80th Anniversary of the Publication of Endemic Syphilis in Bosnia: Survey by the School of Public Health in Zagreb.

Certain regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina were prominent European sites of endemic syphilis. In 1934 and 1935 the School of Public Health in Zagreb, later the Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, conducted two surveys on endemic syphilis in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The surveys were well-described in the monograph published in 1939 by the School, under the title Endemic Syphilis in Bosnia: Survey by the School of Public Health in Zagreb ("Endemski sifilis u Bosni anketa Škole narodnog zdravlja u Zagrebu").

How to Improve Patient Safety Culture in Croatian Hospitals?

Patient safety culture (PCS) has a crucial impact on the safety practices of healthcare delivery systems. The purpose of this study was to assess the state of PSC in Croatian hospitals and compare it with hospitals in the United States. The study was conducted in three public general hospitals in Croatia using the Croatian translation of the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC).

Are Patients Ready for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Family Physicians - A Croatian Study.

Discrimination and harassment of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) physicians from their colleagues and superiors are known. However there is little knowledge about the patients’ attitudes and discrimination toward physicians. A cross sectional Internet survey was conducted in urban Croatian regions.

Recipe from the past for the future: public health intervention represent a process for century.

In the poor Bosnia, in the early 20(th) century endemic syphilis was widespread. Combating this disease entailed the necessity of etiology research, diagnosis and clinical nature of the disease, as well as the insight into the epidemiological image of this unresolved health problem. Thanks to the visionary, the enthusiasm and persistence of the expert team of doctors from that time in Croatia, School of Public Health and the Rockefeller Foundation as financial support, conditions were created to conduct population monitoring and research called "survey".

Healthy occupational culture for a worker-friendly workplace.

Work has numerous health and wellbeing benefits, but it also involves physical hazards and psychological exertion. Today the scale has tipped toward psychosocial factors. Workers' mental health affects their intellectual, emotional, and social growth, as well as work ability, productivity, and ultimately organisational productivity and competitiveness on the market.

Occupational exposure to blood among hospital workers in montenegro.

This cross-sectional study was performed in nine Montenegrin hospitals to estimate the burden of occupational exposure to blood among hospital workers in Montenegro in 2010 using a modified Croatian self-reporting questionnaire on exposure to blood-borne infections. Of the 1043 respondents, 517 (49.6 %) reported exposure to blood.

Physicians' interpersonal relationships and professional standing seen through the eyes of the general public in Croatia.

Purpose: Medical professionalism, as a cornerstone of medicine's social contract with society, demands physicians adhere to high professional standards while placing public interest ahead of self-interest. This study's objective was to investigate perceptions of the basic elements of medical professionalism related to physicians' interpersonal relationships and their professional standing in the view of the broader public.

Methods: A field survey was conducted using an independently created questionnaire on a nationally representative three-stage probabilistic sample of 1,008 Croatian citizens.

Attitudes towards and knowledge about homosexuality among medical students in Zagreb.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether students in their fifth and sixth years of medical school in Zagreb have homophobic attitudes and assess their knowledge about homosexuality. A survey was conducted among fifth and sixth year medical students during the 2009/2010 academic year. The survey consisted of general demographic data, two validated questionnaires--"Knowledge about Homosexuality Questionnaire" and "Heterosexual Attitudes towards Homosexuality Scale"--and questions about personal experiences created for this study.

Are nurse presenteeism and patient safety culture associated: a cross-sectional study.

Working as a nurse involves great dedication and sacrifice: working night shifts, working overtime, and coming to work sick. The last is also known as presenteeism. Research has shown that poor nurse performance can affect both caregiver's and patient's safety.

Development of a Croatian version of the US Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire: dimensionality and psychometric properties.

Background: The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC), originally developed in the USA, is used worldwide to assess patient safety culture in hospitals. A limited number of studies have provided data on psychometric properties outside of the US healthcare system. Our aim was to determine if all 12 dimensions of the US HSOPSC were applicable, valid and reliable to Croatian healthcare workers.

Shift work, quality of life and work ability among Croatian hospital nurses.

This paper is a report of a study of the associations of shift work with work ability and quality of life (QoL) among clinical nurses. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2007-2008 on 1124 nurses using the Work Ability Index Questionnaire and the Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). Lower education was a predictor for low level of work ability and low physical health domain of QoL.

Patients and health care professionals: partners in health care in Croatia?

Objectives: To explore quality in hospitals from the patients' and health care professionals' perspective in line with Act on the Protection of Patient Rights.

Design: A qualitative study using a focus group design and semi-structured interviews.

Methods: Three focus groups among health care professionals were conducted with 51 participants: 24 nurses and medical technicians, 15 physicians, 12 residents, followed by additional interviews (20 nurses and medical technicians, 10 physicians, and 2 residents).

Are physician-patient communication practices slowly changing in Croatia? -- a cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Aim: To explore physician-patient communication practices during the process of obtaining informed consent in a hospital setting in Croatia.

Methods: Two hundred and fifty patients (response rate 78%) from five tertiary level hospitals in Zagreb, Croatia, anonymously filled in the questionnaire on informed consent and communication practices by Nemcekova et al in the period from April to December 2011.

Results: Eighty five percent of patients received complete, understandable information, presented in a considerate manner.

[Dance as a risk factor for injuries and development of occupational diseases].

Injuries and diseases can significantly affect the creativity and artistic performance. The link between working conditions and artistic performance had been recognised as early as the medieval age. Physically demanding performance arts such as dance can sometimes result in injuries, illnesses, inability to perform, and even end artist's career.

Respiratory symptoms in fish processing workers on the Adriatic coast of Croatia.

This article describes respiratory symptoms and lung function in 98 fish processing female workers employed in a fish processing plant located on the Croatian Adriatic coast and 95 matching controls. The study included chronic and acute respiratory symptoms which developed during the shifts. Lung function measurements included forced vital capacity (FVC), one-second forced expiratory volume (FEV(1)) and maximal expiratory rates at 50 % and the last 25 % (FEF(50), FEF(25)).

Predictors of lower work ability among emergency medicine employees: the Croatian experience.

Background: Worldwide research has indicated that emergency medicine employees and particularly ambulance personnel have symptoms related to traumatic events, and experience more chronic stressors in their work than workers in other health service settings. Unlike other countries which conducted similar studies, no specialty branch in emergency medicine exists in Croatia.

Study Objectives: To identify possible predictors of low work ability, including occupational stress and quality of life, among emergency medicine employees.

Known symptoms and diseases of a number of classical European composers during 17th and 20th century in relation with their artistic musical expressions.

Medical history and relationship to the medical conditions as well as to the music creativity and productivity of some of the classical European composers have been described. In this review article we analyzed their illnesses as well as association between physical or mental diseases and their creativity and adaptability to disease. Some classical composers suffered from organic diseases, while others complained of mental disturbances.

Characteristics of people with the perceived stress in croatia: the CroHort study.

This study aimed to assess levels of stress in Croatian adult population using PSS, in a population study (Croatian Adult Cohort Health Study - CroHort). Our results show that the levels of stress were 17.46 (SD = 6.

[Maintenance of work ability among hospital health care professionals].

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the values of the Work Ability Index (WAI) and to analyze the factors that may be associated with work ability among hospital health care professionals.

Methods: A total of 1856 health care professionals employed at 5 Zagreb hospitals participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using the Work Ability Index Questionnaire and Occupational Stress Assessment Questionnaire for hospital health care professionals.

Work ability as a major determinant of clinical nurses' quality of life.

Aims And Objectives: To examine quality of life determinants among clinical nurses in Croatia with an emphasis on their work ability.

Background: An important personnel management challenge is to explore factors that stimulate or hinder the development of individual work ability and quality of life throughout a career.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

[Human lifespan: to live and outlive 100 years?].

Aged population dominates in developed countries. Centenarians are a select group, and only one in 7,000 to 10,000 reach that age. Factors of longevity are numerous and include genetic predisposition (a locus on chromosome 4), environment, healthy lifestyle (hypocaloric diet, regular physical and mental exercise), accessible health services, and efficient health protection at old age.

Work-related stress, education and work ability among hospital nurses.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study conducted to determine which occupational stressors are present in nurses' working environment; to describe and compare occupational stress between two educational groups of nurses; to estimate which stressors and to what extent predict nurses' work ability; and to determine if educational level predicts nurses' work ability.

Background: Nurses' occupational stress adversely affects their health and nursing quality. Higher educational level has been shown to have positive effects on the preservation of good work ability.

Work-related stress and work ability among Croatian university hospital midwives.

Objective: to explore the sources and levels of stress at work and work ability among Croatian midwives.

Background: midwives are subjected to multiple stressors. Among health-care professionals, psychological distress for a prolonged period of time has negative effects on the worker's health, work ability and quality of patient care.

Regional pattern of physical inactivity in Croatia.

The aim of this paper was to analyze the regional pattern of physical inactivity in Croatia based on the Croatian Adult Health Survey 2003 data. A total of 9,070 adult respondents were included in this study. In men, the highest prevalence of physical inactivity was recorded in the City of Zagreb (39.