Consumers generally lack access to information on alcoholic beverages, in spite of it being readily available for food and non-alcoholic beverages. Given the rights of consumers, and as with other ...products harmful to the population, there have been increasing calls for health warnings to be placed on alcoholic beverages, similar to those implemented on tobacco products. The aim of our research was to assess whether knowledge and awareness of the risks and harms associated with alcohol can be improved with a mobile app.
Intervention was conducted using VKJ mobile app, which enables users to scan the barcode of an alcoholic beverage and receive feedback on its labelled alcohol content and estimated energy value. At each search, eleven different health messages/warnings about the risks and harms of alcohol are also displayed randomly, rotating on the screen. A survey was conducted before and after the intervention, to assess the knowledge and awareness of the risks and harms associated with drinking alcohol.
Significant differences were found for eight of the twelve tested statements. The improvement was seen to a greater extent in the group of high-risk drinkers. The results also showed that the vast majority of participants (78%) who were exposed to the health messages supported mandatory labelling of alcoholic beverages with information on ingredient listing and energy value, and 72% would like to have health warnings on alcohol products.
The use of a mobile app can be an option to improve knowledge and raise awareness of the risks and harms related to alcohol.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Public health interventions aim to reduce the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases. Implementing evidence-based interventions that are proven to be successful and effective is widely ...recognized as the best approach to addressing public health challenges. To avoid the development and implementation of less effective or successful or even harmful practices, clear criteria for the assessment of practices, that consider different dimensions of the interventions in public health, are needed. The main aim of the research was to test our Criteria and assessment procedure for recognizing good practices in the field of public health by estimating the consistency between the evaluators and thereby gaining insight into the adequacy and reliability of the criteria as well as to check how the evaluators understand the criteria and methodology and if it is properly used in assessing the interventions.
The assessment of the interventions took place from 2021 to 2022. The individual evaluator's scores on the scale from 1 to 5 for each specific sub-criterion were collected, which was followed by a panel discussion to reach a final score for each sub-criterion. The inter-rater agreement was measured using percent overall agreement and Fleiss' kappa coefficient.
We found moderate inter-rater agreement on the level of the assessment criteria group. The lowest agreement was observed for the effectiveness and efficiency sub-criteria group, which also received the lowest scores from the evaluators. Challenges identified with the scoring process were due to the descriptive 1 to 5 scale and the varying specificity of the criteria.
The results showed that studying consistency between evaluators can highlight areas for improvement or adjustment in the assessment criteria and enhance the quality of the assessment instrument. Therefore, such analysis would be useful part of both newly and well-established health promotion and prevention program registries.
Slovenia ranks amongst the countries with the highest recorded alcohol consumption. The mortality rate attributed to alcohol-related causes of death in Slovenia also exceeds the EU average. The aim ...of our research was to confirm the changes in alcohol consumption in Slovenia during the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic on a representative sample and to identify vulnerable groups at higher risk of increasing alcohol consumption.
Two consecutive data collections of the National Survey on the Impact of the Pandemic on Life, each in different epidemiological situations, were conducted. A structured questionnaire was used to monitor the number of alcoholic beverages consumed during the pandemic, compared to the time before the pandemic.
The majority of the population did not change the number of alcoholic beverages consumed, and among those with changes, there were significantly more of those who drank less than those who drank more. Among respondents who drank a greater number of alcoholic beverages, statistically significantly higher proportions were found in younger age groups, people with post-secondary vocational education or higher, and people with a higher probability of mental health problems.
During the pandemic crisis, we need to pay special attention to vulnerable groups that are at higher risk of increasing alcohol use.
Health promotion and disease prevention programme registries (HPPRs), also called 'best practice portals', serve as entry points and practical repositories that provide decision-makers with easy ...access to (evidence-based) practices. However, there is limited knowledge of differences or overlaps of howe current national HPPRs in Europe function, the context and circumstances in which these HPPRs were developed, and the mechanisms utilised by each HPPR for the assessment, classification and quality improvement of the included practices. This study prepared an overview of different approaches in several national HPPRs and the EU Best Practice Portal (EU BPP) as well as identified commonalities and differences among the core characteristics of the HPPRs.
We conducted a descriptive comparison - that focused on six European countries with existing or recently developed/implemented national HPPR and the EU BPP -to create a comparative overview. We used coding mechanisms to identify commonalities and differences; we performed data management, collection and building consensus during EuroHealthNet Thematic Working Group meetings.
All HPPRs offer a broad range of health promotion and disease-prevention practices and serve to support practitioners, policymakers and researchers in selecting practices. Almost all HPPRs have an assessment process in place or planned, requiring the application of assessment criteria that differ among the HPPRs. While all HPPRs collect and share recommendable practices, others have implemented further measures to improve the quality of the submitted practices. Different dissemination tools and strategies are employed to promote the use of the HPPRs, including social media, newsletters and publications as well as capacity building workshops for practice owners or technical options to connect citizens/patients with local practices.
Collaboration between HPPRs (at national and EU level) is appreciated, especially regarding the use consistent terminology to avoid misinterpretation, facilitate cross-country comparison and enable discussions on the adaption of assessment criteria by national HPPRs. Greater efforts are needed to promote the actual implementation and transfer of practices at the national level to address public health challenges with proven and effective practices.
Background
The rapid growth of social networking sites and video sharing platforms has created an opportunity for the alcohol industry to employ advanced advertising and marketing approaches to ...target their audiences, increasingly blurring the lines between commercial marketing and user-generated content, which poses a challenge for effective regulation.
Methods
We conducted a systematic search through three peer-reviewed journal databases (WoS, PubMed, Scopus). Studies were included if published in English, after 2004, and assessed statutory regulation or voluntary industry codes, enacted by an EU or nation’s governmental agency or private entity, and with the intent to restrict digital alcohol advertising. In addition, we conducted a manual search of gray literature.
Results
A total of 4690 records were identified. After duplicate removal and full-text assessment, 14 articles were examined. Our findings indicate that children and adolescents may often be exposed to alcohol advertisements on social media and websites due to industry’s self-regulatory age-affirmation systems being largely ineffective at preventing under-aged access. Cases of self-regulatory violations by the alcohol industry, and increasingly innovative ‘gray-area’ advertising approaches have also been noted. Additionally, research illustrates a lack of developed statutory restrictions of digital alcohol advertising and instead continued reliance on voluntary industry self-regulation.
Conclusions
There is a substantial need for further research to examine the effectiveness of digital alcohol advertising restrictions in social media, websites and image/video sharing platforms. Moreover, there is a necessity for countries to develop comprehensive statutory frameworks, which would effectively restrict and monitor rapidly advancing digital alcohol advertising practices on new digital media.
In the first months of 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread all over the world and numerous measures were adopted that had a strong impact on both personal and public life. This contribution explores ...changes in alcohol and tobacco use during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia.
Self-reported changes in alcohol and tobacco use during the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic were recorded in 495 Slovenian adults, as part of the European Alcohol Use and COVID-19 survey.
About half of the Slovenian sample indicated that the frequency of drinking occasions did not change in the months after the pandemic's outbreak, while the remainder stated either a decrease (26.0%) or an increase (24.2%). 23.1% reported a decrease and 17.3% an increase in the quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion. Respondents who reported that their overall alcohol consumption decreased were more likely to be male than female and more likely to be younger than middle-aged. Those who reported experiencing at least a substantial level of distress due to financial loss were at a four-times increased risk of reporting an increase in their alcohol consumption compared to individuals who reported no or only some financial distress. Of the 120 people reporting the use of tobacco, almost half indicated an increase in tobacco consumption within the previous month, and about 20% reported a decrease in use. The differences in the results between Slovenia and other European countries are small and the overall pattern suggests that the situation in Slovenia was comparable to other European countries.
As this pandemic continues to evolve, further monitoring is needed to identify the long-term effects of alcohol and tobacco use on public health in relation to the management of COVID-19.
Abstract
Background
Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X-linked disorder of sphingolipid metabolism that results in chronic proteinuric nephropathy. Podocytes are one of the most affected renal cells and ...play an important role in the development and progression of kidney disease. Detached podocytes found in urine (podocyturia) are considered as a non-invasive early marker of kidney injury; however, the dynamics of podocyte loss remains unknown.
Methods
In this 10-year follow-up study, podocyturia and other renal clinical data were evaluated in 39 patients with FD. From 2009 to 2019, podocyturia was assessed in 566 fresh urine samples from 13 male and 26 female FD patients using immunocytochemical detection of podocalyxin.
Results
Podocyturia (number of podocytes per 100 mL of urine) was found in 311/566 (54.9%) of the samples, more frequently (68.9 ± 21.9% versus 50.6 ± 25.9%; P = 0.035) and with higher values (364 ± 286 versus 182 ± 180 number of podocytes per gram of creatinine (Cr) in urine; P = 0.020) in males compared with females. The mean number of assessed samples for each patient was 14.5 (range 3–40) and the frequency of samples with podocyturia ranged from 0% to 100% (median 57%). Podocyturia was already present in 42.9% of patients <20 years of age and in 89.5% of normoalbuminuric patients. Podocyturia correlated with albuminuria (urine albumin:Cr ratio) (r = 0.20, P < 0.001) and a higher incidence and values of podocyturia were observed in patients with lower estimated glomerular filtration rate.
Conclusions
Our data demonstrated that podocyturia is an early clinical event in the development of nephropathy. In addition, we found podocyturia to be a discontinuous event with wide variability.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
The European project VINTAGE - Good Health Into Older Age aims at filling the knowledge gap and building capacity on alcohol and the elderly, encouraging evidence- and experience-based interventions.
...Systematic review of scientific literature on the impact of alcohol on older people; ad hoc survey and review of grey literature to collect EU examples of good practices for prevention; dissemination of findings to stakeholders involved in the field of alcohol, aging or public health in general.
Design and procedures of the VINTAGE project are described, providing also an outline of major results, with particular attention to those related to the dissemination activity.
Much more information and research is needed. This issue should be part of both alcohol and healthy ageing policies.
There is a lack of information about initiatives aimed at preventing the harmful effects of alcohol amongst the elderly.
One of the objectives of the VINTAGE study was to collect the initiatives ...carried out in Europe and review the published grey literature about this topic.
Email-based survey addressed to researchers, professionals and policymakers, and internet search of grey literature.
Three hundred nine contacts were finally made, and 21 of the 36 collected initiatives were considered as useful in preventing the harmful use of alcohol amongst the elderly. Out of the about 2900 references identified 96 were classified as relevant.
Despite a growing interest, alcohol use in the elderly is not yet perceived as a major issue for prevention.
Cancer is a major European public health issue and represents the second most important cause of death and morbidity in Europe. Moreover, as a result of constant advances in medicine, medical ...technology and other sciences, and due to improvements in economic circumstances, cancer survival rates are increasing in Europe and prevalent cases (i.e. number of subjects who have experienced cancer) represent a growing proportion of the population. In order to tackle cancer efficiently throughout the European Member states, the European Commission launched the Joint Action (JA) 'European Partnership for Action Against Cancer' (EPAAC) facilitated by the Community Health Programme, in September 2009. EPAAC is designed to fill a gap in cooperation, collaboration and shared experiences for countries with similar needs and diverse experience in the area of their national cancer control policies. Activities and studies are tackling the main challenges of cancer control in Europe as a whole and in the Member states, including the provision of services and health system responses, human resources and research. In contrast with previous European actions in the field of cancer, EPAAC joins different partners and stakeholders at various levels ranging from Member states (including Iceland and Norway) and Regions to patient representatives.
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