The antecedents and consequences of health literacy in an ecological perspective: Results from an experimental analysis

This study analyses the relationship between the antecedents and consequences of health literacy (HL) at the ecological level among the nations involved in the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU). The antecedents and consequences were investigated by means of proxy indicators. The HL was measured using the 47-item HLS-EU questionnaire (HLS-EUQ47) and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). The two measures stood in significant correlation to the outcomes of the sub-discipline of the Euro Health Consumer Index (r = 0.790 for HLS-EUQ47; r = 0.789 for NVS). The HLS-EUQ47 also stood in correlation to the percentage of population with post-secondary education (r = 0.810), the reading performance for 15-year-old students (r = 0.905), the presence of a national screening program for breast (r = 0.732) or cervical cancer (r = 0.873). The NVS stood in correlation with the unemployment rate (r = −0.778), the Gross Domestic Product (r = 0.719), the Gini coefficient (r = −0.743), the rank of the Euro Patient Empowerment Index (r = −0.826), the expenditure on social protection (r = 0.814), the Consumer Empowerment Index (r = 0.898), the percentage of adults using the internet for seeking health information (r = 0.759), the prevalence of overweight individuals (r = −0.843), the health expenditure (r = 0.766), as well as the percentage of individuals using the internet for interacting with public authorities (r = 0.755). This study provides some preliminary considerations regarding alternative means by which to study HL and proposes new methods for experimentation. The methods and the results could offer a means by which the relationship between society and overall healthcare protection could be strengthened

Health literacy among non-familial caregivers of older adults: A study conducted in Tuscany (Italy)

Many older adults who live at home depend on a caregiver. When familial support cannot provide the necessary care, paid caregivers are frequently hired. Health literacy (HL) is the knowledge and competence required of people to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. The aim of this study is to assess the HL level of paid non-familial caregivers who were enrolled through two different sources: from the homes of assisted people in two Tuscan health districts (first sample) and during job interviews in a home care agency operating in Florence (second sample). The two different recruitment contexts allow us to provide a broader view of the phenomenon, presenting a picture of the HL level of those who are already working and those who are looking for a new job in this field. One-on-one face-to-face interviews, which include the administration of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) to measure HL, were conducted. Recruitment resulted in 84 caregivers in the first sample and 68 in the second sample. In the first sample, the mean age was 51.2 ± 9 years; 94% of the participants were women. A high likelihood or likelihood of inadequate HL (i.e., a low level of HL) was found in 73.8% of cases. In the second sample, the mean age was 43.7 ± 11.5 years; 83.8% of the participants were women, and 80.9% had a low level of HL. In both samples, HL was statistically associated with the level of understanding of the Italian language. In conclusion, inadequate HL is an under-recognized problem among non-familial caregivers. Educational programs that aim to increase HL skills could be an effective approach to improving the qualification of informal healthcare professionals

La verifica prestazionale, dal collaudo al contenzioso: problemi e soluzioni

Per oltre dieci anni in Italia la questione della protezione dal rumore negli ambienti costruiti \ue8 stata al centro di un acceso dibattito che ha interessato un gran numero di soggetti coinvolti nel processo di progettazione, produzione, immissione sul mercato ed utilizzo del bene \u201ccasa\u201d. Non tutti i soggetti, per\uf2, sono stati coinvolti alla stessa maniera ed alcuni di questi sono entrati in scena solo negli ultimi anni, con la crescita continua dei contenziosi legati o comunque connessi alla presunta scarsa qualit\ue0 acustica degli ambienti di vita. Due elementi, tuttavia, non hanno ancora trovato il giusto spazio nello scenario che si \ue8 finora consolidato: il ruolo di controllo della Pubblica Amministrazione e la tutela dell\u2019acquirente del bene nel suo diritto primario di essere chiaramente informato su ci\uf2 che sta acquistando o utilizzando. Alla luce delle recenti evoluzioni legislative ed in attesa di nuovi strumenti normativi, che dovrebbero servire di supporto ad una completa revisione dell\u2019impianto delle disposizioni in materia di protezione dal rumore negli edifici, il controllo delle prestazioni in opera prima della cessione del bene e la corretta informazione sulle sue caratteristiche prima dell\u2019acquisizione sono certamente i mezzi pi\uf9 efficaci per riportare il problema dei requisiti acustici passivi nel suo ambito di appartenenza, cio\ue8 quello del rispetto di parametri prestazionali minimi di protezione dal rumore per una corretta fruizione degli spazi costruiti in relazione alle specificit\ue0 d\u2019uso

An ecological study on health literacy, its antecedents and consequences

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Health literacy and vaccination: A systematic review

This systematic review describes the current relationship between health literacy (HL) and vaccination (including attitude to vaccines, intention to vaccinate, and vaccine uptake). The aim is to comprehend the role of HL as a determinant of vaccine hesitancy. For this purpose, the following databases were explored from 1 January 2007 to 15 January 2017: PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, ERIC, Health Evidence, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. Nine studies were included in the final synthesis. The role of HL in predicting vaccine hesitancy or acceptance seems to be influenced by a few key factors. These include country, age, and type of vaccine. However, the relationship between HL and vaccination remains unclear. New research studies are needed—particularly longitudinal ones that use multiple measurement tools. This would facilitate a better understanding of the role of HL in predicting vaccine uptake

A learning analytics methodology to profile students behavior and explore interactions with a digital electronics simulator

The automatic collection of data concerning the interaction between students and Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) systems has become increasingly common. Such data availability has led to applications of Learning Analytics (LA) techniques, characterized by the capability of extracting non-trivial patterns from them. In this framework, we describe the methodology we are adopting to explore the way students learn the concepts of digital electronics by exploiting LA. In particular, a simulator named DEEDS (Digital Electronics Education and Design Suite) is used, and we aim at extracting non-trivial knowledge from data, gathered through a logging application, properly realized for monitoring DEEDS usage.

A learning analytics approach to correlate the academic achievements of students with interaction data from an educational simulator

This paper presents a Learning Analytics approach for understanding the learning behavior of students while interacting with Technology Enhanced Learning tools. In this work we show that it is possible to gain insight into the learning processes of students from their interaction data. We base our study on data collected through six laboratory sessions where first-year students of Computer Engineering at the University of Genoa were using a digital electronics simulator. We exploit Process Mining methods to investigate and compare the learning processes of students. For this purpose, we measure the understandability of their process models through a complexity metric. Then we compare the various clusters of students based on their academic achievements. The results show that the measured complexity has positive correlation with the final grades of students and negative correlation with the difficulty of the laboratory sessions. Consequently, complexity of process models can be used as an indicator of variations of student learning paths