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The aim of this paper is to investigate the association between structural and cognitive aspects of social capital and self-rated health among adults aged 50 or more, living in three countries: Finland, Poland and Spain. The study, which was based on data from the European Social Survey (2008/09), was a part of the EU research project COURAGE in Europe. More specifically the paper assesses the association between social capital indicators – informal social network and general trust – and good self-rated health through single-level and joint effects analyses. The results showed that Finland was a country of high social capital, in terms of both social networks and general trust, while Spain showed low levels of general trust and Poland low levels of informal social networks. As to the association between social capital and self-rated health, high levels of general trust and high networks were found to be associated with good health among all countries' respondents. Older persons living in partnerships, with higher education, higher levels of engagement in informal networks and general trust, were found to be more likely to show good self-rated health. Our comparative analyses revealed different associations between social capital and health according to country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background and purpose: Social engagement is an important active aging strategy to promote older adults' mental health. The purposes of this study were to compare social engagement in older populations around the world and explore associations with mental health outcomes. Materials and methods: An international cross‐sectional survey was conducted from 2017 to 2019. Data were retrieved from The International Social Survey Programme for a secondary data analysis across 30 countries. This study applied the Taxonomy of Social Activities and its six levels as operational definitions for a consistent concept of social engagement for international comparisons. Results: In total, 9403 older adults with a mean age of 72.85 ± 6.40 years responded. The highest levels of older adults' social engagement were found in Switzerland, Thailand, and New Zealand. Older adults of a higher age, with a lower educational level, who were permanently sick or disabled, who had no partner, who were widowed or whose civil partner had died, who lived alone, and who had lower self‐placement in society had significantly lower social engagement than did their counterparts. In the regression model, older adults' social engagement positively predicted general health, self‐accomplishment, and life satisfaction, but negatively predicted loneliness and depression. Conclusions: In aging societies worldwide, encouraging older adults' social engagement would be beneficial to promote mental health. Implications for nursing practice and health policies: Community professional nurses can develop strategies of social engagement based on the needs and sociodemographic factors of older adults to improve their mental health. Developing efficient strategies and local policies by learning from successful experiences in other countries is important to promote social engagement in aging societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The next generation of Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) policies will be defined by mission orientation and co-creation processes and implemented by dynamic public-private partnerships. However, the experience of European countries up to now in attempting to boost cooperation in innovation reveals a very different story. Beyond some contextual factors, the characteristics of the agents involved, the dynamics of their relationships and the design of the collaboration tools also have a critical influence at organisational level. This paper aims to identify these organisational factors in different contexts through the analysis of the Demola model, a university-industry innovation platform created in Finland which has spread to other countries, including Spain. Demola applies a standardised model but it has differences in its functioning depending on the national levels of collaboration in the innovation systems. In our case study, we have compared Finland and Spain, bearing in mind the features of the agents involved and their relationships, through a content analysis of primary and secondary information. The results of the study show that the institutional structure of the collaboration and the organisational culture of each institution are key factors in its functioning. These results can be useful for innovation managers, university leaders, educational experts and policy makers. • Public sector must facilitate conditions for other agents to co-create. • Involvement of innovation community top managers is a key success factor for OIP. • Lack of trust and commitment make important differences between national experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to alleviate child poverty, contemporary European welfare states have shifted their focus increasingly towards child-centred investment strategies. However, studies examining the generosity of welfare states to families with children focus mainly on cash benefit packages, or on government expenditure, while not taking into account the actual out-of-pocket costs families have to make to fulfil their needs. This article aims at contributing to existing studies by: (1) empirically assessing the needs and costs of children across welfare states by making use of cross-nationally comparable reference budgets, while taking into account publicly provided or subsidised services; (2) simulating the cash benefits and taxes that affect households with children through the tax–benefit system, by making use of the new Hypothetical Household Tool (HHoT) in EUROMOD; and (3) combining both types of information in order to compare the essential out-of-pocket costs for children between 6 and 18 years old with the simulated cash benefit packages. We propose a new indicator that can be used to assess welfare state generosity to families with children: the child cost compensation indicator. The use of the indicator is empirically illustrated by comparing six European welfare states: Belgium, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Spain. The article shows that, even though with important cross-national variation, cash transfers generally amount to less than 60 percent of the cost of children. Although in five out of six countries support for families is higher at the lower end of the income distribution, for households living on a low gross wage, the income of a family with children is less adequate compared to a similar childless family and is in many cases insufficient to participate adequately in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study illustrates the huge untapped potential of quantifying the impact of culture in making meaningful comparisons across groups. Our focus is on cross‐national differences in nurses' reports of their relations with physicians, and how the measurement of this complex construct and the evaluation of true differences are related to dimensions of national culture. Design: We examine across 14 European countries the association between indices of national culture from the seminal work of Hofstede and 39,435 nurses' ratings of their relations with physicians. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate strong factorial invariance across countries and to examine the influence of power distance and masculinity. Findings: There was wide variation across countries in nurses' reports of their relations with physicians. Strong factorial invariance was shown for a one‐factor model, which confirmed that across countries the seven survey items measure a common factor of physician‐nurse relations. This model showed no country bias for any of the seven survey items, which suggests that differences across countries reflect true differences. These true differences were significantly associated with variation in country values of power distance, which showed a significant negative correlation with physician–nurse relations. Conclusions: Continuously pursuing a better understanding of characteristics that impact the studied indicators, such as national culture, is elementary to better understand the construct under study. In this application, country values of power distance negatively impacted nurse‐reported relations with physicians, which strongly varied across countries. Clinical Relevance: Better nurse‐reported relations between nurses and physicians link to higher nurse job satisfaction, lower emotional exhaustion, better nurse‐perceived quality of care, and lower patient mortality. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index is an excellent instrument to characterize variation in working relations between nurses and physicians as well as physicians' professional posture towards nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine whether the mix of community and institutional long-term care (ILTC) for people with dementia (PwD) in Europe could be improved; assess the economic consequences of providing alternative services for particular groups of ILTC entrants and explore the transnational application of the ‘Balance of Care’ (BoC) approach. Method:A BoC study was undertaken in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK as part of theRightTimePlaceCareproject. Drawing on information about 2014 PwD on the margins of ILTC admission, this strategic planning framework identified people whose needs could be met in more than one setting, and compared the relative costs of the possible alternatives. Results:The findings suggest a noteworthy minority of ILTC entrants could be more appropriately supported in the community if enhanced services were available. This would not necessarily require innovative services, but more standard care (including personal and day care), assuming quality was ensured. Potential cost savings were identified in all countries, but community care was not always cheaper than ILTC and the ability to release resources varied between nations. Conclusions: This is believed to be the first transnational application of the BoC approach, and demonstrates its potential to provide a consistent approach to planning across different health and social care systems. Better comparative information is needed on the number of ILTC entrants with dementia, unit costs and outcomes. Nevertheless, the findings offer important evidence on the appropriateness of current provision, and the opportunity to learn from different countries' experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recovery process of arthroplasty patients, their family members play an important role due to short hospital stay and increased age of patients. Family members need to have knowledge to be able to support the patient. The aim of this study was to explore expected and received knowledge in family members of arthroplasty patients and describe the relationships between the differences in received and expected knowledge and background factors, country, information and control preferences and access to knowledge. The study was conducted in six European countries (Cyprus, Greece, Finland, Iceland, Spain and Sweden). The study design was cross-cultural, prospective and comparative with two measurement points: pre-operative and at discharge from hospital. Knowledge Expectations of significant other-scale and Krantz Health Opinion Survey were used before surgery and Received Knowledge of significant other-scale and Access to Knowledge at discharge. Patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty in seventeen hospitals were asked to identify one family member. The sample size was decided by power calculation. A total of 615 participants answered the questionnaires at both measurements. Family members perceived to receive less knowledge than they expected to have, most unfulfilled knowledge expectations were in the financial, social and experiential dimensions of knowledge. Seventy-four per cent of participants had unfulfilled knowledge expectations. Increased access to information from healthcare providers decreased the difference between received and expected knowledge. Compared to family members in southern Europe, those in the Nordic countries had more unfulfilled knowledge expectations and less access to information from healthcare providers. The evidence from this study highlights the need to involve the family members in the educational approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to examine received and expected knowledge of patients with knee/hip arthroplasty in seven European countries. The goal was to obtain information for developing empowering patient education. The data were collected (during 2009-2012) from patients (n = 943) with hip/knee arthroplasty prior to scheduled preoperative education and before discharge with the Received Knowledge of hospital patient scale (RKhp) and Expected Knowledge of hospital patient scale (EKhp). Patients’ knowledge expectations were high but the level of received knowledge did not correspond to expectations. The difference between received and expected knowledge was higher in Greece and Sweden compared with Finland (p < .0001, p < .0001), Spain (p < .0001, p = .001), and Lithuania (p = .005, p = .003), respectively. Patients’ knowledge expectations are important in tailoring patient education. To achieve high standards in the future, scientific research collaboration on empowering patient education is needed between European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is the causative agent of both varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (HZ) (shingles). After varicella infection, the virus remains dormant in the host's dorsal ganglia and can reactivate due to waning cell-mediated immunity, causing HZ. Exposure of varicella-immune persons to VZV may boost the host's immune response, resulting in a protective effect against HZ. In this study, we used mathematical models of VZV transmission and HZ development to test the biological hypothesis of “progressive immunity,” originally proposed by Hope-Simpson (Proc R Soc Med. 1965;58:9–20), that cell-mediated protection against HZ increases after each episode of exposure to VZV. Predictions from a model incorporating such a hypothesis were compared with those of other concurrent models proposed for explaining HZ epidemiology. The progressive immunity model fits significantly better the age profile of HZ incidence for Finland (years 2000–2006), Italy (2003–2005), Spain (1997–2004), and the United Kingdom (1991–1992), suggesting that this mechanism may be critical in shaping HZ patterns. The model thus validated is an alternative to VZV models currently used to evaluate the impact of mass immunization programs for varicella and therefore extends the range of tools available to assist policy-makers with the present decision paralysis on the introduction of vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]