Contexte : Chaque année au Canada, près de 420 000 aînés subissent des blessures. Plus de la moitié consulte les départements d'urgence (DU) et 75% de ces aînés seront libérés à domicile. Près de 17% des aînés libérés des DU avec une blessure traumatique mineure subissent un déclin fonctionnel, qui se traduit par des difficultés à réaliser les activités de la vie quotidienne et domestique; un déclin qui persiste 6 mois après la consultation. Les services offerts dans les départements d'urgence ne répondent pas aux besoins spécifiques de ces aînés. Par ailleurs, des preuves convaincantes existent quant aux bénéfices fonctionnels de l'exercice physique chez les aînés en communauté. Toutefois, ce type d'intervention ne fait pas partie des recommandations courantes prodiguées aux aînés blessés lors du congé du département d'urgence. Objectif : Comparer les effets de programmes d'exercice physique (intervention), à la pratique usuelle dans les départements d'urgence (DU) (contrôle) sur le déclin fonctionnel et les capacités physiques des personnes âgées à risque modéré et élevé de déclin fonctionnel, dans les 3 à 6 mois suivant la consultation pour une blessure mineure. Méthodologie : Essai randomisé pragmatique de type «stepped-wedge» dans 4 départements d'urgence canadiens entre 2017 et 2020. Les participants ont été évalués 3 fois : dans les 2 semaines suivant la consultation au DU puis à 3 et à 6 mois post-consultation. L'intervention comprenait des programmes d'exercices misant sur l'endurance, le renforcement musculaire, l'équilibre et la flexibilité. Les exercices étaient adaptés aux deux niveaux de risque et étaient réalisés à une fréquence de 2 à 3 fois par semaine pendant 12 semaines, à domicile ou en communauté sous la supervision d'un professionnel de la santé. La variable principale, le déclin fonctionnel, était définie comme une perte de 2 points sur l'échelle de l'Older American Resource Service (OARS) dans le temps. Les capacités physiques de base (force des membres inférieurs, vitesse de marche et équilibre) ont été mesurées avec le Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Des régressions log-binomiales mixtes linéaires généralisées ont été utilisées pour examiner les effets de l'intervention sur les variables d'intérêt. Résultats : Parmi les 447 participants à risque modéré de déclin fonctionnel, il y avait deux fois moins de perte fonctionnelle à 3 mois dans le groupe intervention que dans le groupe contrôle (13% [IC 95% : 9%-19%] vs 27% [IC 95% : 20%-38%]) ainsi qu'une tendance à l'amélioration de l'équilibre dans le groupe intervention. Parmi les 345 participants à risque élevé de déclin fonctionnel, il y avait une tendance à une amélioration aux scores du SPPB-total et au sous-test de la force des membres inférieurs chez le groupe intervention, mais de grandes variations dans les résultats des participants du groupe contrôle pourraient ne pas avoir permis d'obtenir des différences significatives. Conclusion : Les programmes d'exercice physique de 12 semaines aident à la récupération fonctionnelle précoce après une blessure mineure chez les personnes âgées à risque modéré. Malgré une tendance à l'amélioration avec l'intervention chez les participants à risque élevé de déclin fonctionnel, des programmes d'exercice physique de plus longue durée pourraient être nécessaires pour améliorer davantage leur récupération fonctionnelle et leurs capacités physiques. / Background: Each year in Canada, nearly 420,000 seniors sustain injuries. More than half of them visit emergency departments (ED) and 75% of these individuals will be discharged home. Nearly 17% of seniors discharged from ED with a minor traumatic injury experience functional decline, which translates into difficulty performing activities of daily living and domestic activities; a decline that persists 6 months after consultation. Services offered in ED do not meet the specific needs of these seniors. On the other hand, there is convincing evidence of the functional benefits of exercise for community-dwelling seniors. However, this type of intervention is not a common recommendation for injured seniors discharged from the ED. Objective: To compare the effects of exercise programs (intervention) to usual practice following Emergency Department discharge (control) on functional decline and physical abilities of seniors at moderate and high risk of functional decline, identified using the Canadian Emergency Department Team Initiative - Clinical decision rule (CETIe-CDR), within 3-6 months of consultation for a minor injury. Design and settings: Stepped-wedge pragmatic randomized trial in four Canadian EDs in 2017-2020. Participants were assessed 3 times: within 2 weeks of the ED consultation and at 3 and 6 months post-consultation. Intervention included exercise programs focusing on endurance, muscle strengthening, balance, and flexibility. The exercises were adapted to risk levels and were performed 2-3 times per week for 12 weeks, at home or in the community under the supervision of a health care professional. The primary outcome, functional decline, was defined as a 2-point loss on the Older American Resource Service (OARS) scale. Basic physical abilities (leg-strength, walking speed and balance) were measured by the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Generalized linear mixed log-binomial regressions were used to examine the effects of intervention on outcomes. Results: Among the 447 moderate-risk participants, there was half as much functional loss at 3-month in intervention vs. control (13% [CI 95%: 9%-19%] vs. 27% [CI 95%: 20%-38%]). A trend for better balance overtime was also observed in the intervention group. Among the 345 high-risk participants, there was a trend in intervention for more improvements overtime on the SPPB-total and leg-strength scores, but wide variations in controls' outcomes may not have allowed for statistical significance. Conclusion: 12-week multicomponent exercise programs help early functional recovery after minor injuries in moderate-risk seniors. Despite a trend toward improvement with intervention in participants at high risk for functional decline, longer-term exercise interventions may be needed to further improve their functional recovery and physical abilities.

Bien que l'infarctus du myocarde soit un évènement majeur pour l'homme et la femme, l'expérience de l'évènement ischémique chez la femme concerne des particularités à l'égard de l'incidence, des facteurs de risque, des symptômes, de l'accès aux soins, du diagnostic, de l'évolution, de la maladie ainsi que du suivi. Le rétablissement post-infarctus représente un phénomène des plus pertinents compte tenu de l'impact de l'infarctus du myocarde sur la fonctionnalité physique, psychologique et sociale, Le rétablissement clinique post-infarctus prédomine dans les domaines de l'intervention et de la recherche, privilégiant une approche plutôt standardisée du retour à la santé centrée sur la réduction de symptômes et la reprise de rôles. Au cœur de ce mémoire, l'idée est plutôt d'en savoir davantage sur les spécificités du vécu des femmes en matière de rétablissement post-infarctus, considérant le peu d'études s'y étant intéressées et le manque de compréhension de ce vécu. Ce dernier renvoie au rétablissement expérientiel, lequel provient du champ de la santé mentale et qui représente un centre d'intérêt depuis trois décennies. Ce mémoire emprunte donc à ce champ d'expertise la théorie descriptive à large spectre du rétablissement expérientiel (Provencher, 2002, 2008), laquelle a permis de générer une théorie spécifique à la situation à partir de l'analyse de contenu des récits de 10 participantes. La théorie descriptive générée comprend un concept central, soit le rétablissement expérientiel post-infarctus, et trois grandes dimensions, soit le contexte, les stratégies et le résultat. Conceptualisé comme un processus singulier d'adaptation en période post-infarctus, le rétablissement expérientiel post-infarctus est décrit à l'aide de barrières et facilitateurs, de stratégies cognitives et comportementales et du résultat, c'est-à-dire les critères subjectifs de rétablissement et l'état subjectif de rétablissement. Finalement, la théorie du rétablissement expérientiel post-infarctus du myocarde guide la mise en place de diverses interventions cliniques tout en devant faire l'objet d'autres travaux empiriques. / Although myocardial infarction is a major event for both men and women, the experience of the ischemic event in women concerns particularities regarding incidence, risk factors, symptoms, access to care, diagnosis, evolution, illness, and follow-up. Post-infarction recovery represents a most relevant phenomenon considering the impact of myocardial infarction on physical, psychological, and social functionality. Post-infarction clinical recovery predominates in the fields of intervention and research, favoring a rather standardized approach to the return to health focused on symptom reduction and role recovery. Instead, the focus of this thesis is to find out about the specificities of the experience of women in terms of post-infarction recovery, considering the few studies that have been interested in it and the lack of understanding of this experience. This one refers to experiential recovery, which comes from the field of mental health and has been a focus of interest for three decades. This thesis therefore borrows from this field of expertise the broad-spectrum descriptive theory of experiential recovery (Provencher, 2002, 2008), which made it possible to generate a theory specific to the situation from the content analysis of the accounts of 10 participants. The descriptive theory generated includes a central concept, experiential post-infarction recovery, and three major dimensions, namely context, strategies, and outcome. Conceptualized as a singular process of adaptation during the post-infarction period, experiential post-infarction recovery is described using barriers and facilitators, cognitive and behavioral strategies, and the outcome, namely the subjective criteria of recovery and the subjective state of recovery. Finally, the theory of experiential post-infarction recovery guides the implementation of various clinical interventions while having to be the subject of other empirical work.

It has been generally recognised that sick children have an increased risk on malnutrition. An activated immune system requires more nutrients while illness is often associated with a lower absorption and decreased consumption because of lack of appetite. When these increased needs are not balanced with an adequate availability of nutrients, the sick child is at higher risk of developing malnutrition.Médecins Sans Frontières investigated the question whether this process is mitigated by simple short term nutritional supplementation given to sick children alongside medical treatment. Three Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT’s) were conducted. The first, in Democratic Republic of Congo, was a pilot; 180 children with malaria were randomised in 2 arms: 1 group receiving 2 weeks of ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF) and a control group. The children were followed for a period of 4 weeks. Children in the RUTF group showed a higher weight gain in the first 14 days compared to the control group, at day 28 the weight gain in both groups was similar.Thereafter, 2 RCT’s were implemented in Uganda and Nigeria using a similar methodology. Children with malaria, lower respiratory tract infection or diarrhoea (sample size of 2202) were randomised in three groups: supplemented with 2 weeks of RUTF, supplemented with 2 weeks of micronutrient powder (MNP), and not receiving supplementation after each disease episode. The incidence of malnutrition was compared after an observation period of 6 months. The trial in Uganda showed a reduction in malnutrition in the RUITF group with 31%, while in Nigeria, there was no significant reduction in the RUTF group. The MNP group did not show reduction in malnutrition in any site. In the group of moderate malnourished children the RUTF and MNP supplementations were not effective in preventing deterioration to severe malnutrition. However, when the studies were combined the RUTF group showed a lower mortality compared to the MNP group.Multi-variate analysis did not show a reduction of incidence of malnutrition in the supplementation groups. A strong association with morbidity was found. A higher frequency of diarrhoea was associated with an increased incidence of malnutrition. The association with malaria episodes was mixed; it was associated with a higher incidence of malnutrition in Kaabong, but in Goronyo a higher frequency of malaria decreased the incidence of malnutrition. In addition, a more frequent monitoring of the children and treatment of their illnesses was associated with a decreased incidence of malnutrition.The difference in effectiveness of supplementation between the sites can be explained by differences in food security and level of morbidity. It is argued that the fragile food security in Kaabong limits the supply of nutrients, and therefore supplementation with RUTF was effective. In Goronyo the high frequency of morbidity limits convalescence and therefore supplementation was not effective.It is likely that malnutrition is more effectively prevented when several interventions are combined like water and sanitation to prevent diarrhoea, malaria chemoprophylaxis and preventative and curative health and nutrition interventions.This dissertation will present the background, the methods of the trials and the results, followed by a discussion on the implications for programming and research. / Doctorat en Santé Publique / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis concerns six Swedish paintings depicting sick or convalescent individuals; Richard Bergh’s Konvalescent (unfinished, 1886), Flickan och Döden (1888), Eva Bonnier’s Magdalena (1887), Gustaf Magnusson’s Konvalescent (1933), Jenny Nyström’s Konvalescenten (1884), and Georg Pauli’s Vid sjukbädden (1885). The purpose of this study is to examine how sickness is portrayed and staged using performative theory and visual semiotics. The thesis takes into account that tuberculosis, being a widespread disease during the 18th and 19th Century, made it a topic of exploration in the contemporary art. With this as the framework the thesis examines whether or not it is possible to diagnose the depicted individuals. The results shows that sickness first and foremost is portrayed and staged in signs regarding the body: the face, the hands, and how the body is posed. Lastly, it is suggested that these artworks can be seen as cultural symbols of TB, since not being viable for a strictly medicinal diagnosis they are more the result of the contemporary need to examine TB and its effects on society and culture. The paintings becomes – such as a body is a vessel for a disease – vessels for the disease culturally speaking.