Organization and activities of school health services among EU countries

BACKGROUND: School health services (SHS) can be defined as health services provided to enrol pupils by health professionals and/or allied professions. The aim of this study was to explore the current state of the governance, organization and workforce of SHS and their provision of preventive activities in European countries. METHODS: Observational study. Data were collected as part of the Horizon 2020-funded project 'Models of Child Health Appraised'. Only 1 expert from each of the 30 included European countries answered a closed-items questionnaire during the years 2017 and 2018. RESULTS: All countries (except Spain and the Czech Republic, which do not have formal SHS) provided school-based individual screening and health-enhancing measures. The majority performed height, weight, vision and hearing checks; some integrated other assessments of limited evidence-based effectiveness. Most countries also delivered health education and promotion activities in areas, such as sexual health, substance use and healthy nutrition. Almost all countries seemed to suffer from a shortage of school health professionals; moreover, many of these professionals had no specific training in the area of school health and prevention. CONCLUSIONS: Many EU countries need better administrative and legal support. They should promote evidence-based screening procedures and should hire and train more school health professionals. Overall, they need to adapt to the evolving health priorities of pupils, adopt a more holistic paradigm and extend their activities beyond traditional screening or vaccination procedures

Influenţa preparatului Bior asupra reactivităţii imunologice şi rezistenţei naturale la bolnavii cu tuberculoză pulmonară

Au fost examinaţi 85 de bolnavi de sex şi vârstă diferite, cu diverse forme de tuberculoză pulmonară şi 50 de persoane sănătoase (grupa de control), stabilindu-se acţiunea preparatului BioR atât stimulativă, cât şi supresivă asupra activităţii reactivităţii imunologice şi a rezistenţei naturale la bolnavii cu tuberculoză pulmonară. La bolnavii cu indicii iniţiali scăzuţi (sub normă) preparatul BioRSpI are acţiune stimulativă, cu indicii majoraţi – acţiune supresivă şi pentru indicii situaţi în limitele normei preparatul nu are nici o acţiune. Astfel de mecanism imunomodulativ de acţiune, când scad indicii măriţi, cresc indicii scăzuţi şi fără acţiune asupra indicilor situaţi în limitele normei, este caracteristic pentru imunomodulatorii din grupul adaptogenelor, ceea ce permite a atribui preparatul BioR la grupul imunomodulatorilor de origine vegetală (adaptogene)

Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: governments must balance the uncertainty and risks of reopening schools against the clear harms associated with prolonged closure.

Evidence to support the effectiveness of global school closures in controlling COVID-19 is sparse. There is continued uncertainty about the degree to which school children are susceptible to and transmit COVID-19. Balancing the potential benefits with harms involves explicit trade-offs for governments, but there has been little recognition that low-income and middle-income countries face a very different set of trade-offs around school reopening from those in wealthy countries

Influenţa preparatului Bior asupra activităţii funcţionale a limfocitelor

A fost studiată influenţa preparatului BioR asupra activităţii funcţionale a limfocitelor (transformarea blastică, folosirea glucozei de către limfocite din mediul de cultură, lactatdehidrogenazei şi aldolazei limfocitelor) şi indicată acţiunea lui imunocorectoare asupra parametrilor modificaţi ai limfocitelor la bolnavii de tuberculoză a plămânilo

WHO standards-based tools to measure service providers' and service users' views on the quality of hospital child care: development and validation in Italy

Objectives Evidence showed that, even in high-income countries, children and adolescents may not receive high quality of care (QOC). We describe the development and initial validation, in Italy, of two WHO standards-based questionnaires to conduct an assessment of QOC for children and young adolescents at inpatient level, based on the provider and user perspectives. Design Multiphase, mixed-methods study. Setting, participants and methods The two questionnaires were developed in four phases equally conducted for each tool. Phase 1 which included the prioritisation of the WHO Quality Measures according to predefined criteria and the development of the draft questionnaires. In phase 2 content face validation of the draft questionnaires was assessed among both experts and end-users. In phase 3 the optimised questionnaires were field tested to assess acceptability, perceived utility and comprehensiveness (N=163 end-users). In phase 4 intrarater reliability and internal consistency were evaluated (N=170 and N=301 end-users, respectively). Results The final questionnaires included 150 WHO Quality Measures. Observed face validity was excellent (kappa value of 1). The field test resulted in response rates of 98% and 76% for service users and health providers, respectively. Among respondents, 96.9% service users and 90.4% providers rated the questionnaires as useful, and 86.9% and 93.9%, respectively rated them as comprehensive. Intrarater reliability was good, with Cohen's kappa values exceeding 0.70. Cronbach alpha values ranged from 0.83 to 0.95, indicating excellent internal consistency. Conclusions Study findings suggest these tools developed have good content and face validity, high acceptability and perceived utility, and good intrarater reliability and internal consistency, and therefore could be used in health facilities in Italy and similar contexts. Priority areas for future research include how tools measuring paediatric QOC can be more effectively used to help health professionals provide the best possible care

The importance of mental health measurement to improve global adolescent health

No abstract available

Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).peer-reviewe