Health Literacy in the Everyday Lives of Older Adults in Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands

Health literacy (HL) encompasses someone’s knowledge and abilities to access and use health information in order to make appropriate health decisions in life. HL is particularly valuable in later life when health challenges grow. An individual’s HL is typically considered a fixed and skills-based characteristic, without taking into account how these are situated in the context of everyday life. Also, lay perspectives on health literacy are relatively scarce. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore the context-specific perspectives of older adults and health professionals on HL in later life in Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands. We adopted a qualitative methodology and conducted 12 focus groups: seven with 50 older adults and five with 30 health professionals to gain insight into individual perspectives on HL as situated in the health care and everyday life contexts. An informed grounded theory approach was used in analyzing the data. The results are structured in three themes: (1) interactions with health professionals, (2) perceived quality of the health care system, and (3) managing health in the context of everyday life. An overarching finding is that, for older adults, HL reflects the demands placed on them when managing their health. In the experience of older adults, these demands are placed upon them by healthcare professionals, the healthcare system, as well as their everyday lives. Our findings underscore the importance of Critical Health Literacy (CHL) as that concept foregrounds that HL is context specific. Also, CHL has been argued to be a community characteristic, which is why we call for community-based approaches to improve H

Bullying and Victimization in Elementary Schools: A Comparison of Bullies, Victims, Bully/Victims, and Uninvolved Preadolescents

Research on bullying and victimization largely rests on univariate analyses and on reports from a single informant. Researchers may thus know too little about the simultaneous effects of various independent and dependent variables, and their research may be biased by shared method variance. The database for this Dutch study was large (N = 1,065) and rich enough to allow multivariate analysis and multisource information. In addition, the effect of familial vulnerability for internalizing and externalizing disorders was studied. Gender, aggressiveness, isolation, and dislikability were most strongly related to bullying and victimization. Among the many findings that deviated from or enhanced the univariate knowledge base were that not only victims and bully/victims but bullies as well were disliked and that parenting was unrelated to bullying and victimization once other factors were controlled.

Opportunities to strengthen resilience of health care workers regarding patient safety

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic endangered the quality of health care and the safety of patients and health care workers (HCWs). This provided challenges for HCWs' resilience and for hospital management and probably increased risks for patient safety incidents (PSI). HCWs may also have experienced psychological consequences as second victims of PSI, but evidence on this is lacking. Therefore, we mapped HCWs' experiences with PSI during the second wave of COVID-19, the associations of these experiences with the hospital management of patient safety culture and HCWs' interests in receiving further training.METHODS: We obtained data from 193 HCWs working at the COVID-related departments of one large hospital in eastern Slovakia via a questionnaire developed in direct collaboration with them. We measured PSI experiences as various HCWs' experiences with near miss and adverse events and the hospital management of patient safety culture using indicators such as risk of recurrence, open disclosure and second victim experiences. For analysis, we used logistic regression models adjusted for age and gender of the HCWs.RESULTS: One-third of the hospital HCWs had experienced PSI; these were more likely to expect adverse events to recur (odds ratio, OR = 2.7-3.5). Regarding the hospital management of patient safety culture, the HCWs' experiencing openly disclosed PSI was associated with one negative outcome, i.e. conflicts among colleagues (OR = 2.8), and one positive outcome, i.e. patients' acceptance of their explanation and apologies (OR = 2.3). We found no associations for any other essential domains after disclosure. PSI experiences were strongly associated with psychological indicators of second victimhood, such as sadness, irritability, anxiety and depression (OR = 2.2-4.3), while providing support was not. The majority of the HCWs would like to participate in the suggested trainings (83.4%).CONCLUSION: HCWs with PSI experiences reported poor hospital management of the patient safety culture, which might reflect they missed the opportunities to strengthen their resilience, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p

School Satisfaction and Its Associations with Health and Behavioural Outcomes among 15-Years Old Adolescents

Background: Health and behavioural outcomes of adolescents have been shown to be related to school pressure, demands or unfavourable relationships with classmates or teachers. These associations may relate to school satisfaction, but evidence on this is lacking. Therefore, our aim is to explore the associations of school satisfaction with hopelessness, health complaints, fighting and truancy. Methods: Data come from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study collected in 2018 from Slovak 15-year-old adolescents (N = 816; 50.9% boys). School satisfaction was measured by school engagement and attitudes towards education, grouped as: satisfied (both positive), inconsistent (one positive, one negative) and indifferent (both negative). Hopelessness, health complaints, fighting and truancy were measured using self-report questionnaires. Logistic regression models were used to explore the associations of school satisfaction with hopelessness, health complaints, fighting and truancy separately. Results: Indifferent adolescents were more likely to feel hopeless, to frequently experience two or more health complaints, to be involved in a fight and to skip school (odds ratios/95%-confidence interval: 2.57/1.49&ndash;4.45; 2.51/1.48&ndash;4.25; 1.92/1.02&ndash;3.60; and 2.34/1.25&ndash;4.40, respectively) than satisfied adolescents. Inconsistent adolescents were more likely to frequently experience two or more health complaints than satisfied adolescents (1.72/1.05&ndash;5.79). Conclusions: School satisfaction affects adolescents&rsquo; health and social behaviour and may threaten their healthy development

School Satisfaction and Its Associations with Health and Behavioural Outcomes among 15-Years Old Adolescents

Background: Health and behavioural outcomes of adolescents have been shown to be related to school pressure, demands or unfavourable relationships with classmates or teachers. These associations may relate to school satisfaction, but evidence on this is lacking. Therefore, our aim is to explore the associations of school satisfaction with hopelessness, health complaints, fighting and truancy.Methods: Data come from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study collected in 2018 from Slovak 15-year-old adolescents (N = 816; 50.9% boys). School satisfaction was measured by school engagement and attitudes towards education, grouped as: satisfied (both positive), inconsistent (one positive, one negative) and indifferent (both negative). Hopelessness, health complaints, fighting and truancy were measured using self-report questionnaires. Logistic regression models were used to explore the associations of school satisfaction with hopelessness, health complaints, fighting and truancy separately.Results: Indifferent adolescents were more likely to feel hopeless, to frequently experience two or more health complaints, to be involved in a fight and to skip school (odds ratios/95%-confidence interval: 2.57/1.49–4.45; 2.51/1.48–4.25; 1.92/1.02–3.60; and 2.34/1.25–4.40, respectively) than satisfied adolescents. Inconsistent adolescents were more likely to frequently experience two or more health complaints than satisfied adolescents (1.72/1.05–5.79).Conclusions: School satisfaction affects adolescents’ health and social behaviour and may threaten their healthy development.</p

Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent School Satisfaction:Does Schoolwork Support Affect This Association?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to explore the association of family socioeconomic status (SES) and internal and external schoolwork support with adolescents’ school satisfaction and whether schoolwork support modifies these associations. METHODS: Data come from the cross-sectional Health Behavior in School-aged Children study collected in 2018 from Slovak 15-year-olds (N = 1127; 52.7% boys). SES was measured by Family Affluence Scale (low; middle; high). School satisfaction was measured via school engagement and attitudes toward education. Schoolwork support was measured regarding two groups of sources inside and outside the family, separately. Logistic regression models were used to explore the associations of SES and schoolwork support with school satisfaction as well as the moderating effect of schoolwork support. RESULTS: Adolescents with low SES were more likely to feel indifferent toward school and education (odds ratios/95%-confidence interval: 1.77/1.26–2.49), and similarly, adolescents who did not have schoolwork support inside or outside the family (1.38/1.02–1.87, and 1.50/1.01–2.22, respectively). Schoolwork support moderated the associations of SES with school satisfaction. Adolescents with low and middle SES without support inside or outside the family were more likely to feel indifferent than satisfied (2.72/1.21–6.10; 3.00/1.27–7.06; and 2.86/1.05–7.80; 6.04/1.72–21.24, respectively). CONCLUSION: Adolescents from low and middle SES without schoolwork support inside or outside the family are more likely to feel indifferent toward school and education

The Impact of Pandemic Management on the Quality of Life of Slovak Dentists

Pandemic management increases the burden on healthcare workers to provide care and also affects their personal lives, with dentists being at particular risk. Therefore, we aim to describe the quality of life (QoL) and limitations experienced due to pandemic management-related measures (PanMan), as well as to assess the association of PanMan with QoL during the first lockdown after the coronavirus outbreak. We obtained data from 500 dentists (33.2% males, M/SD = 43.8) registered with the Slovak Chamber of Dentists using an online questionnaire. We categorized PanMan as the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the ability to implement anti-pandemic measures, information overload, pandemic-related limitations and QoL in terms of their impact on family life and activities, housekeeping, relationships with relatives, financial situation and mental well-being. PanMan mainly affected financial situation, mental well-being and housekeeping. Factors contributing most towards the worsening of QoL were information overload (odds ratio/95% confidence interval, OR/CI: 5.79/2.64-12.71) and several pandemic-related limitations. These consisted of (OR/CI): a lack of PPE (5.17/2.48-10.77), infection risks in the work environment (3.06/1.57-5.95), obligatory safety measures (3.02/1.47-6.21), lack of staff (2.85/1.30-6.25) and client concerns (3.56/1.70-7.49). Pandemic management has led to a considerable worsening of dentists' QoL

Socioeconomic inequalities in paediatric metabolic syndrome:mediation by parental health literacy

Background: Parental health literacy may explain the relationship between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and paediatric metabolic syndrome (MetS). For this reason, we assessed to what extent parental health literacy mediates the relationships between parental SES and paediatric MetS.Methods: We used data from the prospective multigenerational Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study. Our sample consisted of 6683 children with an average follow-up of 36.2 months (SD 9.3) and a mean baseline age of 12.8 years (SD 2.6). We used natural effects models to assess the natural direct, natural indirect and total effects of parental SES on MetS.Results: On average, an additional 4 years of parental education, e.g. university instead of secondary school, would lead to continuous MetS (cMetS) scores that were 0.499 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.364-0.635) units lower, which is a small effect (d: 0.18). If parental income and occupational level were 1 SD higher, on average cMetS scores were 0.136 (95% CI: 0.052-0.219) and 0.196 (95% CI: 0.108-0.284) units lower, respectively; these are both small effects (d: 0.05 and 0.07, respectively). Parental health literacy partially mediated these pathways; it accounted for 6.7% (education), 11.8% (income) and 8.3% (occupation) of the total effect of parental SES on paediatric MetS.Conclusions: Socioeconomic differences in paediatric MetS are relatively small, the largest being by parental education. Improving parental health literacy may reduce these inequalities. Further research is needed into the mediating role of parental health literacy on other socioeconomic health inequalities in children.</p