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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Health, Well-Being and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2023) | Viewed by 10166

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Valeria Bellisario

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Guest Editor

Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy
Interests: oxidative stress (OS) imbalance in humans, a pre-pathological condition responsible for many chronic diseases; correlation between OS and the environment; predictive parameter of an imbalance due to environmental exposition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Giulia Squillacioti

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Guest Editor

Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy
Interests: oxidative stress; physical activity; body composition; respiratory health; environmental health; greenness; spatial analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Federica Ghelli

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Guest Editor

Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy
Interests: inflammation; oxidative stress; quality of life; health promotion; working context

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to share with you the opportunity to submit a paper to the Special Issue “Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety” in the journal Sustainability.

Goal number 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations is to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. Indeed, as we experienced during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing is a crucial challenge for a sustainable development of our societies. The implementation of this issue can be declined in many ways: guaranteeing access to medical care, fighting against communicable and non-communicable diseases, and strengthening the prevention of substance abuse are only some of the options. The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the resilience of public health worldwide, reinforcing awareness of the importance of prevention strategies. Prevention is paramount to improve our health, embracing a large variety of interventions that may considerably reduce efforts and resources. Sustainable public health and human safety may be explored in terms of strategies to support i) behavior change, ii) the improvement of both living and working environments, and iii) the most vulnerable groups.

The main purpose of this Special Issue is to highlight the importance of a holistic approach to health by promoting sustainable lifestyles and reducing environmental and social risk factors.

Dr. Valeria Bellisario
Dr. Giulia Squillacioti
Dr. Federica Ghelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

health
public health
prevention strategies
sustainable health
risk factors
living environment
working environment
wellbeing

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1325 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Customer Satisfaction to Support Future Improvement Strategies of Healthcare Systems: Evidences from Russia and Romania

by Vladimir Bulatnikov and Cristinel Petrișor Constantin

Sustainability 2023, 15(19), 14534; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su151914534 - 06 Oct 2023

Viewed by 987

Abstract

The analyses of current healthcare systems in Russia and Romania made by different scholars in the specialty literature highlight a below-medium health quality index worldwide, which is especially low when compared to leading EU countries. The prevailing need to address health features with quantitative customer research has prompted this paper to focus on the challenges of the healthcare systems in two countries from the customer’s perspective. The main goal of the research is to capture the main problems of the analyzed healthcare systems which require certain improvements, changes, and innovations, and to find proper strategies for their future development from a marketing approach. The attitudes of 410 people from Russia and Romania have been collected using an electronic survey, based on a questionnaire that contained some items concerning the marketing mix in the public and private clinics from the two analyzed countries. These items have been evaluated by respondents from both the importance and satisfaction perspectives, and the Importance–Satisfaction (IS) matrix was used to discover marketing strategies that are the best fit for each component of the marketing mix in the healthcare clinics. The outcomes of this study highlight the need to focus efforts mainly on improving the quality of the services in both countries, with some peculiarities for the public and private sectors. It was also revealed that both countries need massive improvements in their public clinic sectors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety)

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18 pages, 1217 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Personal Protective Equipment Detection: A Deep-Learning-Based Sustainable Approach

by Mohammed Imran Basheer Ahmed, Linah Saraireh, Atta Rahman, Seba Al-Qarawi, Afnan Mhran, Joud Al-Jalaoud, Danah Al-Mudaifer, Fayrouz Al-Haidar, Dania AlKhulaifi, Mustafa Youldash and Mohammed Gollapalli

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13990; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su151813990 - 20 Sep 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3441

Abstract

Personal protective equipment (PPE) can increase the safety of the worker for sure by reducing the probability and severity of injury or fatal incidents at construction, chemical, and hazardous sites. PPE is widely required to offer a satisfiable safety level not only for protection against the accidents at the aforementioned sites but also for chemical hazards. However, for several reasons or negligence, workers may not commit to and comply with the regulations of wearing the equipment, occasionally. Since manual monitoring is laborious and erroneous, the situation demands the development of intelligent monitoring systems to offer the automated real-time and accurate detection of PPE compliance. As a solution, in this study, Deep Learning and Computer Vision are investigated to offer near real-time and accurate PPE detection. The four colored hardhats, vest, safety glass (CHVG) dataset was utilized to train and evaluate the performance of the proposed model. It is noteworthy that the solution can detect eight variate classes of the PPE, namely red, blue, white, yellow helmets, head, person, vest, and glass. A two-stage detector based on the Fast-Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (RCNN) was trained on 1699 annotated images. The proposed model accomplished an acceptable mean average precision (mAP) of 96% in contrast to the state-of-the-art studies in literature. The proposed study is a potential contribution towards the avoidance and prevention of fatal/non-fatal industrial incidents by means of PPE detection in real-time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety)

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14 pages, 1435 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatio-Temporal Comprehensive Measurement and Influencing Factors of the Health Index of Residents in the Yellow River Basin

by Chenyu Lu, Shulei Jin and Tong Zhang

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10255; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su151310255 - 28 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 793

Abstract

Health is the basis of human survival and development. It is not only related to quality of life but also guarantees national security and social stability. Under the combined influence of various factors, large regional differences exist with regard to the health levels of residents in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Here, we took 73 prefecture-level cities (leagues and prefectures) in the YRB as our research object. We constructed an index system and a measurement model and applied geographical information system (GIS) technology and quantitative analysis methods to make comprehensive spatial and temporal measurements of the health index of residents in the YRB and further analyzed the influencing factors. Overall, the health index of residents in the YRB showed a steady upward trend. However, some differences exist across various regions with regard to residents’ health index. The YRB resident health index displayed positive spatial autocorrelation; spatial clustering showed an initial decrease, followed by an increase, suggesting notable fluctuations. With the increase in per capita GDP, urbanization rate, and household size, the health index of residents in the YRB has improved. However, increased wastewater and waste gas discharge has led to a decrease in the health index of residents in the YRB. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety)

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10 pages, 1394 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Oxidative Stress Trajectories during Lifespan: The Possible Mediation Role of Hormones in Redox Imbalance and Aging

by Roberto Bono, Giulia Squillacioti, Federica Ghelli, Marco Panizzolo, Rosanna Irene Comoretto, Paola Dalmasso and Valeria Bellisario

Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 1814; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15031814 - 18 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1019

Abstract

Aging, a natural multifactorial process, increases Oxidative Stress (OS) and inflammatory responses. Sexual hormones could upregulate OS during lifespan, with opposite systemic effects: anti-oxidant protection and cellular pro-oxidant toxicity. Hormonal changes are crucial phases in human growth and aging, but their mediating role on OS is still incomplete. The main purpose of this work was to analyze the trend of OS during the lifespan and, in particular, during puberty and menopause. Data from standardized questionnaires and biological OS measurements (15-F2t-Isop) of 815 subjects (7–60 years old) from five previous studies (2009–2015) were analyzed. The age variable was categorized into two hormonal age windows: puberty and menopause. A regression model was performed to assess the association between 15-F2t-Isop and the hormonal age window, sex, weight, and smoking habits. The results showed a significant V-shape decrease of OS levels both during puberty [OR = −0.06 95% CI −0.07–−0.04, p = 0.41] and in menopause [OR = −1.01 95% CI −1.5–−0.5, p < 0.001], but only in females. Our results support the view that hormones, and specifically estrogen, could modulate OS, especially during puberty and menopause. The V-shape decreasing trend of OS may be related to intrinsic characteristics of estrogen, which is able to modulate and upregulate OS pro- and anti-oxidant mechanisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety)

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13 pages, 5860 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bibliometric Analysis and Key Messages of Monkeypox Research (2003–2022)

by Weijie Yu, Xiaowen Zhang, Meijiao Du, Yue Dong, Lin Liu, Hongguo Rong and Jianping Liu

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1005; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15021005 - 05 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1190

Abstract

Objective: At the global level, a multi-country outbreak of monkeypox has attracted global attention. The purpose of this study is to explore the growing contribution of global research on monkeypox. Methods: Publications related to monkeypox were retrieved from PubMed and Web of Science. Bibliometric analyses were conducted by VOSviewer and CiteSpace software to generate network maps, evaluate hot topics in the field, and identify cooperation patterns between different authors and countries. Results: A total of 1822 publications were retrieved to reflect the global overall monkeypox research output, including clinical trials, systematic reviews, case reports, and laboratory studies. The most productive country and institution were respectively the United States and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—USA (CDC). The top three authors with the highest number of publications were all from the CDC. Research hotspots included some monkeypox-related diseases, such as smallpox and vaccinia, and the prevention and treatment of monkeypox diseases, such as antiviral drugs and smallpox vaccines. Research fronts included real-time PCR, immune evasion, animal models, and monkeypox outbreak countries (Democratic Republic of Congo and others). Conclusions: Research on monkeypox is mainly carried out from the aspects of its source, transmission route, virus prevalence, and prevention and control measures. Controlling monkeypox is a global responsibility, and the future research into monkeypox control methods is suggested to focus on more than vaccines. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety)

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22 pages, 1222 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

The Quality of Life and the Bio-Molecular Profile in Working Environment: A Systematic Review

by Federica Ghelli, Francesca Malandrone, Valeria Bellisario, Giulia Squillacioti, Marco Panizzolo, Nicoletta Colombi, Luca Ostacoli and Roberto Bono

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 8100; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14138100 - 02 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1699

Abstract

Working life is characterised by various requirements and degrees of control in meeting these demands. The imbalance of these elements with workers’ resources can result in work-related stress involving the repeated activation of stress response systems. Modifications in the bio-molecular profile may represent a biological signature of individuals’ life experiences and provide evidence on pathways through which such stressors can result in health outcomes. The aim of our systematic review is to characterize the quality of life (QOL) and the bio-molecular profile in the working population, to highlight if the alteration observed might be related to the working conditions. The article query was performed on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane CENTRAL and results have been presented according to three molecular pathways involved in the stress response: oxidative stress, inflammation, and neuroendocrine activation. The epidemiological sample has been sub-grouped into “clinical” and “non-clinical” populations according to the presence of a diagnosis of psychological disorders. Besides some critical issues, the review highlights the importance of developing a valid array of biological indicators, measurable in non-invasive matrices, sensitive to both derangements from physiological conditions and stress reduction, useful for identifying those groups at higher risk of health outcomes and, eventually, promoting workers’ wellbeing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Public Health and Human Safety)

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