Bmc Public Health
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This study was conducted to evaluate perceptions of healthcare workers (HCW) and parents regarding hand-hygiene and effectiveness of measures for increasing hand-hygiene adherence, in a children's hospital in Italy. ⋯ Investigating HCWs' and parents' perceptions of measures for improving adherence can provide useful information for implementing actions for hand-hygiene promotion in children's hospitals. In this study, HCWs' and parents' perceptions were similar; alcohol-based hand-rub availability was perceived as the most useful tool, confirming its crucial role in multimodal interventions. Poor perception of inviting parents to remind HCWs to perform hand-hygiene has been previously observed, and deserves further investigation. Information and education activities were associated with more positive perceptions regarding various improvement measures. Though the relationship between perceptions and behaviours remains to be fully determined, HCWs should participate in formal training and families should be properly informed, not only to increase knowledge but also to improve perceptions on effectiveness of actions to be implemented.
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Improving child survival through various health interventions has been one of the main preoccupations of public health programs in developing nations. However, efforts to understand the child death determinants and determine whether the health interventions are really contributing to the reduction of mortality were not satisfactory. The purpose of this study is to identify determinants and causes of child mortality. ⋯ Immunization, breastfeeding and low parity mothers were independently found to be protective from childhood death. Strengthening the child survival initiatives, namely universal child immunization, family planning and breast feeding - is strongly recommended.
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Pain is an enormous problem globally. Estimates suggest that 20% of adults suffer from pain globally and 10% are newly diagnosed with chronic pain each year. Nevertheless, the problem of pain has primarily been regarded as a medical problem, and has been little addressed by the field of public health. ⋯ The prevalence, incidence, and vast social and health consequences of global pain requires that the public health community give due attention to this issue. Doing so will mean that health care providers and public health professionals will have a more comprehensive understanding of pain and the appropriate public health and social policy responses to this problem.
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Review Meta Analysis
Rotavirus vaccine and diarrhea mortality: quantifying regional variation in effect size.
Diarrhea mortality remains a leading cause of child death and rotavirus vaccine an effective tool for preventing severe rotavirus diarrhea. New data suggest vaccine efficacy may vary by region. ⋯ Vaccine trials have not measured the effect of vaccine on diarrhea mortality. The overall quality of the evidence and consistency observed across studies suggests that estimating mortality based on a severe morbidity reduction is highly plausible.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
The ACCOMPLISH study. A cluster randomised trial on the cost-effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention to improve hand hygiene compliance and reduce healthcare associated infections.
Public health authorities have recognized lack of hand hygiene in hospitals as one of the important causes of preventable mortality and morbidity at population level. The implementation strategy ACCOMPLISH (Actively Creating COMPLIance Saving Health) targets both individual and environmental determinants of hand hygiene. This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a multicomponent implementation strategy aimed at the reduction of healthcare associated infections in Dutch hospital care, by promotion of hand hygiene. ⋯ This study is the first RCT to investigate the effects of a hand hygiene intervention programme on the number of healthcare associated infections, and the first to investigate the cost-effectiveness of such an intervention. In addition, if the ACCOMPLISH package proves successful in improving hand hygiene compliance and lowering the prevalence of healthcare associated infections, the package could be disseminated at (inter)national level.