No abstract

Background and aimsPriority setting is a challenging task for public health professionals. To support health professionals with this and in following a recommendation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), 35 European parasitologists attended a workshop from 8–12 February 2016 to rank food-borne parasites (FBP) in terms of their importance for Europe and regions within Europe. Methods: Countries were divided into European regions according to those used by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. We used the same multicriteria decision analysis approach as the FAO/WHO, for comparison of results, and a modified version, for better regional representation. Twenty-five FBP were scored in subgroups, using predefined decision rules. Results: At the European level, Echinococcus multilocularis ranked first, followed by Toxoplasma gondii and Trichinella spiralis. At the regional level, E. multilocularis ranked highest in Northern and Eastern Europe, E. granulosus in South-Western and South-Eastern Europe, and T. gondii in Western Europe. Anisakidae, ranking 17th globally, appeared in each European region’s top 10. In contrast, Taenia solium, ranked highest globally but 10th for Europe. Conclusions: FBP of importance in Europe differ from those of importance globally, requiring targeted surveillance systems, intervention measures, and preparedness planning that differ across the world and across Europe.

No abstract

BackgroundPoor adherence to the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) is reported as one of the main causes of unintended pregnancy in women that rely on this form of contraception. This study aims to estimate the associations between a range of well-established modifiable psychological factors and adherence to OCP.MethodA cross-sectional survey of 130 female University students currently using OCP (Mean age: 20.46 SD: 3.01, range 17–36) was conducted. An OCP specific Medication Adherence Report Scale was used to assess non-adherence. Psychological predictor measures included necessity and concern beliefs about OCP, intentions, perceived behavioural control (pbc), anticipated regret and action and coping planning. Multiple linear regression was used to analyse the data.ResultsFifty-two per cent of participants reported missing their OCP once or more per month and 14% twice or more per month. In bivariate analysis intentions (r = −0.25), perceived behavioural control (r= −0.66), anticipated regret (r=0.20), concerns about OCP (r =0.31), and action (r= −0.25) and coping (r= −0.28) planning were all significantly associated with adherence to OCP in the predicted direction. In a multivariate model almost half (48%) of the variation in OCP adherence could be explained. The strongest and only statistically significant predictors in this model were perceived behavioural control (β=−0.62, p<0.01) and coping planning (β =−0.23, p=0.03). A significant interaction between intentions and anticipated regret was also observed.ConclusionThe present data point to a number of key modifiable psychological determinants of OCP use. Future work will establish whether changing these variables results in better adherence to the OCP.

Collaboration between hospitals and community organisations has been promoted over the past 20 years by various levels of government, hospital associations, health promotion advocates, and others at the state/province, national and international levels as a way to improve the 'efficiency of the system', reduce duplication, enhance effectiveness and service coordination, improve continuity of care, and enhance community capacity to address complex issues. Nevertheless, and despite a growing literature on interagency collaboration, systematic documentation and empirical analysis of hospital-community collaboration (HCC) is almost completely lacking in the literature, particularly as regards collaborations that address the determinants of health beyond the hospital walls. In this paper, we describe the methodology and key findings from a research study of HCC. The Hospital Involvement in Community Action (HICA) study undertook detailed qualitative case studies (in four urban, suburban, rural and northern locations) and a telephone survey (of 139 community organisations in a large urban centre) in order to learn about the range of collaborations and working relationships that exist between hospitals and community agencies in the province of Ontario (Canada), and the factors that influenced (enabled and/or hindered) HCC. Particular attention was paid to barriers and enablers at three nested levels of context (policy, hospital and community) and, drawing primarily on the qualitative case studies, it is this aspect that is the focus of this paper. That such collaborations continue to be widespread despite a generally unfavourable policy environment and hospital institutional culture that poses significant barriers, suggests that the extent to which HCC flourishes (or exists at all) crucially depends on the presence and ongoing enthusiasm/commitment of one or more 'champions' within the hospital, and the commitment of both parties to overcome the marked cultural differences between hospital and community. We conclude with a discussion of implications for policy and practice.