Controlled vocabulary in public health: an overview of the achievements to date

Aim: The aim of the article is to present both published and unpublished information materials based on the literature review related to the accomplishments in the area of development and unification of the public health terminology. Background: Public health is a multidisciplinary field that has long been struggling with the need to develop comprehensive and exhaustive terminology that would cover all related disciplines, facilitate accurate understanding of terms, aid information search and processing, as well as permit an accurate scientific communication among public health professionals. This is not an easy task given the theoretical and practical scope of the discipline. Summary of the resources: The following bibliographical databases were searched: LISA, PubMED, EMBASE, ERIC, as well as Internet websites devoted to public health issues, websites of the institutions operating in this area, and databases of projects financed by the European Union. All national and international reports in English, French, or German that dealt with the development of public health terminology in respective languages were included in the search. The glossaries, documents, databases, or web pages related to the activities of single institutions were excluded. Finally 13 glossaries were selected from among a number of different dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses that cover the terms used in public health discipline or its sub-disciplines. The selected glossaries were developed in order to unify the terminology with their intended circulation exceeding the narrow aim of collecting terminology for the purpose of one project or for cataloguing the resources of a particular institution. Conclusion: Until now, no one has developed one universal public health terminology, but various attempts related to its normalization are underway. The difficulties in communication, electronic collection, and transfer of information as well as differences in the understanding of public health terms have led to the process of unification. Such a process has been perceived not only in individual countries, but also internationally. There is hope that such works will finally result in the desired and internationally unified understanding of public health terms

Self-assessment of health information literacy by Polish population, in light of the self-efficacy concept : analysis of the selected results of Polish part of Health Literacy Survey EU

Health information literacy allows people to find, evaluate and apply information regarding health and health services utilisation. The goal of this analysis is to present: the self-assessment of health information literacy done by Poles, socio-demographic determinants of this assessment, and to discuss its possible consequences in light of self-efficacy concept. This knowledge highlights certain aspect of society’s’ health literacy, and can be useful in designing pro-health educational interventions in such a way so they meet the needs and capabilities of target groups. Method. Direct questionnaire survey with randomly selected, stratified by age and gender group of respondents (+15, n10000, what was 67% of the sample). The study design and the survey questionnaire were developed by the HLS-EU researchers. The survey was conducted by TNS Opinion in July and August 2011 in 8 European countries including Poland. Among 47 questions in HLS-EU questionnaire, 30 questions were selected as those that can serve as indicators of health information competency, 10 question for each of 3 areas of information skills: seeking, evaluation and application. In this study only data regarding Polish population was analysed. Results. Approximately 38% of Polish population assess their health information literacy as low. Respondents claim that they have difficulty in finding, evaluating and applying health information. Low level of self-assessment can be observed more often among men, elderly and people with low level of education, and also among respondents who see their health status as bad or suffer from at least one chronic illness, and also among these who are in economically difficult situation. Among tasks connected with seeking information most difficult for the respondents were: finding information about political changes that may affect health, information regarding coping with stress or depression, information about vaccinations and health screenings and information on symptoms and treatments of illnesses that concern them. As most difficult to evaluate Polish respondents find the reliability of information about diseases and health risks provided by mass media. In area of application, most difficult to apply is information regarding activities that improve health and well-being in community. Conclusions. Low assessment of self-efficacy in looking for and using health information by one third of Polish respondents may indicate real deficiency of skills, may demotivate them to undertake such activities, and may hinder educational interventions. Elderly, low educated, ill or assessing their health as bad persons should be in first place the aim of educational interventions to raise their information literacy. This can be beneficial for improving their healt

Samoocena zdrowotnych kompetencji informacyjnych Polaków w świetle koncepcji samoskuteczności. Analiza wybranych wyników polskiej części Europejskiego Sondażu Kompetencji Zdrowotnych [HLS-EU]

Health information literacy allows people to find, evaluate and apply information regarding health and health services utilisation. The goal of this analysis is to present: the self-assessment of health information literacy done by Poles, socio-demographic determinants of this assessment, and to discuss its possible consequences in light of self-efficacy concept. This knowledge highlights certain aspect of society’s’ health literacy, and can be useful in designing pro-health educational interventions in such a way so they meet the needs and capabilities of target groups. Method. Direct questionnaire survey with randomly selected, stratified by age and gender group of respondents (+15, n10000, what was 67% of the sample). The study design and the survey questionnaire were developed by the HLS-EU researchers. The survey was conducted by TNS Opinion in July and August 2011 in 8 European countries including Poland. Among 47 questions in HLS-EU questionnaire, 30 questions were selected as those that can serve as indicators of health information competency, 10 question for each of 3 areas of information skills: seeking, evaluation and application. In this study only data regarding Polish population was analysed. Results. Approximately 38% of Polish population assess their health information literacy as low. Respondents claim that they have difficulty in finding, evaluating and applying health information. Low level of self-assessment can be observed more often among men, elderly and people with low level of education, and also among respondents who see their health status as bad or suffer from at least one chronic illness, and also among these who are in economically difficult situation. Among tasks connected with seeking information most difficult for the respondents were: finding information about political changes that may affect health, information regarding coping with stress or depression, information about vaccinations and health screenings and information on symptoms and treatments of illnesses that concern them. As most difficult to evaluate Polish respondents find the reliability of information about diseases and health risks provided by mass media. In area of application, most difficult to apply is information regarding activities that improve health and well-being in community. Conclusions. Low assessment of self-efficacy in looking for and using health information by one third of Polish respondents may indicate real deficiency of skills, may demotivate them to undertake such activities, and may hinder educational interventions. Elderly, low educated, ill or assessing their health as bad persons should be in first place the aim of educational interventions to raise their information literacy. This can be beneficial for improving their health literacy

Topics and dynamics of the publishing in the field of public health and health services in the years 2000-2012, based on the analysis of the Polish Medical Bibliography

The aim of the analysis is to present the subject-matter and the dynamics of the literature in the field of public health and health services, in the years 2000-2012, through the bibliometric analysis of the literature in 11 subject areas. Research questions: Which areas of public health and health services abound at this period in the largest number of publications? Can we observe in the period 2000-2012 growth in number of publications? Is it possible to see any patterns in the dynamics of publishing in particular areas? In which journals the articles on topics related to public health and health services are published most often? Method: The thematic areas of public health were identified following the basic functions of the public health highlighted in subject literature, and widened by inclusion of “management and organization of health care” and “health economics”. The Polish Medical Bibliography (PBL) was searched to find all types of publications published in the years 2000-2012, indexed with the major headings (descriptors) corresponding with the selected topics. The data obtained from PBL was processed by especially written computer program. Results: A total of 24,631 articles on predetermined topics were recorded in PBL, in the chosen period. Dominate publications on “management and organization”, “law regulation” and “health economics”. Together they constitute more than half of all publications. Next, most frequently presented in publications issue was “monitoring the health of the population”. Incomparably less is publications on the prevention of diseases and their causes. During this period, there are only few comparative studies published showing Poland among other countries. Also, very little work is published about the aging of the Polish population seen as a public health problem. From 2000 to 2010, the number of publications in the entire public health area has remained relatively stable. From 2010 begins gradual decrease in the number of articles in almost all fields, with the exception of “disease monitoring”,” prevention of accidents and injuries” and “epidemiological surveillance”. More than half (51%) of the publications were published in 55 journals, of which only 20 deal extensively with issues of public health. Other articles are distributed in more than 300 other bio-medical journals. Conclusions: Public health and health services fields, as areas of research and professional discussion in Poland are dominated by issues of management, organization, economics and law regulations. Number of publications in all analyzed subjects (public health + management+economics) in the years 2000-2012, shows a weak growth, with significant differences between individual areas and sub-areas. In such areas as “disease prevention”, “management”, “health economics”,” quality of care” issues - the number of publications is falling. Dispersion of publications in hundreds of magazines, mostly bio-medical, probably is not conducive to the consolidation of publi

Tematyka i dynamika piśmiennictwa w dziedzinie zdrowia publicznego i usług zdrowotnych w latach 2000-2012, na podstawie analizy zawartości Polskiej Bibliografii Lekarskiej

The aim of the analysis is to present the subject-matter and the dynamics of the literature in the field of public health and health services, in the years 2000-2012, through the bibliometric analysis of the literature in 11 subject areas. Research questions: Which areas of public health and health services abound at this period in the largest number of publications? Can we observe in the period 2000-2012 growth in number of publications? Is it possible to see any patterns in the dynamics of publishing in particular areas? In which journals the articles on topics related to public health and health services are published most often? Method: The thematic areas of public health were identified following the basic functions of the public health highlighted in subject literature, and widened by inclusion of “management and organization of health care” and “health economics”. The Polish Medical Bibliography (PBL) was searched to find all types of publications published in the years 2000-2012, indexed with the major headings (descriptors) corresponding with the selected topics. The data obtained from PBL was processed by especially written computer program. Results: A total of 24,631 articles on predetermined topics were recorded in PBL, in the chosen period. Dominate publications on “management and organization”, “law regulation” and “health economics”. Together they constitute more than half of all publications. Next, most frequently presented in publications issue was “monitoring the health of the population”. Incomparably less is publications on the prevention of diseases and their causes. During this period, there are only few comparative studies published showing Poland among other countries. Also, very little work is published about the aging of the Polish population seen as a public health problem. From 2000 to 2010, the number of publications in the entire public health area has remained relatively stable. From 2010 begins gradual decrease in the number of articles in almost all fields, with the exception of “disease monitoring”,” prevention of accidents and injuries” and “epidemiological surveillance”. More than half (51%) of the publications were published in 55 journals, of which only 20 deal extensively with issues of public health. Other articles are distributed in more than 300 other bio-medical journals. Conclusions: Public health and health services fields, as areas of research and professional discussion in Poland are dominated by issues of management, organization, economics and law regulations. Number of publications in all analyzed subjects (public health + management+economics) in the years 2000-2012, shows a weak growth, with significant differences between individual areas and sub-areas. In such areas as “disease prevention”, “management”, “health economics”,” quality of care” issues - the number of publications is falling. Dispersion of publications in hundreds of magazines, mostly bio-medical, probably is not conducive to the consolidation of public health

Is there the gap in public health literature in Europe?

Introduction and objective: The growing expectations for the effectiveness of public health increase the demand for scientific literature, concerning research, reviews and other forms of information. The bibliographic databases are of crucial importance for researchers and policy makers. The objective of this study is to estimate the supply of scientific literature related to public health in selected European countries, which are available to a wide range of users. Material and Methods: Analysis of the number of bibliographic records on topics related to public health was based on searches in Ovid MEDLINE ( R) in May and June 2011. According to MeSH terms, 11 keywords and names of 13 European countries were used in the search. Publications from the years 2001–2010 were analyzed. A number of publications indexed under ‘public health’, and related to selected countries were compared with the size of the population of those countries, GDP, total expenditure on health and burden of disease (DALYS’s). Results: The most popular topic was ‘health policy’, whereas the topics ‘occupational health’ and ‘environmental health’ were less prevalent. There were no significant changes in the number of publications in 2001–2010. The number of articles indexed under ‘public health’ had significant positive correlation with national GDP, expenditure on health and population size, and negative with DALY’s. Conclusions: According to the criteria accepted in this study, the Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden and Norway – were very productive in this respect. Poland and other Central European Countries were less productive

MedLibTrain til Istanbul - siste stopp for prosjektet?

Istanbul var endestasjonen til Orientekspressen i nesten hundre år frå starten i 1883 til det siste direktetoget frå Paris til Istanbul i 1977. Så lenge hadde ikkje vi i MedLibTrain-prosjektet halde på då vi på EAHIL-konferansen sommaren 2011 oppsummerte våre erfaringar. I denne artikkelen presenterer vi prosjektet, litt om arbeidsmåtane og gjennomføringa i dei ulike fasene fram til vi publiserte handboka. Rett og slett ein historisk oppsummering. Den andre artikkelen vil presentere erfaringane våre etter to års intensivt prosjektarbeid. (1).Tekstane er basert på innlegget på EAHIL konferansen i Istanbul sommaren 2011 (2) og seinare bearbeida for SMH-nytt

Erfaringer med internasjonalt samarbeid i MedLibTrain-prosjektet

Hvordan har samarbeidet vært mellom polske og norske bibliotekarer? Hvordan har vi ordnet oss i det praktiske arbeidet over landegrensene, og hva har vi lært av prosjektet og om hverandres kultur? Uten tvil har det vært en svært interessant og nyttig erfaring å delta i MedLibTrain-prosjektet. Vi har dessuten nådd målene i prosjektet og skrevet en håndbok med tips om hvordan å bli en bedre underviser. Boka er åpent tilgjengelig på nett i en engelsk og en polsk utgave. Her oppsummerer vi våre erfaringer med prosjektarbeidet i MedLibTrain, og gir tips til andre som ønsker å jobbe i internasjonale prosjekt