Bmc Public Health
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Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam.The study aimed to explore perceptions of mental health status, risk factors for mental health problems and strategies to improve mental health among Vietnamese secondary school students. ⋯ Vietnamese secondary school pupils feel that their mental health status is poor, because of many risk factors in their learning and living environment. The need now is to investigate further to identify and apply strategies to improve students' mental health.
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There currently exists a vast amount of literature concerning chronic illness self-management, however the developmental patterns and sustainability of self-management over time remain largely unknown. This paper aims to describe the patterns by which different chronic illness self-management behaviors develop and are maintained over time. ⋯ The findings show that self-management does not develop as one uniform pattern. Instead different self-management behaviors are enacted in different patterns. Therefore, it is likely that self-management activities require support strategies tailored to each behavior's developmental pattern.
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Since the late nineties, no study has assessed the trends in management and in-hospital outcome of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Switzerland. Our objective was to fill this gap. ⋯ In Switzerland, a steep rise in hospital discharges and in revascularization procedures for AMI occurred between 1998 and 2008. The increase in revascularization procedures could explain the decrease in in-hospital mortality rates.
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Population-based self-reported data on off-label medicine use independent from health care provisions are lacking. The purpose of this study is to investigate off-label medicine use in children and adolescents in Germany in a non-clinical setting and to identify prevalence, determinants and spectrum of off-label medicine use. ⋯ There is a considerable level of self-reported off-label medicines use in the general paediatric population. Further investigations are needed to examine in how far off-label medicine use is based on lack of knowledge or on empiricism in paediatric pharmacotherapy. Attention also needs to be paid to under-dosing which potentially exposes drug users to risks of side effects without the benefit of a therapeutic effect. Clinical trials for licensing of paediatric medicines, education of health care professionals, but also of parents and carers are needed to ensure the rational use of medicines.
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Some governments have recently shown a willingness to introduce taxes on unhealthy foods and drinks. In 2011, the Irish Minister for Health proposed a 10% tax on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) as a measure to combat childhood obesity. Whilst this proposed tax received considerable support, the Irish Department of Finance requested a Health Impact Assessment of this measure. As part of this assessment we set out to model the impact on obesity. ⋯ This study suggests that a tax on SSBs in Ireland would have a small but meaningful effect on obesity. While such a tax would be perceived as affecting the whole population, from a health prospective the tax will predominantly affect younger adults who are the main consumers of SSBs.