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Marzena Zarzeczna-Baran

Publications and source records attributed to Marzena Zarzeczna-Baran.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Attempt to eliminate health inequalities in Poland arising at the time of political and economic transformation: Polish 400 Cities Project.

AIM: Epidemiological data show that citizens of small towns and villages have presented worse trends in cardiovascular mortality during the political, social and economic transformation in Poland during past 15 years than citizens of large towns. To try to eliminate these inequalities the Polish 400 Cities Project (P400CP), a large educational and interventional project, was prepared. The project consists of two arms: medical and social interventions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The main aim of the medical screening intervention in P400CP is to increase detection and control of cardiovascular risk factors in inhabitants of 418 small cities (<8000 inhabitants) and surrounding villages, particularly in men and people of lower education. In 2003 and 2004 the P400CP covered 123 cities. All together, 36 696 subjects aged between 18 and 98 years were examined. In all participants, blood pressure (BP), anthropometric measurements, laboratory tests and questionnaire interviews were performed. The social arm of P400CP is one of multi-level educational intervention. Modern techniques of social psychology and marketing were involved to increase participation in interventions. RESULTS: Only 12.5% of all subjects had normal BP, cholesterol (<190 mg/dl) and glucose (<100 mg/dl in whole capillary blood) levels. During the first screening visit 65.5% of all examined subjects had BP>/=140 mmHg or >/=90 mmHg. The fasting glucose level was increased in 19% of women and 26% of men. Almost two-third of all subjects had a total cholesterol level above the norm. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in participants of the screening programme P400CP in small towns in Poland was very high. High prevalence and low control of risk factors in participants of the P400CP confirm the decision to target this programme at citizens of small towns and villages.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Epidemiology and prevention of arterial hypertension in Poland.

The authors review the present situation in epidemiology and prevention of arterial hypertension in Poland. In 2002, the NATPOL PLUS survey on representative sample of adults (n=3051, age range 18-93) was conducted. Prevalence of hypertension, diagnosed on basis of three separate visits, was 29%, awareness 67% and efficacy of treatment 12.5%. Thus, in Poland, one-third of 8.6 million hypertensives are unaware of their disease. A comparison with data from other countries should be careful due to the different methods (age range, number of readings and visits) used in the studies. The data, in concert with a decrease in awareness of one's own blood pressure (from 71% in 1994 to 59% in 2002), called for urgent preventive measures. Two large interventions were implemented under the National Programme POLKARD in 2003: the Polish 400 Cities Project aimed to increase detection and knowledge of hypertension and other risk factors among small-town and village communities, and the educational project, A Chance for the Young Heart targeted at children aged 11-14 years and using traditional teaching methods and an interactive Internet website. Also, an educational and marketing programme targeted at public opinion leaders and decision makers (trade unions, local governments, healthcare financing authorities, print media and radio, the Polish Parliament) started in 1999 and is still in process.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

[The role of medical university in modern prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Examples from Medical University of Gdańsk].

Constant worsening of epidemiological situation in cardiovascular diseases in Poland in the 70's and 80's called for intensive measures in the field of preventive cardiology. Thus in 90's, in order to change this situation, among others, team from Department of Hypertension and Diabetology from Medical University of Gdańsk started, in cooperation with other medical universities, important regional and national research programs and preventive interventions. The aim of the educational program carried out in years 1999-2001 for Members of the Polish Parliament, opinion leaders and decision makers was to increase knowledge of the Polish elites about epidemic of cardiovascular diseases in our country. These actions made possible receiving greater support from the government for new epidemiological and preventive programs in this field. Thanks to NATPOL PLUS project, carried out on the representative sample of adults in 2002, we determined for the first time the prevalence and control of main cardiovascular risk factors in Poland. Results of this program helped planning preventive tasks in the National Cardiovascular Diseases Prevention and Treatment Program POLKARD 2003-2005. The aim of the preventive programmes: SOPKARD and Polish Four-Cities Project was to work out standards of modern, comprehensive interventions. They permitted planning and introduction of the largest preventive program: the Polish 400 Cities Project (PP400M). The PP400M is addressed to citizens of all small towns (to 8000 citizens) and surrounding villages in the whole country. All these accomplishments in the field of quickly expanded clinical epidemiology and cardiovascular prevention are directed mainly to Pomeranian and Polish citizens, especially those who are not aware of high risk of myocardial infarction or stroke. The main principle of our strategy is the role of university as an expert in preparation and supervision of the programs, which were carried out by the specialized organizations and firms such as PBS in Sopot. The second important component of our strategy was an intensive cooperation with other leading research centres in Poland that allowed taking advantage of the joint achievements.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2005

[Prevention and health promotion programmes on websites of the Polish health insurance funds].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to evaluate the content and presentation of prevention and health promotion programmes on websites of the Polish health insurance funds. DESIGN: A systematic review of the content of official websites of all 17 national health insurance funds was done. RESULTS: Information on health care programmes was given on 12 websites, In four cases information can be described as sufficient and in only one case the programme was described in detail. Health insurance funds in Poland make extensive use of the Internet to communicate with contractual service providers. However, there is much to be done concerning communication with the patients.

Directories as Topic↗
PubMed2002

[Health services provided for victims of traumas and accidents in the Gdansk metropolitan area].

Traumas and accidents are one of three main treats of public health. There are many research works on the topic, but only some of them concentrate on the issue of organization of the services and cost of hospitalisation. In our research we have analysed individual patients' documentation in the clinic of traumatic surgery of the main regional hospital. We were searching for the reason of hospitalisations and delivered services during the stay in hospital ward. There are three main reason of hospitalisation: transportation accidents (25%), acts of violence (20% of the man and 7% of the women) and home accidents (7% of treated man and 28 of treated women). The background of diagnoses were classic radiograms. In addition to this ultrasonography was carried out in 16% of patients and computer topography in 12% of patients.

Accidents↗
PubMed2002

[Evaluation of the quality of primary health care in Sopot after privatization].

One of the main aims of health system reform was to increase the quality of service and patients' satisfaction. The deepest changes were in the primary care sector. Besides the changes in financing the services, we can observe here the process of privatisation of primary care clinics. We have evaluated the quality of services of four private primary care clinics in the town of Sopot. We received 571 questionnaires from the patients. The average patient was 50 years old, finished high school and complained of mild health problems. Most of patients were satisfied of given services by physicians and nurses. In most categories they gave 85 to 95% good and very good marks for specific quality aspects. One of the main complains was information received, both in the registration board and from the physician. Most of patients were also delighted by medical outcome of treatment, because only 18% gave their mark as satisfactory and worse.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

[Health status evaluation in cities of the Silesia Voivodship--model studies].

This paper presents the synthetic measure of health evaluation, which was used for model studies on populations of cities with poviat status in Silesia Voivodship. The study describes theoretical foundations for applying multidimensional comparative analysis in evaluation of the people health status. The range of entrance variables has been defined and selected. They have represented the following: demographic and economic variables, health needs variables, social variables and health service supplies variables. The examined cities have been assessed by means of the partial criteria and on the basis of the synthetic measure. According to the obtained results the examined cities were ranked and classified to a determined group. The results of model studies were also given.

Environmental Monitoring↗
PubMed2002

[Evaluation of health status in the Silesia Voivodship--model studies].

Silesia Voivodship is one of the most polluted areas in Europe. Especially Upper Silesia Region is recognized as ecologically ruined area according to the European Union standards. Very high degree of environmental degradation in Silesia Voivodship is connected with the industrialization. This region is the most polluted area in Poland. Gas and dust air pollution of this region has the highest level in Poland. The quality of the environment and its present status has got undoubtedly negative influence on the health of inhabitants. The paper presents the results of model studies of health status based on multidimensional comparative analysis using statistical data of Silesia Voivodship population. In the research different groups of factors were taken into account: demographic, economical, social and medical care service system. The studied objects were ranked according to the obtained measure of synthetic health status estimation. According to this, the poviats were included in the determined groups. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of the used method have been discussed.

Environmental Monitoring↗
PubMed2002

[Spatial differentiation in financing medical services under universal health insurance selected segments of services].

After the universal health insurance has been started in Poland, patients believed that access to the health care system financed by the sick fund could be improved. It is generally known that there is a kind of relationship between both the access to the health care system and quality of medical system, and amount of money to be paid for that. There are 17 separate and independent sick funds in Poland. In this work the authors try to find how sick funds spend their financial resources in selected segments of medical services. The strongest influence of sick fund is in the region where its headquarter is located. If each sick fund has different amount of money to spend for a single patient and the right to divide funds according to its policy, the authors expect regional differentiation in financing medical services (according to the district). The data used in the work came from Urzad Nadzoru nad Ubezpieczeniami Zdrowotnymi (UNUZ) and Główny Urzad Statystyczny (GUS). As a result their is no doubt that public money from the medical insurance is regionally significantly differentiated and each sick fund, spending money resources, creates its own medical policy in the examined segments of services.

Health Care Costs↗
PubMed2002

[Ways of spending free time by students of the Medical University of Gdansk in relation to their health behavior].

Problems connected with the issue of free time are the field of interest for social, and medical scientists and economists. Medical students are perceived by others as well as by themselves as the group with free time deficiency. An inquiry was conducted on subject of some aspects of free time and healthy lifestyle in practice of VIth year students of Faculty of Medicine and 1st year students of Medical Analysis at the Medical University of Gdansk. One of the questions in the inquiry was direct question about the ways of spending free time. There were differences in forms of spending free time between students of Faculty of Medicine and students of Medical Analysis. Among the first group examined the most, about 46%, points to recreational sport as the form of spending free time; quite a lot people read books, and about 40% of them sleep. Medical Analysis students asked the same question answer that they study during their free time--almost 41%, they also go for walks and listen to the radio. On the grounds of the answer about practicing recreational sport we can assume that for the greatest part of the students such activities have become an obligatory part of their lifestyle and not everybody classifies them among free time activities. Students of both inquired groups fill their free time with number of activities, among which we can find those involving rest, health or entertainment.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

[Evaluation of the epidemiology of neoplasms in the Pomerania Voivodship in 1999 in comparison with the situation in Poland].

The aim of the research was the analysis of epidemiological situation of neoplasm in Pomerania Voivodship in 1999 compared with situation in Poland. Neoplasms are the second cause of deaths in Poland. Only cardiac and circular system diseases are more frequent cause of deaths. The situation of cardiac and circular system mortality has positively changed and the number of circular deaths has decreased. On the contrary, the number of neoplasms deaths has increased. Especially, as far as neoplasm are concerned, Pomerania Voivodship's situation is not good. Main trends in epidemiological situation of cancers in Pomerania Voivodship are similar to the situation in Poland, however standardized mortality and incidence rates are higher than average in Poland. In Pomerania Voivodship standardized mortality rates are very high, for females the highest in Poland, for males the second in row of Polish voivodships. In the structure of registered new cases of cancer in Pomerania Voivodship we observe high percentage of multi-sites neoplasms in comparison with data for Poland. The reason of this is undoubtedly connected with the coding system used in Pomerania Voivodship. The presented results indicate the need searching for the factors causing the situation and create programs to eliminate them. The programs must concentrate on early diagnosis of cancers as well as heath promotion and natural environment preservation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

[Choice of the profession and work satisfaction among nursing students from the Medical University of Gdansk].

The choice of the future profession is very important to every young person. The influence of this choice on future occupational satisfaction is significant. In the paper there is presented the connection between the choice of nursery profession and achieved occupational satisfaction. The material was based on information gathered by anonymous questionnaires. The whole group of second year students of Nursery Faculty of Medical University of Gdańsk were interviewed by the questionnaire. For 60% of them the choice of the profession was not done accidentally. The evaluation of motives for selecting the nursery profession and its influence on future occupational satisfaction were studied. The tendency of changing the profession according to the way of work was also analyzed. The results indicate the differences between achieved occupational satisfaction and the tendency of changing the profession depending on motives of taking up the studies. The results do not allow to estimate the quality of work of particular groups but can be the introduction of following more thorough research.

Adult↗