The loss of quality of life is the major consequence following a non-fatal road traffic accident (RTA). Previous research regarding quality of life did not include uninjured RTA survivors. The ...research aim was thus to evaluate the quality of life of the RTA survivors regardless of whether or not they sustained injures, and to identify factors associated with decreased quality of life after the RTA.
A cohort of 200 RTA survivors with and without injuries was followed after experiencing an RTA. The quality of life and mental health outcomes were assessed 1 month following RTA. A vast range of sociodemographic, pre-RTA health-related, RTA related, RTA injury-related, compensation-related factors and mental health outcomes were investigated.
Decreased quality of life following an RTA showed an association with the low socioeconomic status of the RTA victims, poor pre-RTA health, injury-related factors, compensation-related factors and psychological disorders after the RTA.
Identifying predictors of decreased quality of life following an RTA will enable planning interventions targeting the most important factors that influence recovery of RTA victims. Assessing and recording of self-reported quality of life should be a part of the routine protocol in RTA survivors' health-care.
Introduction: Oral usage of flavonoid-based drugs can be successfully applied in the conservative treatment of internal haemorrhoids; however, its efficiency in a form of topical preparations has not ...been demonstrated yet. The aim of the present study was to determine the efficiency of ointment with propolis extract (containing minimally 115 mg/kg of flavonoid galangin) in relief and suppression of the symptomatic internal haemorrhoids grade 1 and 2 (bleeding, prolapse, pain, and itching).
Methods: This prospective cohort epidemiological study that included 46 participants of both genders, mean age 53.6±14.3 years, was conducted in the general practice setting in Osijek, Croatia and lasted for three months. A specially designed questionnaire was used to collect demographic data and data concerning the haemorrhoid disease symptoms and to evaluate the intensity of the latter data according to the scale defined in the research protocol.
Results: The study showed statistically significant improvements in the intensity of all the symptoms connected with the internal haemorrhoids grade 1 and 2 (p<0.001) during the follow up period, as well as statistically significant differences in proportions of participants with and without of the each of the analysed symptoms before and after the therapy (p<0.001). After three months of therapy with ointment containing propolis extract 82.7% patients (38/46) had none of the analysed symptoms.
Conclusions: Ointment with propolis extract efficiently affected all the analysed symptoms of the haemorrhoid disease thus having a very significant place within the conservative treatment of haemorrhoids.
The aim of this study was to demonstrate that certain types of extraction techniques can give extracts with various bioactive components in different concentrations. Four green extraction techniques ...were used in this study: supercritical CO2extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, cold atmospheric plasma extraction and extraction using deep eutectic solvents. Those modern techniques gave better yields of bioactive components and showed better antioxidant activity of obtained extracts than classical Soxhlet extraction. The bioactive components in obtained extracts were quantified by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Supercritical CO2extraction gave the highest yields for theobromine content, while ultrasound-assisted extraction with 50% aqueous ethanol solution gave the highest caffeine yields during 30 min of extraction, 35 Hz and 60 °C. The extraction with deep eutectic solvent mixture of choline chloride: oxalic acid and 50% pure H2O at room temperature during 180 min of extraction time gave the highest total phenol content while the same mixture under the same conditions, but during longer extraction time (360 min), gave the highest antioxidant activity. Cocoa shell (CS), due to its nutritional value and bioactive components, has a potential to become a desirable raw material in a large spectrum of functional and pharmaceutical products.
The prevalence of vaccine hesitancy underscores the fact that the general public does not uniformly embrace scientific recommendations. Vaccine hesitancy represents a spectrum, encompassing both ...those who accept all vaccines and those who outright reject them. This paper aims to explore the relationship between science literacy, contextual factors, and vaccine hesitancy while accounting for specific mediation mechanisms. The authors applied a theoretical framework derived from the deficit model and the contextual model of public understanding of science. Hypotheses regarding the relationship between scientific literacy, religiosity, political identification, and vaccine hesitancy were tested. The authors also tested several hypotheses based on the assumption that the perception of scientific credibility and institutional trust are significant mediators of the above-mentioned relationships. The data from an online survey with a nationally representative quota sample of the Croatian population (with an average age of 42.6 years.) were used (N = 1,500), while the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the perception of scientific credibility plays a significant role as a mechanism that translates the impacts of literacy, religiosity, and political identification. Institutional trust proved to be a significant mediator but in a way opposite to the hypotheses, which points to the need to contextualize the aforementioned relationships. The authors also determined that younger age, right-wing political orientation, higher religiosity, and lower scientific literacy were the determinants of hesitancy in both vaccine types (COVID-19 and vaccines in general), thus indicating that they might be connected to deeply rooted value dispositions.
Plain Language Summary
Vaccine hesitancy and trust in science
The paper deals with the issue of vaccine hesitancy and tries to determine the characteristics of people with a more skeptical attitude towards vaccination. The results of online research conducted among the general Croatian population showed that younger people, more religious people, and people with a right-wing political orientation have a more negative attitude towards vaccination and that this can mostly be explained by their lower trust in science and scientists.
People with severe mental disorders often require special care. Other than institutionalized care, some organizations provide housing options and special care in the form of organized living. Few ...studies provide a detailed description of nutrient intake in this type of care. The aim of this prospective study was to assess nutritional status and adherence to dietary recommendations in both people with mental disorders (beneficiaries) and their caregivers. Across three levels of care, 46 beneficiaries and 19 caregivers participated in the study. The mean intakes of energy (kcal/day) and macro- and micronutrients (g/day) were estimated from a 3-day dietary record and compared with dietary reference values (DRVs) set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The majority of participants did not meet energy intake recommendations (kcal/day). The contribution of total fat to energy intake (% E) was higher than recommended in both beneficiaries and caregivers with 42.1 ± 4.4% and 38.5 ± 6.5%, respectively. A total of 45.2% of beneficiaries and 61.1% of caregivers had their carbohydrate intake within the recommended range. Fiber intake was well below the recommendations (25 g/day) in all groups. Across all levels of care, lower micronutrient intake for pantothenic acid, biotin, folate, potassium, magnesium, copper, selenium, and iodine was observed. Based on the current results, the development and implementation of nutritional guidelines may be targeted to specific populations and nutrient intakes.
Abstract
Background
The migration of healthcare workers is attracting growing attention worldwide. Attitudes towards emigration develop over the years, and it is possible that, in addition to social ...factors, they are influenced by the characteristics of a person’s personality and the sense of belonging to the social environment. This study aimed to determine the tendencies of final-year medical students’ from Osijek, Croatia, towards emigration after graduation and after specialization, as well as their specialty preferences and to investigate whether introversion and ethnocentrism have an impact on attitudes toward leaving the country in search of employment elsewhere.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted among final-year (6th year) medical students from Osijek, Croatia, in two consecutive academic years – 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. Students completed a questionnaire about sociodemographic characteristics, academic and scientific performance, preferences about their future medical career, the medical specialty of choice, emigration tendencies after graduation and specialization, ethnocentrism and introversion.
Results
There were 124 students who participated in the study (response rate: 96%). A quarter of participants agreed that they are likely or very likely to emigrate after graduation (25.0%) or after specialization (23.39%). Variables associated with the intention to emigrate were specialty preferences (students that prefer endocrinology and psychiatry had the highest emigration tendencies), academic year in which the participants were included (students included in 2014/2015 were more prone to emigrate after specialization, p = 0.060), prior involvement in scientific projects (students with experience in scientific projects expressed higher tendencies to emigrate after graduation, p = 0.023), and ethnocentrism (higher ethnocentrism was associated with a lower tendency towards emigration after specialization, Spearman’s rho = -0.191).
Conclusion
Our finding that a quarter of final-year medical students from the Faculty of Medicine Osijek were considering emigrating from Croatia in search of employment elsewhere after graduation or specialization is not as high as in previous Croatian studies or studies conducted in other European countries. Even though these data may be encouraging, considering the lack of physicians in Croatia, interventions are needed to prevent permanent emigration to protect the future functioning of the Croatian health system. Furthermore, our study did not find significant associations between levels of introversion and ethnocentrism and tendency to emigrate from Croatia. It seems that the phenomenon covering the emigration of students is more complex and influenced by many other factors which were not included in our study.
The aim of this study was to determine the influence of dietary supplementation with propolis and bee pollen on the intestinal morphology and absorptive surface areas of chickens. Two hundred day-old ...Ross 308 chickens (100 male and 100 female) were equally allocated into five groups. Throughout the whole study, the control group of chickens was fed with a basal diet, while the experimental groups of chickens were fed with the same diet supplemented with propolis and bee pollen: P1 = 0.25 g of propolis/kg + 20 g of bee pollen/kg; P2 = 0.5 g of propolis/kg; P3 = 1.0 g of propolis/kg; P4 = 20 g of bee pollen/kg. The duodenal villi of chickens from all experimental groups were significantly higher and wider (
< 0.001), while their duodenal villi crypts were significantly deeper (
< 0.001) in comparison with these parameters in chickens from the control group. The villus height to crypt depth ratio, as well as the absorptive surface areas of broiler chickens, were significantly increased (
< 0.001) in experimental groups of chickens in comparison with the control group. These findings suggest that dietary supplementation with propolis and bee pollen has a beneficial effect on broilers chickens' intestinal morphophysiology.
Across the world, as well as in Croatia, there is a continuous increase in the consumption of chicken meat, and attempts are being made in modern poultry production to improve its quality as much as ...possible by using various natural additives. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of dietary supplementation with propolis and bee pollen on the quality of chicken meat. In order to determine this effect, the carcass body weight of slaughtered chickens and carcass yield were determined, as well as the average pH1 and pH2 of chicken breast muscle, drip loss values, and skin color and chicken breast muscle color expressed as values of L* (lightness), a* (redness), and b* (yellowness). The study was conducted on 200 Ross 308 chickens, divided into five groups. Throughout the study, the control group of chickens was fed with a basal diet, while the experimental groups of chickens were fed with the basal diet supplemented with propolis and bee pollen, each supplement given separately or in combination in specific proportions. At the end of the experiment (42nd day), 10 chickens from each group were slaughtered for the analyses mentioned above. The carcass yield values were significantly higher (P = 0.038) and the drip loss values were significantly lower (P = 0.003) in the experimental groups in comparison to the control group. In addition, there was a statistically significant difference in b* skin color (P = 0.017) and b* chicken breast muscle color (P<0.001) between the groups of chickens. The study showed that dietary supplementation with propolis and bee pollen has a significant positive effect on the quality of chicken meat.
It is still debatable whether psoriasis increases cardiovascular risk indirectly since it is associated with metabolic syndrome or is an independent cardiovascular risk factor. The aim of this study ...was to evaluate psoriasis severity as an independent predictor of insulin resistance (IR) irrespective of the presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS).
This was a case control study including 128 patients stratified into two groups: patients with psoriasis and metabolic syndrome vs. patients with psoriasis and no metabolic syndrome. MetS was diagnosed according to ATP III criteria with homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), as well as a homeostatic model assessment of beta cell function (HOMA-β) were calculated.
Compared to subjects without metabolic syndrome, patients with metabolic syndrome had a significantly higher Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) values (
< 0.001). The strongest correlation was established for HOMA-IR and the PASI index (
< 0.001), even after adjustment for body mass index (BMI) in regression analysis model. In patients without MetS and severe forms of disease, the HOMA-IR and HOMA-β values were significantly higher compared to mild forms of disease (
< 0.001 for all) while in subjects with MetS no difference was established for HOMA-IR or HOMA-β based on disease severity.
Psoriasis severity is an independent risk factor of HOMA-IR, the strongest association being present in the non-MetS group, who still had preserved beta cell function suggesting direct promotion of atherosclerosis via insulin resistance depending on the disease severity, but irrespective of the presence of metabolic syndrome.
The modern lifestyle today creates a certain pressure on people who are forced to adapt to such a way of living. Energy drinks (EDs), beverages containing certain stimulating ingredients, are ...increasingly being offered on the market. Given the unclear impact of EDs consumption on the health of the individual, the focus of this study was to determine the prevalence of EDs consumption among the student population at the University of Osijek (Eastern Croatia). The cross-sectional study via an anonymous questionnaire included 424 students, with an average age of 22.8 years. It was discovered that 52.4% of participants consume EDs. Males were significantly more likely to drink EDs than females (χ2-test; p = 0.006). They more frequently consume EDs six or more times per month (χ2-test; p = 0.045) as well as consume more EDs on one occasion (χ2-test; p < 0.001). University students who were engaged in sports or physical activity were significantly more likely to consume EDs (χ2-test; p = 0.024) as well as smokers in comparison to non-smokers (χ2-test; p = 0.034). In conclusion, the study proved the frequent consumption of EDs among Croatian university students consequently highlighting the need to raise awareness of the possible adverse effects of EDs consumption.
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