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In a ground-breaking development, The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) responded to the global call for human rights protection within the sports world by adopting a Human Rights Policy. This policy represents a significant paradigm shift, redefining how sports organisations approach and advocate for equality, respect, and accountability in human rights. This article uses a single and explanatory qualitative case study approach to examine the effects of FIFA's Human Rights Policy on the organisation. Data for this research were obtained through a documentary analysis of reports from FIFA's Human Rights Advisory Board as well as eight semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The study sheds light on transformative changes across the administration of the organisation, its governance structures and decision-making procedures. By building on organisational change models, the study reveals a dual impact of FIFA's Human Rights Policy. On the one hand, positive outcomes were identified, including significant organisational and administrative changes, increased resources, improvements in the FIFA World Cup bidding process and enhanced stakeholder engagement. On the other, challenges persist in fully integrating human rights throughout the organisation, particularly in leadership, governance structures, political decision-making, and remedy mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Mass gatherings (MGs) usually represent significant challenges for the public health and safety sector of the host cities. Organizing a safe and successful mass event highly depends on the effective collaboration among different public and private organizations. It is necessary to establish successful coordination to ensure that all the key stakeholders understand their respective roles and responsibilities. The inconsistency between the variety of participating agencies because of their different culture can result in delays in decision making. Interorganizational knowledge transfer can improve the success of the event; however, knowledge transfer among professionals and agencies in MGs is not well-documented. Objective: This study used the 2018 Athens Marathon as the empirical setting to examine how interorganizational knowledge transfer was perceived among the multiple public health and safety professionals during the planning stage of the event. Methods: Data comprised 18 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with key informants, direct observations of meetings, and documentary analysis. Open coding and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Findings indicated that sharing the acquired knowledge was a necessary and challenging step to create an enabling collaborative environment among interacting organizations. Experiential learning was identified as a significant factor, which helped promote joint understanding and partnership work. Informal interpersonal exchanges and formal knowledge transfer activities facilitated knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries, helping to break down silos. Conclusion: Interorganizational knowledge transfer is a necessary step to achieve joint understanding and create an environment where interaction among agencies can be more effective. The study findings can be beneficial for organizers of marathons and other mass sporting events to support valuable interorganizational collaboration and conduct a safe event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Mass gatherings (MGs) often bring together professionals and organizations that collaborate irregularly or have never engaged in joint working. They involve interaction and communication among multiple and diverse services, which can often prove challenging. Planning such an event is of paramount importance for its success, and interorganizational communication ranks among its most important aspects. Nonetheless, there is limited empirical evidence to support interagency communication in MGs. Objective: This study used the 2017 Athens Marathon (Athens, Greece) as the empirical setting to examine how interorganizational communication was perceived among the multiple public health and safety professionals during the planning and implementation phase of the event. Methods: Data comprised 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants, direct observations of meetings and the event itself, and documentary analysis. Open coding and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Findings indicated three key components of interorganizational communication in such an event: (1) shared situational awareness; (2) interorganizational understanding; and (3) implementing liaison officers. Conclusion: This study outlined the factors that influenced interorganizational communication before and during a MG. Practical implications arising from this study may inform the way organizers of marathons and other mass sporting events can engage in effective interorganizational communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the factors that affect the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 remains important to keep transmission low and maximize the health benefits of vaccination. We assessed the factors associated with the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 based on contact tracing data. From 1 October to 9 December 2020, 29,385 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases (index cases, i.e. the first identified laboratory-confirmed cases or with the earliest symptom onset in a setting) and 64,608 traced contacts were identified in Greece. We assessed the prevalence of symptoms in cases, calculated secondary attack rates and assessed factors associated with infectivity and susceptibility to infection. There were 11,232 contacts secondarily infected (secondary attack rate: 17.4%, 95% CI:17.0–17.8). Contacts aged 0–11 and 12–17 years were less susceptible to infection than adults 65 years or older (odds ratio (OR) [95% CI]: 0.28 [0.26–0.32] and 0.44 [0.40–0.49], respectively). Index cases aged 65 years or older were more likely to infect their contacts than other adults or children/adolescents. The odds of infection [95% CI] were higher in contacts exposed within the household (1.71 [1.59–1.85] vs. other) and in cases with cough (1.17 [1.11–1.25] vs. no cough). There was an interaction between the age of the index and the age of the contact with contacts 65 years or older having a higher probability of infection when exposed to cases of similar age than to children. Our findings highlight the role of age and age mixing in infectivity and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Precautions are necessary for individuals 65 or older as they have higher infectivity and susceptibility in contact with their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main reasons for the ever-improving quality of health services in countries that are popular destinations for medical tourism and compete with the quality of services in developed countries is due to the increasing use of modern medical technology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting medical tourism destination selection in Greece. A cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection was carried out. The study sample consisted of 446 adult patients with good knowledge/use of the English language, recently discharged from dialysis and IVF units in Greece who filled in a selfadministered questionnaire. Statistical analysis was carried out with the SPSS 21.0 statistical package. Overall, 84.9% of the participants reported that the clinic's state of the art medical equipment appeared to be very important for their final decision. Moreover, 90.8% stated that the comfort of the medical equipment was another significant factor. The use of modern medical technology can improve medical tourism experience and grow the contribution to its market growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cognitive methodologies have been used in several areas of healthcare research for the development and evaluation of new instruments; nonetheless, their use in primary care settings along with the use of focus group methodology is rather limited. Objective: Focus group methodology was used to evaluate and improve two developing measurement tools for evaluating patients' experiences about primary healthcare services in Greece. Methodology: Two focus groups were conducted with 11 patients to test the perception, interpretation and usefulness of the questions of the new measurement tools. The agenda included 12 questions aimed at asking whether each question of the tools was understood and made sense by the participant in the same way as the researchers and if it was relevant to the primary care setting. The coding system of Willis (1999) was used to analyze the data. Results: The analysis revealed 30 problems for a number of problematic items. These included 12 clarity problems, eight response categories, one knowledge problem, one sensitive content problem, one instruction problem and one formatting problem. Moreover, six new types of problems emerged which could not be classified according to the above coding system (inapplicable problems). Conclusions: This methodological approach was useful in identifying questionnaire problems and the tool was redrafted by taking into account participants' perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Triage at mass gathering events (MGEs) has no standard protocol that is widely accepted and applied uniformly across event types and locations. This investigation describes the current state of published literature as it applies specifically to the triage of patient presentations at MGEs, and identifies key roles and important limitations of triage methods in use at events. Method: A literature review search strategy was employed (previously published, Turris et al, 2021) to search for event case reports published for the period from 2010-2022. Included papers were reviewed and data were extracted for all references to triage; authors were contacted for any missing details. Data extraction looked specifically for the following (if available) : triage mention, triage scale used, triage categories with patient counts, triage training and any information on clinical dispositions subsequent to triage assignment. Results: A total of 60 papers were included (Data extraction in progress, numbers to be finalized for presentation). Of these papers, a minority even made mention of triage, very few specified the triage scale used, and almost none described any triage training. Only a handful of case reports contained counts of patient presentation by triage categories. A couple of papers mentioned triage scales that were event type specific (sports, etc). Conclusion: Published literature to date contains limited details and agreement on triage methods in use at MGEs. Methods are largely from the emergency and disaster domains. Triage utility appears generally to be limited to designating location and provider, and for a snapshot of acuity post event. The use of triage scale has not been solely predictive of the need for transfer to hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Contact tracing is a core public health tool used to interrupt the transmission of pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2. To increase the effectiveness of contact tracing, Greek health authorities used an electronic platform to aid traditional manual contact tracing to track individuals who have come in close contact with identified COVID-19 patients. Method: Contact tracing was implemented from the beginning of the pandemic in Greece. The aim was to identify and quarantine all the contacts of confirmed cases. The electronic database was designed following all the security protocols and national regulations on the use and protection of personal data. To assess factors associated with infectivity and susceptibility to infection in this analysis, we used contact tracing data with a sampling date between October 1 to December 9, 2020. Results: During the sampling period, 29,385 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases and 64,608 traced contacts were identified. A median number of two persons were traced per index case. The secondary attack rate was 17.4% (95% CI: 17.0-17.8). Contacts aged 0–11 and 12–17 years were less susceptible to infection than adults 65 years or older (odds ratio (OR) [95% CI]: 0.28 [0.26–0.32] and 0.44 [0.40–0.49], respectively). Index cases aged 65 years or older were more likely to infect their contacts than other adults or children/adolescents. Conclusion: Contact tracing is a key strategy to interrupt chains of transmission and to promote early diagnosis. The data collected in this process could be used to estimate epidemiological parameters of interest and to better understand factors associated with infection and susceptibility to infection. Precautions are necessary for individuals 65 or older as they have higher infectivity and susceptibility in contact with their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BISTARAKI A., WADDINGTON K. & GALANIS P. (2011) The effectiveness of a disaster training programme for healthcare workers in Greece. International Nursing Review 58, 341-346 Background: Recent natural disasters have made disaster training a public priority. Multiple methods of disaster preparedness training have been established in hospitals worldwide. Nevertheless, researchers have not yet discovered the most effective method for training hospital personnel in the area of disaster preparedness. Aim: The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that a brief educational intervention would improve hospital staff knowledge about the hospital disaster plan and procedures. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used. The intervention group included 56 professionals and the comparison group included 35 professionals in Greece. The intervention group attended a 5-h course that addressed the basic principles of hospital disaster management. A structured questionnaire was used to estimate the participants' changes in knowledge. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, one-way ANOVA and chi-square test were used to analyse the data. Results: The intervention resulted in a significant improvement in knowledge. The mean score was significantly higher immediately after the intervention programme [86; standard error (SE): 2] than before (44.5; SE: 1.7) ( P < 0.001). The mean score 1 month later was significantly lower (77.2; SE: 2.3) than that immediately after the intervention programme ( P < 0.001), but significantly higher than the mean score before the intervention programme ( P < 0.001). Participants in the control group achieved a score of 40 (SE: 2.4), which was significantly lower than the scores of the intervention group after the course ( P < 0.001). Conclusion: The disaster training course had a great benefit for the participants. This study suggests that a brief educational intervention is beneficial, but more must be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]