Public health stakeholders' perceived status of health communication activities for the prevention and control of communicable diseases across the EU and EEA/EFTA countries

Executive summary: Health communication activities to inform and influence individual and community decisions are increasingly being used to support the prevention and control of communicable diseases. Research shows that properly designed media campaigns can have a significant positive impact on health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour. However, the extent and nature of the use of health communication activities for the prevention and control of communicable diseases across Europe is currently unknown. To address this knowledge gap, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) commissioned a Research Consortium of universities to map current use and application of health communication activities, and to identify perceived needs for efficacious use of health communication, in particular in relation to the prevention and control of communicable diseases across the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. The purpose of this report is to present the findings from the mapping exercise and needs assessment gathered across the 30 EU and EEA/EFTA countries. The information is derived from data collection via telephone interviews and an e-survey, as well as an expert consultation. Questions sought to identify and map the following: what is currently being done in health communication; how are activities used; who is involved; which specific disease groups are being addressed; what are the key target audiences and the channels used to reach them; what education and training programmes for health communication are available; and how health communication activities are being evaluated. Furthermore, the data collection also identified priority areas to improve health communication in the EU and the perceived needs of public health bodies in order to be able to practice health communication effectively. The report presents the methodology used for the data collection followed by the aggregated information gathered. The discussion considers some of the main results and observations from the data collected and assesses their relevance and implication in relation to published literature, best practice and areas for improvement. The report's annexes include specific health communication plans and policies identified by study participants, as well as examples of health communication initiatives for the prevention and control of communicable diseases. Specific health communication education and training courses identified by participants are also included, as well as identified stakeholder organisations in the area of health communication and communicable diseases

Wage Continuation During Sickness: Observations on Paid Sick Leave Provisions in Times of Crises

[Excerpt] The economic costs of working while sick go far beyond increased health care costs due to treating a significantly higher number of people showing more severe signs of ill health. They also involve costs due to lower productivity and subsequent impacts on economic growth and development, in addition to collective costs of growing health and social inequalities. However, many aspects of social health protection including the role, patterns and costs of paid sick leave are misunderstood or underappreciated especially during times of economic crisis and recession. It is often said that paid sick leave schemes are open to abuse, especially if the benefit levels appear generous. This is undoubtedly a danger, and points to the need for strong administration. However, it is all too easy to overstate the case. ILO analyses of stimulus packages and policies addressing the crises reveal that cuts of social and health budgets are among the first national responses to recover the costs of bailing out those that have contributed to the crisis. Concerned are social health protection measures that provide access to health services and financial protection in case of sickness, such as paid sick leave. Limited evidence is available for governments, employers and workers’ unions on the consequences of gaps in providing for paid sick leave and costs of failing to address the needs of the vulnerable. Developing reliable internationally comparable data is constrained by the complex interplay of health and socio-economic conditions including regulations, labour market structure and vulnerability when taking up paid sick leave. Against this background, this paper seeks to focus on the existing national and international evidence and provides some insights into the concepts, patterns and affordability of paid sick leave in countries throughout the world. Further, it is argued that providing for sick leave and related income replacement is a key component of decent work and should be considered within national social protection floors

Important steps towards a big change for lung health: a joint approach by the European Respiratory Society, the European Society of Radiology and their partners to facilitate implementation of the European Union's new recommendations on lung cancer screening.

Enormous progress has been made on the epic journey towards implementation of lung cancer screening in Europe. A breakthrough for lung health has been achieved with the EU proposal for a Council recommendation on cancer screening. https://bit.ly/3J4O0Jb

Convergence of decreasing male and increasing female incidence rates in major tobacco-related cancers in Europe in 1988-2010

Introduction: Smoking prevalence has been declining in men all over Europe, while the trend varies in European regions among women. To study the impact of past smoking prevalence, we present a comprehensive overview of the most recent trends in incidence, during 1988-2010, in 26 countries, of four of the major cancers in the respiratory and upper gastro-intestinal tract associated with tobacco smoking. Methods: Data from 47 population-based cancer registries for lung, laryngeal, oral cavity and pharyngeal, and oesophageal cancer cases were obtained from the newly developed data repository within the European Cancer Observatory (http://eco.iarc.fr/). Truncated age-standardised incidence rates (35-74 years) by calendar year, average annual percentage change in incidence over 1998-2007 were calculated. Smoking prevalence in selected countries was extracted from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Health Organization databases. Results:

Valuation of Mortality Risks Attributable to Climate Change: Investigating the Effect of Survey Administration Modes on a VSL

The health impact attributable to climate change has been identified as one of the priority areas for impact assessment. The main goal of this paper is to estimate the monetary value of one key health effect, which is premature mortality. Specifically, our goal is to derive the value of a statistical life from people’s willingness to pay for avoiding the risk of dying in one post-transition country in Europe, i.e., the Czech Republic. We carried out a series of conjoint choice experiments in order to value mortality risk reductions. We found the responses to the conjoint choice questions to be reasonable and consistent with the economic paradigm. The VSL is about EUR 2.4 million, and our estimate is comparable with the value of preventing a fatality as used in one of the integrated assessment models. To investigate whether carrying out the survey through the internet may violate the welfare estimate, we administered our questionnaire to two independent samples of respondents using two different modes of survey administration. The results show that the VSLs for the two groups of respondents are €2.25 and €2.55 million, and these figures are statistically indistinguishable. However, the key parameters of indirect utility between the two modes of survey administration are statistically different when specific subgroups of population, such as older respondents, are concerned. Based on this evidence, we conclude that properly designed and administered on-line surveys are a reliable method for administering questionnaires, even when the latter are cognitively challenging. However, attention should be paid to sampling and choice regarding the mode of survey administration if the preference of specific segments of the population is elicited