Self-perceived impact of COVID-19 and risk behaviors among adolescents: Results from the HBSC 2021/22 study in 21 European countries.

Aims: To investigate adolescents' perception of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on several aspects of their lives (mental health, well-being, family situation, peers, school, dieting, and physical activity) in relation to risk behaviors such as smoking, alcohol use, drunkenness, and cannabis use.

Methods: Data were used from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study conducted in 2021/2022, comprising 106,221 adolescents aged 11-15 (50.9% females) from 21 European countries.

Long-Term Post-COVID-19 Health and Psychosocial Effects and Coping Resources Among Survivors of Severe and Critical COVID-19 in Central and Eastern Europe: Protocol for an International Qualitative Study.

Background: There is a strong need to determine pandemic and postpandemic challenges and effects at the individual, family, community, and societal levels. Post-COVID-19 health and psychosocial effects have long-lasting impacts on the physical and mental health and quality of life of a large proportion of survivors, especially survivors of severe and critical COVID-19, extending beyond the end of the pandemic. While research has mostly focused on the negative short- and long-term effects of COVID-19, few studies have examined the positive effects of the pandemic, such as posttraumatic growth.

Family Dynamics, Socioeconomic Hardships, and Health Risk Behaviours of Bulgarian Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background/objectives: This study aims to explore family dynamics and the economic hardships experienced by families during the COVID-19 pandemic and their associations with adolescents' health risk behaviours (HRBs).

Methods: Based on a representative study of adolescents aged 11-16 conducted in Bulgaria during the COVID-19 pandemic and HBSC data from the pre-pandemic period, logistic regression models were applied, assessing cigarette smoking, vaping, alcohol use, drunkenness, and cannabis use. The independent variables included demographics, Family Affluence Scale (FAS III), family structure, ease of communication with parents, and the authors' developed questions on parents' income and economic status change, family conflicts, and missing contact with extended family due to the pandemic.

Psychosocial school environment and health risk behaviours of adolescents in Bulgaria: results from multilevel analysis.

Objectives: The paper aims to study the relationships between psychosocial school environment and health risk behaviours (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, drunkenness, bullying perpetration and early start of sexual life) in a representative sample of Bulgarian adolescents.

Methods: We apply multilevel analysis, using data from the Bulgarian 2017/2018 "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)" Study.

Results: There is a significant variation between schools in Bulgaria in the proportions of students who smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, get drunk and have an early start of sexual life.

Burnout and health behaviors in health professionals from seven European countries.

Objectives: Within an underlying health-impairing process, work stressors exhaust employees' mental and physical resources and lead to exhaustion/burnout and to health problems, with health-impairing behaviors being one of the potential mechanisms, linking burnout to ill health. The study aims to explore the associations between burnout and fast food consumption, exercise, alcohol consumption and painkiller use in a multinational sample of 2623 doctors, nurses and residents from Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia, adopting a cross-national approach.

Methods: Data are part of the international cross-sectional quantitative ORCAB survey.

Managing uncertainty: healthcare professionals' meanings regarding the HPV vaccine.

Background: New preventive technologies such as vaccines offer insight into psychological, social, and cultural landscapes. Providers have a key role in parents' decisions for vaccinating their children. Yet, perspectives from providers regarding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, or vaccination in general, are rarely sought

Purpose: Our objective in this paper is to understand how the HPV vaccine is perceived by health care providers and the multiple contextual meanings it elicits.

Organizational hierarchies in Bulgarian hospitals and perceptions of justice.

Objectives: Health care reform in Bulgaria has been ongoing for two decades. Since 1990, it has been transforming from a socialized system of medical care with free access, to one which is decentralized, includes private health care services, the general practitioner model and a National Health Insurance Fund. In this context, we are conducting an international EC Framework 7 project: 'Improving quality and safety in the hospital: The link between organizational culture, burnout, and quality of care'.

Inequalities in cervical cancer screening in Eastern Europe: perspectives from Bulgaria and Romania.

Objectives: The incidence of cervical cancer in Eastern Europe has been on the rise, in contrast to the reduction in incidence in most countries of Western Europe. The objectives of the paper are to delineate the inequalities in cervical cancer screening in Romania and Bulgaria and identify explanations for these inequalities.

Methods: Representative samples of women - 1,099 in Bulgaria and 1,053 in Romania, were interviewed through a structured questionnaire.