Dorota Cianciara

This article aims to: (a) the reveal of selected aspects of the health situation of men in some countries and Poland, as well as a comparison with the situation of women, (b) a discussion of these disparities in the context of different patterns, practices and gender stereotypes, (c) an explanation of the research perspectives in health research related to gender, (d) the presentation of the advances which led to the interest in gender medicine. Particular attention was paid to the issues of life expectancy, mortality, morbidity, the prevalence of chronic disease risk factors, health behaviors, including those related to help seeking. In view of the observed health disparities the concepts of gender, masculinity and gender roles were explained. The current practices in gender health research were described.

 

Topics and dynamics of the publishing in the field of public health and health services in the years 2000-2012, based on the analysis of the Polish Medical Bibliography

The aim of the analysis is to present the subject-matter and the dynamics of the literature in the field of public health and health services, in the years 2000-2012, through the bibliometric analysis of the literature in 11 subject areas. Research questions: Which areas of public health and health services abound at this period in the largest number of publications? Can we observe in the period 2000-2012 growth in number of publications? Is it possible to see any patterns in the dynamics of publishing in particular areas? In which journals the articles on topics related to public health and health services are published most often?
Method: The thematic areas of public health were identified following the basic functions of the public health highlighted in subject literature, and widened by inclusion of “management and organization of health care” and “health economics”. The Polish Medical Bibliography (PBL) was searched to find all types of publications published in the years 2000-2012, indexed with the major headings (descriptors) corresponding with the selected topics. The data obtained from PBL was processed by especially written computer program.
Results: A total of 24,631 articles on predetermined topics were recorded in PBL, in the chosen period. Dominate publications on “management and organization”, “law regulation” and “health economics”. Together they constitute more than half of all publications. Next, most frequently presented in publications issue was “monitoring the health of the population”. Incomparably less is publications on the prevention of diseases and their causes. During this period, there are only few comparative studies published showing Poland among other countries. Also, very little work is published about the aging of the Polish population seen as a public health problem. From 2000 to 2010, the number of publications in the entire public health area has remained relatively stable. From 2010 begins gradual decrease in the number of articles in almost all fields, with the exception of “disease monitoring”,” prevention of accidents and injuries” and “epidemiological surveillance”. More than half (51%) of the publications were published in 55 journals, of which only 20 deal extensively with issues of public health. Other articles are distributed in more than 300 other bio-medical journals.
Conclusions: Public health and health services fields, as areas of research and professional discussion in Poland are dominated by issues of management, organization, economics and law regulations. Number of publications in all analyzed subjects (public health + management+economics) in the years 2000-2012, shows a weak growth, with significant differences between individual areas and sub-areas. In such areas as “disease prevention”, “management”, “health economics”,” quality of care” issues - the number of publications is falling. Dispersion of publications in hundreds of magazines, mostly bio-medical, probably is not conducive to the consolidation of public health.

In Poland, the issue of required preparation and professional status of people working in health promotion (HP) is not specified in detail and existing rules are not transparent. An important aspect of professionalization of the field should be strong embedding in the theoretical framework. Furthermore, the term "theory and evidence-based" used in relation to HP and health education (HE) interventions is getting popularity. This paper is a thematic draft which discusses several issues subjectively assessed as constitutive for the professionalization of the HP field. It presents: professions related to HP; fundamental differences between HP and HE; theoretical forms in HP; the importance of theory in HP; selected theoretical concepts on disease, health and health behaviors. Particular attention was paid to the concepts that were considered the key to understanding the philosophy and specificity of HP and therefore should be the starting point in acquiring essential competences to professional performance.

Mobilising action for health equity across the European Union – the story of DETERMINE project

The DETERMINE project (2007–2010) was coordinated by EuroHealth-Net and there were 24 countries involved. It was an EU consortium for action on the socio-economic determinants of health (SDH). The overall objective was to mobilize action for health equity in the European Union, especially through achieving greater awareness and capacity amongst decision makers in all policy sectors to take health and health equity into consideration when developing policy and to strengthen collaboration between health and other sectors.
Several phases of activities were carried out e.g.: identification of actions and policies addressing the socio-economic determinants of health inequalities (SDHI) in UE member states, recognition of innovative approaches in the context of SDH and selection of three small pilot projects with promising approach, consultations with politicians and policy makers outside the health sector on their attitude towards SDHI and their role in achieving health equity, identification of economic analyses addressing SDHI. There were also capacity building and awareness raising activities carried out by DETERMINE partners, such us: skills development, partnership development, leadership, awareness raising and
advocacy.