Economic aspects of prevention refer to the costs and benefits associated with measures aimed at preventing various problems and risks. Prevention can include measures aimed at preventing disease, crime, harmful behavior, environmental problems and other areas. There are several important economic aspects of prevention: cost reduction, productivity gains, social and human benefits and long-term sustainability. It is important to realize that prevention requires initial investments and often its economic impact is not immediately visible. However, a long-term evaluation of costs and benefits shows that prevention can be an economically beneficial strategy that brings a large number of socioeconomic benefits for the individual and society as a whole.
Introduction: Sleep apnoea syndrome (SAS) is a serious under-diagnosed chronic disease, which often coincides with arterial hypertension (AH). The U.S. Joint National Committee considers SAS to be the most common cause of secondary arterial hypertension. Objective: To determine the incidence of arterial hypertension in patients diagnosed with SAS in an accredited sleep laboratory (ASL) in Bratislava in the years 2013-2022. Methods: The monitored group consisted of 688 patients examined in an ASL in Bratislava who underwent an initial examination (anamnesis, anthropometry, sleep questionnaire) and a diagnosis of sleep-disordered breathing (nocturnal polysomnography) in order to confirm or refute the diagnosis of OSAS. Data collection also took place by using a copy of the patients' medical records (presence of AH). We used Microsoft Excel and statistical software SPSS, version 21.0 to process the obtained data. We considered the result to be statistically significant if p ≤ 0.05. Results: We demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the incidence of AH in patients with SAS compared to patients without SAS, i.e., there was a statistically significantly higher incidence of AH in patients with SAS compared to patients without SAS (39% vs. 17.5%; OR=3.0; p<0.001). We also demonstrated that the higher the AHI value in patients with SAS, the higher the incidence of AH (p=0.002; 95% CI 1.4 – 4.4). In addition, there was a 1.9 times higher risk of developing AH in patients with a moderate degree of SAS compared to patients with a mild degree of SAS (p=0.014) and up to a 2.8 times higher risk of developing AH in patients with a severe degree of SAS compared to patients with moderate SAS (p<0.001) regardless of BMI. Conclusion: Due to the high coincidence (1/3) of arterial hypertension and sleep apnoea syndrome in the monitored group, it is necessary to focus on effective screening of SAS in high-risk persons as well as effective screening of SAS in persons with present AH.
Introduction: Healthcare worldwide is struggling with many problems that have been escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the military conflict in Ukraine. The gap between the possibilities and the needs in the provision of health services is opening more and more. Therefore, it is necessary to look for ways to streamline processes at the level of the hospitals themselves and their management. Research aim and objectives: The aim of the research was to examine the mutual connections between the use of lean management principles and the ratings of hospitals in the Slovak Republic and to identify the influence of external and internal factors in this relationship. The sample consisted of 175 managers from 35 hospitals. Methods: To verify the hypotheses, the SEM method was used in the Smart Pls 3.3 software at a significance level of 0.05. Results: We discovered that there is a statistically significant connection between the use of lean principles and hospital ratings. If other variables enter the model, the overall effect of the mentioned variables is significantly increased. The stakeholder demands variable has a significant mediating effect (β = 0.470; p=0.000). The social lean climate variable has a lower indirect effect in the Slovak environment (β = 0.291; p=0.000). Conclusion: Our research shows the unequivocal importance of applying the principles of lean management in healthcare. There is ever-increasing pressure to increase quality and improve process efficiency from various stakeholders as well as pressure from within hospitals.
