ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the barriers in the management of health facilities that serve the indigenous and Afro-descendant population in Peru. Material(s) and Method(s): A virtual survey on health management was designed for first level health care personnel in 89 health facilities (EESS) in 27 provinces during October and November 2021. Result(s): In 73% of the EESS, the personnel reported not knowing the plan against the third pandemic wave, 14.8% of the EESS reported not being trained in the management of COVID-19, in 22.7% of the EESS they met to coordinate how to face the third pandemic wave, in 83% of the EESS the personnel reported not having a budget for their plan against COVID-19. Conclusion(s): There are barriers in the vision, management and budget in EESS that serve indigenous and Afro-Peruvian populations, which would affect the effective execution of strategies for the control of the pandemic by COVID-19.Copyright © Colegio Medico del Peru. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background and aims: Epilepsy burden in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has increased dramatically in the last 20 years. People with epilepsy (PWE) are estimated to be over 20 millions, with about 1 neurologist every 3-5 millions inhabitants, meaning more than 90% of epileptic patients are managed by health workers (HW) with insufficient education in Epilepsy, and 75% of them have no access to treatments. Moreover COVID-19 pandemic is affecting epilepsy management in SSA through care disruption. Teleneurology has the potential to improve this situation, although poor education of HW is associated with its underutilization. We measured the changes of teleneurology requests from primary cares in SSA after an education program on epilepsy. Methods: Global Health Telemedicine (GHT) offers remote advices and education to HW of the Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means (DREAM) program active in 10 SSA countries. GHT-DREAM recently started an epilepsy program in Malawi and Central African Republic (CAR) with education and training courses delivered both locally and remotely. Results: In Malawi and CAR DREAM follows 18,770 patients, 569 (3,0%) suffering from epilepsy. The total number of teleneurology requests increased from 91 in 2019 to 141 in 2020 to 802 in 2021;>90% were for PWE. Conclusion: Education and training in epilepsy increased the number of tele-requests by improving knowledge and communication between SSA HW and European neurologists. Partnerships can bring neurologists where there are none, contributing to limit COVID-19 care disruption thus reducing the treatment gap in SSA. Our results move towards the Intersectoral Global Action Plan 2022-2031 in SSA. (Figure Presented).
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought significant changes all over the world, including Malta. These changes might have impacted people’s health and their lifestyle. Such changes might have limited health and fitness behaviours such as frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise and water intake. Therefore, this study aims to examine and explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted fitness behaviours amongst a sample of the Maltese population. METHODS The sample (n=995) was selected through convenience sampling. Data was collected through an online 38-item survey which was dispersed on social media during April and May 2020. The questions measured the frequency of health behaviours to provide a comparison between the participant’s health behaviours in November 2019 and April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS The data was analysed through Factor Analysis which was conducted for dimension reduction. Factor analysis resulted in one factor composed of three variables (frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise and water consumption). Further analyses were conducted using a paired samples t-test on SPSS. Following analysis, the results showed that there was an increase in exercise frequency amongst the sample population, whereas there was a decrease in exercise intensity and water consumption. These results confirm that there was a change in health behaviours amongst the study’s sample. CONCLUSION This study recommends further investigation as to understand this difference in behaviours and its attributes. This can help inform health behaviours should there be further waves of the pandemic or other lockdowns. © 2021, University of Malta. All rights reserved.