Designing a web-application to support home-based care of childhood CKD stages 3-5: Qualitative study of family and professional preferences

Background: There is a lack of online, evidence-based information and resources to support home-based care of childhood CKD stages 3-5. Methods. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with parents, patients and professionals to explore their views on content of the proposed online parent information and support (OPIS) web-application. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, guided by the concept of Self-efficacy. Results: 32 parents, 26 patients and 12 professionals were interviewed. All groups wanted an application that explains, demonstrates, and enables parental clinical care-giving, with condition-specific, continously available, reliable, accessible material and a closed communication system to enable contact between families living with CKD. Professionals advocated a regularly updated application to empower parents to make informed health-care decisions. To address these requirements, key web-application components were defined as: (i) Clinical care-giving support (information on treatment regimens, video-learning tools, condition-specific cartoons/puzzles, and a question and answer area) and (ii) Psychosocial support for care-giving (social-networking, case studies, managing stress, and enhancing families' health-care experiences). Conclusions: Developing a web-application that meets parents' information and support needs will maximise its utility, thereby augmenting parents' self-efficacy for CKD caregiving, and optimising outcomes. Self-efficacy theory provides a schema for how parents' self-efficacy beliefs about management of their child's CKD could potentially be promoted by OPIS. © 2014 Swallow et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Health literacy: setting an international collaborative research agenda

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health literacy is an increasingly important topic in both the policy and research agendas of many countries. During the recent 36^thAnnual Meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group, the authors led an audio-taped 3-hour forum, "<it>Studying Health Literacy: Developing an International Collaboration</it>," where the current state of health literacy (HL) in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) was presented and attendees were encouraged to debate a future research agenda.</p> <p>Discussion of Forum Themes</p> <p>The debate centred around three distinct themes, including: (1) refining HL definitions and conceptual models, (2) HL measurement and assessment tools, and (3) developing a collaborative international research agenda. The attendees agreed that future research should be theoretically grounded and conceptual models employed in studies should be explicit to allow for international comparisons to be drawn.</p> <p>Summary and Authors Reflections</p> <p>The importance of HL research and its possible contribution to health disparities is becoming increasingly recognised internationally. International collaborations and comparative studies could illuminate some of the possible determinants of disparities, and also possibly provide a vehicle to examine other research questions of interest.</p

Health literacy and public health: A systematic review and integration of definitions and models

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health literacy concerns the knowledge and competences of persons to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. Although its importance is increasingly recognised, there is no consensus about the definition of health literacy or about its conceptual dimensions, which limits the possibilities for measurement and comparison. The aim of the study is to review definitions and models on health literacy to develop an integrated definition and conceptual model capturing the most comprehensive evidence-based dimensions of health literacy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic literature review was performed to identify definitions and conceptual frameworks of health literacy. A content analysis of the definitions and conceptual frameworks was carried out to identify the central dimensions of health literacy and develop an integrated model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The review resulted in 17 definitions of health literacy and 12 conceptual models. Based on the content analysis, an integrative conceptual model was developed containing 12 dimensions referring to the knowledge, motivation and competencies of accessing, understanding, appraising and applying health-related information within the healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion setting, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Based upon this review, a model is proposed integrating medical and public health views of health literacy. The model can serve as a basis for developing health literacy enhancing interventions and provide a conceptual basis for the development and validation of measurement tools, capturing the different dimensions of health literacy within the healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion settings.</p

Le savant et son époque à travers sa correspondance Seeger A. Bonebakker (1923-2005) et quelques notes sur Ḫalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī (696-764/1297-1363)

This article proposes a survey of two great scholars’ in Arabic literature correspondences: a European of the 20th century, Seeger Adrianus Bonebakker, who is of special interest for us because he bequeathed all of his great library, personal notes and correspondence to Università Ca’ Foscari, and a subject of study of the former, Ḫalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī, great littérateur and scholar of the first century of the Mamluk period. Letters sent and received are preserved in both cases and are primary sources on their network, but also on their personal life, personality and methodology

Subjective health literacy and older adults' assessment of direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads

Older adults are increasingly the intended target of direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug ads, but limited evidence exists as to how they assess the educational value of DTC ads and, more importantly, whether their assessment depends on their level of health literacy. In-person interviews of 170 older adults revealed that those with low subjective health literacy evaluated the educational value of DTC ads significantly lower than did those with high subjective health literacy. The results prompt us to pay more scholarly attention to determining how effectively DTC ads convey useful medical information, particularly to those with limited health literacy

Band Gap and HOMO Level Control in Poly(thienylene vinylene)s Prepared by ADMET Polymerization

Three dipropenyl monomers were prepared for ruthenium-catalyzed acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization. Homopolymerization afforded three poly­(thienylene vinylene)­s (PTVs) with distinct optoelectronic properties. Binary combinations of the monomers over a range of compositions gave three series of copolymer samples with tunable HOMO levels and band gaps. The utility of this method was further demonstrated by the preparation of a stoichiometric terpolymer. Polymers were characterized by ¹H NMR spectroscopy, size-exclusion chromatography, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. This copolymerization approach effectively demonstrates the ability of ADMET polymerization to prepare conjugated copolymers with tuned optoelectronic properties that span a broad composition window