Five Grants Awarded for Health Information
The Harvard Medical School - Portugal Program announced its 2009 grant awards on the Production and Delivery of Health Information and Assessment of the Impact of the Program of Health Information. The Harvard Health Publications Division (HHP) of Harvard Medical School, in partnership with the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology, will be working with Portuguese teams to produce educational material for the general public about health, medicine and biomedical science as well as information for students and professionals in health sciences.
Five projects were selected, three for the Production and Delivery of Information and two for the Assessment of the Impact of the Program.
For the Production and Delivery of Information the projects were:
- "Development of a medical information system on Hereditary Breast and Colorectal cancer", led by Luís Filipe dos Santos Silva from IPATIMUP - University of Porto;
- "Early beginnings - tackling childhood obesity" led by Maria Isabel Guedes Loureiro, from ENSP/UNL (Public Health National School); and
- "Chronic diseases of the airways - contents and tools for productive interactions between empowered patients and proactive professionals" led by João Almeida Lopes Fonseca, from the Faculty of Medicine University of Porto.
Social scientists in Portugal together with faculty from Harvard Medical School will be evaluating the impact of the program in health information in which intermediaries direct the public to health information content.
Two groups for this program were seleted: Principal Investigators João Carlos Freitas Arriscado Nunes, from CES - Centre for Social Studies in Coimbra, with "Evaluating the state of public knowledge on health and health information in Portugal" and Manuel Villaverde Cabral, from ICS - Social Sciences Institute of the Lisbon University, with "Health information of the Portuguese: knowledge and perceived quality and accessibility of health information sources."
Development of a medical information system about Hereditary Breast and Colorectal cancer
Cancer affects not only the individual but also close family members. With a lack of specific information about hereditary cancers in Portugal and national policies for cancer prevention and early diagnosis being rather scarce this project will aim to fill that gap by providing scientific details to professionals working in the health sector as well as the general public.
Specific objectives of the project will be to:
1) provide scientific contents in a variety of formats and distribution methods that contribute to awareness in cancer biology to all levels of the general public;
2) engage a wider community involvement with biomedical science;
3) increase the awareness of hereditary forms of cancer and cancer prevention issues;
4) inform about genetic testing and counseling;
5) decrease personal anxiety and impove general health quality;
6) ultimately improve early diagnosis of breast and colorectal hereditary cancer in Portugal.
Luís Silva from IPATIMUP and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and his team have many years expertise both in cancer research, with several major publications in the field, and in the development of award-winning technologies and projects divulging science. The aim is to develop an innovative interactive system of familial cancer information that will contribute to science education, general health and identifying families with hereditary colorectal and breast cancers.
Early beginnings - tackling childhood obesity
Over the last 30 years the pace of life in Portugal has changed due to modernization and urbanization and has caught up with other European countries. People are developing unhealthy lifestyles with increasing mortality and morbidity rates related to chronic degenerative diseases such as obesity, a serious public health problem in Europe, with an estimated prevalance of overweight children and adolescents of about 20%, one third of these being considered as obese.
In Portugal obesity is one of the major public health issues. Almost 50% of Portuguese adults are overweight and 16% are obese. In children, more than 32% between 7-9 years old are overweight, of which 11% are obese, and 24% of young children at pre-school years are overweight and 7% obese. Consistent data of overweight and obese children of 3 - 5 years old has shown that among 18 European countries Portugal is one of the four countries that has the highest prevalence of overweight children of 4 years old (23,1%), along with Spain, Ireland and Greece.
In children obesity can cause adverse psychological social and health issues which in later life increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and associated mortality. Early prevention, education and promotion of healthy diets are essential and guidance to parents, guardians and childcare providers in improving health literacy is a key to success.
In this project Maria Isabel Loureiro and her team at ENSP together with Harvard will focus on chronic disease prevention, from pregnancy to pre-school years targeting parents' health literacy. A set of written and audiovisual contents addressing obesity, obesity prevention, diagnosis and treatment will be produced. The overall framework has been drawn from the Contextual Model of Davison and Birch and from the holistic approach to child obesity proposed by HENRY - Health Exercise Nutrition for the Really Young. This implies the need for a strong investment in families involving lifestyle, nutrition, physical activity, and parenting. Health professionals will be targeted and community partnering and a proposal for an implementation process through Primary Health Care will also be included.
Chronic diseases of the airways - contents and tools for productive interactions between empowered patients and proactive professionals
Patients are becoming increasingly involved in their own healthcare and medical education is gaining importance. Providing health information for both patients and the general public and physicians and health students is essential, emphasizing the need for the patient and physician to share decision-making and self-management. The internet and related technologies assist in this process and reach broader audiences.
The project, led by João Almeida Lopes Fonseca, will develop contents and tools aggregated in a web platform, covering several aspects of diseases, in several formats. The objective will be to create three versions: for physicians/students, patients/public and audiences with limited literacy.
Tools will be developed to promote shared medical decisions, support disease assessments and monitoring. Standard web 2.0 technologies will be applied allowing users to be both consumers and producers of health information. State-of-the-art contents will be produced through strict procedure and continuous supervision, encouraging the input of the community.
This research team has background in allergy and asthma, pulmonary medicine, psychiatry and primary care medicine and expertise in patient education, behavioural change, e-health, production of online health contents, patient-centered care and training of health professionals. Members of the team have, in the past, produced information contents and interactive online tools for both patients and doctors, in different settings, mainly in the area of asthma care.
The World Health Organization recognized the impact of chronic respiratory diseases by the creation of the Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD). Portugal shares this view and in line with the National Health Plan the country has dedicated National Programs for Asthma Control and for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The team will implement their knowledge in asthma and COPD and also expand the scope of their interventions, creating a broad set of contents and tools for chronic diseases of the airways, comprising asthma, COPD, rhinitis and rhinossinusitis interstitial lung diseases and cystic fibrosis.
Evaluating the state of public knowledge on health and health information in Portugal
This project will be evaluating the current state of knowledge of Portugal's populaton on a range of health issues as well as access to its health information, sources and interpretation and effects on health-related practices.
Knowlege of how information is received by targeted audiences is still limited despite recent innovative approaches. These questions will be addressed through the elaboration of theoretical, methodological tools. Dissemination activities are planned throughout the project including a set of recommendations for health institutions, professionals and other entities based on the results obtained.
The project, led by João Carlos Arriscado Nunes, will select information from specific nation-wide campaigns or initiatives, namely by health authorities, patient organizations or professional or scientific associations. Three sub-groups will be singled out: teens (aged 10-17), young adults (18-25) and the elderly (60+). The project will draw from a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary research areas, including science and health communication studies, social studies of medicine and health, medical anthropology , psychology, and epidemiology and public health. The methodology is based on quantitative and qualitative approaches, surveys and interviews with health communcation agents and professionals as well as organizations and associations.
The team will collaborate with Harvard Medical School and, in particular, with its Global Health and Social Medicine Department, a major asset bringing to it a very rich experience on the engagement of health institutions and professionals with the public in a variety of social settings.
Health information of the Portuguese population: knowledge and perceived quality and acessibility of health information sources
Knowledge of factors promoting health and prevention of disease is one of the main determinants for health behaviors and lifestyles.
Led by Manuel Villaverde Cabral this project aims to describe the current state of that knowledge and the accessibility and quality of information sources available to the Portuguese particularly in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, the four main diseases in the 2004-2010 National Health Plan.
The project will be developed in two stages. In the first stage data will be gathered from a questionnaire of a representative sample of varied socio-economic groups of the Portuguese ranging from 16 to 79 years of age in 2010, specifically regarding prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of each of these diseases.
The second stage aims to understand the imapct of the dissemination of specific information on health issues on the knowledge available to the public. From an operational standpoint a second period of data gathering is envisaged for 2012, based on a sub-sample extracted from the main sample established during the first stage.
The project's aims then will be to establish a baseline on existing knowledge amongst the Portuguese relating to the four diseases and assess what measure and in which circumstances an information program can alter the content of that health related knowledge.