The Joint Action on CARdiovascular diseases and DIabetes (JACARDI) aims to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in European countries, both at the individual and societal levels. ...The initiative covers the entire patient journey, from improving health literacy and awareness of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, travelling through primary prevention among high-risk populations and screenings, reaching people living with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, improving service pathways, self-management, and labour participation. The project involves 21 European countries, 76 partners and plans to implement 142 pilot interventions, ensuring diversity in terms of cultural backgrounds, public health priorities, and healthcare systems.
In Slovenia, interventions will be developed and tested to improve screening for diabetes through community involvement, the involvement of people with diabetes in education programmes in health centres, and the involvement of people with diabetes in a screening programme for diabetic retinopathy. A set of unified, comprehensive and integrated health education materials and approaches will be developed for both healthcare providers and patients referred to the outpatient cardiovascular rehabilitation programme. The effectiveness of the upgraded health education intervention will be tested in a randomized trial. Furthermore, Slovenian experts are involved in developing a harmonized implementation methodology across all 142 pilot interventions, including contextual analysis at the country and pilot levels, multidimensional assessment and evaluation.
JACARDI will enhance cross-national collaboration, maximizing the exploitation of lessons learned through a clear strategy, promoting the integration and sustainability of approaches to achieve high-level impact, including the implementation of effective interaction, cooperation and co-creation between science and policy.
The aim of this study was to translate the Cardiac Depression Scale into the Slovenian language and test its validity and reliability on Slovenian patients with heart disease.
A total of 272 patients ...with heart disease who underwent elective coronary angiography at Celje General Hospital participated in this study. We used the Slovenian Cardiac Depression Scale (S-CDS), the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-20 (CES-D) to collect data. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity were performed.
Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.92 and the test-retest reliability was 0.71. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed six factors, accounting for 61% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a two- and one-factor solution had acceptable goodness-of-fit measures. However, we kept a more parsimonious one-factor method, given a high correlation between the two factors and the theoretical background in previous studies. Concurrent validation against the CES-D and the STAI-S showed moderate to strong correlations.
The S-CDS is a reliable and valid instrument for screening for depression in Slovenian patients with heart disease.
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is measuring a patient's experience of his health status and represents an outcome of medical interventions. Existing data proves that a healthy lifestyle is ...positively associated with HRQoL in all age groups. Patients with a high risk for cardiovascular disease typically led an unhealthy lifestyle combined with risk diseases. We aimed to analyse these characteristics and their reflection in HRQoL.
A cross-sectional study in 36 family practices, stratified by location and size. Each practice invited 30 high-risk patients from the register. Data were obtained from medical records and patient questionnaire. The EQ-5D questionnaire and the VAS scale were used for measuring the patient's HRQoL as an independent variable.
871 patients (80.6% response rate) were included in the analysis. 60.0% had 3-4 uncontrolled risk factors for CVD. The average VAS scale was 63.2 (SD 19.4). The correlation of EQ-5D was found in the number of visits in the practice (r=-0.31, p<0.001), the socioeconomic status (r=-0.25, p=0.001), age (r=-0.27, p=0.001) and healthy diet (r=0.20, p=0.006). In a multivariate model, only physical activity among lifestyle characteristics was an independent predictor of HRQoL (p=0.001, t=3.3), along with the frequency of visits (p<0.001, t=-5.3) and age (p=0.025, t=-2.2).
This study has been performed on a specific group of patients, not being "really sick", but having less optimal lifestyle in many cases. Encouragement to improve or keep healthy lifestyle, especially physical activity, is important, not only to lower the risk for CVD, but also to improve HRQoL.
Particulate matter (PM) is a major component of urban air pollution and has a significant effect on human health. Natural PM sources are volcanic eruptions, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, ...living vegetation and sea spray. Traffic, domestic heating, power plants and various industrial processes generate significant amounts of anthropogenic PM. PM consists of a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles of organic and inorganic substances suspended in the air. The chemical composition of particles is very complex and depends on emission sources, meteorological conditions and their aerodynamic diameter. Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that exposure to PM of varying size fractions is associated with an increased risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Adverse health effects have been documented from studies of both acute and chronic exposure. The most severe effects in terms of overall health burden include a significant reduction in life expectancy by a several months for the average population, which is linked to long-term exposure to moderate concentrations of PM. Nevertheless, numerous deaths and serious cardiovascular and respiratory problems have also been attributed to short-term exposure to peak levels of PM. Although many studies attribute greater toxicity to smaller size fractions, which are able to penetrate deeper into the lung, the molecular mechanisms and the size fractions of the PM that are responsible for the observed diseases are not completely understood.
Prašni delci so eden najpogostejših onesnaževal zraka in imajo velik vpliv na zdravje ljudi. Kemijska sestava prašnih delcev je zelo zapletena in je odvisna od vira emisij, meteoroloških okoliščin in od aerodinamskega premera delcev. Naravni izvori prašnih delcev so vulkanski izbruhi, puščavski pesek, naravni požari in morska sol. Promet, domača kurišča, termoelektrarne in industrijski obrati pa so glavni vir antropogenih prašnih delcev. Prašni delci so sestavljeni iz zapletene mešanice trdnih in tekočih delcev, sestavljenih iz organskih in anorganskih snovi. Številne epidemiološke študije so pokazale, da je izpostavljenost prašnim delcem različnih velikosti povezana s povečanim tveganjem za razvoj dihalnih in srčno-žilnih obolenj. Škodljiv učinek na zdravje je bil ugotovljen na osnovi raziskav, ki so proučevale akutno, in na osnovi raziskav, ki so proučevale kronično izpostavljenost prašnim delcem. Najbolj škodljiv učinek prašnih delcev je skrajšanje življenjske dobe povprečne populacije za nekaj mesecev, kar je povezano z dolgoročno izpostavljenostjo prašnim delcem zmernih koncentracij. Kljub temu pa so vzroki za številne smrti in resne dihalne ter srčno-žilne bolezni povezane s kratkoročno izpostavljenostjo visokim koncentracijam prašnih delcev. Številne raziskave pripisujejo večje negativne učinke na zdravje ljudi manjšim prašnim delcem, ker lahko globlje prodrejo v pljuča. Kljub številnim raziskavam še ni popolnoma pojasnjeno, kateri prašni delci so ključni za povzročene neželene učinke in prek katerih molekularnih mehanizmov sprožajo neželene učinke.
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