Introduction and objective. Many studies have indicated numerous nutrition mistakes among school-aged children and adolescents in both urban and rural environments. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional habits of the Polish population, consisting of 7,974 individuals aged 12–17, from rural and urban environments, as well as to identify environmental variations of these habits and to verify the existing information on the incorrect nutrition of school-age children and adolescents.
Materials and method. The research covered a group of 7,974 respondents – school-age adolescents with a similar age structure (12–17 years). The study on subjects from secondary school grades 1 – 3 was conducted in randomly selected schools from 2 random Polish provinces; 5 counties were randomly selected, followed by a choice of 2 communes: one rural and one urban. The research technique was a self-designed survey questionnaire. The obtained results were subjected to statistical analysis using the Pearson Chi 2 and V Cramer test.
Results. The research revealed environment-based differences in subjects’ nutrition. Breakfast was consumed daily by a statistically significantly fewer subjects from the rural environment (36.31%) than from the urban areas (51.32%); second breakfast was consumed by an insignificantly smaller proportion of respondents from the urban environment (40.00%) than from the rural one (46.00%); dinner was eaten daily by 86.00% of urban subjects and 82.00% of rural respondents; afternoon tea and supper were eaten rarely by respondents from both environments. The diet of respondents was dominated by anti-health behaviours.
Conclusions. Most of the respondents displayed incorrect nutritional behaviours. Nutritional mistakes occurred among respondents from both rural and urban environments, with the predominance of the rural areas.
Introduction. The study of the population's mental health outlines a systematic analysis of the study's results on the determinants of its impact and the identification of potential determinants for building effective mechanisms to reduce their adverse effects. In Ukraine, the state of mental health of the population is affected by such global factors as full-scale military operations.
Objective. To study the role of public (social) determinants in influencing the state of mental health of the population during the war in Ukraine.
Materials and methods. The study was based on a survey of healthcare professionals to assess the level of influence of social determinants on the state of mental health of the population. The research methods used were bibliosemantic and sociological surveys, and two statistical analysis methods were a description of the study and an analysis of the facts obtained.
Results. It has been established that the critical social determinant of the impact on the state of mental health in Ukraine is the war with Russia. Based on this, the authors identified specific determinants that are closely related to this fact, namely the impact of the political situation, the effectiveness of public administration, the level of democracy, social conflicts, the organization of social protection, inflationary processes, corruption, migration processes, crime, and the organization and accessibility of the healthcare system. The assessment results showed that, according to healthcare professionals, the state of mental health is most affected by such factors as corruption (3.71±0.07 points out of 5 maximum), inflationary processes (3.58±0.07), and political situation (3.54±0.07). Respondents with less than ten years of work experience scored highest for all these factors. Social determinants: "Social conflicts in the environment," "Organization of social protection of the population," "Crime," and "Migration processes" were significantly more often mentioned by healthcare workers with up to 20 years of work experience than with more than 20 years of experience. Heads of healthcare facilities primarily pointed to the influence of such social factors as "Corruption" (3.81±0.14), "State of organization and accessibility in healthcare system" (3.74±0.13), "Political situation" and "Efficiency of public administration" (3.54±0.14 and 3.54±0.15, respectively).
Conclusions. The critical social determinants that affect the population's mental health are corruption in the state, inflationary processes, and the political situation. The correlation between the length of service and the position held regarding the level of assessment of the impact of social factors is revealed.
In 2020 it is estimated that 281 million people were international migrants. Migrants constitute a potentially vulnerable population in terms of facing discrimination, poor living and housing conditions, and insufficient access to healthcare services. Due to the armed conflict in Ukraine in 2022, almost 10 million people crossed the Polish border within a year of the outbreak of the conflict. The objective of this paper is to present the use of primary healthcare services by people migrating from Ukraine to Poland and identify the barriers in access to healthcare by this group of
persons. This study used a qualitative research technique in the form of an expert interview using individual in-depth interviews (IDI). The study group consisted of professionally active primary healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, and facility managers) in Poland. Research was carried out in the areas regarding the availability of healthcare, the potential threats and challenges, and possible system solutions. The results showed that the most common cause for doctor’s appointments among migrants are respiratory infections, including COVID-19. Many cases were related to back pain, mainly resulting from the physical work of the patients. Additionally, some barriers to access and the provision of healthcare services for patients from Ukraine were identified. The majority (75%) of respondents indicated language as a significant barrier when providing services. Based on the study results, we recommend creating a dedicated website and telephone hotline for this group of persons as well as the use of traditional media to distribute information about access to healthcare services. It is also essential to focus on assistance for older people, since they may experience more difficultie with language and navigating the healthcare system.