The growing number of chronic conditions and functional limitations resulting from demographic changes and the aging of the population poses several challenges for health care and public health. ...Consequently, it plays a role in the assessment of the impact of diagnostic and treatment effects on patient satisfaction. The study aims to assess older patients’ overall satisfaction with the medical care and healthcare system in Poland and to verify such factors as patient-doctor interactions, access to health care and other sociodemographic characteristics as possible determinants of patient satisfaction at the later stage of life.
The survey data represent the polish part of the cross-sectional COURAGE in Europe study. Satisfaction with hospital care, outpatient care, and the healthcare system in Poland was assessed. The indices for the psychosocial dimension of the patient-doctor relationships and access to hospital/outpatient care were developed based on patients’ experiences as the possibility of talking about private matters, the clarity of explanations, the involvement in decision-making process, being treated respectfully, the duration of waiting and the ease of access to a preferred doctor or other healthcare professional. The ordered probit regression models were used.
The psychosocial dimension of patient-doctor relationships was associated with the satisfaction with both hospital and outpatient care. Being treated with respect (very good experience vs. bad odds ratio OR = 8.1, 95% confidence interval CI: 1.9, 34.4) and the possibility to talk about private matters with medical team (very good experience vs. bad OR = 3.5, 95% CI: 1.1, 10.4) during the last stay in hospital were reflected in the higher satisfaction with the healthcare system. By contrast, the involvement of patients in the decision-making process (very good experience vs. bad OR = 3.6, 95% CI: 1.8, 6.7) or access to outpatient health care (based on developed index OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.02) were found to be significant determinants of satisfaction with the healthcare system in Poland. Other factors associated with satisfaction with hospital stay were gender and changes in health conditions, whereas achieving the expected outcome was related to satisfaction with outpatient care, and the expenditure for medicines and medical services – to satisfaction with the heathcare system.
The investigation confirms an important role of doctor-patient communication skills in improving older patient satisfaction and highlights the need for identifying the psychosocial dimension of patient-doctor relationships as an important part of health care.
•Ease access to care and involvement in decision making determine satisfaction for older outpatients.•Respect and talking about private matters determine satisfaction with the health care system for older inpatients.•Higher expenditure on medicines and medical services determine lower satisfaction with the health care system in Poland.
Inflammation is a central process responsible for health outcomes among surgical patients. Immunonutrition has been investigated as a promising modifying factor; however, inflammatory properties of ...habitual diet have not yet been investigated. The purpose of this study was to describe inflammatory properties of diet measured by the dietary inflammatory index (DII) among surgical patients treated for colorectal cancer and to link inflammatory properties of habitual diet with a duration of hospitalization.
A follow-up study among colorectal cancer patients treated surgically was performed in Krakow, Poland. In total, 689 patients were recruited for the study. Habitual diet was assessed using a standardized semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Overall, 23 dietary items (including macro-and micronutrients) were used to calculate individuals' DII. Gender, age, marital status, body mass index, smoking status, lifetime physical activity, taking vitamin supplements, number of chronic diseases, cancer site, Duke's staging and surgery type were considered as potential covariates.
Participants were aged 58 years, with the average hospitalization time of 11 days. Higher DII (meaning diet with higher anti-inflammatory properties) was negatively associated with the duration of hospitalization (univariable linear regression: b=-0.59; P=0.005). Multivariable logistic regression has shown the decrease of the risk of longer stays (>7 days) among patients with the DII >-4.25, but only among younger (⩽60 years) patients, irrespective of Duke's staging.
The DII might be used as a potential predictor of longer hospitalization among colorectal cancer patients treated surgically. The study provides evidence for the role of dietary-related low-grade inflammation among surgical patients.
Preventive healthcare is a crucial pillar of health as it contributes to staying healthy and having immediate treatment when needed. Mining knowledge from longitudinal studies has the potential to ...significantly contribute to the improvement of preventive healthcare. Unfortunately, data originated from such studies are characterized by high complexity, huge volume, and a plethora of missing values. Machine Learning, Data Mining and Data Imputation models are utilized a part of solving these challenges, respectively. Toward this direction, we focus on the development of a complete methodology for the ATHLOS Project - funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, which aims to achieve a better interpretation of the impact of aging on health.
The inherent complexity of the provided dataset lies in the fact that the project includes 15 independent European and international longitudinal studies of aging. In this work, we mainly focus on the HealthStatus (HS) score, an index that estimates the human status of health, aiming to examine the effect of various data imputation models to the prediction power of classification and regression models. Our results are promising, indicating the critical importance of data imputation in enhancing preventive medicine's crucial role.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
IntroductionIncreasing morbidity of respiratory allergy among children has been observed in the last decades in Poland and across developed countries. Several factors responsible for unfavourable ...trends were investigated and dietary factors among them. Little is known how the diagnosis of allergy may play a role in decision making regarding consumption of some foods. The aim of the current study was to investigate the frequency of allergy among schoolchildren and to explore potential relationship between respiratory allergy and consumption of vegetables and fruits.MethodsDietary factors, the frequency of diagnosed allergy and allergy symptoms for the year prior to interview were investigated among schoolchildren in a cross-sectional study. The frequency and the portion size of 77 dietary items were evaluated. Food allergy cases were excluded.ResultsAmong 62 schoolchildren investigated 6.5% were diagnosed with asthma, 12.9% with eczema. More reported recurrent rush, cough without inflammation, and hay fever. Overall 50.0% of children reported allergy symptoms. The rare frequency of vegetable (<median=13.5 times/week) and fruit (<median=10.8 times/week) consumption was defined. The diagnosis of allergy showed decreased risk of having a vegetable rarely (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.86), but an increase in BMI by 1 kg/m2 increased this risk (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.50). There was no significant relationship between allergy and rare fruit consumption.ConclusionData from a pilot study showed a possible effect of the diagnosis of allergy among schoolchildren on their dietary habits especially recommended consumption of vegetables. The results suggest that schoolchildren with allergy more frequently consume vegetables than their healthy peers.
Measurement of the luminosity in the ZEUS experiment at HERA II Adamczyk, L.; Andruszkow, J.; Bold, T. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
04/2014, Letnik:
744
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The luminosity in the ZEUS detector was measured using photons from electron bremsstrahlung off protons. In 2001 the HERA collider was upgraded for operation at higher luminosity. At the same time ...the luminosity-measuring system of the ZEUS experiment was modified to tackle the expected higher photon rate and synchrotron radiation. The existing lead-scintillator calorimeter was equipped with radiation hard scintillator tiles and shielded against synchrotron radiation. In addition, a magnetic spectrometer was installed to measure the luminosity independently using photons converted in the beam-pipe exit window. The redundancy provided a reliable and robust luminosity determination with a systematic uncertainty of 1.7%. The experimental setup, the techniques used for luminosity determination and the estimate of the systematic uncertainty are reported.
Climate change and the resulting threats create a new challenge for local authorities and residents of cities. The nationwide Project addressed for biggest Polish cities assessed their sensitivity ...and counteracting capabilities in selected urban areas. Within the Project various actions were proposed. To some extent, the implementation of these activities may, however, threaten the water resources. The paper presents risk assessment and shows the possibilities of rational management of water resources in selected cities of Upper Silesia.
PDF
