Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death among North American youth, with a high prevalence of distraction-related fatalities. Youth-focused interventions must address detecting (visual scanning) and responding (adjustment to stimuli) to critical roadway information. In this repeated measures study, we investigated the feasibility (i.e., recruitment and sample characteristics; data collection procedures; acceptability of the intervention; resources; and preliminary effects) of a DriveFocus™ app intervention on youth's driving performance. Thirty-four youth participated in a 9-week protocol (retention rate = 89.7%; adherence rate = 100%). No participants experienced simulator sickness. A preliminary nonparametric evaluation of the results ( n = 34) indicated a statistically significant decrease in the number of visual scanning, F(2, 68) = 3.769, p = .028, and adjustment to stimuli, F(2, 68) = 6.759, p = .002, errors between baseline, midpoint, and posttest. This study lays the foundation to support a targeted intervention trial to improve youth's attention to critical road information, building on their mobile technology preferences.
Background: Maternal and child health is an important component of the Sustainable Development Goals. Pakistan has one of the worst maternal and neonatal health outcomes in the world. This is despite significant health system investments across the country. Aims: The objectives of this study are twofold. First, the study estimates the technical efficiency of the public healthcare facilities in Pakistan, defined as the number of obstetric deliveries compared to the number of medical specialists, nurses, and other health and non-health staff members.Second, the study evaluates the relationship between efficiency and quality of care; the latter is measured in terms of maternal and neonatal mortality. Materials & Methods:The data were taken from the Pakistan Health Facility Assessment Survey. Efficiency score was calculated for 843 public healthcare facilities, using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. We then used two-stage residual inclusion approach with bootstrapping to evaluate the relationship between efficiency and quality.Results and Discussion: The average efficiency score was 0.48 (range: 0-1) and none of the public healthcare facilities were on the frontier, implying that efficiency gains can be made across the board. The relationship between efficiency and quality is found to be positive and statistically signif-
IntroductionInfectious disease models are important tools to inform public health policy decisions. These models are primarily based on an average population approach and often ignore the role of social determinants in predicting the course of a pandemic and the impact of policy interventions. Ignoring social determinants in models may cause or exacerbate inequalities. This limitation has not been previously explored in the context of the current pandemic, where COVID-19 has been found to disproportionately affect marginalised racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Therefore, our primary goal is to identify the extent to which COVID-19 models incorporate the social determinants of health in predicting outcomes of the pandemic.Methods and analysisWe will search MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases from December 2019 to August 2020. We will assess all infectious disease modelling studies for inclusion of social factors that meet the following criteria: (a) focused on human spread of SARS-CoV-2; (b) modelling studies; (c) interventional or non-interventional studies; and (d) focused on one of the following outcomes: COVID-19-related outcomes (eg, cases, deaths), non-COVID-19-related outcomes (ie, impacts of the pandemic or control policies on other health conditions or health services), or impact of the pandemic or control policies on economic outcomes. Data will only be extracted from models incorporating social factors. We will report the percentage of models that considered social factors, indicate which social factors were considered, and describe how social factors were incorporated into the conceptualisation and implementation of the infectious disease models. The extracted data will also be used to create a narrative synthesis of the results.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval is not required as only secondary data will be collected. The results of this systematic review will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication and conference proceedings.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020207706.
The purpose of this project was to evaluate the validity of two weekly sedentary time (ST) questionnaires adapted from the Past‐day Adults' Sedentary Time—University (PAST‐U): the PAST‐WEEK‐U (Study 1) and the NIGHTLY‐WEEK‐U (Study 2), in a homogenous sample of undergraduate students by comparison with criterion data obtained using the activPAL4™ inclinometer. In Study 1, undergraduate university students wore the activPAL4™ for 1 week. The following week, participants completed the PAST‐WEEK‐U. In Study 2, undergraduate students wore the activPAL4™ for 1 week and simultaneously completed the NIGHTLY‐WEEK‐U. Average daily ST was calculated from each questionnaire and compared with the average daily ST derived from the criterion measure activPAL4™. The agreement between the measures was assessed via Bland‐Altman plots. The average ST captured using the PAST‐WEEK‐U was 0.09 hours lower than the criterion measure activPAL4™ (ie, 11.34 vs 11.25 hours per day), with a 95% limit of agreement ranging from −5.38 to 5.55 hours. The average ST captured using the NIGHTLY‐WEEK‐U was 0.21 hours lower than the criterion measure activPAL4™ (ie, 10.50 vs 10.29 hours per day), with a 95% limit of agreement ranging from −1.75 to 2.17 hours. The NIGHTLY‐WEEK‐U provides a superior measure of ST compared with the PAST‐WEEK‐U and potentially other weekly measures of ST.
Approximately one in 10 employed Canadians worked in health care and social services in 2016. Health professionals perceive life-long learning as an important element of professional life and value flexibility in their continuing education activities. Online learning is ideally suited to meet this need for flexible health sciences continuing education. The present study sought to identify and characterize online graduate programs in health sciences offered by Canadian universities. All Canadian (non-technical) university websites were hand searched for online graduate programs in health and related fields. Each identified program was characterized by 10 features: province, university, flexibility (i.e., fully online or blended), subject area, curriculum (e.g., coursework, thesis or project, practicum), duration and timing options (i.e., full-time, part-time), admission requirements, class size and acceptance rates, and employment outcomes. The search identified 171 Canadian university online graduate programs in health and related fields. Across Canada, the greatest numbers of programs are offered in Ontario and British Columbia. Most programs are master's and graduate certificate programs, with graduate diploma and PhD programs being less common.While the majority of programs require an undergraduate degree for admission, some programs base entry requirements on previous work experience. Most programs offer a blended learning experience, with fewer being fully online. The most common content areas include nursing, public health, occupational health, and occupational therapy. These findings highlight opportunities to advance fully online, health continuing education in novel subject areas.
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