Relationship between Maternal Socioeconomic Factors and Preterm Birth in Latvia.

Worldwide, preterm birth (PTB) stands as the primary cause of mortality among children under 5 years old. Socioeconomic factors significantly impact pregnancy outcomes, influencing both maternal well-being and newborn health. Understanding and addressing these socioeconomic factors is essential for developing effective public health interventions and policies aimed at improving pregnancy outcomes.

Psychometric properties and normative data of the Latvian and Russian language versions of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in the Latvian general adolescent population.

Objectives: Mental health screening instruments are essential in population health research and clinical practice. The strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) self-report version has been widely used across the globe to screen for mental health problems in adolescent populations. This study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the Latvian and Russian language versions of the SDQ in a representative sample of a general population of Latvian adolescents and establish the population-based normative scores.

Adolescent use of social media and associations with sleep patterns across 18 European and North American countries.

Objective: Over the past decade, concurrent with increasing social media use (SMU), there has been a shift toward poorer sleep among adolescents in many countries. The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-national associations between adolescent SMU and sleep patterns, by comparing 4 different categories of SMU (nonactive, active, intense, and problematic use).

Design, Setting, And Participants: Data were from 86,542 adolescents in 18 European and North American countries that participated in the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged study.

Clinical Utility of the Parent-Report Version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Latvian Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Practice.

: Screening instruments can be crucial in child and adolescent mental healthcare practice by allowing professionals to triage the patient flow in a limited resource setting and help in clinical decision making. Our study aimed to examine whether the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), with the application of the original UK-based scoring algorithm, can reliably detect children and adolescents with different mental disorders in a clinical population sample. : a total of 363 outpatients aged 2 to 17 years from two outpatient child psychiatry centres in Latvia were screened with the parent-report version of the SDQ and assigned clinical psychiatric diagnoses.

Excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia: a population-level analysis of all-cause and noncommunicable disease deaths in 2020.

Background: Age-standardised noncommunicable disease (NCD) mortality and the proportion of the elderly population in Latvia are high, while public health and health care systems are underresourced. The emerging COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about its detrimental impact on all-cause and noncommunicable disease mortality in Latvia. We estimated the timing and number of excess all-cause and cause-specific deaths in 2020 in Latvia due to COVID-19 and selected noncommunicable diseases.

A mixed-method study on the provision of remote consultations for non-communicable disease patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia: lessons for the future.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the ability of healthcare systems to ensure the continuity of health services for patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The issue of remote consultations has emerged. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, remote consultations were not routinely provided or covered by public health funding in Latvia.

Converging or diverging trajectories of mortality under one year of age in the Baltic States: a comparison with the European Union.

Background: Information about trends in perinatal and child health inequalities is scarce, especially in the Eastern Europe. We analyzed how mortality under 1 year of age has been changing in the Baltic States and the European Union (EU) over 25 years, and what associations occurred between changes in macroeconomic factors and mortality.

Methods: Data on fetal, neonatal, infant mortality, and macroeconomic factors were extracted from WHO database.

Insufficient sleep duration in association with self-reported pain and corresponding medicine use among adolescents: a cross-sectional population-based study in Latvia.

Objectives: Pain among adolescents is prevalent that may negatively affect adolescents' general well-being of which sleep is an important domain. This study aims to explore the associations between weekly pain and medicine use for relevant pain and insufficient sleep duration among 11-, 13- and 15-year-old adolescents in Latvia by assessing the moderation effect of gender and age.

Methods: Data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study on 2017/2018 of Latvia (n = 4412; 49.

Latvia: Health System Review.

This analysis of the Latvian health system reviews recent developments in organization and governance, health financing, health care provision, health reforms and health system performance. After regaining independence in 1991, Latvia experimented with a social health insurance type system. However, to overcome decentralization and fragmentation of the system, the National Health Service (NHS) was established in 2011 with universal population coverage.

How Are Adolescents Sleeping? Adolescent Sleep Patterns and Sociodemographic Differences in 24 European and North American Countries.

Purpose: Insufficient and poor sleep patterns are common among adolescents worldwide. Up to now, the evidence on adolescent sleep has been mostly informed by country-specific studies that used different measures and age groups, making direct comparisons difficult. Cross-national data on adolescent sleep that could inform nations and international discussions are lacking.

Prevalence of self-reported chronic pain among adolescents: Evidence from 42 countries and regions.

Background: Reports of the overall chronic pain prevalence and its associated demographic characteristics among adolescents vary greatly across existing studies. Using internationally comparable data, this study investigates age, sex and country-level effects in the prevalence of chronic single-site and multi-site pain among adolescents during the last six months preceding the survey.

Methods: Data (n = 214,283) from the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study were used including nationally representative samples of 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds from general schools in 42 participating countries.

Maternal age-associated congenital anomalies among newborns: a retrospective study in Latvia.

Background And Objective: In Latvia, the mean age of women giving birth increased from 27.3 in 2000 to 29.0 years in 2010 during the last 11 years.

Correlation between driving-related skill and alcohol use in young-adults from six European countries: the TEN-D by Night Project.

Background: Only few studies with small experimental samples investigated the impact of psychoactive substances on driving performance. We conducted a multicenter international cross-sectional study to evaluate the correlation between alcohol use and driving-related skill as measured by brake reaction time (RT).

Methods: Before and after the entrance into randomly selected recreational sites from six European countries, all subjects aged 16-35 years, owning a driver license, were asked to compile a structured socio-demographic questionnaire and measure RT (SimuNomad3 driving simulator), breath alcohol concentration (BAC; Drager Alcoltest), and drug use (Oratect III saliva test, only at the exit).

The medicine use and corresponding subjective health complaints among adolescents, a cross-national survey.

Background: Medicine use among children and young people is under-researched. Studies that investigated cross-national patterns in adolescents' medicine use practice are rare. This study aims to investigate adolescents' medicine use for corresponding health complaints in Europe and USA.

A European study on alcohol and drug use among young drivers: the TEND by Night study design and methodology.

Background: Young individuals are the age group with the highest risk of car accidents. One of main explanations relies on the use of psychoactive substances (alcohol, illegal and medicinal drugs), which are known to be major risk factors of road accidents, and whose consumption is almost universally more common among younger drivers. Although the correlation between psychoactive substances use and decrease in driving performance has been established in controlled experimental or laboratory settings, few studies were conducted in naturalistic circumstances.

Bullying and subjective health among adolescents at schools in Latvia and Lithuania.

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of bullying among adolescents in Latvia and Lithuania and to study its association with self-rated health, health complaints, and life satisfaction.

Methods: A total of 3417 students in Latvia and 5626 in Lithuania were surveyed using the Health Behaviour Study among School-aged Children 2001/2002 (HBSC) questionnaire and research protocol.

Results: Being a victim, bully, or bully/victim was reported by 30.

Injury mortality in local communities in Sweden and in the three Baltic States: implications for prevention.

This study provides a comparative time-trend evaluation of injury mortality in local communities in Sweden and the three Baltic States, considering their national socio-political and economic situations and with analysis of local injury prevention structures and activities. Data for the period from 1990 to 2002 were gathered from national statistical offices for the cities of Borås, Tartu, Jelgava and Kaunas and from WHO databases for national level analyses. The death rates for Borås remained relatively stable over the time period, while the Baltic communities had increasing rates until 1994 and seemed to stabilize after 1997.