Burnout syndrome among medical nurse-technicians in intensive care units in cardiovascular surgery

Background

Healthcare workers in intensive care units work under specifically hard conditions compared to healthcare workers who work under regular clinical conditions. In this sense, the research aims at assessing the level of burnout symptomatology among nurse technicians working in intensive care units for cardiovascular surgery and to compare those burnout levels with those recorded for medical technicians working under regular clinical conditions.

Method

The research was designed as a cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of nurse technicians working in intensive care units specializing in cardiovascular surgery (70 participants) and nurse technicians working under regular clinical conditions (70 participants) at the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases "Dedinje," Belgrade, Serbia. To evaluate the manifestation of burnout syndrome at work, the analysis uses the Serbian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS).

Results

To examine the variances in the average sub-scores for burnout within two groups of medical technicians, the study used Two Independent Samples T-test. The statistically noteworthy differentiation was ascertained for emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, but this does not hold true for depersonalization. However, the mean score values across the different burnout levels (low, moderate, high) are similar in two cohorts of respondents (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

This study will serve as an impetus for a policy reform focused on ameliorating working conditions and improving healthcare workers' satisfaction and overall healthcare quality.

Socioeconomic inequalities in the use of dental health care among the adult population in Serbia

Objectives

The aim of this paper is to assess the association of demografic and socioeconomic determinants with utilization of dental services among Serbian adults.

Materials and methods

The study is a part of the population health research of Serbia, conducted in the period from October to December 2019 by the Institute of Statistics of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with the Institute of Public Health of Serbia "Dr. Milan JovanovićBatut" and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia. The research was conducted as a descriptive, cross-sectional analytical study on a representative sample of the population of Serbia. For the purposes of this study, data on the adult population aged 20 years and older were used.

Results

Men were approximately 1.8 times more likely than women to not utilize dental healthcare services (OR = 1.81). The likelihood of not utilizing dental healthcare protection rises with increasing age, reaching its peak within the 65-74 age range (OR = 0.441), after which it declines. Individuals who have experienced marital dissolution due to divorce or the death of a spouse exhibit a higher probability of not utilizing health protection (OR = 1.868). As the level of education and wealth diminishes, the probability of abstaining from health protection increases by 5.8 times among respondents with an elementary school education (OR = 5.852) and 1.7 times among the most economically disadvantaged respondents (OR = 1.745). Regarding inactivity, respondents who are not employed have a 2.6-fold higher likelihood of not utilizing oral health care compared to employed respondents (OR = 2.610).

Conclusion

The results suggest that individual sociodemographic factors influence utilization of dental services by Serbian adults and confirmed the existence of socioeconomic disparities.

Lifestyle, Physical Activity, Eating and Hygiene Habits: A Comparative Analysis Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Student Population

Background

Changing daily habits such as diet, hygiene and physical activity may be some of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of this pandemic on lifestyle, physical activity, eating and hygiene habits among students.

Methods

This cross-sectional study involved 171 students from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Serbia. Data were statistically analyzed using Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test, Marginal homogeneity test and Chi-square test. The differences were considered statistically significant when p ≤ 0.05.

Results

In this study, it was observed that the most common physical activity before the pandemic was walking, while during the pandemic was home exercising. Compared to the period before the pandemic, there was no difference in the time spent engaging in daily physical activity (p = 0.334). However, there was a significant increase in sitting time during the pandemic (p = 0.005). Difference was noticed in the use of breakfast, the number of meals, and the type of fat in the diet before and during the pandemic (p = 0.000). During the pandemic, there was an increase in the use of fruits (p = 0.000), vegetables, and nuts (p = 0.001), while the use of fast food and alcohol have decreased. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant increase in the use of dietary supplements was observed (40.2%), (p = 0.008).

Conclusions

Given that the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, certain changes in lifestyle observed in this study should be confirmed in more extensive population studies.

The role of galectin-3 in modulation of anxiety state level in mice

Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a member of lectin family that binds to oligosaccharides, is involved in several biological processes, including maturation and function of nervous system. It had been reported that Gal-3 regulates oligodendrocytes differentiation and that Gal-3/Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) axis is involved in neuroinflammation. As both, central nervous system (CNS) maturation and neuroinflammation may affect behavior, the principle aim of this study was to examine the effects of Gal-3 gene deletion on behavior. Here we provide the evidence that Gal-3 deficiency shows clear anxiogenic effect in mature untreated animals (basal conditions). This was accompanied with lower interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) relative gene expression and hippocampal content, with no effect on TLR4 expression. Gal-3 deficiency was also accompanied with lower brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) relative gene expression and immunoreactivity in hippocampus (predominantly in CA1 region). Besides, the Gal-3 gene deletion resulted in attenuation of the hippocampal relative gene expression of GABA-A receptor subunits 2 and 5 (GABA-AR2S and GABA-AR5S), On the other hand, Gal-3 deficiency attenuates LPS-induced neuroinflammation. The anxiogenic effect of acute neuroinflammation was accompanied with increased hippocampal IL-6, TNF-α and TLR4 gene expression, as well as decreased gene and immunohistochemical BDNF expression in hippocampus, with significant decline in GABA-AR2S in wild type (WT) mice in comparison to basal conditions. Gal-3 gene deletion prevented the increase in IL-6, the decline in BDNF gene expression and immunoreactivity, and reduction in hippocampal GABA-AR2S, and therefore attenuated the anxiogenic effect of neuroinflammation. In summary, our data demonstrate that apparently opposite effects of Gal-3 deficiency on anxiety levels (anxiogenic effect under basal conditions and anxiolytic action during neuroinflammation) seem to be related to the shift in IL-6, TNF-α and hippocampal BDNF.

Public Health and the New Law of Public Health in Republic of Serbia

The new Law on Public Health was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 15 dated 25 February 2016. Comparing to the previous Law, the biggest changes have been made in the domain of monitoring the indicators of the environment and population health. The responsibility of controlling the quality and safety of food was given back to the Ministry of Health. This paper presents the principal regulations regarding the main functions, principals and organizational features of the public health system in Serbia.

The Analysis of Nutritional Predictors of Anemia Combined with Obesity in Primary School-Age Children

The consumption and amounts of a variety of food products used in a diet affect the incidence of anemia and different levels of nutritional status among school-age children. The prevalence of food intake comprised of fats, carbohydrates and sodium (salt) is a significant contributing factor to the incidence of excessive weight. Apart from nutrition, a leisure-time physical activity and the time spent in front of the TV or computer may contribute to an increase in anemia and obesity rates. The objective of this paper was to examine nutritional status, dietary habits and anemia among school-age children in the central Serbia region (the city of Kragujevac). It was established that 47.3% of the surveyed children fell into the normal weight group, 24.5% of the children are considered to be at risk of being overweight, 21.4 % of the children are considered as obese, whereas 6.8% of the children fell into the under-weight group. The incidence of anemia was noted in 10.8% of the cases, whereas anemia in obese children was observed in 21.6% of the cases (n=114; during the school year of 2014-2015). The obtained results show a statistically significant correlation between an increase in the consumption of fast food and anemia in children, whereas the amount of time children spend in front of the TV is also associated with the higher percentage of anemia and obesity.