The comparison of the minimum data set for elderly health in selected countries

Introduction: Ongoing increase in the elderly population in many developed countries has drawn attention to health of this age group. Recording adequate and relevant data for the elderly is considered as the basis for future planning for this segment of society. So this study was conducted to compare minimum data about elderly health in selected countries. Methods: This review study was conducted through Internet and library studies. Key words were extracted from search engines and data bases including Google, Yahoo, Google Scholar, PubMed, ProQuest and Iranian National Medical Digital Library. Inclusion criteria included English language with no time limits. All articles, research projects, theses, guidelines and progress reports were retrieved from the United States, Sweden, Japan and Iran and reviewed. Also, websites of organizations responsible for elderly health in selected countries were visited and their documents were reviewed. Results from this search were provided narratively and finally were presented within comparison tables. Findings: The findings of this study showed that elderly data in the selected countries are collected around four axis including minimum demographic data, medical histories, health assessment and financial data of elderly health. Discussion and Conclusion: Given the importance of the minimum data set of elderly health for future planning, the use of experiences of leading countries in elderly health seems necessary; however, localization of it according to the country's needs is inevitable. © 2015 Nasrin Davaridolatabadi, Mehraban Shahi, Farahnaz Sadoughi, Maryam Ahmadi

Understanding public speakers’ performance: first contributions to support a computational approach

Communication is part of our everyday life and our ability to communicate can have a significant role in a variety of contexts in our personal, academic, and professional lives. For long, the characterization of what is a good communicator has been subject to research and debate by several areas, particularly in Education, with a focus on improving the performance of teachers. In this context, the literature suggests that the ability to communicate is not only defined by the verbal component, but also by a plethora of non-verbal contributions providing redundant or complementary information, and, sometimes, being the message itself. However, even though we can recognize a good or bad communicator, objectively, little is known about what aspects – and to what extent—define the quality of a presentation. The goal of this work is to create the grounds to support the study of the defining characteristics of a good communicator in a more systematic and objective form. To this end, we conceptualize and provide a first prototype for a computational approach to characterize the different elements that are involved in communication, from audiovisual data, illustrating the outcomes and applicability of the proposed methods on a video database of public speakers.publishe

Perspectives of Portuguese People with Physical Disabilities Regarding Their Sexual Health: A Focus Group Study

The World Health Organization has considered sexual health as a major dimension of global health and a sexual right. However, the sexual health of people with physical disabilities is still poorly addressed by health and social care professionals, and it is very stigmatized by society. This study aimed to assess the perspectives of Portuguese people living with physical disabilities regarding issues affecting their sexual health. Nine women and 17 men with different physical disabilities participated in the study. Participants were recruited from a professional rehabilitation facility located in the North of Portugal and were assigned to four groups in one-hour sessions. Three main categories emerged from the content analysis: (1) meanings and beliefs regarding sexuality; (2) experiences of sexuality; (3) necessary changes. Despite the positive social changes towards sexuality, participants expressed that their sexual rights are still unfulfilled, as they live in a context that perpetuates their dependency. They pointed out low self-esteem, prejudice and social isolation, poor architectural accessibility and scarcity of financial support as some of the barriers to their lives and their sexual health. Finally, participants identified the main needs regarding their sexual health, such as: access to specialized information; training for health professionals. This study gives voice to people with physical disabilities and sheds light into both individual and contextual factors affecting their sexual health. Of utmost importance, this study draws attention to the need for reinforcing sexuality of people with disabilities in the social agenda and brings implications for future research and practice.This study was supported by a Grant attributed to the first author by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/112168/2015)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Presbyopia:Effectiveness of correction strategies

Presbyopia is a global problem affecting over a billion people worldwide. The prevalence of unmanaged presbyopia is as high as 50% of those over 50 years of age in developing world populations due to a lack of awareness and accessibility to affordable treatment, and is even as high as 34% in developed countries. Definitions of presbyopia are inconsistent and varied, so we propose a redefinition that states “presbyopia occurs when the physiologically normal age-related reduction in the eye's focusing range reaches a point, when optimally corrected for distance vision, that the clarity of vision at near is insufficient to satisfy an individual's requirements”. Presbyopia is inevitable if one lives long enough, but intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors including cigarette smoking, pregnancy history, hyperopic or astigmatic refractive error, ultraviolet radiation, female sex (although accommodation is similar to males), hotter climates and some medical conditions such as diabetes can accelerate the onset of presbyopic symptoms. Whilst clinicians can ameliorate the symptoms of presbyopia with near vision spectacle correction, bifocal and progressive spectacle lenses, monovision, translating or multifocal contact lenses, monovision, extended depth of focus, multifocal (refractive, diffractive and asymmetric designs) or ‘accommodating’ intraocular lenses, corneal inlays, scleral expansion, laser refractive surgery (corneal monovision, corneal shrinkage, corneal multifocal profiles and lenticular softening), pharmacologic agents, and electro-stimulation of the ciliary muscle, none fully overcome presbyopia in all patients. While the restoration of natural accommodation or an equivalent remains elusive, guidance is gives on presbyopic correction evaluation techniques

Involking silvern voices in healthcare : transforming practice by engaging older adults in collaborative partnerships

Canada's population is aging. This growing trend will ultimately have an impact on nursing practice as older individuals continue to seek healthcare services. Nurses must be able to work in collaboration with the older population to provide quality care. This action research study explored participative healthcare from an older adult's perspective. This study revealed that older adults prefer to be active participants in their care. The major theme that emerged was true partnership. Three sub-themes that emerged were communication, respect, and trust. These three sub-themes work in unity to contribute to a healthcare experience that exemplifies true partnerships. This study proposes a definition of true partnership as being open to and inviting mutual communication in an atmosphere that encourages equity sharing of information contributing to respect and the development of trust that results in confident collaboration in care

Internet of things in medicine: A systematic mapping study

Context: The current studies on IoT in healthcare have reviewed the uses of this technology in a combination of healthcare domains, including nursing, rehabilitation sciences, ambient assisted living (AAL), medicine, etc. However, no review study has scrutinized IoT advances exclusively in medicine irrespective of other healthcare domains. Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to identify and map the current IoT developments in medicine through providing graphical/tabular classifications on the current experimental and practical IoT information in medicine, the involved medical sub-fields, the locations of IoT use in medicine, and the bibliometric information about IoT research articles. Methods: In this systematic mapping study, the studies published between 2000 and 2018 in major online scientific databases, including IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed were screened. A total of 3679 papers were found from which 89 papers were finally selected based on specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. Results: While the majority of medical IoT studies were experimental and prototyping in nature, they generally reported that home was the most popular place for medical IoT applications. It was also found that neurology, cardiology, and psychiatry/psychology were the medical sub-fields receiving the most IoT attention. Bibliometric analysis showed that IEEE Internet of Things Journal has published the most influential IoT articles. India, China and the United States were found to be the most involved countries in medical IoT research. Conclusions: Although IoT has not yet been employed in some medical sub-fields, recent substantial surge in the number of medical IoT studies will most likely lead to the engagement of more medical sub-fields in the years to come. IoT literature also shows that the ambiguity of assigning a variety of terms to IoT, namely system, platform, device, tool, etc., and the interchangeable uses of these terms require a taxonomy study to investigate the precise definition of these terms. Other areas of research have also been mentioned at the end of this article. © 2020 Elsevier Inc

The effect of educational intervention on medical diagnosis recording among residents

Introduction: Studies indicate that using interventions including education may improve medical record documentation and decrease incomplete files. Since physicians play a crucial role in medical record documentation, the researchers intend to examine the effect of educational intervention on physicians' performance and knowledge about principles of medical diagnosis recording among residents in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences(HUMS). Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2010 on 40 specialty residents (from internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, anesthesiology and surgery specialties) in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. During a workshop, guidelines for recording diagnostic information related to given specialty were taught. Before and after the intervention, five medical records from each resident were selected to assess physician performance about chart documentation. Using a questionnaire, physicians' knowledge was investigated before and after intervention. Data were analyzed through one-way ANOVA test. Results: Change in physicians' knowledge before and after education was not statistically significant (p = 0.15). Residents' behavior did not have statistically significant changes during three phases of the study. Conclusion: Diversity of related factors which contributes to the quality of documentation compels portfolio of strategies to enhance medical charting. Employing combination of best practice efforts including educating physicians from the beginning of internship and applying targeted strategy focus on problematic areas and existing gap may enhance physicians' behavior about chart documentation. © AVICENA 2013

Health information management system for elderly health sector: A qualitative study in Iran

Background: There are increasing change and development of information in healthcare systems. Given the increase in aging population, managers are in need of true and timely information when making decision. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the current status of the health information management system for the elderly health sector in Iran. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in two steps. In the first step, required documents for administrative managers were collected using the data gathering form and observed and reviewed by the researcher. In the second step, using an interview guide, the required information was gathered through interviewing experts and faculty members. The convenience, purposeful and snowball sampling methods were applied to select interviewees and the sampling continued until reaching the data saturation point. Finally, notes and interviews were transcribed and content analysis was used to analyze them. Results: The results of the study showed that there was a health information management system for the elderly health sector in Iran. However, in all primary health care centers the documentation of data was done manually; the data flow was not automated; and the analysis and reporting of data are also manually. Eventually, decision makers are provided with delayed information. Conclusions: It is suggested that the steward of health in Iran, the ministry of health, develops an appropriate infrastructure and finally puts a high priority on the implementation of the health information management system for elderly health sector in Iran. © 2016, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Designing Zero Energy Building for TehranB37B36:B44M35B36

In this paper, design of a zero energy building (ZEB), a case study for Tehran, in a moderately warm climate, for a typical single family has been introduced. It is important to develop solar energy resource potential in order to use it in construction of enhanced buildings. The benefits including reducing fossil fuel consumption, fading energy supply cost and lowering environmental pollutants, have created a growing tendency to these types of buildings. Calculating solar energy radiation and the house load are the basic steps to design a ZEB. Following steps are designing the heating, cooling and domestic hot water (DHW) systems and providing the electricity for appliances and lighting and designing the storage system. Economical features and environmental issues make ZEBs an appropriate solution for emerged problems of common houses and thus investments in large (state-wide) scales may be justified