Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 184 - 14 February 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)

Evidence review to inform development of the mental health and addiction quality improvement programme ‘Learning from adverse events and consumer experience' project
This evidence review by the Health Quality & Safety Commission is designed to inform the development of a mental health and addiction quality improvement project to improve learning from adverse events and consumer experience within the framework of the National Adverse Events Reporting Policy.

Evaluation of the early implementation of the national maternity early warning system
This document by the Health Quality & Safety Commission outlines an evaluation of the early implementation of the national maternity early warning system.

Maternal morbidity review toolkit for maternity services | Te kete arotake mate whakawhānau mō ngā ratonga whakawhānau
This document is part of the Health Quality & Safety Commission's maternal morbidity review toolkit. This document sets the foundation for the review toolkit, providing the evidence and rationale for its development, and sets out recommended principles and a suggested process for establishing local morbidity review within a DHB or private maternity service.

Hospital Productivity (New Zealand)

The development and first six years of a nurse-led chest pain clinic
This paper, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, reports on the development and implementation of a nurse-led service for patients referred from their general practitioner (GP) for assessment of chest pain. The clinic process, the cohort of patients reviewed and clinic outcomes are described.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (New Zealand)

Carbohydrate knowledge and expectations of nutritional support among five ethnic groups living in New Zealand with pre- and type 2 diabetes: a qualitative study
Despite availability of diabetes and nutrition information for people with pre- and type 2 diabetes, the uptake and understanding of these resources may differ among ethnic groups. The objective of this study, published in Nutrients, was to explore dietary knowledge and diabetes experiences amongst Māori, European, Pacific Island, Indian and East Asian people living in New Zealand with a focus on carbohydrate-containing foods.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (International)

Women's views on lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes: a systematic review, qualitative synthesis and recommendations for practice
The aim of this study, published in Diabetic Medicine, was to synthesize systematically the literature that focuses on the views of women with a history of gestational diabetes on reducing their risk of developing diabetes postpartum through lifestyle and behaviour changes.

Primary Mental Health (International)

The effectiveness of four empirically supported psychotherapies for primary care depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Depressive and anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and detrimental in primary care settings. However, there are gaps in the literature concerning effectiveness and generalizability of empirically supported interventions and treatment of both depression and anxiety in primary care settings. The aim of this review, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is to systematically assess and meta-analyze the effectiveness of brief empirically-supported psychotherapies for treating depression and/or anxiety in primary care.

Suicide interventions in primary care: a selective review of the evidence
About half of people who die by suicide visit their primary care provider (PCP) within 1 month of doing so, compared with fewer than 1 in 5 contacting specialty mental health. Thus, primary care is an important setting for improving identification and treatment of suicide risk. This review, published in Families, Systems & Health, identifies and summarizes evidence for the effectiveness of intervention components for suicide risk in primary care.

Mobile health interventions for self-control of unhealthy alcohol use: systematic review
This study, publsihed in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, aimed to systematically review and synthesize the research evidence about the efficacy of mHealth interventions on various health outcomes for consumer self-control of unhealthy alcohol use and to identify the core components to achieve these outcomes.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit (New Zealand)

E-cigarette use and perceptions among current and ex-smokers in New Zealand
This report by the Health Promotion Agency presents data about e-cigarettes in the 2017/18 New Zealand Smoking Monitor (NZSM) from 1,099 respondents. Subgroup differences were compared by smoking status, age, gender, and ethnicity. The findings suggest some important challenges for public health messaging in relation to e-cigarettes, including the need to: i) further encourage their use as a tool to quit smoking completely; and ii) provide smokers with clear and accurate information about the relative harms of e-cigarettes and cigarettes.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit (International)

Improving health providers smoking cessation care in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Health providers are lacking in their provision of smoking cessation care during pregnancy. The aim of this study, published in Addictive Behaviors, was to systematically review all available global studies on the effectiveness of interventions in improving health providers' provision of smoking cessation care during pregnancy.

Internet-based programs incorporating behavior change techniques are associated with increased smoking cessation in the general population: a systematic review and meta-analysis
This study, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, aimed to (i) examine the effectiveness of internet-based smoking cessation programs; (ii) describe the number and type of behavior change techniques (BCTs) employed; and (iii) explore whether BCTs included in internet-based smoking cessation programs are related to program effectiveness.

Childhood Obesity (International)

Interventions for obesity among schoolchildren: a systematic review and meta-analyses
Childhood overweight and obesity has emerged as a major public health threat worldwide with challenges in its management. This review, published in PLoS ONE, assessed the effectiveness of interventions for childhood overweight and obesity.

Oral Health (New Zealand)

Caries-preventive efficacy of a supervised school toothbrushing programme in Northland, New Zealand
Toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste reduces the incidence of dental caries. The objective of this study, published in Community Dental Health, was to evaluate a supervised school toothbrushing programme to reduce dental caries experience in children.

Access and barriers to oral health care for dependent elderly people living in rest homes
The aim of this study, published in Gerodontology, was to report New Zealand rest home (residential aged care facilitity) managers' opinions on access and barriers to oral health care for rest home residents.

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.