Reproduction de : Thèse d'exercice : Médecine : Nancy 1 : 2007. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre.

It has been established in New Zealand and internationally that morbidity and mortality tends to rise during colder winter months, with a typical 10-20% excess compared to the rest of the year. This study sought to investigate the spatial, temporal, climatic and demographic patterns and interactions of excess winter morbidity (EWMb) among the elderly in New Zealand. This was achieved through analysis of acute hospital admissions in New Zealand between 1996 and 2013 for all patients over the age of 60 with an element of circulatory or respiratory disease (N=1,704,317) including a primary diagnosis of circulatory (N=166,938) or respiratory (N=62,495) disease. A quantitative approach included ordinary least squares and negative binomial regression, graphical analysis and age standardisation processes. Admission rates and durations were regressed against a set of 16 cold spell indicators at a national and regional scale, finding significant spatial variation in the magnitude of EWMb. EWMb was ubiquitous across New Zealand despite climatic variation between regions, with an average winter excess of 15%, and an excess of 51% for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Statistically significant relationships were found between hospital admission durations and cold spells up to 28 days prior; however the magnitude would not be expected to have a significant impact on hospital resources. Nonetheless, there is potential for preventative public health strategies to mitigate less severe morbidity associated with cold spells. Patients over the age of 80 were particularly vulnerable to EWMb; however socioeconomic deprivation and ethnicity did not affect vulnerability. Patients residing in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation or identifying with Maori or Pacific Island ethnicity experienced significantly shorter admissions than other groups, and this warrants further investigation. Further investigation into winter COPD exacerbations and non-climatic factors associated with the EWMb are recommended. A comprehensive understanding of EWMb will enable preventative measures that can improve quality of life, particularly for the elderly population.

Hund, bakterieller/ zytologischer Konjunktivalstatus, Konjunktivitis, Klinikaufenthalt

Minimal literature exists relating to the experiences of Maori within the New Zealand public hospital system. Maori are highly represented in morbidity and mortality statistics and are high users of the secondary health care system. A Case Study methodology with a Maori centred approach was used to describe Maori experiences of hospitalisation. Multiple sources of evidence were gathered, including participant interviews, statistical data from the New Zealand Health Information Service, and international literature relating to indigenous experiences of hospitalisation. Eleven people (nine female and two males) identifying as Maori, of various iwi (tribal) affiliations and from a range of regions, participated in the interviews. All participants had either been admitted, or cared for by a family member who had been admitted to a medical or surgical ward in a public hospital anywhere in New Zealand within the last 15 years. Participants were aged between 20 to 75 years. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and then thematically analysed. A retrospective interrupted time series design was used to examine length of stay for Maori patients receiving treatment in the secondary medical and surgical setting, from 1989-2004. The data included the records of all medical and surgical discharges for Maori and non-Maori from the New Zealand public hospitals. Medical and surgical admissions were screened to include those over the age of 17 years and who had a length of stay greater than 1 day and less than 90 days. From the analysis of all the data three key interpretations emerged: 1. Maori are marginalised within the mainstream health system. 2. Maori believe that the hospital environment is not conducive to healing. 3. Maori experiences in hospital contribute to their decision to leave as soon as possible. The recommendations include the integration of more culturally acceptable and appropriate interventions within secondary and tertiary health services, and a review of the effectiveness of cultural safety education in practice and inclusion/revision of the cultural competence for all health care workers.

In the past few years, many people with an Islamic background have settled in Australia. Within the health care context, this means that health care providers must modify the care provided to ensure it meets the needs of this culturally diverse population. Little nursing research has focused on understanding the perceptions and experiences of Muslim people within health care systems, particularly in Australia. This study provided an opportunity to explore, and document the experience of the hospitalisation for Islamic people and thereby advance the available information upon which important nursing care decisions that relate to this group can be more informatively made. This study aims to explore and interpret the lived experience of thirteen Muslim patients who had been hospitalised in an Australian hospital. The hermeneutic phenomenology of Heidegger (1967/1996), the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer (1989), and the ideas of van Manen (1990/1996) underpin this study. The meaning and understanding of the everyday experience of Muslim patient in a non-Islamic hospital is achieved through interpretation of the participants’ stories. Data were generated using unstructured audio-taped interviews from participants. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed, then interpreted using phenomenological methods. The two themes to emerge from the participants’ experiences are: Being-thrown-into-an-un-everyday-world and living-Islam-in-the-un-everyday-world. The theme of Being-thrown-into-an-un-everyday-world arose from the sub-themes of the awareness of self and Being an outsider. The theme living-Islam-in-the-un-everyday-world was drawn from the three sub-themes of Being the same and different, hindrances to being Muslim, and adapting-to-the-un-everyday-world. The findings of this study provide an insight into the experience of Muslims being cared for in Australian hospitals. It is hoped that this interpretation will make a significant contribution to the care of Muslim patients by having health professionals consider how this group could be cared for in a culturally sensitive manner. It is not intended as a prescription for care but draws the reader to reflect on aspects of the Muslim faith and how this may impact on individuals experience when in hospital. The scope of this study and the dearth of available research in this area conclude that much more research needs to be undertaken. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1317115 / Thesis(Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, 2008

From the nursing care point of view, health represents one of the most basic terms. Many authors claim as priority, that nurse is endowed with knowledge concerning health, illness, patients' as well as her own values on the understanding effective managing of the skills from the fields of systematic observation, effective communication, the ability to show willingness to help and permanent recording of patients´ state of health. As well as many theoreticians, every individual recalls something else under the term "health". Therefore, it is needed to be patterned on the definition of health, helping to understand human actions and human own health. Aim of the research method was to find out, what specific interventions can be used by nurses in the field of the hospitalised patients' health on the basis of this value disruption. To reach this aim, it was necessary to divide the research into several fields, namely how the value of health is perceived by the hospitalised patients, what is their scale of values when they are hospitalised, what values were significant for the patient before his hospitalisation and how does the hospitalisation affect the patients´ scale of values during the hospitalisation in view on the future life after the discharge. From the patients´ point of view, it was crucial to recognize, what aspects within nurses´ nursing activity are the most essential in connection with hospitalisation and his state of health and also what options nurse has got to saturate the value of health. The other group of respondents was concentrated on nursing staff. Crucial intention was to discover, how do the nurses perceive possible affection of patients´ scale of values in connection with hospitalisation and how do they perceive their own possibilities in saturation of this value. Methodology: For the research method, the method of qualitative research and data analysis has been chosen by using half-structured interviews. The first part of the interviews was aimed at patients, who have been admitted on surgical, rehabilitation and traumatological ward without any even more specific determination. The second parts of the interviews were held with nurses in same wards. The data collecting took place in January and February 2018 directly in medical facility. After data satiety, categorisation has been proceeded by using opened coding namely by method "paper-and-pencil". Results: On the basis of qualitative method of research, several interesting findings came out. Only one respondent perceives his health from a holistic point of view, as being stated in the worldwide respected WHO definition of health. It was also confirmed, that the value of health is not for every patient the priority value in comparison with other values. Also the value of health perception from time point of view relates to it. It has been proved, that the hospitalisation on its own or development of problems leading to hospitalisation, has caused a change in a positive way in perceiving the value of health within almost one half of the respondents. But there were individuals among the respondents, who do not feel any difference and do not assume one. Asked patients have also proved that the hospitalisation is a crucial event, leading them to being aware of the circumstances causing the hospitalisation. Consequences of the experienced emotions are different expectations from themselves and nurses. It was also discovered, that the patients demand different approach and interest of the nurse, so that the most effective saturation of value of health can be achieved. Nurses did acknowledge the value of health as priority, even though they could not find any feasible solution, how to attend properly to this value also in practice. Although they perceive the value of health a

Dans le cadre des contraintes économiques et des évolutions démographiques auxquelles doit faire face le secteur de la santé, l’Hospitalisation à Domicile (HAD) qui a été créée il y a une soixantaine d’années s’est largement développée en France durant cette dernière décennie. L’objectif principal de cette alternative à l’hospitalisation complète est de raccourcir les séjours hospitaliers voire même de les éviter en vue de remédier à l’engorgement des hôpitaux tout en améliorant les conditions de vie des patients. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à la gestion des opérations dans les structures d’HAD. Dans la première partie, nous développons une analyse qualitative de la gestion des opérations dans les établissements d’HAD. De façon plus détaillée, nous identifions les différents facteurs de complexité auxquels la gestion des opérations doit faire face dans ce type de structures. Ces facteurs peuvent concerner la diversité de l’offre des services, le lieu de production des soins, les sources d’incertitudes, etc. Nous présentons ensuite les travaux existants dans la littérature qui s’intéressent à la gestion des opérations dans les HADs. Sur la base de cette synthèse, nous identifions des pistes de recherche qui n’ont pas encore été traitées dans la littérature. Dans la deuxième partie, nous nous intéressons à la problématique de partitionnement géographique du territoire desservi par une structure d’HAD. Cette approche de partitionnement peut s’insérer dans une politique d’amélioration de la qualité du service des soins délivrés aux patients et des conditions de travail des équipes soignantes. Nous commençons d’abord par proposer une classification des différents critères utilisés dans la littérature pour modéliser ce problème. Nous proposons ensuite deux modèles de partitionnement prenant en compte un ensemble de critères tels que l’équilibre de la charge de travail, la compacité, la compatibilité et l’indivisibilité des unités de base. Nous présentons également quelques exploitations possibles de ces modèles et proposons deux extensions à la formulation de base. Après avoir formulé le problème avec une approche statique, nous développons également une extension dynamique qui permet d’intégrer les différentes variations pouvant être observées dans l’activité d’une HAD d’une période à l’autre. Nous introduisons un nouveau critère de partitionnement qui concerne la continuité des soins, évaluée sur la base de deux sous-critères. En fonction des préférences des décideurs par rapport à la prise en compte de la continuité des soins dans le problème de partitionnement, nous distinguons alors trois scénarii pour lesquels nous proposons les modèles associés / Within the framework of economic constraints and demographic changes which the health care sector is confronted to, the Home Health Care (HHC) which has been created sixty years ago, has known an important growth during this last decade. The main objective of this alternative to the traditional hospitalization consists in solving the problem of hospitals’ capacity saturation by allowing earlier discharge of patients from hospital or by avoiding their admission while improving or maintaining the medical, psychological and social welfare of these patients. In this thesis, we are interested in the operations management within the HHC structures. In the first part of this thesis, we develop a qualitative analysis of the operations management in the HHC context. More specifically, we identify the complexity factors that operations management has to face up within this type of structures. For each complexity factor, we discuss how it can affect the organization of the care delivery. These factors pertain to the diversity of the services proposed, the location of care delivery, the uncertainty sources, etc. Thereafter, we survey operations management based models proposed in the literature within the HHC context. Based on this literature review, we identify several emerging issues, relevant from an organizational point of view, that have not been studied in the literature and thus represent unexplored opportunities for operations management researchers. In the second part of this thesis, we are interested in the partitioning of the area where the HCC structure operates into districts. This districting approach fits the policies of improvement of the quality of care delivered to patients and the working conditions of care givers as well as costs’ reduction. We begin by proposing a classification of the different criteria that may be considered in the districting problem. We then propose two mathematical formulations for the HHC districting problem for which we consider criteria such as the workload balance, compactness, compatibility and indivisibility of basic units. After that, we present a numerical analysis of the computational experiments carried out on randomly generated instances to validate these two models. We also present two possible exploitations of these models and propose two extensions to these basic formulations. After formulating the problem with a static approach, we also develop a dynamic extension which allows the integration of the different variations that can be observed within the activities of an HHC structure from period to period. We then introduce a new partitioning criterion that concerns the continuity of care evaluated on the basis of two sub-criteria. Depending on the preferences of the decision-makers concerning the sub-criteria related to the continuity of care in the districting problem, we then distinguish three scenarios for which we propose the associated mathematical formulations.

L'affectation des patients aux soignants et le séquencement des visites à effectuer par les soignants sont deux problématiques intéressantes observées dans les établissements de soins décentralisés tels que les établissements d'HAD (Hospitalisation à Domicile), de SSIAD (Soins et services infirmiers à Domicile) ou de MAD (Maintien à Domicile). Le premier problème consiste en effet à décider quels soignants fourniront quels services (visites) à quels patients, tandis que le second vise à déterminer la séquence de visites de chaque soignant. Du point de vue de la modélisation, ces deux problèmes peuvent être résolus par une approche séquentielle qui comprend deux étapes ou une approche simultanée. Bien que les résultats de l'approche simultanée soient plus précis en raison de la résolution des problèmes d'affectation et de routage en même temps, son application semble être peu adaptée à des situations réelles, souvent de grande échelle. Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrons sur l'approche en deux étapes qui considère successivement le problème d'affectation (assignment) et de séquencement (routing) afin de comparer ses performances à celles obtenues par l'approche simultanée. Ainsi, plusieurs variantes de modèles mathématiques sont développées en tenant compte de : (1) la compatibilité de compétences entre les patients et les opérateurs, (2) périodes de planification uniques ou multiples, (3) contraintes au niveau des capacités disponibles des soignants. Le verrou scientifique au niveau de l'approche en deux étapes concerne essentiellement l'estimation de la durée des déplacements des soignants, estimations qui sont nécessaires pour résoudre le problème d'affectation. A cette fin, nous proposons une méthode utilisant des données empiriques basée sur la technique de régression de Kernel (Kernel Regression Technique) permettant d'estimer les durées de déplacement. Cette méthode utilise des données historiques sur les durées de déplacement qui intègrent plusieurs facteurs réalistes concernant les conditions cliniques des patients et les conditions géographiques, ou encore les préférences personnelles des soignants afin d'estimer la durée nécessaire pour visiter un ensemble de patients situés dans la zone de service donnée. Des études numériques basées sur des données réelles en provenance d'un établissement d'HAD italien sont réalisées pour analyser les performances de la méthode d'estimation proposée. Les résultats obtenus montrent que cette nouvelle méthode d'estimation ainsi que l'approche en deux étapes sont des approches prometteuses pour traiter des problématiques de planification de ressources humaines dans les établissements d' HAD, SSIAD ou MAD. / The care givers' assignment and routing problems are relevant issues for Home Health Care (HHC) service providers. The first problem consists of deciding which care givers will provide services to which patients, whereas the second aims at determining the visiting sequences of care givers. From a modelling perspective, these problems can be solved with either a two-stage approach or a simultaneous approach. Although the currently most known simultaneous approach yields more accurate results by solving the assignment and routing problems at the same time, its resolution remains computationally difficult and not viable for large scale applications. In this thesis, we focus on the two-stage approach that sequentially solves an assignment and a routing problem in order to compare its performances to those of the simultaneous approach. Hence, several variants of mathematical models are developed by taking into account: (1) the skill compatibilities between patients and operators; (2) single or multiple planning periods; (3) imposed or released operator capacity restrictions. An important point regarding the two stage approach concerns the estimation of care givers' travel times that are required to solve the assignment problem. For this purpose, we propose an empirical data-driven method that is based on the Kernel Regression technique to estimate travel times. Such a method uses care givers' historical travel times that integrate several realistic factors such as cared patients' clinical conditions and locations or care givers' personal preferences to estimate the time necessary for visiting a set of patients located in the HHC service area. Numerical studies based on realistic problem instances are used to analyze the performances of the proposed data-driven travel time estimation method and the two-stage approach. Results obtained show that both the newly developed travel time estimation method and the two-stage models are promising approaches for the HHC human resource planning process.

Abstract Despite the common recommendations of the criteria for the diagnosis of asthma there is still a wide variation within different regions in diagnoses, use of medications and hospitalisation rates especially among young children. This thesis elucidates the role of spesified environmental risk factors associated with the development of atopic diseases in childhood. In two prospective follow-up surveys we found that allergies and asthma associate with the consumption of margarines, butter and fish and that the common infection of childhood, RS-virus infection, does not increase asthma morbidity in adolescence. In a randomised set-up we were able to verify that the common childhood infections do not protect from allergies and asthma. In a retrospective survey we found that hospitalisation rates can reflect medication practices in different regions. Our results indicate that consumption of fat in the diet can be one triggering factor for allergies but common childhood infections are merely markers of susceptibility to allergies and asthma rather than the cause of it.

Enhancing primary care is key to the Canadian health care reform. Considered as an indicator of primary care access and quality, hospitalisations for ambulatory care sensitive (ACS) conditions are commonly reported by Canadian organisations as sentinel events signaling problems with the delivery of primary care. However, the literature calls for further research to identify what lies behind ACS hospitalisation rates in regions with a predominantly urban population benefiting from universal access to health care. A theoretical model was built and, using an ecological design, multiple regressions were implemented to identify which neighbourhood characteristics explained the socio-economic gradient in ACS hospitalisation rates observed in Ottawa. Among these neighbourhoods, healthy behaviour and - to a certain extent - health status were significantly associated with ACS hospitalisation rates. Evidence of an association with primary care accessibility was also signaled for the more rural neighbourhoods. Smoking prevention and cessation campaigns may be the most relevant health care strategies to push forward by policy makers hoping to prevent ACS hospitalisations in Ottawa. From a health care equity perspective, targeting these campaigns to neighbourhoods of low socio-economic status may contribute to closing the gap in ACS hospitalisations described in this current study. Reducing the socio-economic inequalities of neighbourhoods would also contribute to health equity.