Frequency and characteristics of excuses given by students attending special sports classes of secondary school to avoid participating in physical education class Objective: The purpose of this ...research was to establish possible differences between students enrolled in special sports classes and students in regular classes of secondary schools regarding the frequency and characteristics of excuses they give to not participate in physical education lessons. Methods: The used questionnaire examined the frequency of excuses, genuine and invented reasons for excuses, and activities that students participate in while absent from physical education classes. The sample included 560 secondary school students, of whom 210 students in sports classes and 350 students in regular classes. The significance of stratification variables (type of class, year of schooling, gender, overall academic performance), for the explanation of the frequency of giving excuses to not participate in physical education lessons was determined by ordinal regression analysis and logit function. Results: The most significant individual factors determining the frequency of excused absences from physical education lessons are gender and grade level; female students and fourth-grade male students were most likely to use excuses to get out of physical education lessons. The excuse rate was not significantly higher for students attending special sport classes. The median annual absence from physical education for boys and girls in special sports classes is 1 to 5 and 6 to 10 hours, respectively, which is more than for male students and less than for female students attending regular classes. The rate of excused absences from physical education among students in sports classes did not depend on the sports discipline chosen, or the volume of training and performance in the chosen sport, yet was correlated with gender. Male students have a greater odds ratio for frequent excused absences from physical education class. The most frequent reasons for a student's coming up with an excuse include injuries, illness and studying. Students in sport classes are more likely than their peers in regular classes to stay in the gym and watch, or study other subjects while not participating in physical education lessons. Conclusion: The system of granting excused absences from lessons is too lenient; moreover, teachers provide no substitute activities for students to participate in while absent from physical education lesson. Since in secondary school students attending sports classes, sports-related injuries and overload constitute an important reason for non-participation in physical education, we suggest that health status of these students should be monitored by a school physician.
Although theoretically very effective and apparently quite straightforward, cardiovascular prevention leaves much to be desired in practice. Several reasons, including ethical, conceptual, ...psychological, and operative pitfalls (lifestyle changes are mostly ignored; drug therapy is too often prescribed with no good reason, and performed in an episodic or on/off way) are presented in this essay. Discussed are the grounds of these aberrations and suggested are some intuitive solutions, best achievable in family practice.
Preprečevanje srčno-žilnih bolezni je teoretično zelo učinkovito in na videz precej enostavno, vendar pa je treba v praksi na tem področju še marsikaj storiti. Prispevek opisuje razloge takšnega stanja, tj. etične, konceptualne in psihološke dejavnike ter težave pri izvajanju. Zdravljenje z zdravili prevečkrat predpišemo brez pravega razloga, poteka pa občasno in neredno. Prispevek obravnava vzroke teh slabosti in predlaga nekaj rešitev, ki jih najlaže ponudi družinska medicina.
Efficiency of community based intervention programme on keeping lowered weight Objective: To establish the effectiveness of community based intervention on lowering and sustaining weight. Methods: We ...performed a longitudinal retrospective study in three primary care centres in Slovenia. 333 men aged 35 to 65 and women aged 45 to 70 with body mass index higher than 25 kg/m2 and high risk for cardiovascular diseases or with body mass index higher than 30 kg/m2 were included. The data for the analysis were extracted from the forms of National cardio-vascular disease prevention programme. Long-term follow-up of their weight was performed 12 to 24 months after the intervention. Results: The inclusion criteria fulfilled 250 (75%) participants. During the programme the participants' weight lowered by a mean 6.7 kg from 95.5±15.1 to 88.8±14.7 kg (7.1% of the entry body weight, 95% CI: -7.2 to -6.1 %). One to two years after the intervention 62.8% of the participants could not keep the weight they achieved during the intervention phase. Mean regain of the weight was 1.6 kg, (23% of the lost weight, 95% CI: 0.8 to 2.4 kg). Initial body weight of people, who long-term succeeded to keep achieved weight was higher than initial body weight of those people, who regained weight after the programme (t=3.490, P= 0.001) Gender and age did not show any statistically significant impact on long-term weight gain. Conclusions: The intervention programme was successful by the criteria that weight reduction should be at least 5-10%. Majority of the participants could not sustain the reduced weight, but the mean weight gain was less than one fourth of the weight, lost in the intervention period. Besides the interventions for weight reduction also the longterm programmes for sustaining the achieved weight loss are very important.
Analysis of inappropriate medication prescribing in Slovenian elderly patients based on the Beers and Laroche criteria Purpose: Given a great number of elderly people using medications, the main ...objective of the analysis was to determine the prevalence of prescribing inappropriate medications to the elderly in 2006. Potentially inappropriate medications were identified on the basis of the Beers 2002 and the Laroche 2007 criteria and according to the combined criteria of inappropriate prescribing. Methods: We analysed the anonymous database of dispensed outpatient medications prescribed in 2006 provided by The Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia. Beers's 2002 criteria were used for the elderly people aged 65 or more and the Laroche 2007 and the combined criteria for the age group of 75 years and over. Results: According to the Beers 2002 criteria, 22.41 per cent of the elderly patients were prescribed at least one inappropriate medical ingredient; by the Laroche 2007 criteria, the percentage of older people receiving inappropriate drugs was 25.72 and by the combined criteria 35.95. Judging by the published data, these shares are rather high. The prevalence of inappropriately prescribed medications (with respect to all prescriptions) was 3.43 per cent by the Beers 2002 criteria, 4.01 per cent, according to the Laroche 2007 criteria and 6.03 per cent according to the combined criteria. These shares are higher than in Croatia mainly because of the greater quantity of inappropriate medications used in Slovenia. Further it was discovered, that the probability of being prescribed an inappropriate medication increases along with the number of prescribed medications. Discussion: Despite the established high prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescriptions, there is no unanimity in the literature concerning the influence of inappropriate prescribing on the health of older people. We would emphasise here that the criteria discussed are intended to help rather than convince physicians to choose the appropriate therapy. They are also meant to be used in pharmacoepidemiological studies. Ways to reduce the rate of inappropriate medication prescribing are put forward.
The impact of temperature on tropospheric ozone in the Nova Gorica region Introduction. The aim of the study was to identify the temperatures at which ozone concentrations with harmful health effects ...tend to occur, as well as to assess the impact of temperature on ozone air pollution levels in the Nova Gorica region. Methods. The assessment was based on the data on average hourly temperatures and the corresponding ozone concentrations provided by the Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia between 2002 and 2006. First, the level of ozone air pollution was calculated from 42,469 daily 8-hour averages, and next, the temperatures at which harmful ozone concentrations occur were determined. Subsequently, the strength of association between hourly ozone concentrations and air temperature was assessed by analyzing 39,903 hourly periods using correlation analysis and linear regression. Results. Ozone concentrations with a significant impact on human health occurred at air temperatures of 30°C and higher. At air temperatures below 17°C, ozone concentrations increased on average by 1.2 μg/m3 with every rise of temperature by 1°C (a relatively weak association; r=0.233). At air temperatures of 17°C and higher, the concentration of ozone increased by 6.0 μg/m3 with every 1°C increase in temperature (a relatively strong association; r=0.681), while at air temperatures of 30°C and higher, every 1°C increment in air temperature elicited a 6.7 μg/m3 rise in ozone concentrations (moderate association; r=0.391). Conclusion. Air temperature substantially affects ozone air pollution in the Nova Gorica region. Ozone's impact increases with increases in temperature. At air temperatures exceeding 30°C, however, other factors besides air temperature are responsible for elevated ozone concentrations, the most important among them being strong west and southwest winds bringing polluted air from the Padan Plain in northern Italy.
Peer support in patients with tipe 2 diabetes Introduction: Type 2 diabetes affects people in their productive years and significantly influences their quality of life. Organized peer support ...provided by specially trained patients or volunteers who have experience with diabetes can be of crucial importance in supporting a patient's endeavours to lead a healthy lifestyle while managing the disease. Objective: The aim of this research was to establish whether organized peer support exists in diabetes organizations of the Gorenjska region, Slovenia, and how patients feel about the usefulness of and the need for implementing a peer support system. Methods: The sample included 78 respondents, accounting for 58.6% of all type 2 diabetes cases treated for the first time at the specialist diabetes clinic of the Jesenice General Hospital in 2009. The participants were given a questionnaire in which they indicated the level of agreement with the given statements on a five-point scale. The Cronbach alpha for all 18 statements was 0.71. Results: Organized peer support is not yet available for members of diabetes organizations in the Gorenjska region. Most respondents do not perceive diabetes as a source of great emotional stress or as a reason for a lower quality of life. Patients receiving insulin therapy (p=.013), and those with chronic complications (p=.037), reported significant deterioration in quality of life. Women were more eager to learn how their peers manage their lives (p=.045), and to obtain information from experienced peers to help and support them (p=.032). A positive correlation was found between the respondents' opinion that diabetes presents a source of high emotional stress and that shearing experience with peers would help them reduce this stress (r=.517, p=.000); that peer experience would help them in everyday, practical situations (r=.306, p=.007); and that peer experience would help them manage their life with diabetes better (r=.447, p=.000). Discussion: The research results stressed the need for introduction of peer support. We were surprised by the patients' low level of awareness regarding the benefits they could derive from talking to peers. Peer support interventions would bring the desired level of quality to the concept of personalization in diabetes care. Treatment practices for patients with diabetes in Slovenia have shown that organizing a peer support system is considered an option, but has not yet become a standard practice. Peer support can be a powerful source of empowerment and of individualisation of treatment. Its implementation, however, will have to involve the active participation of members of health care teams treating patients with diabetes.
Health product advertising through news in lifestyle magazines Background: In addition to doctors, the mass media are the key source of information about health issues. It is therefore very important ...what kind of messages they produce and convey. Some media researchers called attention to paid-for health-related texts, published as editorial content without being labelled as advertisements (now commonly referred to as advertorials). There is a lack of studies investigating the practice of such messages production. Methods: The aim of the study is to fill the gap in this research field by identifying characteristics of unlabelled health-related advertorials and thus give the readers the mechanisms they need to recognise them. Textual analysis of unlabelled health-related advertorials published by three Slovenian lifestyle magazines was combined with an ethnographic study. Results: Textual analysis indicated that readers can recognise advertorials by the partial and positive-only presentation of health-related products/services, which are described and promoted by using synonyms of effectiveness. Observation and in-depth interviews showed that the key actors in the production process are advertisers and newspaper marketing agents. Advertisers want to have control over texts presenting their products/services. Marketing agents stress poor financial situation of their magazines. News producers claim that they carry out orders given by advertisers and marketing agents. Conclusion: By publishing unlabelled advertorials, lifestyle magazines privilege a pharmaceutical-commercial attitude to health. They promote the pharmaceutical industry by presenting it one-sidedly and in a simplified way, and by ascribing to it the capacity to solve health problems of people in a non-problematic way. A more complex social view of health issues, however, is neglected.
An assessment of lead exposure among children attending kindergartens in Celje Background: The purpose of this research was to assess potential health effects of increased environmental lead levels ...to which children attending kindergartens in Celje may be exposed. In order to ensure maximum accurracy of this assessment, special attention was focused on the determination of actual amounts of lead absorbed by the body. Methods: This assessment of lead exposure is based on the indirect method of assessing the uptake of lead from air, water, soil and foods. To calculate the total amount of lead absorbed, absorption factors and bioavailability of lead in soil (dust, sand) were also considered. Results: Ingestion of lead through foods, water, air and soil (dust, sand) achieves 20.5% of the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), i.e. 500 μg for a child weighing 20 kg in a worst case scenario. Conclusion: The results show that children using kindergarten playgrounds in Celje are not exposed to increased health risks. Some technical measures will have to be taken to reduce children's exposure to lead in soil and dust, and to prevent further pollution of elements of the environment.
Indicators of problem drinking in the slovenian elderly: a qualitative analysis Introduction: Life-long drinking habits may be transferred into old age. Approximately one third to one half of ...alcoholics among elderly people is engaged in hazardous or harmful drinking at middle age or later. The aims of this qualitative study were to describe drinking patterns in the elderly, to identify the most common risk factors and protective factors for hazardous or harmful drinking, older people's empowerment for resisting social pressure to drink and their knowledge about low risk drinking limits. Methods: Residents of two institutions for the elderly were included in the study. Four focus groups were formed. Focus group sessions were taped, transcribed and analysed, and risk factor categories were identified. Results: Most elderly-life-long alcohol consumers had early experiences with alcohol use due to losses (parents' death), hard physical work, lack of food, financial crises, and high accessibility of alcohol. Late onset of hazardous or harmful drinking is primarily associated with loss of a spouse or social status. Adequate parental education, and harmful drinking in elderly. Old persons were not familiar with recommendations for low-risk drinking and did not consider them of great importance. Conclusions: The results of this study provide us with a deeper insight in the beliefs and attitudes of elderly people, which is of key importance in planning public-health interventions to prevent hazardous or harmful drinking and addiction in the elderly. Also, it may help improve patient/physician communication, which is, in addition to physical examination, of key importance in recognizing hazardous or harmful drinking in elderly people attending family physicians' offices.
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