This report provides an overview of the Key findings of the Rwanda 2014-2015 Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS). The 2014-15 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS) was designed to provide data for monitoring the population and health situation in Rwanda. The 2014-15 RDHS is the fifth Demogra...phic and Health Survey
conducted in Rwanda since 1992. The objective of the survey was to provide reliable estimates of fertility levels, marriage, sexual activity, fertility preferences, family planning methods, breastfeeding practices, nutrition, childhood and maternal mortality, maternal and child health, early childhood development, malaria, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that can be used by program managers and policymakers to evaluate and improve existing programs.
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The chapter Fostering Health Systems’ Monitoring to Better Serve Older Populations is part of the publication series entitled Decade of Healthy Aging: Situation and Challenges. The publications are designed to favor the prioritization of effective actions at the local level as well as the monitori...ng of data and public health policies, and providing evidence-based information. Along with the objective of presenting the available updated knowledge about the situation of health and aging at the beginning of the Decade of Healthy Aging in the Americas, this publication gives information about health systems’ monitoring to better serve the needs of older adults and emphasizes the need for societies and health systems to better adapt to an aging population. It introduces the 360-tool as a guide to adapt health systems through monitoring tracers/indicators and highlighting the data and information that is readily available, disaggregated by age. This information can aid in decision-making and resource allocation to support older adults’ needs. Concerning the 360-tool development, a consensus has been reached on seven tracer indicators with high relevance to informing policy, and case studies in selected countries have assessed the feasibility of this approach. The list of indicators and the process related to the development of the tool are presented in this publication. The Decade of Healthy Aging 2021-2030 is a period to guide action towards the transformation of societies by fostering the inclusion of older people in every decision. This publication intends to contribute to this strategy and highlight the upcoming challenges and opportunities on healthy aging.
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Existing data on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence are irregularly distributed around the world, and in many geographic regions data are scarce or even nonexistent. This fact hinders the implementation of adequate preventive and therapeutic interventions to reduce the high burd...en and costs of COPD. In the current study, we have used the Geographic Information System (GIS) inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation technique with the objective of visualising spatial data of COPD prevalence in the world and obtaining a visual impression of the magnitude of this global health problem. GIS has been recognised as an effective tool to display the geographical distribution of data, even when they are few and widely separated, as is the case with the prevalence of COPD.
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Mental disorders are important public health concern in Bangladesh with a substantial treatment gap due to shortage of resources and trained relevant professionals, such as psychiatrists, psychologists, social psychologists, psychiatric nurses and occupational therapists.
This manual is developed i...n Bangla focusing on common mental disorders prevailing in Bangladesh. The objective of the initiative is to build the capacity of nurses and paramedics to identify common mental disorders and to take appropriate steps including referral.
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Infertility is a disease of the male or female reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Understanding the magnitude of infertility is critical for developing appropriate interventions, for monitoring access t...o quality fertility care, and for mitigating risk factors for and consequences of infertility.
The objective of this report is to provide estimates of the global and regional prevalence of infertility by analyzing all relevant and representative studies from 1990 to 2021, taking into account different study approaches. This report also provides insight into how the estimation of infertility prevalence can be improved to obtain more reliable and actionable data. These estimates improve the understanding of the burden of infertility, and provide a basis for appropriate policies and services to achieve universal access to fertility care for all.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global human, animal, plant and environment health threat that needs to be addressed by every country. The impacts of AMR are wide-ranging in terms of human health, animal health, food security and safety, environmental effects on ecosystems and biodiversity, and ...socioeconomic development. Just like the climate crisis, AMR poses a significant threat to the delivery of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The response to the AMR crisis has been spearheaded through the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance (GAP-AMR), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and formally endorsed by the three organizations’ governing bodies and by the Political Declaration of the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on AMR in 2016. In 2022, the three organizations officially became the Quadripartite by welcoming the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into the alliance “to accelerate coordination strategy on human, animal and ecosystem health”.
The aim of the GAP-AMR is to ensure the continuity of successful treatment with effective and safe medicines.
Its strategic objectives include:
• improving the awareness and understanding of AMR;
• strengthening the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research;
• reducing the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene and infection prevention measures; optimizing the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health; and
• developing the economic case for sustainable investment that takes account of the needs of all countries and increasing investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools, vaccines and other interventions.
With the adoption of the GAP-AMR, countries agreed to develop national action plans (NAPs) aligned with the GAP-AMR to mainstream AMR interventions nationally. Individually, the Quadripartite took action to advance AMR interventions in their respective sectors. FAO adopted a resolution on AMR recognizing that it poses an increasingly serious threat to public health and sustainable food production, and developed an AMR action plan to support the resolution’s implementation. For its part, WOAH developed a strategy on AMR aligned with the GAP-AMR, acknowledging the importance of a One Health approach to AMR. Similarly, more recently, UNEP’s governing body, the United Nations Environment Assembly, recognized that AMR is a current and increasing threat and a challenge to global health, food security and the sustainable development of all countries, and welcomed the GAP-AMR and the NAPs developed in accordance with its five overarching strategic objectives
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To survive and thrive, children and adolescents need good health, adequate nutrition, security, safety and a supportive clean environment, opportunities for early learning and education, responsive relationships and connectedness, and opportunities for personal autonomy and self-realization. To prom...ote their health and wellbeing, children and adolescents need support from parents, families, communities, surrounding institutions, and an enabling environment. Scheduled well care visits provide a critical opportunity for support of individual children, adolescents, parents, caregivers and families promote health and wellbeing. This guidance on scheduled child and adolescent well-care visits is the first in a series of publications to support the operationalization of the comprehensive agenda for child and adolescent health and wellbeing. It provides guidance on what is required to strengthen health systems and services to ensure healthy growth and development of all children and adolescents, and to support their parents and caregivers.
The guidance focuses on scheduled routine contacts with providers to support children and adolescents in their growth and developmental trajectory, as well as their primary caregivers and families. It outlines the rationale and objectives of well care visits and proposes a minimum 17 scheduled visits; describes the expected tasks during a contact; provides age-specific content to be address during each contact; and proposes actions to build on and maximize existing opportunities and resources.
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Diagnosing asthma in children represents an important clinical challenge. There is no single gold-standard test to confirm the diagnosis. Consequently, over- and under-diagnosis of asthma is frequent in children. A task force supported by the European Respiratory Society has developed these evidence...-based clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis of asthma in children aged 5–16 years using nine Population, Intervention, Comparator and Outcome (PICO) questions. The task force conducted systematic literature searches for all PICO questions and screened the outputs from these, including relevant full-text articles. All task force members approved the final decision for inclusion of research papers. The task force assessed the quality of the evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.
The task force then developed a diagnostic algorithm based on the critical appraisal of the PICO questions, preferences expressed by lay members and test availability. Proposed cut-offs were determined based on the best available evidence. The task force formulated recommendations using the GRADE Evidence to Decision framework.
Based on the critical appraisal of the evidence and the Evidence to Decision framework, the task force recommends spirometry, bronchodilator reversibility testing and exhaled nitric oxide fraction as first-line diagnostic tests in children under investigation for asthma. The task force recommends against diagnosing asthma in children based on clinical history alone or following a single abnormal objective test. Finally, this guideline also proposes a set of research priorities to improve asthma diagnosis in children in the future.
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Healthcare 2020, 8(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8010026
The current article is an integrative and analytical literature review on the concept and meaning of empathy in health and social care professionals. Empathy, i.e., the ability to understand the perso...nal experience of the patient without bonding with them, constitutes an important communication skill for a health professional, one that includes three dimensions: the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. It has been proven that health professionals with high levels of empathy operate more efficiently as to the fulfillment of their role in eliciting therapeutic change.The empathetic professional comprehends the needs of the health care users, as the latter feel safe to express the thoughts and problems that concern them. Although the importance of empathy is undeniable, a significantly high percentage of health professionals seem to find it difficult to adopt a model of empathetic communication in their everyday practice. Some of the factors that negatively influence the development of empathy are the high number of patients that professionals have to manage, the lack of adequate time, the focus on therapy within the existing academic culture, but also the lack of education in empathy. Developing empathetic skills should not only be the underlying objective in the teaching process of health and social care undergraduate students, but also the subject of the lifelong and continuous education of professionals
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The Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) emphasizes the critical role of drug prevention in enhancing public health in Germany. Annually, the country faces significant premature mortality due to substance use: at least 110,000 deaths from smoking, 40,000 from harmful alcohol consumption, and a...pproximately 1,300 from illicit drug abuse.
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Accessed: 10.03.2019
mhGAP Training Manual for the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings – version 2.0 (for field testing)
Key messages include Effective communication skills should be used for everyone seeking health care,
including people with MNS conditions and their carers; Effective communication skills enable health-care providers to build rapport and trust with people as well as enabling health-care providers to... understand the health and social needs of people with MNS conditions; Health-care providers have a responsibility to promote the rights and dignity of
people with MNS conditions and more
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Agriculture is highly exposed to climate change, as farming activities directly depend on climatic conditions. Agriculture also contributes to climate change through the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Two powerful greenhouse gases are by-products of agricultural activity:
Methan...e (CH4) – from livestock digestion processes and stored animal manure;
Nitrous oxide (N2O) – from organic and mineral nitrogen fertilisers.
However, agriculture can also contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and by sequestering carbon while maintaining food production.
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DEM supporting material
• Person stories
• Role plays
• Case scenarios
• Treatment planning handouts
• Treatment planning suggestions
• Multiple choice questions
• Video link
Activity 3: mhGAP DEM module – assessment
mhGAP Training Manual for the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings – version 2.0 (for field testing)
Accessed 06.03.2019
Accessed: 21.03.2019
mhGAP Training Manual for the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings – version 2.0 (for field testing)