the aid library

Emotions and feelings in critical and emergency caring situations: a qualitative study

Jiménez-Herrera M.F., Llauradó-Serra M., Acebedo-Urdiales S. et al. (2020) CC

Moral emotions are a key element of our human morals. Emotions play an important role in the caring process. Decision-making and assessment in emergency situations are complex and they frequently result in different emotions and feelings among hea ... more

Global strategic directions for nursing and midwifery 2021-2025

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

Available in English, French, Spanish and Russian from the website https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/344562

South African MATERNAL, PERINATAL, and NEONATAL Health Policy

National Department of Health (NDoH) South Africa NDoH South Africa (2021) CC

As a lower-middle-income country (LMIC), South Africa (SA) bears the burden of maternal and neonatal mortality similar to other sub- Saharan African countries. According to the Saving Mothers Repo ... more

Medication review and medicines use review

International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) (2022) CC

A toolkit for pharmacists. Emerging data show that medication errors and adverse events cause significant harm to patients’ health and well-being. It is estimated that the burden of adverse events due to medicines is now comparable to that of w ... more

Infectious Diseases in Ukraine
recommended

Berger, S. Gideon (2022) C2

Data on Infectious Diseases in Ukraine Now Available as a Free eBook to Help Medics and Relief Efforts During the War. • Data on the 215+ infectious diseases endemic to Ukraine • All published ... more

Epidemiology of dengue in SAARC territory: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Dhan Bahadur Shrestha, Pravash Budhathoki, Bipana Gurung et al. (2022) CC

Parasites & Vectors volume 15, Article number: 389 (2022) Dengue is one of the common arboviral infections and is a public health problem in South East Asia. The aim of this systematic review an ... more

Challenges in management and prevention of ischemic heart disease in low socioeconomic status people in LLMICs

Gupta, R.; Yusuf, S. BMC Medicine (2019) CC

Cardiovascular diseases, principally ischemic heart disease (IHD), are the most important cause of death and disability in the majority of low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). In these c ... more

Infrastructure, policy and regulatory interventions to increase physical activity to prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes: a systematic review

Durão, S.; Burns, J.; Schmidt, B. et al. BMC Public Health (2023) CC

Background Noncommunicable diseases are major contributors to morbidity and mortality worldwide. Modifying the risk factors for these conditions, such as physical inactivity, is thus essential. Addressing ... the context or circumstances in which physical activity occurs may promote physical activity at a population level. We assessed the effects of infrastructure, policy or regulatory interventions for increasing physical activity. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase and clinicaltrials.gov to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled before-after (CBAs) studies, and interrupted time series (ITS) studies assessing population-level infrastructure or policy and regulatory interventions to increase physical activity. We were interested in the effects of these interventions on physical activity, body weight and related measures, blood pressure, and CVD and type 2 diabetes morbidity and mortality, and on other secondary outcomes. Screening and data extraction was done in duplicate, with risk of bias was using an adapted Cochrane risk of bias tool. Due to high levels of heterogeneity, we synthesised the evidence based on effect direction. Results We included 33 studies, mostly conducted in high-income countries. Of these, 13 assessed infrastructure changes to green or other spaces to promote physical activity and 18 infrastructure changes to promote active transport. The effects of identified interventions on physical activity, body weight and blood pressure varied across studies (very low certainty evidence); thus, we remain very uncertain about the effects of these interventions. Two studies assessed the effects of policy and regulatory interventions; one provided free access to physical activity facilities and showed that it may have beneficial effects on physical activity (low certainty evidence). The other provided free bus travel for youth, with intervention effects varying across studies (very low certainty evidence). Conclusions Evidence from 33 studies assessing infrastructure, policy and regulatory interventions for increasing physical activity showed varying results. The certainty of the evidence was mostly very low, due to study designs included and inconsistent findings between studies. Despite this drawback, the evidence indicates that providing access to physical activity facilities may be beneficial; however this finding is based on only one study. Implementation of these interventions requires full consideration of contextual factors, especially in low resource settings. more

Exploring equity and inclusion in Malawi’s National Disability Mainstreaming Strategy and Implementation Plan

Ebuenyi, I.D.; Smith, E.M.; Munthali, A. et al. International Journal for Equity in Health (2021) CC

Background Equity and inclusion are important principles in policy development and implementation. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which equity and inclusion were considered in ... more

Risk factors for asthma among schoolchildren who participated in a casecontrol study in urban Uganda

Mpairwe, H.; Namutebi, M.; Nkurunungi, G. et al. eLife (2019) CC

Data on asthma aetiology in Africa are scarce. We investigated the risk factors for asthma among schoolchildren (5–17 years) in urban Uganda. We conducted a case-control study, among 555 cases and 1115 controls. Asthma was diagnosed by study clini ... more

Home visits versus fixed-site care by community health workers and child survival: a cluster-randomized trial, Mali

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2024) C_WHO

Despite recent global declines, under-five mortality remains high in many of the poorest countries. Barriers to timely quality care, including user fees, distance to facilities and the availabilit ... more

Clinical management of COVID-19: living guideline, 13 January 2023

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

As of 12 December 2022, over 645 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with over 6.6 million deaths (4). The Omicron variant, which emerged in late November 2021, and its subvariants, are now ... more

Atrapados en la tormenta de la COVID-19: la salud de la mujer, el niño y el adolescente en el contexto de la CSU y los ODS: informe 2020: resumen de orientación

World Health Organization WHO (2020) C_WHO

Mothers, newborns, young children and adolescents are losing 20 percent of their health and social services due to the COVID-19 pandemic says a Panel of senior global health experts.

Influence of Burnout on Patient Safety: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Garcia C., Abreu L., Ramos J. , et al. (2019) CC

Medicina 2019, 55, 553; doi:10.3390/medicina55090553 Results: Twenty-one studies were analyzed, most of them demonstrating an association between the existence of burnout and the worsening of patie ... more

Screening for cardiovascular disease risk and subsequent management in low and middle income countries: challenges and opportunities

Bovet, P.; Chiolero, A.; Paccaud, F. et al. Public Health Reviews (2015) CC

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), mainly heart attack and stroke, is the leading cause of premature mortality in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Identifying and managing individuals at high risk of CVD is an important strategy to ... prevent and control CVD, in addition to multisectoral population-based interventions to reduce CVD risk factors in the entire population. Methods: We describe key public health considerations in identifying and managing individuals at high risk of CVD in LMICs. Results: A main objective of any strategy to identify individuals at high CVD risk is to maximize the number of CVD events averted while minimizing the numbers of individuals needing treatment. Scores estimating the total risk of CVD (e.g. ten-year risk of fatal and non-fatal CVD) are available for LMICs, and are based on the main CVD risk factors (history of CVD, age, sex, tobacco use, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and diabetes status). Opportunistic screening of CVD risk factors enables identification of persons with high CVD risk, but this strategy can be widely applied in low resource settings only if cost effective interventions are used (e.g. the WHO Package of Essential NCD interventions for primary health care in low resource settings package) and if treatment (generally for years) can be sustained, including continued availability ofaffordable medications and funding mechanisms that allow people to purchase medications without impoverishing them (e.g. universal access to health care). Thisalso emphasises the need to re-orient health systems in LMICs towards chronic diseases management. Conclusion: The large burden of CVD in LMICs and the fact that persons with high CVD can be identified and managed along cost-effective interventions mean that health systems need to be structured in a way that encourages patient registration, opportunistic screening of CVD risk factors, efficient procedures for the management of chronic conditions (e.g. task sharing) and provision of affordable treatment for those with high CVD risk. The focus needs to be in primary care because that is where most of the population can access health care and because CVD programmes can be run effectively at this level. more

WHF Roadmap for Digital Health in Cardiology

Tromp, J.; Jindal, D.; Redfern, J. et al. Global Heart (2022) CC

ABSTRACT More than 500 million people worldwide live with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Health systems today face fundamental challenges in delivering optimal care due to ageing populations, healthcare workforce constraints, financing, availability and affordability of CVD medicine, and service del ... more

Measures to strengthen primary health-care systems in low- and middle-income countries

Etienne V Langlois, Andrew Mc Kenzie, Helen Schneider & Jeffrey W Mecaskey World Health Organization (2020) C_WHO

Primary health care offers a cost–effective route to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). However, primary health-care systems are weak in many low- and middle-income countries and often fail to provide comprehensive, people-centred, integrated care. We analysed ... more

Visceral leishmaniasis: a global overview

Wamai, R.; Khan, J.; McGloin, J.; Ziaggi, G. (2020) CC

J Glob Health Sci. 2020 Jun;2(1):e3. A group of enzootic and zoonotic protozoan infections, the leishmaniases constitute among the most severely neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and are found in a ... more

Factsheet - World Hypertension Day 2023

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (2023) C_WHO

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a condition which generally has no symptoms and if left untreated, can lead to heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and blindness. Risk factors include older age, overweight or obesity, lack of physical activity, high salt/sodium intake, and h ... more