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Background: Achieving people-centred health care systems requires new and innovative strategies to capture information about whether, and to what degree, health care is successful in improving health from the perspective of the patient. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) can bring some of these new insights, and are increasingly used in research, clinical care, and policymaking.Methods: This paper reflects the ongoing discussions and findings of the OECD PaRIS Working Group on Patient-reported Indicators for Mental Health Care.Results: The OECD has been measuring quality of care for mental health conditions over the last 14 years through the Health Care Quality and Outcomes (HCQO) program; nonetheless, information on how persons with mental health problems value the services they receive, and impact of the services, remains limited. As of 2018, a survey from the OECD showed that only five of the twelve countries surveyed (Australia, Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom) reported PROMs and PREMs collection on a regular basis in mental health settings. The paper details some of the challenges specific to the collection and use of PROMs and PREMs in mental health care, and examples from countries which have implemented comprehensive programmes to gather information about PROMs and PREMs for individuals receiving mental health services.Conclusions: Given the health and economic impact of mental ill-health across all OECD countries, there is significant value to being able to assess the quality and outcomes of care in this area using internationally-comparable measures. Continued international harmonisation of PROMs and PREMs for mental health through international coordination is a key way to facilitate the sharing of national experiences, promote the use of PROMs and PREMs, and create meaningful indicators for national and international benchmarking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Achieving people-centred health care systems requires new and innovative strategies to capture information about whether, and to what degree, health care is successful in improving health from the perspective of the patient. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) can bring some of these new insights, and are increasingly used in research, clinical care, and policymaking.Methods: This paper reflects the ongoing discussions and findings of the OECD PaRIS Working Group on Patient-reported Indicators for Mental Health Care.Results: The OECD has been measuring quality of care for mental health conditions over the last 14 years through the Health Care Quality and Outcomes (HCQO) program; nonetheless, information on how persons with mental health problems value the services they receive, and impact of the services, remains limited. As of 2018, a survey from the OECD showed that only five of the twelve countries surveyed (Australia, Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom) reported PROMs and PREMs collection on a regular basis in mental health settings. The paper details some of the challenges specific to the collection and use of PROMs and PREMs in mental health care, and examples from countries which have implemented comprehensive programmes to gather information about PROMs and PREMs for individuals receiving mental health services.Conclusions: Given the health and economic impact of mental ill-health across all OECD countries, there is significant value to being able to assess the quality and outcomes of care in this area using internationally-comparable measures. Continued international harmonisation of PROMs and PREMs for mental health through international coordination is a key way to facilitate the sharing of national experiences, promote the use of PROMs and PREMs, and create meaningful indicators for national and international benchmarking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child welfare agencies in many rich countries are having difficulty recruiting and retaining social workers. However, these problems are not unique to child welfare: retention problems have also been widely reported in both mental and general health facilities. In this paper, we compare the perceptions of work and working conditions held by child welfare social workers with the perceptions held by other professional human service workers in the public sector in Sweden. Do the social workers' experiences of their tasks or organizational conditions differ from the other groups, and, if so, how? Are workforce problems particularly acute in child welfare, or do social workers in this field share more or less common problems with other human service professionals? We found that although social workers in general, and child welfare social workers in particular, made positive assessments of some dimensions of their working lives, social work was unusually demanding among human service professions on several measures of workload, complexity of tasks and quality of management. The strains of the job that social workers expressed call upon employers to promote working conditions that offer more support, and to recognize and value social workers for their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer survival in the UK and Denmark are lower when compared with similar countries with late diagnosis a possible cause. We aimed to study the relationship between barriers to attending a primary care physician (GP) and anticipated time to help seeking (ATHS) with four cancer symptoms in six countries. Methods: A population-based survey measuring cancer awareness and beliefs conducted within the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and UK. Data were collected on perceived barriers to GP consultation (including embarrassment, worry about wasting the doctors' time, fear about what the doctor might find and being too busy) and ATHS for persistent cough, abdominal swelling, rectal bleeding and breast changes. Relationships between perceived barriers and ATHS were investigated using multivariable analysis. Results: Among 19079 respondents, higher perceived barrier scores were associated with longer ATHS intervals for all symptoms studied (P<0.01) responders with the highest barrier scores (>10.84) had between two and three times the odds of longer ATHS. ATHS was low in Australia for all symptoms and highest in Denmark for abdominal bloating. Conclusions: Perceived barriers to help-seeking have a role in delaying GP presentation. Early diagnosis campaigns should address emotional and practical barriers that reduce early presentation with potential cancer symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When investigating the association between brain tumors and use of mobile telephones, accurate data on tumor position are essential, due to the highly localized absorption of energy in the human brain from the radio-frequency fields emitted. We used a point process model to investigate this association using information that included tumor localization data from the INTERPHONE Study (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Our main analysis included 792 regular mobile phone users diagnosed with a glioma between 2000 and 2004. Similar to earlier results, we found a statistically significant association between the intracranial distribution of gliomas and the self-reported location of the phone. When we accounted for the preferred side of the head not being exclusively used for all mobile phone calls, the results were similar. The association was independent of the cumulative call time and cumulative number of calls. However, our model used reported side of mobile phone use, which is potentially influenced by recall bias. The point process method provides an alternative to previously used epidemiologic research designs when one is including localization in the investigation of brain tumors and mobile phone use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Seven Countries Study in the 1960s showed very low mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in Japan, which was attributed to very low levels of total cholesterol. Studies of migrant Japanese to the USA in the 1970s documented increase in CHD rates, thus CHD mortality in Japan was expected to increase as their lifestyle became Westernized, yet CHD mortality has continued to decline since 1970. This study describes trends in CHD mortality and its risk factors since 1980 in Japan, contrasting those in other selected developed countries.Methods: We selected Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. CHD mortality between 1980 and 2007 was obtained from WHO Statistical Information System. National data on traditional risk factors during the same period were obtained from literature and national surveys.Results: Age-adjusted CHD mortality continuously declined between 1980 and 2007 in all these countries. The decline was accompanied by a constant fall in total cholesterol except Japan where total cholesterol continuously rose. In the birth cohort of individuals currently aged 50-69 years, levels of total cholesterol have been higher in Japan than in the USA, yet CHD mortality in Japan remained the lowest: >67% lower in men and > 75% lower in women compared with the USA. The direction and magnitude of changes in other risk factors were generally similar between Japan and the other countries.Conclusions: Decline in CHD mortality despite a continuous rise in total cholesterol is unique. The observation may suggest some protective factors unique to Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set against the backdrop of counter-trafficking initiatives at international level, this article draws on the findings of a comparative study that investigated (through semi-structured interviews with officials and interest groups) the merits and demerits of domestic level responses in the United Kingdom, Australia, Holland, Sweden and Italy. In a context in which trafficking in women for sexual purposes can be understood through the lens of numerous frameworks (human rights, criminality, prostitution policy, immigration, social exclusion, etc.), this article examines the extent to which these different agendas have influenced the construction and operation of the respective domestic regimes. More specifically, it illustrates the extent to which the ambiguities inherent in the United Nation's most recent Anti-Trafficking Protocol permit scope for the incorporation and/or perpetuation of discretion at domestic level. Highlighting the underlying tensions between competing immigration, human rights, policing and social services imperatives, the differential resolution of which leads to the divergence in domestic response, this article situates this complex engagement in the broader context of debates about globalization, exploitation and prostitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-section surveys of public opinion are now being conducted continuously in five countries-the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia and Sweden. Through these surveys it has become possible for the first time to measure and to report the views of the common man on the same issue at the same time in five nations of the globe with a combined population of nearly 200,000,000. Sampling surveys as a means of systematically discovering public opinion make no claim to perfection or infallibility. But through their development it has become possible to chart the main trends of public opinion in the five nations and to study the impact of war events on public thinking. The American Institute, oldest of the five, has been measuring and reporting American opinion for seven years. It receives its entire financial support from more than one hundred daily newspapers, of all shades of political belief.