Primary health care (PHC) supported long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in attending COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study is to describe the role of PHC in LTCFs in Europe during the early phase of the pandemic.

Retrospective descriptive study from 30 European countries using data from September 2020 collected with an ad hoc semi-structured questionnaire. Related variables are SARS-CoV-2 testing, contact tracing, follow-up, additional testing, and patient care.

Twenty-six out of the 30 European countries had PHC involvement in LTCFs during the COVID-19 pandemic. PHC participated in initial medical care in 22 countries, while, in 15, PHC was responsible for SARS-CoV-2 test along with other institutions. Supervision of individuals in isolation was carried out mostly by LTCF staff, but physical examination or symptom’s follow-up was performed mainly by PHC.

PHC has participated in COVID-19 pandemic assistance in LTCFs in coordination with LTCF staff, public health officers, and hospitals.

This research aimed to evaluate health and nutritional practices of mothers during pregnancy and birth outcomes of their newborns in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), comparing semi-urban and rural areas.

Health and nutrition during pregnancy are crucial for adequate development of the fetus. Health care plays an important role but is often poor in rural areas of developing countries.

A baseline survey of a nutritional follow-up study was conducted in two semi-urban and one rural hospital in the vicinity of Bukavu, DRC. In total, 471 mother-child pairs were recruited after delivery. Data collection included socio-demographic parameters, nutrition and health measures during pregnancy, and anthropometric parameters. Semi-urban and rural study locations were compared and predictors of birth weight evaluated.

Semi-urban and rural mothers differed significantly in nutrition and health practices during pregnancy, as well as birth outcomes. In the rural area, there was a higher rate of newborns with low birth weight (10.7%) and lower rates of antimalarial medication (80.8%), deworming (24.6%), consumption of nutritional supplements (81.5%), and being informed about nutrition by medical staff (32.8%) during pregnancy as well as practicing family planning (3.1%) than in the semi-urban areas (2.7%, 88.6%, 88.3%; 89.3%, 46.5%, and 17.1%, respectively). Birth weight was positively predicted by increasing maternal MUAC, age, and gestational age and negatively by rural location, being primipara, being a farmer, and female newborn sex.

The findings highlight the importance of strengthening antenatal care activities especially in rural areas in order to ameliorate both maternal and infantile health and ensure appropriate development.

Primary care referrals received by secondary care services are vetted or triaged to pathways best suited for patients’ needs. If knowledge-based triaging is used by vetting clinicians, accuracy is required to avoid incorrect decisions being made. With limited evidence to support best practice, we aimed to evaluate consistency across vetting clinicians’ decisions and their agreement with a criterion decision.

Twenty-nine trained vetting clinicians (18 female) representative of pay grades independently triaged five musculoskeletal physiotherapy referral cases into one of 10 decisions using an internally developed triage tool. Agreement across clinicians’ decisions between and within cases was assessed using Fleiss’s kappa overall and within pay grade. Proportions of triage decisions consistent with criterion decisions were assessed using Cochran’s Q test.

Clinician agreement was fair for all cases (κ = 0.385) irrespective of pay grade but varied within clinical cases (κ = −0.014–0.786). Proportions of correct triage decisions were significantly different across cases [Q(4) = 33.80, P < 0.001] ranging from 17% to 83%.

Agreement and consistency in decisions were variable using the tool. Ensuring referrer information is accurate is vital, as is developing, automating and auditing standards for certain referrals with clear pathways. But we argue that variable vetting outcomes might represent healthy pathway abundance and should not simply be automated in response to perceived inefficiencies.

It was aimed to explore the relationship between evidence-based medicine (EBM) training and medical students’ views on traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) and their views on conspiracies about COVID-19.

Medical students constitute the future workforce of primary health care services. The relationship between EBM training and their views on conspiracies about COVID-19 is critical to explore for providing a better primary health care. The relationship EBM training and medical students’ views on TCAM is also important in this regard.

This is a cross-sectional study. Turkish medical students were surveyed about EBM training, TCAM, and COVID-19 conspiracies. The electronic survey form consisted of five parts: Demographic characteristics, views and self-perceived knowledge about TCAM and the methods, views on the origin of SARS-COV-2, participation in EBM training, and views on TCAM training. A total of 49 medical schools provided response. Along with descriptive statistics, Chi-square test was utilized.

Among 2577 participants, 24.0% of them believed SARS-COV-2 was artificially designed. The students who have participated in EBM training via both lecture and small group discussions have a less positive view on TCAM than both the students who have not participated in any EBM training (p < 0.05) and the students who participated in only-lectures (p < 0.05). There was a significant association between EBM training and whether believing COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) has been designed purposefully by some people or it has emerged naturally χ2 (1) = 17.21 p < 0.001. The odds of thinking COVID-19 emerged naturally was 1.85 times higher (95% CI: 1.38-2.47) if the students have participated in EBM training via both lectures and small group discussions than if they have not participated in any EBM training. EBM training affects medical students in terms of beliefs on COVID-19 conspiracies.

This study aimed to identify publicly reported access characteristics for episodic primary care in BC and provided a clinic-level comparison between walk-in clinics and UPCCs.

Walk-in clinics are non-hospital-based primary care facilities that are designed to operate without appointments and provide increased healthcare access with extended hours. Urgent and Primary Care Centres (UPCCs) were introduced to British Columbia (BC) in 2018 as an additional primary care resource that provided urgent, but not emergent care during extended hours.

This cross-sectional study used publicly available data from all walk-in clinics and UPCCs in BC. A structured data collection form was used to record access characteristics from clinic websites, including business hours, weekend availability, attachment to a longitudinal family practice, and provision of virtual services.

In total, 268 clinics were included in the analysis (243 walk-in clinics, 25 UPCCs). Of those, 225 walk-in clinics (92.6%) and two UPCCs (8.0%) were attached to a longitudinal family practice. Only 153 (63%) walk-in clinics offered weekend services, compared to 24 (96%) of UPCCs. Walk-in clinics offered the majority (8,968.6/ 78.4%) of their service hours between 08:00 and 17:00, Monday to Friday. UPCCs offered the majority (889.3/ 53.7%) of their service hours after 17:00.

Most walk-in clinics were associated with a longitudinal family practice and provided the majority of clinic services during typical business hours. More research that includes patient characteristics and care outcomes, analyzed at the clinic level, may be useful to support the optimization of episodic primary healthcare delivery.

To identify the social prescribing-related terminology within the peer-reviewed literature of the UK and the grey literature from Wales.

Social prescribing has seen a period of development that has been accompanied by a proliferation of related terminology and a lack of standardisation in the manner in which it is employed. This creates barriers to engagement and impairs communication, both between professionals and members of the public. The Wales School for Social Prescribing Research and Public Health Wales committed to the development of a glossary of terms for social prescribing, to facilitate the clarification and standardisation of the associated terminology. Here, we describe the first step in that process.

A scoping review of the peer-reviewed UK literature and Welsh grey literature was conducted. The titles and abstracts of 46,242 documents and the full text of 738 documents were screened. Data were charted from 205 documents. Data capture included terminology, the location within the UK of the research or intervention described in the article, and the perspective from which the article was authored. A general inductive approach was used to categorise the terms by theme.

This research serves to highlight the breadth and diversity of the terminology associated with social prescribing. Results demonstrate aspects of shared commonality and clear distinction between the terminology from the two literature sources. The greatest contributions of terms were from articles that examined research and/or interventions in England and that were authored from the perspective of health or health and social care. The research indicates that nation- and sector-specific terms may not be adequately represented in the literature at large. Looking forward, it will be important to ensure that social prescribing terminology within the UK literature is culturally relevant and accurately reflects the terminology used by the workforce who encounter and deliver social prescribing.

The purpose of this study is to focus on changes in anxiety symptoms among women treated in women’s health practices and under a collaborative care model.

Research on collaborative care has largely focused on improving depressive and anxiety symptoms among adults in primary care settings. The applicability of collaborative care in other healthcare settings is underreported with limited research investigating if collaborative care has advantages in subpopulations treated in both traditional primary care settings and other healthcare settings, such as women’s health practices.

This study, completed through secondary data analysis of the electronic record of N = 219 women across three women’s healthcare centers, evaluated if instituting a collaborative care model is associated with reduced anxiety symptoms and which factors (eg, primary diagnosis, duration of care, and use of psychotropic medications) are associated with anxiety outcomes. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) at entry into and at termination from collaborative care services.

Overall, there was a significant reduction in average anxiety scores from baseline to termination of collaborative care (t(218) = 12.41, P < 0.001). There was a main effect for the duration of time receiving collaborative care services on anxiety score reduction (β = −0.28, SE = 0.06, P < 0.001) with a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms at the 90-day mark (t(218) = 10.58, P < 0.001). Therefore, collaborative care can be useful in women’s health practices in reducing anxiety symptoms over a 90-day time period.

The aim of the study was to identify the most prioritized strategies in improving access to primary care services (PCS) for homeless immigrants.

The issue of improving access to PCS for homeless immigrants is a complex and multifaceted one, and yet there is limited research on the strategies aimed at improving these services. Hence, the need for more studies that directly engage homeless immigrants and service providers in understanding their barriers to accessing PCS and their preferences for improving access to these services.

The study used a two round Delphi method to elicit the views of stakeholders. The Delphi process utilized a web-based questionnaire. The stakeholders included healthcare providers and voluntary sector providers. The first round had a total of 58 items belonging to 14 categories. The second round comprised a total of 25 items belonging to 12 categories which were preselected based on participants’ ranking of their importance in the first round. Participants were required to rank the relative importance of all the items on a 5-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using the STATA-15 software package.

A total of 12 stakeholders participated in both rounds of the Delphi survey. The top three strategies encompassed fighting against discrimination and prejudice, improving and promoting mental health services, and empowering homeless immigrants. These evidence-based strategies hold the potential to support the implementation of healthcare interventions aimed at improving access to PCS and healthcare outcomes for homeless immigrants. However, it is crucial to conduct further research that includes homeless immigrants in the Delphi study to gain insights into the strategies that are most important to them in enhancing access to PCS, as they are the primary target users. Such research will contribute to the development of comprehensive and effective interventions tailored to the specific needs of homeless.

Childhood immunisation is a critically important public health initiative. However, since most vaccines are administered by injection, it is associated with considerable pain and distress. Despite evidence demonstrating the efficacy of various pain management strategies, the frequency with which these are used during routine infant vaccinations in UK practice is unknown.

This study aimed to explore primary care practice nurses’ (PNs) use of evidence-based pain management strategies during infant immunisation, as well as barriers to evidence-based practice.

A questionnaire was developed and distributed to nurses throughout the UK via convenience sampling in paper and online formats. Questions assessed the frequency of pain management intervention use during infant immunisation and barriers to their use.

A total of 255 questionnaire responses were received. Over 90% (n = 226) of respondents never used topical anaesthetics or sweet solutions during immunisations, while 41.9% advised breastfeeding occasionally (n = 103). Parent-/caregiver-led distraction was the most frequently used intervention, with most nurses using it occasionally (47.9%, n = 116) or often (30.6%, n = 74). Most practices had no immunisation pain management policy (81.1%, n = 184), and most PNs’ previous training had not included pain management (86.9%, n = 186). Barriers to intervention use included lack of time, knowledge and resources. Excluding distraction, pain management strategies were infrequently or never used during infant immunisation. Key barriers to using evidence-based strategies were lack of time, knowledge and resources.

Globally, poor nutrition is a driver of many chronic diseases and is responsible for more deaths than any other risk factor. Accordingly, there is growing interest in the direct provision of healthy foods to patients to tackle diet-linked chronic diseases and mortality.

To assess the effect of two healthy food interventions in conjunction with nutrition counseling and education on select chronic disease markers, food insecurity, diet quality, depression, and on self-efficacy for healthy eating, healthy weight, and chronic disease management.

This parallel-arm quasi-randomized control trial will be conducted between January 2022 and December 2023. Seventy adult patients recruited from a single academic medical center will be randomly assigned to receive either: i) daily ready-made frozen healthy meals or ii) a weekly produce box and recipes for 15 weeks. Participants will, additionally, take part in one individual nutrition therapy session and watch videos on healthy eating, weight loss, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. Data on weight, height, glycated hemoglobin, blood pressure, and diabetes and blood pressure medications will be collected in-person at the baseline visit and at 16 weeks from baseline and via medical chart review at six months and 12 months from enrollment. The primary outcome of the study is weight loss at 16 weeks from baseline. Pre- and post-intervention survey data will be analyzed for changes in food insecurity, diet quality, depression, as well as self-efficacy for health eating, healthy weight, and chronic disease management. Through retrospective chart review, patients who received standard of care will be matched to intervention group participants as controls based on body mass index, type 2 diabetes, and/or hypertension.

By elucidating the healthy food intervention with better health outcomes, this study aims to offer evidence that can guide providers in their recommendations for healthy eating options to patients.

To identify what type of recommendations were recorded in older adults’ health records by health professionals during preventive home visits.

To promote health and prevent ill health, health professionals can give support and recommendations to older adults. The preventive home visit for older adults is one example of an intervention where health professionals such as nurses, social workers, and assistant nurses can give recommendations. By exploring what recommendations are recorded and within what areas, we can also gain knowledge about areas where provision of recommendations seems lacking. This knowledge would provide health professionals with guidance in their counseling with the older adult.

Records from preventive home visits (n = 596; mean age 78.71) were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed.

The most frequently recorded recommendations were related to physical or mental illness, falls, and then nutrition. The results showed that recommendations could be sorted into ten sub-categories related to physical or mental illness, falls, nutrition, physical activity, preparation for the future, social participation, finances, getting help from others, municipal services, and security at home. These ten sub-categories were classified into the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health categories body functions & structure (including one sub-category), activity (including four sub-categories), participation (including three sub-categories), and environmental factors (including two sub-categories). From the results, we could conclude that the major focus was on risk prevention and less focus was on health promotion. Thus, the visitor’s recommendations most likely mirror the older adult’s explicit needs ‘here and now’ to a great extent. However, health visitors also need to focus on intrinsic capacities to promote health. Besides recommendations relating to the person’s intrinsic capacities, environmental aspects should be focused upon, to improve healthy aging.