Welcome to the 26th WONCA Europe Virtual Conference Programme Scheduling

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Background and purpose:

Sexuality is a fundamental part of the human experience. According to Silva and Figueiredo (2005), there is a decrease in sexual activity during pregnancy. The general practitioner (GP) has a fundamental role in the couples education so that they can enjoy their sexuality during this stage of their life. This study, therefore, aims to assess what are the population's beliefs about sexuality during pregnancy.

Methods

Application an online questionnaire, based on questions frequently asked in the pregnancy appointments, and distributed through social networks to people residing in Portugal and aged over 18 years. The statistical analysis was performed using MiniTab®.

Results:

We got 329 responses. The average age of responders was 27.5 years, with a predominance of the female group (78.1%). Regarding education, the most representative group was the one with a master's degree (37.7%). The majority (57.3%) had never been pregnant or had a pregnant partner. An average of 73% correct answers was obtained. Among the factors analysed, the most determining factors for a correct answer were sexual orientation, specifically, the homosexual group, followed by education with college degree responders having better results.

Conclusions: Despite positive results of this study, the population isn’t representative of Portuguese population due to the fact that we have 74.2% of responders with a college degree responding to the questionnaire compared to an universe of 40% graduates in the Portuguese population.

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BACKGROUND:

Over 800,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Europe, impacting families, societies, professionals and systems. Unprecedented numbers and societal restrictions have necessitated significant changes to care provision. This practical interactive session will summarise examples of changes in bereavement care across Europe, and offer opportunities to share and reflect on participants’ experiences of loss and change to support healthy grieving.

AIMS:

Attendees will:

- Compare experiences of how bereavement care has adapted during COVID-19 across European settings

- Reflect and share on personal, professional and collective loss experiences during the pandemic

- Reflect on how the workshop will change future practice

METHODS / TIMETABLE:

- Two presentations integrated with real-time voting on whether presented changes are reflected in participants’ own settings (30 mins)

1. Recent research on COVID-19 bereavement care in the UK

2. Examples of service changes across Europe

- Facilitated small group discussion of examples of innovation and critique of effectiveness (30 mins)

- Structured reflection and sharing exercise on participants experience of loss during COVID-19, using seminal grief models to explore and move through the grieving process, modelling a replicable reflective exercise for local teams (30 mins)

CONCLUSION:

COVID-19 has led to professional change and loss for all healthcare professionals, and direct or indirect experience of bereavement for many. Concurrently considering structural professional changes alongside personal experience of loss through a lens of bereavement may enable family medics to better manage loss and change in their patients, themselves and their teams, thus diffusing innovation, improving compassionate care and preventing burnout.

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1. Background and purpose: With the help of traditional cultural elders, we implemented a cultural intervention for indigenous people with diabetes that lasted for one year.

2. Methods: The traditional elders told stories, talked about traditional approaches to health and disease, and performed ceremonies. An indigenous nutritionist prepared traditional foods and discussed the traditional diet. Others led craft-making on occasion. The goal was to enhance participants' spiritual and cultural fluency and to determine what impact this intervention had on their diabetes. We reviewed the narratives for commonalities and themes using several narrative analysis, modified grounded theory, and dimensional analysis and grouped the themes, We compared pre-and post-levels of hemoglobin A1C.

3. Results: The more powerful and life-changing the spiritual transformation was, the more likely diabetes was to improve or even disappear. Common themes included people becoming more present-centered; feeling higher quality in their relationships; feeling more connected to God, Creator, Nature, or Higher Power; feeling more peaceful; feeling more accepting of death and change, and having a greater sense of meaning and purpose. People began to eat more traditional diets (which were better for diabetes than the diets they had been eating) and to be more active. They were not doing this to improve diabetes, but were doing so in order to be more traditional and to honor their heritage. Hemoglobin A1C levels from before the intervention to afterward statistically significantly decreased.

4. Conclusions: For indigenous people, approaches emphasizing culture and tradition may be more effective in improving diabetes control than more direct approaches that emphasize conventional health education.