Framing the policy debate over spirits excise tax in Poland.

Industry lobbying remains an obstacle to effective health-oriented alcohol policy. In 2013, an increase in excise tax on spirits was announced by the Polish government. This article presents a qualitative analysis of the public debate that ensued on the potential economic, health and social effects of the policy. It focuses on how competing groups, including industry actors, framed their position and sought to dominate the debate. Online archives of five Polish national newspapers, two spirits trade associations, and parliamentary and ministerial archives were searched. A thematic content analysis of the identified sources was conducted. The overall findings were compared with existing research on the framing of the Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) debate in the UK. A total of 155 sources were analysed. Two main frames were identified: health, and economic. The spirits industry successfully promoted the economic frame in their own publications and in the media. The debate was dominated by arguments about potential growth of the grey market and losses in tax revenue that might result from the excise tax increase. The framing of the debate in Poland differed from the framing of the MUP debate in the United Kingdom. The Polish public health community was unsuccessful in making health considerations a significant element of the alcohol policy debate. The strategies pursued by UK health advocates offer lessons for how to make a more substantial impact on media coverage and promote health-oriented legislation

Bezugsbetreuung von Jugendlichen in sozialtherapeutischen Wohngemeinschaften

Die Forschungsfrage der Diplomarbeit lautet, weshalb wird das Konzept der Bezugsbetreuung aus dem Blickwinkel der jugendlichen Klienten aus sozialtherapeutisch betreuten Wohngemeinschaften angewandt. Jene Forschungsergebnisse, welche geschlossen von allen fünf jugendlichen Klientinnen vorgebracht wurden, werden als die wesentlichsten angesehen. Zusammenfassend lässt sich festhalten, dass Klientinnen solcher Einrichtungen ihre Bezugsbetreuung als angenehm und notwendig erachten und diese vor allem als Unterstützung in den Lebensbereichen Lehre, Schule, Freunde, Familie sowie Beziehungsgestaltung erfahren. Dieses Gesamtergebnis bzw. Fazit deckt sich mit dem theoretischen Standpunkt Kistners (2002), welcher behauptet, dass das Bezugsbetreuungssystem einem nicht vorhandenen solchen Konzept vorzuziehen ist, da „etwaige Vorbehalte gegen die Einführung dieses Systems sich sicher nicht aus den Wünschen und Bedürfnissen der Jugendlichen begründen lassen“ (Kistner 2002, S.104). Es wird ein kurzer Ausblick gegeben. Im Laufe des Forschungsprozesses kam die Frage auf, welche Optionen es gäbe, um das Konzept der Bezugsbetreuung aus der Sichtweise der jugendlichen Klienten zu verändern bzw. zu verbessern. Denn die Mädchen äußerten am Rande Kritik daran und erwähnten Veränderungsvorschläge. Eine weitere Frage, die sich aufgrund des Forschungsprozesses stellt, ist, welche anderen Konzepte neben der Bezugsbetreuung in betreuten Wohngemeinschaften für Jugendliche Anwendung finden und inwieweit diese theoretisch fundiert sind. In diesem Kontext wäre es interessant eine Forschungsarbeit in Hinblick auf die Gegenüberstellung der unterschiedlichen Konzepte entstehen zu lassen

Comparing alcohol consumption in central and eastern Europe to other European countries

Aims: To give an overview of the volume of alcohol consumption, beverage preference, and patterns of drinking among adults (people 15 years and older) in central and eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) and to compare it to southern and western Europe, Russia and Ukraine. Methods: Secondary data analysis. Consumption and preferred beverage type data for the year 2002 were taken from the WHO Global Status Report on Alcohol and the WHO Global Alcohol Database. Results: Average consumption in central and eastern Europe is high with a relatively large proportion of unrecorded consumption ranging from one litre in Czech Republic and Estonia to 10.5 l in Ukraine. The proportion of heavy alcohol consumption (more than 40 g of pure alcohol per day) among men was the lowest in Bulgaria (25.8%) and the highest in Czech Republic (59.4%). Among women, the lowest proportion of heavy alcohol consumption was registered in Estonia (4.0%) and the highest in Hungary (16.0%). Patterns of drinking are detrimental with a high proportion of binge drinking, especially in the group of countries traditionally drinking vodka. In most countries, beer is now the most prevalent alcoholic beverage. Conclusions: Other studies suggest that the population drinking levels found in central and eastern Europe are linked with higher levels of detrimental health outcomes. Known effective and cost-effective programs to reduce levels of risky drinking should, therefore, be implemented, which may, in turn, lead to a reduction of alcohol-attributable burden of diseas

The contribution of leading diseases and risk factors to excess losses of healthy life in Eastern Europe: burden of disease study.

BACKGROUND: The East/West gradient in health across Europe has been described often, but not using metrics as comprehensive and comparable as those of the Global Burden of Disease 2000 and Comparative Risk Assessment studies. METHODS: Comparisons are made across 3 epidemiological subregions of the WHO region for Europe--A (very low child and adult mortality), B (low child and low adult mortality) and C (low child and high adult mortality)--with populations in 2000 of 412, 218 and 243 millions respectively, and using the following measures: 1. Probabilities of death by sex and causal group across 7 age intervals; 2. Loss of healthy life (DALYs) to diseases and injuries per thousand population; 3. Loss of healthy life (DALYs) attributable to selected risk factors across 3 age ranges. RESULTS: Absolute differences in mortality are most marked in males and in younger adults, and for deaths from vascular diseases and from injuries. Dominant contributions to east-west differences come from the nutritional/physiological group of risk factors (blood pressure, cholesterol concentration, body mass index, low fruit and vegetable consumption and inactivity) contributing to vascular disease and from the legal drugs--tobacco and alcohol. CONCLUSION: The main requirements for reducing excess health losses in the east of Europe are: 1) favorable shifts in all amenable vascular risk factors (irrespective of their current levels) by population-wide and personal measures; 2) intensified tobacco control; 3) reduced alcohol consumption and injury control strategies (for example, for road traffic injuries). Cost effective strategies are broadly known but local institutional support for them needs strengthening.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Trends in cancer mortality in the European Union and accession countries, 1980-2000

Cancer mortality rates and trends over the period 1980-2000 for accession countries to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, which include a total of 75 million inhabitants, were abstracted from the World Health Organization (WHO) database, together with, for comparative purposes, those of the current EU. Total cancer mortality for men was 166/100 000 in the EU, but ranged between 195 (Lithuania) and 269/100 000 (Hungary) in central and eastern European accession countries. This excess related to most cancer sites, including lung and other tobacco-related neoplasms, but also stomach, intestines and liver, and a few neoplasms amenable to treatment, such as testis, Hodgkin's disease and leukaemias. Overall cancer mortality for women was 95/100 000 in the EU, and ranged between 100 and 110/100 000 in several central and eastern European countries, and up to 120/100 000 in the Czech Republic and 138/100 000 in Hungary. The latter two countries had a substantial excess in female mortality for lung cancer, but also for several other sites. Furthermore, for stomach and especially (cervix) uteri, female rates were substantially higher in central and eastern European accession countries. Over the last two decades, trends in mortality were systematically less favourable in accession countries than in the EU. Most of the unfavourable patterns and trends in cancer mortality in accession countries are due to recognised, and hence potentially avoidable, causes of cancer, including tobacco, alcohol, dietary habits, pollution and hepatitis B, plus inadequate screening, diagnosis and treatment. Consequently, the application of available knowledge on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment may substantially reduce the disadvantage now registered in the cancer mortality of central and eastern European accession countrie

Characteristics of Antlerogenic Stem Cells and Their Potential Application

Non

Do Regulations Matter in Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lessons from Poland

In this article, we argue that the design and timing of regulatory responses, as well as the adherence of the population to the relevant rules, have a critical impact on the progression and public health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This hypothesis is empirically tested using the example of Poland, a country that experienced, compared to its Western European neighbours, a relatively mild first phase of the pandemic. In this context, we compare Poland with selected countries, including France, Germany, Spain and the UK, and we supplement them with examples from other Visegrad Four (V4) countries – Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. On that basis, we conclude that while the observed differences between the countries in the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic are the result of a multitude of complex and interrelated reasons (such as demographic structure, population density and connectivity or cultural factors), well-designed public health measures, which are implemented early as a part of the proactive strategy that anticipates and reacts quickly to changing circumstances, can effectively decrease the number of COVID-19 infections and related deaths, provided that the adherence of the relevant population is high