Guidelines and template for developing a vital statistics report

The purpose of this document is to serve as a guidance tool for producing vital statistics reports from civil registration systems. It is intended especially for countries that have little or no prior experience with preparing such reports. The tool may also serve as a standardized approach for regional and international reporting. The tool has two parts:I. Part one: guidelines that explain how the template may be used and provide support when writing a vital statistics reportII. Part two: a template outline for a vital statistics report, with specifications on what should be included.</p

Canary in the coalmine: Norwegian attitudes towards climate change and extreme long-haul air travel to Aotearoa/New Zealand

Accelerating global climate change poses considerable challenges to all societies and economies. The European Union now targets a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. Indeed, the Labour-led Norwegian government is committed to carbon neutrality across all sectors of the economy by 2030. Aviation has been identified as a rapidly growing contributor to CO2 emissions. This article reports on a research project that explored Norwegian attitudes towards climate change, particularly as they relate to extreme long-haul air travel to Aotearoa/New Zealand. It reveals that the 'dream trip' to New Zealand for Norwegians is still largely intact. It also finds evidence of 'air travel with a carbon conscience' arising from growing concern for high frequency discretionary air travel. Evidence of denial of the climate impact of air travel that recent studies have revealed was largely absent. Interviewees expressed a greater concern for short-haul air travel emissions than for the climate impact of long-haul travel. However, intentions to adapt long-haul travel behaviours were expressed, highlighting the need to monitor consumer attitudes towards the impact of air travel on climate change. We conclude that Norway is a vanguard European tourism market in terms of climate sensitivity

Production of a vital statistics report : guide

Revision 1, 2020 With accompanying template and workbook This guide is an output of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative (www. bloomberg.org).The purpose of this Guide and the files it accompanies, hereinafter referred to as the resource kit, is to enable the production of vital statistics reports, primarily using civil registration data. The resource kit has three parts:1. Guide (this document): Part 1 consists of a brief introduction and background, followed byPart 2, which provides detailed guidance on how to complete the vital statistics Template document.2. Template: This document can be downloaded from the resource website and contains notes to assist in the completion of tables and figures for the vital statistics report.3. Workbook: The workbook can be downloaded from the resource website and can assist in the calculation of certain indicators and production of tables, graphs and figures to be included in the vital statistics report. This guide is a revision of the “Guidelines and Template for Developing a Vital Statistics Report” produced by Statistics Norway, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).</p

School-based targeted prevention compared to specialist mental health treatment for youth anxiety

Background The ‘FRIENDS for life’ program (FRIENDS) is a 10-session cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program used for prevention and treatment of youth anxiety. There is discussion about whether FRIENDS is best applied as prevention or as treatment. Methods We compared FRIENDS delivered in schools as targeted prevention to a previous specialist mental health clinic trial. The targeted prevention sample (N = 82; Mage = 11.6 years, SD = 2.1; 75.0% girls) was identified and recruited by school nurses in collaboration with a community psychologist. The clinical sample (N = 88, Mage = 11.7 years, SD = 2.1; 54.5% girls) was recruited for a randomized controlled trial from community child- and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinics and was diagnosed with anxiety disorders. Results Both samples showed significantly reduced anxiety symptoms from baseline to postintervention, with medium mean effect sizes across raters (youths and parents) and timepoints (post; 12-months follow-up). Baseline youth-reported anxiety symptom levels were similar between the samples, whereas parent-reported youth anxiety was higher in the clinical sample. Conclusions The study suggests that self-reported anxiety levels may not differ between youth recruited in schools and in clinic settings. The results indicate promising results of the FRIENDS program when delivered in schools by less specialized health personnel from the school health services, as well as when delivered in clinics by trained mental health professionals.publishedVersio

Outsourcing, Occupational Restructuring, and Employee Well-Being: Is There a Silver Lining?

This paper explores the effects of outsourcing on employee well-being through the use of the Finnish linked employer-employee data. The direct negative effect of outsourcing is attributable to greater job destruction and worker outflow. In terms of perceived well-being, the winners in international outsourcing are those who are capable of performing interactive tasks (i.e., managers, professionals and experts), especially when offshoring involves closer connections to other developed countries

The potential savings of using thiazides as the first choice antihypertensive drug: cost-minimisation analysis

BACKGROUND: All clinical practice guidelines recommend thiazides as a first-choice drug for the management of uncomplicated hypertension. Thiazides are also the lowest priced antihypertensive drugs. Despite this, the use of thiazides is much lower than that of other drug-classes. We wanted to estimate the potential for savings if thiazides were used as the first choice drug for the management of uncomplicated hypertension. METHODS: For six countries (Canada, France, Germany, Norway, the UK and the US) we estimated the number of people that are being treated for hypertension, and the proportion of them that are suitable candidates for thiazide-therapy. By comparing this estimate with thiazide prescribing, we calculated the number of people that could switch from more expensive medication to thiazides. This enabled us to estimate the potential drug-cost savings. The analysis was based on findings from epidemiological studies and drug trials, and data on sales and prescribing provided by IMS for the year 2000. RESULTS: For Canada, France, Germany, Norway, the UK and the US the estimated potential annual savings were US$13.8 million, US$37.4 million, US$72.2 million, US$10.7 million, US$119.7 million and US$433.6 million, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Millions of dollars could be saved each year if thiazides were prescribed for hypertension in place of more expensive drugs. Our calculations are based on conservative assumptions. The potential for savings is likely considerably higher and may be more than US$1 billion per year in the US

Intermediate care at a community hospital as an alternative to prolonged general hospital care for elderly patients: a randomised controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Demographic changes together with an increasing demand among older people for hospital beds and other health services make allocation of resources to the most efficient care level a vital issue. The aim of this trial was to study the efficacy of intermediate care at a community hospital compared to standard prolonged care at a general hospital.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a randomised controlled trial 142 patients aged 60 or more admitted to a general hospital due to acute illness or exacerbation of a chronic disease 72 (intervention group) were randomised to intermediate care at a community hospital and 70 (general hospital group) to further general hospital care.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the intervention group 14 patients (19.4%) were readmitted for the same disease compared to 25 patients (35.7%) in the general hospital group (p = 0.03). After 26 weeks 18 (25.0%) patients in the intervention group were independent of community care compared to seven (10.0%) in the general hospital group (p = 0.02). There were an insignificant reduction in the number of deaths and an insignificant increase in the number of days with inward care in the intervention group. The number of patients admitted to long-term nursing homes from the intervention group was insignificantly higher than from the general hospital group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Intermediate care at a community hospital significantly decreased the number of readmissions for the same disease to general hospital, and a significantly higher number of patients were independent of community care after 26 weeks of follow-up, without any increase in mortality and number of days in institutions.</p

The association of grip strength from midlife onwards with all-cause and cause-specific mortality over 17\hspace0.25emyears of follow-up in the Tromso Study.

Background Grip strength has consistently been found to predict all-cause mortality rates. However, few studies have examined cause-specific mortality or tested age differences in these associations. Methods In 1994, grip strength was measured in the population-based Tromsø Study, covering the ages 50–80 years (N=6850). Grip strength was categorised into fifths, and as z-scores. In this cohort study, models with all-cause mortality and deaths from specific causes as the outcome were performed, stratified by sex and age using Cox regression, adjusting for lifestyle-related and health-related factors. Results During 17 years of follow-up, 2338 participants died. A 1 SD reduction in grip strength was associated with HR=1.17 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.22) for allcause mortality in a model adjusted for age, gender and body size. This association was similar across all age groups, in men and women, and robust to adjustment for a range of lifestyle-related and health-related factors. Results for deaths due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), respiratory diseases and external causes resembled those for all-cause mortality, while for cancer, the association was much weaker and not significant after adjustment for lifestyle-related and health-related factors. Conclusions Weaker grip strength was associated with increased all-cause mortality rates, with similar effects on deaths due to CVD, respiratory disease and external causes, while a much weaker association was observed for cancer-related deaths. These associations were similar in both genders and across age groups, which supports the hypothesis that grip strength might be a biomarker of ageing over the lifespan