Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 192 - 6 June 2019

Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest (formerly the HIIRC digest). The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic.

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Have you heard about Grey Matter?

We'd like to introduce you to another newsletter that the Ministry of Health Library prepares.  The Grey Matter newsletter provides monthly access to a selection of recent NGO, Think Tank, and International Government reports related to health. Information is arranged by topic, allowing readers to quickly find their areas of interest.  If you'd like to subscribe to Grey Matter, email library@moh.govt.nz.

Article access

For articles that aren't open access, contact your DHB library, or organisational or local library for assistance in accessing the full text. If your organisation has a subscription, you may be able to use the icon under full text links in PubMed to access the full article.

Quality Improvement (New Zealand)

Improving patient experience and outcomes following serious injury
Published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, this is the first qualitative study to investigate the experience of Waikato Hospital trauma patients and their whānau as they transition from inpatient surgical services to community-based care. The findings will inform system changes to support improved health, vocational and social outcomes for injured patients.

The challenges of safety improvement in New Zealand public hospitals
This article, published in Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, provides a qualitative account of the challenges of safety improvement from the perspective of nurses, doctors, and managers in three departments in two New Zealand public hospitals.

Quality Improvement (International)

An integrative literature review of psychiatric rapid response teams and their implementation for de-escalating behavioral crises in nonpsychiatric hospital settings
Published in the Journal of Nursing Administration, the objective of this study was to synthesize articles exploring the implementation of psychiatric rapid response teams (RRTs) for behavioral crises in hospital settings.

Evaluation of RESPOND, a patient-centred program to prevent falls in older people presenting to the emergency department with a fall: a randomised controlled trial
This study, published in PLoS Medicine, reports on a fall prevention programme for people discharged from the emergency department post-fall, evaluated in a randomised controlled trial.

Disability Sector Quality Improvement (New Zealand)

Te Tau Tītoki:  a framework for supporting people on the autism spectrum
Published by Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui, this framework seeks to map out the competencies required by professionals supporting autistic people within Disability Support Services funded by the Ministry of Health. It is a response to identified evidence of gaps in knowledge and training across the sector as well an approach consistent with recommendations from the NZ Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline.

Disability Sector Quality Improvement (International)

Oral hygiene interventions for people with intellectual disabilities
People with intellectual disabilities (ID) can have poor oral hygiene and oral health outcomes. The objective of this study, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, was to assess the effects (benefits and harms) of oral hygiene interventions, specifically the mechanical removal of plaque, for people with intellectual disabilities (ID).

Cancer and breast cancer awareness interventions in an intellectual disability context: a review of the literature
Women with an intellectual disability (ID) have a similar risk of developing breast cancer as women in the general population yet present with later stage breast cancers, which have poorer outcomes. Published in the Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, the aim of this study was to identify whether there is a need to develop a breast cancer awareness intervention for women with an ID.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (New Zealand)

Trends in cardiovascular management of people with diabetes by primary healthcare nurses in Auckland, New Zealand
Published in Diabetic Medicine, this study's aim was to re-examine current work practices and evaluate time trends in the cardiovascular management of people with diabetes consulted by primary healthcare nurses in New Zealand.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (International)

Impact of technology-based interventions for children and young people with type 1 diabetes on key diabetes self-management behaviours and prerequisites: a systematic review
The role of technology in the self-management of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) among children and young people is not well understood. Interventions should aim to improve key diabetes self-management behaviours highlighted in the UK guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for management of T1DM. The purpose of this study, published in BMC Endocrine Disorders, was to identify evidence to assess the effectiveness of technological tools in promoting aspects of these guidelines amongst children and young people.

The effectiveness of workplace health promotion interventions on physical and mental health outcomes - a systematic review of reviews
This systematic review, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, aimed to provide an overview of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions at the workplace on physical and mental health outcomes related to chronic diseases.

Primary Health Care (New Zealand)

Collaborative care in 'Youth One Stop Shops' in New Zealand: hidden, time-consuming, essential
Young people in New Zealand have high morbidity but low service utilization rates. Dedicated youth services 'Youth One Stop Shops' provide 'wraparound' health and social care. This article, published in the Journal of Child Health Care, reports on volume and type of internal and inter-agency health and social service staff-staff interactions, to better understand elements of potential collaboration in day-to-day practice. 

Primary Health Care (International)

How can we support children, adolescents and young adults in managing chronic health challenges? A scoping review on the effects of patient education interventions
This scoping review, published in Health Expectations, aims to give a comprehensive and systematic overview of published evaluations and the potential impact of patient education interventions for children, adolescents and young adults who are living with chronic illness and/or impairment loss.

Decision aids that facilitate elements of shared decision making in chronic illnesses: a systematic review
Published in Systematic Reviews, this study aimed to (1) describe the shared decision making (SDM) elements present in decision aids (DAs) for patients with common chronic conditions (cardiovascular, chronic respiratory diseases or diabetes) tested in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and (2) determine an association between the key elements present and the effects of these DAs compared to usual care or active controls on SDM outcomes (e.g., conversation duration, patient participation, knowledge, and decisional conflict).

Primary Mental Health (New Zealand)

Suicide post-vention - An example: ‘Fusion’, Te Tai Tokerau
Published by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, this report by the Suicide Mortality Review Committee is a brief introduction to the post-vention work of Fusion in Te Tai Tokerau. It primarily uses the voices of those involved in delivering the work with the agencies and communities, to describe its challenges and successes.

Reducing days of alcohol use improves lifestyle and wellbeing: an analysis of outcomes data from New Zealand adult community alcohol and other drug services
Published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, this study’s aims were to examine the impact of reducing days of alcohol use on lifestyle and wellbeing among adults accessing community AOD services in New Zealand and practice implications. The specific objectives were to examine the (i) correlation between days of alcohol use and weekly lifestyle and wellbeing issues and (ii) variance explained between days of alcohol use and weekly lifestyle and wellbeing issues while adjusting for covariate factors.

Substance misuse stories among Pacific peoples in New Zealand
Published in Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, this paper examines the oral stories of Pacific people attending addiction treatment services in Auckland, New Zealand who were participating in a larger study exploring the validity of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test. (ASSIST). A Talanoa approach was used by interviewers to help gain an understanding of the factors associated with participants' substance misuse.

Primary Mental Health (International)

Management of comorbid mental and somatic disorders in stepped care approaches in primary care: a systematic review
Stepped care models comprise a graded treatment intensity and a systematic monitoring. For an effective implementation, stepped care models have to account for the high rates of mental and somatic comorbidity in primary care. Published in Family Practice, the aim of this systematic review was to take stock of whether present stepped care models take comorbidities into consideration.

The effectiveness of positive mental health programs in adults: a systematic review
The aim of this systematic review, published in Health & Social Care in the Community, was to identify, appraise and synthesize the best evidence for the effectiveness of programmes of positive mental health in adults.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit (New Zealand)

Understanding the experiences, perspectives and values of indigenous women around smoking cessation in pregnancy: systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies
The prevalence of smoking during pregnancy among indigenous women approaches 50% and is associated with sudden infant death, pregnancy loss, preterm delivery, low birth weight, and anatomical deformity. This study, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, aimed to synthesise qualitative studies by reporting experiences, perceptions, and values of smoking cessation among pregnant indigenous women to inform potential interventions.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit (International)

Telephone counselling for smoking cessation
The objectives of this study, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, were to evaluate the effect of telephone support to help smokers quit, including proactive or reactive counselling, or the provision of other information to smokers calling a helpline.

Weight Management (New Zealand)

Effect of antenatal dietary interventions in maternal obesity on pregnancy weight-gain and birthweight: Healthy Mums and Babies (HUMBA) randomized trial
Published in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the objectives of this study were to determine whether a culturally tailored dietary intervention and or daily probiotic capsules in pregnant women with obesity reduces the co-primary outcomes of (1) excessive gestational weight gain (mean >0.27 kg/week) and (2) birthweight.

Māori Innovation

Mahi a Atua: a Māori approach to mental health
In this paper, published in Transcultural Psychiatry, the authors briefly review the literature on the Movement for Global Mental Health and review the case that has been made for the use of indigenous psychologies in place of approaches based on Western psychiatry and psychology. They present two case histories where an intervention based on an indigenous Māori approach to negotiating emotional conflicts and dealing with mental health problems was used. This approach, called Mahi a Atua, was developed by two of the authors over a number of years.

The information available on or through this newsletter does not represent Ministry of Health policy. It is intended to provide general information to the health sector and the public, and is not intended to address specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity.