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Objectives: Public health surveillance systems are critical for detecting and responding to health threats. This review aims to analyze international literature on the performance of these systems in terms of core, support, and attributes of surveillance system., Study Design: Systematic review., Methods: Following the preregistered protocol (PROSPERO: CRD42022366051), a systematic search was conducted on PubMed/MEDLINE, CINHAL, CABI, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for articles evaluating Public Health Surveillance System performance from inception to July 21, 2023. Various study designs were included, and quality assessment was performed. Thematic analysis categorized findings into key surveillance system functions., Results: Nine studies from different countries assessed core and supportive functions, as well as surveillance attributes. Performance varied among countries, with some excelling overall and others showing poor performance in specific areas. Many countries' surveillance systems had inadequate performance in key measures in terms of the core and supportive functions, as well as the attributes of the surveillance system., Conclusion: This review shows significant variations in the performance of public health surveillance systems across countries. Further research is needed to understand underperformance reasons and inform global policymaking for strengthening surveillance systems., (Copyright © 2024 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aim: It is unknown to what extend patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in primary care are motivated to change their lifestyle. We assessed the level of motivation to change lifestyle and the agreement for that level between patients and healthcare professionals., Methods: Patients with T2DM (150) filled in a questionnaire to assess the level of motivation to change their lifestyle, using a single question with three answer options. We investigated the agreement for this level between these patients and their healthcare professionals (12 professionals). In addition, we investigated and compared the level of physical activity as indicated by the patients and the healthcare professionals., Results: A large part of the patients reported to have a deficient physical activity level (35% according to patients, 47% according to healthcare professionals, kappa 0.32) and were not motivated to change their lifestyle level (29% according to patients, 43% according to healthcare professionals, kappa 0.13). Patients tended to overestimate their physical activity and their motivation to change in comparison with their healthcare professionals., Conclusions: Patients with T2DM in primary care should increase their physical activity level. Healthcare professionals often do not know whether patients are motivated to change their lifestyle, and should therefore assess motivation regularly to optimize lifestyle management., (Copyright © 2015 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

One of the goals of a pilot study is to identify unforeseen problems, such as ambiguous inclusion or exclusion criteria or misinterpretations of questionnaire items. Although sample size calculation methods for pilot studies have been proposed, none of them are directed at the goal of problem detection. In this article, we present a simple formula to calculate the sample size needed to be able to identify, with a chosen level of confidence, problems that may arise with a given probability. If a problem exists with 5% probability in a potential study participant, the problem will almost certainly be identified (with 95% confidence) in a pilot study including 59 participants., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services for adolescents was added as a target to the revised Millennium Development Goals framework in 2005. However, the utilization of SRH services among adolescents and their sexual activity is not well explored in Ethiopia, with the result that there is no well-designed and sustainable school based intervention for high school students. We aimed to investigate the utilization of sexual and reproductive health services and sexual activity and, to provide evidence based information and recommendations for possible interventions., Study Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1031 female and male high school students aged 14-19 years in Mekelle town, Tigray Region, North Ethiopia. A total of 1031 students participated. Self-administered questionnaire was used., Main Outcome Measures: Utilization of sexual and reproductive health services and sexual activity were investigated using a self-administered questionnaire., Results: One out of five students had used the SRH services in the past year. The primary reason for visiting the SRH services was to receive information. The mean age for the first sexual intercourse was 15.7 and one-quarter of the students had multiple sexual partners. Unwanted pregnancies and abortions were reported by female students., Conclusion: SRH services are known and used by students. However, sexual activity at an early age among high school students and unwanted pregnancies and abortions among female students still call for attention. Therefore, providing accurate SRH information on safe sex and enhancing family-student discussion could be a good approach to reach SRH of adolescents., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Combining behavioural support and pharmacotherapy is most effective for smoking cessation and recommended in clinical guidelines. Despite that smoking cessation assistance from the general practitioner can be effective, dissemination of clinical practice guidelines and efforts on upskilling has not lead to the routine provision of smoking cessation advice among general practitioners. Intensive counselling from the practice nurse could contribute to better smoking cessation rates in primary care. However, the effectiveness of intensive counselling from a practice nurse versus usual care from a general practitioner in combination with varenicline is still unknown., Materials and Methods: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial was conducted comparing: (a) intensive individual counselling delivered by a practice nurse and (b) brief advice delivered by a general practitioner; both groups received 12-weeks of open-label varenicline. A minimum of 272 adult daily smoking participants were recruited and treated in their routine primary care setting. The primary outcome was defined as prolonged abstinence from weeks 9 to 26, biochemically validated by exhaled carbon monoxide. Data was analysed blinded according to the intention-to-treat principle and participants with missing data on their smoking status at follow-up were counted as smokers. Secondary outcomes included: one-year prolonged abstinence, short-term incremental cost-effectiveness, medication adherence, and baseline predictors of successful smoking cessation., Discussion: This trial is the first to provide scientific evidence on the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential mechanisms of action of intensive practice nurse counselling combined with varenicline under real-life conditions. This paper explains the methodology of the trial and discusses the pragmatic and/or explanatory design aspects., Trial Registration: Dutch Trial Register NTR3067., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: A thorough understanding of the processes involved in lifestyle interventions is needed in order to close the gap between research and daily practice. This study explored the processes involved in the provision of a lifestyle intervention to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by health care professionals in primary care., Study Design: Mixed methods., Methods: Health care professionals were asked to intensify lifestyle interventions for patients with T2DM in a routine care setting. Data were collected by serial interviews with health care professionals and patients, recorded consultations, an activity questionnaire and biomedical information. Qualitative data were analysed using a framework analysis with a phenomenological approach., Results: The lifestyle intervention developed by the health care professionals included motivational interviewing, a nutrition and physical activity diary, and a multidisciplinary approach [physiotherapist, dietician, general practitioner and diabetes practice nurse (DPN)]. Participants and health care professionals were positive about the intervention, and patients were more active (P = 0.027), lost weight (P = 0.031) and had lower levels of glycated haemoglobin (P = 0.012). However, qualitative data showed that patients were passive during the consultation, and did not ask questions about ways to improve their lifestyle. DPNs did not use motivational interviewing optimally; provided patients with information that was difficult to understand; and were easily satisfied with the efforts of the patients., Conclusions: Lifestyle intervention for patients with T2DM is difficult in routine primary care. DPNs should adapt to the knowledge level of the patients, and patients must be stimulated to take an active role in their treatment. Patients and health care professionals should become equal partners in determining mutually agreeable treatment plans and goals., (Copyright © 2014 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Feasibility assessment of mobile health (mHealth) data collection at primary health care in Ethiopia., Study Design and Setting: A total of 14 health workers were recruited from 12 primary health care facilities to use smartphones, installed with customized data collection application and electronic maternal health care forms for assessing pregnant women's health for 6 months. Qualitative approaches comprising in-depth interviews and field notes were used to document the users' perception and experience in using the application and forms., Results: All health workers had never had previous exposure to smartphones and electronic forms, but they got used to them easily. Over 6 months, all health workers completed a total of 952 patient records using the forms on smartphones. Health workers' acceptability and demand for the application and forms were high. In introducing the application, nontechnical challenges were more difficult to solve than technical challenges., Conclusion: Introducing an mHealth application at primary health care for routine collection of health data relevant to maternal health at a small scale was feasible. Nonetheless, implementing a system of assigning unique and consistent patient identifier, standardization of health services, and improving mobile network coverage would be prerequisites for scaled-up usage of such an application., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To explore clinicians' views on antibiotic and/or steroid 'rescue packs' used as self-treatment for patients with exacerbations of COPD., Methods: 21 focus groups conducted in 7 countries--Netherlands, Russia, Norway, China (Hong Kong), Wales, Germany and Poland involving 142 primary care clinicians and pulmonologists., Results: We found wide variation in reported use of and attitudes to self-treatment among GPs and pulmonologists in the participating countries. Clinicians highlighted the importance of identifying patients who were most likely to benefit (those with more severe disease) and most likely to use the treatment appropriately (demonstrated by previous behaviour), and the importance of adequate patient education and ongoing communication in regard to use of self-treatment packs. Clinicians recognised patient empowerment and facilitating prompt treatment as potential benefits of self-treatment. However, many felt they did not have the time or resources for appropriate patient selection and education., Conclusion: Clinicians do not feel it is appropriate to offer self-treatment rescue packs to all patients routinely without careful consideration of patient understanding of their illness and their capacity for self-management., Practice Implications: Adequate resources and continuity of patient care are required for clinicians to feel confident in the safe and effective implementation of this strategy., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Differential attrition is regarded as a major threat to the internal validity of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This study identifies the degree of differential attrition in RCTs covering a broad spectrum of clinical areas and factors that are related to this., Study Design and Setting: A PubMed search was conducted to obtain a random sample of 100 RCTs published between 2008 and 2010 in journals from the ISI Web of Knowledge(SM) category of medicine, general and internal. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies were primary publications of two-arm parallel randomized clinical trials, containing human participants and one or multiple follow-up measurements whose availability depended on the patients' willingness to participate., Results: A significant amount of differential attrition was observed in 8% of the trials. The average differential attrition rate was 0.99 (95% confidence interval: 0.97-1.01), indicating no general difference in attrition rates between intervention and control groups. Moreover, no indication of heterogeneity was found, suggesting that the occurrence of differential attrition in the published literature is mostly a chance finding, unrelated to any particular design factors., Conclusion: Differential attrition did not generally occur in RCTs covering a broad spectrum of clinical areas within general and internal medicine., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The increasing prevalence of diabetes suggests a gap between real world and controlled trial effectiveness of lifestyle interventions, but real-world investigations are rare. Electronic medical registration facilitates research on real-world effectiveness, although such investigations may require specific methodology and statistics. We investigated the effects of real-world primary care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)., Study Design and Setting: We used medical records of patients (n=2,549) with T2DM from 10 primary health care centers. A mixed-effects regression model for repeated measurements was used to evaluate the changes in weight and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) over time., Results: There was no statistically significant change in weight (+0.07 kg, P=0.832) and HbA1c (+0.03%, P=0.657) during the observation period of 972 days. Most patients maintained their physical activity level (70%), and 54 % had an insufficient activity level. The variability in the course of weight and HbA1c was because of differences between patients and not between health care providers., Conclusion: Despite effective lifestyle interventions in controlled trial settings, we found that real-world primary care is only able to stabilize weight and HbA1c in patients with T2DM over time. Medical registration can be used to monitor the actual effectiveness of interventions in primary care., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The Pragmatic-Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary (PRECIS) tool was designed to classify randomized clinical trials (RCT) as being more pragmatic or explanatory. We modified the PRECIS tool (called PRECIS-Review tool [PR-tool]) to grade individual trials and systematic reviews of trials. This should help policy makers, clinicians, researchers, and guideline developers to judge the applicability of individual trials and systematic reviews., Study Design and Setting: To illustrate the usefulness and applicability of the PR-tool, we applied it to two systematic reviews. Each included RCT was scored on the 10 PRECIS domains on a scale of 1-5. After this scoring, a 10-domain average for each individual trial and for the systematic review a single domain average and an overall average was calculated., Results: One review was more pragmatic with an average score of 3.7 (range, 2.9-4.6) on our PR-tool, whereas the other review was more explanatory with an average score of 1.9 (range, 1.1-3.3). The results also suggest that the included studies within each systematic review were rather uniform in their approach, although some domains seemed more prone to heterogeneity., Conclusion: The PR-tool provides a useful estimate that gives insight by estimating quantitatively how pragmatic each RCT in the review is, which methodological domains are pragmatic or explanatory, and how pragmatic the review is., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: When studying the effects of a non-pharmacologic intervention, the choice of a control group is often difficult. In a study on the effectiveness of increased water intake on voiding dysfunction in elderly men we used an unusual design. This article addresses the internal validty and ethics of this design., Study Design and Setting: The randomized trial we evaluated had a 6-month follow-up period and was carried out among 141 elderly men with moderate lower urinary tract symptoms. The experimental group was given the instruction to drink more water, the control group received placebo medication. The participants were not informed that there was a 50% chance of receiving placebo. We measured whether the prior expectations and preferences were comparable for the two study groups, whether blinding was preserved throughout the study period, and whether the participants considered this design ethical., Results: Prior to randomization, patients had higher expectations for the experimental intervention, but there was not statistically significant difference in their preference. During the study period, two out of 71 patients in the control group unmasked the placebo. In general, both groups fully agreed with the informed consent procedure., Conclusion: This design can be considered when the effects of a non-pharmacologic interventions are studied.