde las condiciones de salud bucal de ancianos institucionalizados: revisión integrativa

Com o aumento da expectativa de vida, é esperado que a população idosa se faça presente cada dia mais na sociedade. Por esse motivo, é importante reconhecer as necessidades de saúde desse grupo de pessoas que vivem institucionalizadas, para que a odontogeriatria atue de forma mais ativa e proceda de maneira mais efetiva, atendendo as demandas priorizando uma maior qualidade de vida.Objetivo:Identificar as principais alterações que acometem a cavidade oral de idosos institucionalizados. Metodologia:Fez-se uma revisão integrativa nas bases de dados LILACS, BBO, IBECS, SciELOe PubMed. Foram usados os descritores "Saúde do Idoso Institucionalizado", "idoso" e "odontologia" junto de seus sinônimos e variações em inglês, retirados do DeCS e MeSH. Os critérios de inclusão foram artigos originais, artigos nas línguas portuguesa, inglesa e espanhola, estudos que envolveram pessoas e sem restrição quanto ao ano de publicação. Foram excluídos estudos feitos em animais, revisões de literatura, capítulos de livros, teses e dissertações. Resultados:Foram identificados 555 registros. Desses, 15artigos foram selecionados para compor a revisão. Diversas alterações orais foram encontradas. As principais foram hiperplasia tecidual, estomatite e xerostomia, candidíase e halitose. Sendo os principais fatores causadores: má higiene oral, medicamentos utilizados e má adaptação de próteses dentárias. Conclusões:Considerando os resultados da análise dessa revisão integrativa, pode-se concluir que a hiperplasia tecidual, estomatite, xerostomia são as alterações mais predominantes nos idosos institucionalizados (AU).

With the increase in life expectancy, it is expected that the elderly population will become more and more present in society. For this reason, it is important to recognize the health needs of this group of people who live institutionalized, so that geriatric dentistry acts more actively and proceeds more effectively, meeting the demands prioritizing a better quality of life. Objective:To identify the main alterations that affect the oral cavity of institutionalized elderly.Methodology:An integrative review was carried out in the LILACS, BBO, IBECS, SciELO and PubMed databases. The descriptors were used "Saúde do Idoso Institucionalizado", "idoso" e "odontologia"together with its synonyms and variations in English, taken from DeCS and MeSH. The inclusion criteria were original articles, articles in Portuguese, English and Spanish, studies involving people and without restriction regarding the year of publication. Animal studies, book chapters,literature review,theses and dissertations were excluded. Results:555 records were identified. Of these, 15articles were selected to compose the review. Several oral alterations were found. The main ones were tissue hyperplasia, stomatitis and xerostomia, candidiasis and halitosis. The main causative factors being: poor oral hygiene, medications used and poor adaptation of dental prostheses.Conclusions:Considering the analysis results of this integrativereview, it can be concluded that tissue hyperplasia, stomatitis, xerostomia are the most predominant changes in institutionalized elderly (AU).

Con el aumento de la esperanza de vida, se espera que la población anciana estécada vez más presente en la sociedad. Por eso, es importante reconocer las necesidades de salud de este grupo de personas que viven institucionalizadas, para que la odontología geriátrica actúe más activamente y proceda con mayor eficacia, atendiendo las demandas priorizando una mejor calidad de vida.Objetivo: Identificar las principales alteraciones que afectan la cavidad oral de ancianos institucionalizados.Metodología: Se realizó una revisión integradora en las bases de datos LILACS, BBO, IBECS, SciELO y PubMed. Se usaron los descriptores"Saúde do Idoso Institucionalizado", "idoso" e "odontologia"Los criterios de inclusión fueron artículos originales, artículos en portugués, inglés y español, estudios involucrando personas y sin restricción en cuantoal año de publicación. Se excluyeron estudios en animales, revision de literatura, capítulos de libros, tesis y disertaciones.Resultados: Se identificaron 555 registros. De estos, 15artículos fueron seleccionados para componer la revisión. Se encontraron varias alteraciones orales. Los principales fueron hiperplasia tisular, estomatitis y xerostomía, candidiasis y halitosis. Siendo los principales factores causales: la mala higiene bucal, los medicamentos utilizados y la mala adaptación de las prótesis dentales.Conclusiones: Considerando los resultados del análisis de esta revisión integrativa, se puede concluir que la hiperplasia tisular, la estomatitis, la xerostomía son las alteraciones más predominantes en los ancianos institucionalizados (AU).

There is a need for more precise models to assess the determinants of health crises like COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global mortality. While the causal relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and the anomalous increase in deaths is established, more precise and complex models are needed to determine the exact weight of epidemiological factors involved. Indeed, COVID-19 behavior is influenced by a wide range of variables, including demographic characteristics, population habits and behavior, healthcare performance, and environmental and seasonal risk factors. The bidirectional causality between impacted and impacting aspects, as well as confounding variables, complicates efforts to draw clear, generalizable conclusions regarding the effectiveness and cost-benefit ratio of non-pharmaceutical health countermeasures. Thus, it is imperative that the scientific community and health authorities worldwide develop comprehensive models not only for the current pandemic but also for future health crises. These models should be implemented locally to account for micro-differences in epidemiological characteristics that may have relevant effects. It is important to note that the lack of a universal model does not imply that local decisions have been unjustified, and the request to decrease scientific uncertainty does not mean denying the evidence of the effectiveness of the countermeasures adopted. Therefore, this paper must not be exploited to denigrate either the scientific community or the health authorities.

Experimental Analysis of Passenger Comfort with Variable Preloaded Rear Springs on a Low-Cylinder Motorcycle.

The present study contains an experimental analysis of the vibratory response in a low-cylinder engine motorcycle at varying suspension preloads. Three different speed bumps of varying heights were used to subject the motorcycle to different vibrations. The analysis was carried out in three domains: time, frequency, and time-frequency. A triaxial accelerometer was used to measure the vibrations at the seat of the vehicle. The results indicated that the suspension system became more differentiated as the height of the bumps increased. However, for lower bumps, the action of the three spring preloads studied was quite similar. Quantitatively, only the higher bump showed a significant difference between the set preloads. The spectral distribution revealed that the frequency of interest was below 20 Hz for all the studied cases, which is in the same range of human body natural frequencies. The findings of this research can be utilized to enhance the design of low-cost motorcycles, thereby improving the safety and comfort of their drivers and passengers. This study constitutes a significant step towards developing an affordable system capable of gathering sufficient data to support the creation of evidence-based public health policies and propose new transport industry standards based on field measurements.

A Review of the Effect of COVID-19-Related Lockdowns on Global Cancer Screening.

COVID-19 lockdowns have led to significant disruptions in preventative health services worldwide. This review aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on worldwide preventive cancer screening participation. Major medical databases were searched using the keywords 'lockdown,' 'cancer,' and 'screening or diagnosis,' and relevant articles were evaluated against inclusion and exclusion criteria. The final review consisted of 38 studies. The impact of COVID-19 on screening uptake was categorized based on cancer type. All types of screening had decreased participation during or around the lockdown period. Racial and socioeconomic disparities, provider-related barriers, and patient attitudes about service disruptions during the pandemic were also highlighted in this review. Future research should focus on data from low- and middle-income countries to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the problem. Policy interventions that adopt self-screening or different screening intervals can also be considered to reduce impacts in future crises. Insights from existing studies and future research will allow for more proactive measures to manage future disruptions.

Comprehensive sentimental analysis of tweets towards COVID-19 in Pakistan: a study on governmental preventive measures.

Sentiments are the key factors that lead to influence our behavior. Sentiment analysis is a technique that analyzes people's behaviors, attitudes, and emotions toward a service, product, topic, or event. Since 2020, no country has remained untouched by COVID-19, and the governing bodies of most countries have been applying several anti-pandemic countermeasures to combat it. In this regard, it becomes tremendously important to analyze people's sentiments when tackling infectious diseases similar to COVID-19. The countermeasures taken by any country to control the pandemic leave a direct and crucial impact on each sector of public life, and every individual reacts to them differently. It is necessary to consider these reactions to implement appropriate messaging and decisive policies. Pakistan has done enough to control this virus's spread like every other country. This research aims to perform a sentimental analysis on the famous microblogging social platform, Twitter, to get insights into public sentiments and the attitudes displayed towards the precautionary steps taken by the Government of Pakistan in the years 2020 and 2021. These steps or countermeasures include the closure of educational institutes, suspension of flight operations, lockdown of business activities, enforcement of several standard operating procedures (SOPs), and the commencement of the vaccination program. We implemented four approaches for the analysis, including the Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner (VADER), TextBlob, Flair, and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT). The first two techniques are lexicon-based. Flair is a pre-trained embedding-based approach, whereas BERT is a transformer-based model. BERT was fine-tuned and trained on a labeled dataset, achieving a validation accuracy of 92%. We observed that the polarity score kept varying from month to month in both years for all countermeasures. This score was analyzed with real-time events occurring in the country, which helped understand the public's sentiment and led to the possible formation of a notable conclusion. All implemented approaches showed independent performances. However, we noticed from the classification results of both TextBlob and the fine-tuned BERT model that neutral sentiment was dominant in the data, followed by positive sentiment.

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on gendered mobility patterns in France.

The COVID-19 crisis has upset the way of life of our society. The objective of this study was to apprehend the consequences of public health policies on mobility through the lens of gender. The analyses are based on a representative sample of 3000 people living in France. Travel behaviour was quantified using three mobility indicators (number of daily trips, daily distance travelled and daily travel time) that we regressed on individual and contextual explanatory variables. Two periods were studied: lockdown (March 17, 2020 until May 11, 2020), and post-lockdown (a curfew period: January-February 2021). For the lockdown period, our results show: (i) a statistically significant gender difference for the three mobility indicators. On average, women made 1.19 daily trips versus 1.46 for men, travelled 12 km whereas versus 17 km for men and spent less time on travel (23 min) than men (30 min); (ii) the degree of mobility was particularly sensitive to access to a car, according to a gender difference. For the post-lockdown period, our results reveal that: (i) women were more likely than men to make a higher number of daily trips (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = [1.04-1.17]); (ii) having only one or no car in the household impacted the mobility of women during the post-lockdown period; (iii) women regained some mobility but without reaching the pre-lockdown level. A better understanding of the factors influencing mobility behaviour, in lockdown and curfew periods, can provide some pathways to improve transport planning and help public authorities while tackling gender inequalites.

Temporal relationship between human and canine visceral leishmaniasis in an urban area in southeastern Brazil: An application of the ARIMAX model.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a neglected disease of public and animal health importance. With the urbanization of the disease, there is evidence of a temporal correlation between the occurrence of human (HVL) and canine (CVL) visceral leishmaniasis, usually with cases in dogs preceding those in humans. In this context, the objective of this study was to develop a time series model suitable for canine-human transmission of Leishmania infantum. Monthly cases of HVL and CVL from 2006 to 2018 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, were evaluated, and monthly health indicators were calculated for HVL and CVL, i.e., incidence coefficient (HVL_IC) and proportion of seropositive dogs (PSD), respectively. The temporal relationship was evaluated using an autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous variable (ARIMAX) model for two different periods (January 2006-August 2013 and September 2013-December 2018). During the 13 years studied, 1115 new cases of HVL and 103,358 dogs seropositive for CVL were recorded. HVL_IC and PSD exhibited decreasing trends throughout the first study period (January 2006-August 2013). According to the ARIMAX model adjusted for this period, there was a temporal relationship between HVL_IC and PSD, with HVL_IC being influenced by HVL_IC for the last two and five months and by PSD for the third previous month. For the second study period (September 2013-December 2018), it was not possible to fit an ARIMAX model. This study highlights the improvements made by VL surveillance since 2006 in Belo Horizonte and contributes to a better understanding of the epidemiology of the disease by public health policy-makers, doctors and veterinarians involved in the prevention and control of zoonoses.

Frequency of social participation by types and functional decline: A six-year longitudinal study.

Social participation is effective for preventing functional decline in older people. However, researchers have not fully explored how different frequencies of social participation by type. We aimed to clarify the relationship between the frequency of social participation by type and functional decline. We used data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, which consists of individuals aged 65 years and older who were not eligible to receive public long-term-care insurance benefits. From 13 municipalities, 51,968 respondents who met the criteria were included in the analysis. We used a sex-stratified Cox proportional hazards model. The outcome was the new incidence of functional decline during a six-year follow-up, and the exposure was the frequency of social participation of one of the following six types: sports, hobbies, volunteering, neighborhood, senior clubs, and industry groups. The frequency was categorized as "never," "a few times a year," "once or twice a month," and "once a week or more." We set non-participation in each activity as the reference, and we adjusted for 12 potential confounders (i.e., sociodemographic and health-related factors). After we adjusted for confounders, participation in sports and hobbies once or twice a month, once a week or more was protectively associated with functional decline. We found a similar association for participation in neighborhood a few times a year. Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering the effects of different types and frequencies of activities when promoting social participation among older people as part of public health policies.

The role of machine learning in health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and in long COVID management.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is arguably one of the most challenging health crises in modern times. The development of effective strategies to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 were major goals for governments and policy makers. Mathematical modeling and machine learning emerged as potent tools to guide and optimize the different control measures. This review briefly summarizes the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic evolution during the first 3 years. It details the main public health challenges focusing on the contribution of mathematical modeling to design and guide government action plans and spread mitigation interventions of SARS-CoV-2. Next describes the application of machine learning methods in a series of study cases, including COVID-19 clinical diagnosis, the analysis of epidemiological variables, and drug discovery by protein engineering techniques. Lastly, it explores the use of machine learning tools for investigating long COVID, by identifying patterns and relationships of symptoms, predicting risk indicators, and enabling early evaluation of COVID-19 sequelae.

Evidence-based policies in public health to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

A fundamental basis for effective health-related policymaking of any democratic nation should be open and transparent communication between a government and its citizens, including scientists and healthcare professionals, to foster a climate of trust, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign. Since misinformation is a leading cause of vaccine hesitancy, open data sharing through an evidence-based approach may render the communication of health strategies developed by policymakers with the public more effective, allowing misinformation and claims that are not backed by scientific evidence to be tackled. In this narrative review, we debate possible causes of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and links to the COVID-19 misinformation epidemic. We also put forward plausible solutions as recommended in the literature.