Background: The use of mobile technology to meet health needs, widely referred to as mobile health (mHealth), has played a critical role in providing self-management support for chronic health conditions. However, despite its potential benefits, mHealth technologies such as self-management support apps for spinal cord injury (SCI) have received little research attention, and an understanding of their public availability is lacking. Therefore, an overview of these apps is needed to complement findings from the literature for a complete understanding of mHealth self-management support tools for SCI to support the selection and improvement of existing apps and the development of new ones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The call for high quality disability data has gained momentum around the world. The objective of this paper is to analyse the consistency of estimates obtained with the Washington Group short set of questions, which are being recommended for use in national population surveys.
Methods: Prevalence rates and their 95% confidence intervals were estimated using data from five surveys carried out in three low-income countries and one high-income country.
Purpose: In 2023, the World Health Assembly endorsed a Resolution on Strengthening Rehabilitation in Health Systems. This study aims to explore the perspectives of Swiss rehabilitation stakeholders regarding the relevance, challenges, and opportunities of the Resolution for Switzerland.
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Swiss rehabilitation stakeholders.
Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the use of digital health tools by people with spinal cord injury and associated factors.
Design: Cross-sectional data from the 2022 Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI) were analyzed. Descriptive statistics summarized data regarding sociodemographic characteristics, self-management, health, and digital health usage.
Introduction: With the ageing of the global population and the rise in noncommunicable diseases, there is an increased need for rehabilitation services, especially those that address the specific needs of ageing populations. Through their proximity to patients, nurses play a critical role in providing rehabilitation interventions for older adults in primary health care. However, they are not yet established as typical rehabilitation providers and further research is needed to clarify their role and competencies to optimize rehabilitation interventions for ageing populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To identify official sources that routinely collect data on functioning in Switzerland, to provide an overview of the existing data and its comparability, and to assess the extent to which the data is suitable for developing a functioning metric and indicator.
Methods: Data sources were identified through an iterative search. Standardized rules were applied to map the functioning information assessed by the sources using a current WHO functioning and disability survey as a reference framework for the content comparison.
Background: The demographic changes affecting Switzerland and other European countries, including population ageing, will continue to challenge policymakers in building accessible, affordable, comprehensive and high-quality long-term care (LTC) systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Switzerland's LTC system compares to other European countries, in order to inform how to respond to the increasing need for LTC. We carried out a descriptive study using secondary data from key national and international organizations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The ageing process is highly heterogeneous leading to diverse ageing trajectories. Such trajectories have been modelled to study trends and determinants of ageing and could potentially be used to inform the planning of rehabilitation services at population level. The objective of this paper was to explore whether healthy ageing trajectories are suitable to identify targets for rehabilitation interventions for the ageing population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe world is approaching the sustainable development goals deadline, but many countries still do not produce the data required to track their indicators by disability. Integrating valid and relievable disability measurement tools into existing data platforms is key to ensuring that "no one is left behind." In this paper, we aim to demonstrate that it is possible to gather valid data on disability for disaggregation using the WHO Functioning and Disability Disaggregation Tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Rehabilitation is essential to foster healthy ageing. Older adults have unique rehabilitation needs due to a higher prevalence of non-communicable diseases, higher susceptibility to infectious diseases, injuries, and mental health conditions. However, there is limited understanding of how rehabilitation is delivered to older adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To estimate the effect of having a chronic disease on the weekly working hours and the associated monetary losses.
Design: Longitudinal data Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement (SHARE) in Europe. We analyzed 7 waves from 9 countries in Europe.
Introduction: The intersection of ageing and spinal cord injury (SCI) is of global concern. Two scenarios have been described: 1) "SCI with ageing," an increase in the average age of SCI onset, and 2) "ageing with SCI," an increase in post-injury life expectancy. These scenarios entail complex health care and rehabilitation needs due to the accumulation of comorbidities, ageing-related and SCI-induced physiological changes, and post-SCI secondary health conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Occupational e-mental health (OeMH) interventions significantly reduce the burden of mental health conditions. The successful implementation of OeMH interventions is influenced by many implementation strategies, barriers, and facilitators across contexts, which, however, are not systematically tracked. One of the reasons is that international consensus on documenting and reporting the implementation of OeMH interventions is lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Disasters such as earthquakes, conflict, or landslides result in traumatic injuries creating surges in rehabilitation and assistive technology needs, exacerbating pre-existing unmet needs. Disasters frequently occur in countries where existing rehabilitation services are underdeveloped, hindering response to rehabilitation demand surge events.
Aims: The primary aim of this scoping review is therefore to synthesize the evidence on rehabilitation and assistive technology preparedness and response of health systems in LMICs to the demand associated with disasters and conflict situations.
Information about an individual's functioning and its longitudinal development is key to informing clinical rehabilitation. However, the description and understanding of the detailed longitudinal course of functioning, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: The need for rehabilitation is growing due to health and demographic trends, especially the rise of non-communicable diseases and the rapid ageing of the global population. However, the extent to which rehabilitation is integrated into health systems is mostly unclear. Our objective is to describe and compare the nature and extent of integration of rehabilitation within health systems across nine middle-income countries using available Systematic Assessment of Rehabilitation Situation (STARS) reports.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The world population is ageing rapidly. Rehabilitation is one of the most effective health strategies for improving the health and functioning of older persons. An understanding of the current provision of rehabilitation services in primary care (PC) is needed to optimise access to rehabilitation for an ageing population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe demand for rehabilitation services (RS) is increasing worldwide, particularly in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), where up to 50% of people currently don't have access to the RS they need. This case report describes how Chile integrated rehabilitation into primary health care (PHC) to improve access, coverage, and equity. The report draws on the first-hand experiences of two Ministry of Health (MoH) officials involved in transitioning from specialized to PHC-centered rehabilitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRehabilitation uses a person-centred approach that relies on dynamic case management and works across sectors, including social protection, labour, and education to improve individual functioning. Global population ageing means that more people will live with impairment in functioning. Responding to this growth in impairment will require countries to strengthen rehabilitation at all levels of their health systems as highlighted by the 2023 WHO Resolution on Rehabilitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study has as objective the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Model Disability Survey (MDS), a World Health Organization instrument that provides comprehensive information on disability/functioning, for Brazil.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional methodological study, carried out through five stages - initial translation, synthesis of translations, reverse translation, review by a specialist committee, and pre-test -, considering properties such as semantic, idiomatic, experimental, and conceptual equivalence. Translators, researchers, a mediating team, health professionals, a methodologist and a language specialist were needed to pass through the stages.
Background: A paucity of qualitative research on sensitive topics that focuses on participants with intellectual disabilities leaves their views unexplored. This scoping review mainly aimed to provide an overview of qualitative data collection methods used in research involving participants with intellectual disabilities to explore death and dying.
Method: A scoping review of primary research and methodological papers published between January 2008 and March 2022 was conducted.
Background: Self-management plays a critical role in maintaining and improving the health of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Despite their potential, existing mobile health (mHealth) self-management support (SMS) tools for SCI have not been comprehensively described in terms of their characteristics and approaches. It is important to have an overview of these tools to know how best to select, further develop, and improve them.
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