Health Democracy Index: Development and Validation of a Self-Reported Instrument for Measuring Patient Participation in Health Policy

Cervical cancer prevention in Burkina Faso: a stakeholder's collaboration for the development of awareness messaging

Background

Cervical Cancer stands as the second leading cause of both incident female cancers and deaths in Burkina Faso. Unfortunately, the prevention, early detection, and care of cervical cancers are suboptimal at individual, institutional, and national levels. In October 2023, we organized a stakeholder's workshop to develop cervical cancer awareness messaging for disease control in the country.

Methods

A one-text workshop was organized with stakeholders working toward improving health in general or women's health and well-being. A participatory, learning, and adaptive approach was used to facilitate discussions and activities, ensuring the contribution of all participants. Contextual evidence-based and empirical elements about cervical cancer burden and preventive strategies were presented to the participants by key informants. These served as the foundation for a collaborative formulation of messaging content that aimed at raising awareness about cervical cancer.

Results

Sixty-two participants from 28 organizations attended the workshop. They work mainly at local and international non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, universities, university hospitals, research centers, and the Ministry of Health. During the first and second days of the workshop, the participants explored cervical cancer data, its preventive and treatment options available in Burkina Faso, communication strategies for behavioral change, and determinants of the use of prevention and health promotion services. During the following three days, 3 working groups were formed to define strategies, and key messages adapted to diverse tools and targeted audiences. All information was validated during plenary sessions before the end of the workshop and available to all participants and their organizations for cancer awareness activities.

Conclusion

Upon conclusion of the workshop, the participants provided insightful information for the development of cervical awareness messaging in Burkina Faso. They formed the first community of practice to serve as a dynamic platform for implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and continued learning activities.

Young people's proposals for a web-based intervention for sexual health promotion: a French qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Promoting sexual health is key to improving the supportive behaviors and well-being of young people. With the advent of the Internet, web-based features for sexual health promotion may be attractive to a diverse range of young people. This study aims to assess young people's proposals regarding a web-based intervention for sexual health promotion.

METHODS

Nineteen French young people aged 15-24 years participated to the study. In a semi-structured interview, they presented their views on a web-based intervention for sexual promotion. Data were coded with N'Vivo and subjected to qualitative thematic analysis to explore their proposals.

RESULTS

The majority of participants (n = 18) thought that a web-based intervention for sexual health promotion would be attractive. Young people interviewed made 31 concrete proposals for sexual health promotion on the Internet. Participatory and interactive dimensions on the internet appeared essential, with the need for stimulating activities and interaction with peers, but also with competent professionals and moderation. Face to the risks of the internet, they expressed the need of a secure and confidential space, to generate trust and participation in intervention. For participants, sexual health should be addressed in all its dimensions, taking into account the relational, sexual, and gender dimensions, and by incrementing on the internet valid, credible and personalized content.

CONCLUSIONS

In sexual health promotion, young people are indispensable stakeholders who can make concrete proposals and can also participate in content creation and research. More broadly, in health promotion, involving target audiences in decisions represents a promising perspective.

Driving Equitable Access to Cancer Services Through the Engagement of People Living With Cancer: Regional Perspectives

Towards further recognition of people living with cancer in LMICs as a prerequisite for driving equitable access

Use of Patients’ Protected Health Information to Solicit Hospital Funds: How did This Practice Come About?

Modifications to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have allowed for the disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) for the purpose of hospital fundraising. The public has recently raised ethical concerns regarding these practices. We examined the forces that brought about these HIPAA modifications. We first examined 304 comments submitted to the proposed rule for the HIPPA regulation modifications. We additionally queried the OpenSecrets repository for lobbying activity by these commenters. We found that 57 out of the 304 comments pertained specifically to fundraising practices. The majority of comments were from hospital developmental (fundraising) offices (51%, 29 of 57 comments), and the majority (96%, 24 of 25 hospital comments; 83%, 34 of 41 total comments discussing PHI disclosure) supported additional PHI disclosure. There was a paucity of comments from physician organizations (1 of 57) and patient advocates (2 of 57). The majority of lobbying dollars (95% of over $81 million) were from commenters who favored the modifications. The lack of physician and patient representation in the rule-making process likely contributed to the creation of regulations that elicit ethical concerns in physicians, and potential harm for patients.

Indices and Indicators Developed to Evaluate the "Strengthening Community Actions" Mechanism of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion: A Scoping Review

OBJECTIVE

To determine 1) the indexes/indicators used for evaluating the "strengthening community actions" mechanism of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and 2) to extract the characteristics and key components of the indexes/indicators using a scoping review.Data Source:In May 2020, the search was conducted across three databases: Medline (via PubMed), Embase, and Scopus.Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria: All primary studies relating to development, identification, and measurement of health promotion indices/indicators associated to the "strengthening community actions" were included. The review articles were excluded.

DATA EXTRACTION

The data were extracted to a data-charting form that was developed by the research team. Two authors reviewed the extracted data.

DATA SYNTHESIS

To summarize and report the data, a descriptive numerical analysis and a narrative descriptive synthesizing approach were used.

RESULTS

In total, 93 study articles were included. A majority of studies (82%) were conducted in developed countries. Different types of recognized indices were categorized into seven groups: social cohesion (n = 3), community capacity (n = 1), community participation (n = 7), social capital (n = 6), social network (n = 3), social support (n = 1), and others (n = 5).

CONCLUSIONS

Having a collection of "strengthening community actions" indices/indicators in hand, health policymakers and health promotion specialists might be able to do their best in considering, selecting, and applying the most appropriate indices/indicators while evaluating community health promotion interventions in different settings.

Beyond tokenism in quality management policy and programming: moving from participation to meaningful involvement of people with HIV in New York State

BACKGROUND

Consumer involvement in health-care policy and quality management (QM) programming is a key element in making health systems people-centered. Involvement of health-care consumers in these areas, however, remains underdeveloped and under-prioritized. When consumer involvement is actively realized, few mechanisms for assessing its impact have been developed. The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) embraces consumer involvement of people with HIV in QM as a guiding principle, informed by early HIV/AIDS advocacy and a framework of people-centered quality care.

METHOD

HIV consumer involvement is implemented statewide and informs all quality of care programming as a standard for QM in health-care organizations, implemented through four key several initiatives: (i) a statewide HIV Consumer Quality Advisory Committee; (ii) leadership and QM trainings for consumers; (iii) specific tools and activities to engage consumers in QM activities at state, regional and health-care facility levels and (iv) formal organizational assessments of consumer involvement in health-care facility QM programs.

RESULTS

We review the literature on this topic and place the methods used by the NYSDOH within a theoretical framework for consumer involvement.

CONCLUSION

We present a model that offers a paradigm for practical implementation of routine consumer involvement in QM programs that can be replicated in other health-care settings, both disease-specific and general, reflecting the priority of active participation of consumers in QM activities at all levels of the health system.

Cancer patients' organisation participation in heath policy decision-making: a snapshot/cluster analysis of the EU-28 countries

OBJECTIVES

Even though patient involvement in health policy decision-making is well documented, studies evaluating the degree and impact of this participation are scarce. This is even more conspicuous in the case of cancer. There is evidence showing that patients with the same type of cancer and at the same stage of the disease will receive different treatments in different countries. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the degree of patient participation in health policy decision-making across Europe, as it may result in health inequalities across countries. In a response to this research call, the present study aimed to provide a snapshot of cancer patients' organisation (CPO) participation in health policy processes in European Union (EU)-28 countries.

SETTING

CPOs from the EU-28 countries.

PARTICIPANTS

Primary and secondary outcome measures: information about participants' sociodemographic characteristics and their involvement in their CPO was collected as well as data about the CPO. A 17-item index containing questions about the type and impact of participation in various facets of health policy decision-making was used to assess the degree of CPOs participation in health policy decision-making processes and its impact.