Search Results (8)

Background/Objectives: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. In addition to short-term and long-term complications, diabetes has a detrimental effect on the patients’ mood. The main psychiatric disorder occurring among diabetic patients is depression. The rates of depression in the developed and developing countries are 15% and 11%, respectively. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms among patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in Poland using the example of the Podlaskie Province and taking into account selected sociodemographic variables. Methods: A total of 874 patients participated in the study, including 448 women (55.8%) and 386 men (44.2%). The study was conducted from July 2022 to July 2023 among the participants of the “Zatrzymaj cukrzycę! Polski Rejestr Diabetologiczny PolRed” (“Stop Diabetes! Polish Diabetes Registry (PolRed)”) project or those hospitalised in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Internal Medicine at the University Clinical Hospital in Bialystok. The study used a diagnostic survey method using a survey questionnaire developed by the authors and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results: The highest severity of depressive symptoms according to the Beck Depression Inventory was found in patients with type 2 diabetes (M = 12.18; SD ± 9.48) and the lowest in those with type 1 diabetes (M = 8.11; SD ± 7.55). The assessment of the differences in the severity of depressive symptoms according to the Beck Depression Inventory showed that participants with type 1 diabetes differed statistically significantly (p < 0.001) from those with type 2 diabetes and from those in a prediabetic state. In the group of type 2 diabetes (r = 0.336; p < 0.001) patients and prediabetic state patients (r = 0.231; p < 0.01), there were positive correlations of age with the severity of depressive symptoms. In the group of participants with type 2 diabetes, a statistically significant relationship (p < 0.001) was observed between age and the severity of depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The prevalence of mood disorders in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and diagnosed prediabetes from the Podlaskie Province depends on the type of hyperglycaemic disorder. The prevalence of depressive symptoms among patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and prediabetes is determined by specific socio-demographic factors, including, above all, age and gender. The highest severity of a disturbed emotional state according to the Beck Depression Inventory is found in individuals with type 2 diabetes and the lowest in those with type 1 diabetes. Full article

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the greatest public health challenges worldwide and one of the major conditions contributing to a poorer quality of life. The main factors that may deteriorate quality of life among patients with diabetes include age, financial status, educational background, quality of healthcare services and presence of disease complications. This study aimed to assess the quality of life among patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in Poland using the example of the Podlaskie Province, taking into account selected sociodemographic variables. Methods: A total of 874 patients participated in the study, including 448 women (55.8%) and 386 men (44.2%). The study was conducted from July 2022 to July 2023 among participants of the “Zatrzymaj cukrzycę! Polski Rejestr Diabetologiczny PolReD” (“Stop Diabetes! Polish Diabetes Registry (PolRed)”) project or those hospitalised in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Internal Medicine at the University Clinical Hospital in Bialystok. The study used a diagnostic survey method using a survey questionnaire developed by the authors and the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36). Results: The overall study group had the highest level of quality of life assessment in the domains of social functioning (M = 69.48; SD ± 28.07), physical functioning (M = 64.54; SD ± 31.57) and role limitations due to emotional problems (M = 62.40; SD ± 45.21), and the lowest level of quality of life in the domain of general health perceptions (M = 42.21; SD ± 12.77). Age was found to be negatively correlated in all quality of life domains analysed (r = −0.438; p < 0.001)—quality of life decreased with age in all investigated domains. Men had a statistically significantly (p < 0.05) higher quality of life in each analysed domain (M = 43.52–74.08; SD ± 12.68–44.09) compared to women (M = 41.18–65.88; SD ± 12.76–46.08). Place of residence also exhibited a statistically significant (p < 0.05) differentiated quality of life in terms of physical functioning. Conclusions: The assessment of quality of life among patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and those diagnosed with prediabetes from the Podlaskie Province depends on the type of hyperglycaemic disorder. The assessment of quality of life among patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and prediabetes is determined by specific socio-demographic factors, including, above all, age and gender. Respondents with type 1 diabetes have a higher quality of life in terms of role limitations due to physical health, role limitations due to emotional problems, pain (bodily pain) and general health compared to respondents with type 2 diabetes. Full article

In the presented study, data on the size and structure of cattle herds in Wielkopolskie, Podlaskie, and Mazowieckie voivodeships in 2019 were analyzed and subjected to modelling with the use of artificial intelligence, namely artificial neural networks (ANNs). The potential amount of biogas (m³) from cattle manure and slurry for the analyzed provinces was as follows: for the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, 800,654,186 m³; for the Podlaskie voivodeship, 662,655,274 m³; and for the Wielkopolskie voivodeship, 657,571,373 m³. Neural modelling was applied to find the relationship between the structure of the herds and the amount of generated slurry and manure (biomethane potential), as well as to indicate the most important animal types participating in biogas production. In each of the analyzed cases, the three-layer MLP perceptron with a single hidden layer proved to be the most optimal network structure. Sensitivity analysis of the generated models concerning herd structure showed a significant contribution of dairy cows to the methanogenic potential for both slurry and manure. The amount of slurry produced in the Mazowieckie and Wielkopolskie voivodeships was influenced in turn by heifers (both 6–12 and 12–18 months old) and bulls 12–24 months old, and in the Podlaskie voivodeship by calves and heifers 6–12 months old. As for manure, in addition to cows, bulls 12–24 months old and heifers 12–18 represented the main factor for Mazowieckie and Wielkopolskie voivodeships, and heifers (both 6–12 and 12–18 months old) for Podlaskie voivodeship. Full article

Access to energy, including electricity, determines countries’ socio-economic development. The growing demand for electricity translates into environmental problems. Energy is therefore a crucial element of the European Union’s sustainable development strategy. This article aims to present the changes taking place in the electricity market in Poland considering the goals of the energy policy until 2040. This is the basis for the determination of the scale of processes taking place in the Polish energy sector from two perspectives, i.e., the production of electricity considering its level and energy carriers used, and the consumption of electricity in households depending on their location (rural vs. urban areas). The research was conducted at the regional level (NUTS 2 until 2017) in Poland. Secondary data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) contained in the Local Data Bank were used, along with information from the European Commission and Eurostat websites. Results of the study made it possible to identify areas in which a greater environmental load is observed due to increasing electricity consumption. The coefficient of localization and concentration (by Florence) and the rate of change were applied. These results indicate that, in Poland, it is now the rural areas that have a greater negative environmental impact than urban areas, resulting from differences in unit energy consumption. Compared to the other provinces, rural areas of Podlaskie province had the highest rate of growth in energy consumption in the years 2004–2019, with an annual average of almost 20%. Full article

The article aims to present the essence of agritourism in the literature regarding the subject of its profitability during the COVID-19 pandemic. To verify the goal, data from our own research was applied. The research was conducted in 2019 and 2020 with the exploratory survey method and an interview questionnaire. Thirty-two service providers running agritourism activities in randomly selected rural communes of the Podlaskie province (communes of Mielnik, Suchowola, Giby, Płaska, and Hajnówka) participated in the study. The Ward cluster analysis method was used to group the counties of the Podlaskie Province in terms of spatial differentiation in the development of agritourism. For this purpose, data provided by the Central Statistical Authority in Poland reported for 2019 and the primary data (research by M. Roman) was applied. In the first part of the article, the authors describe and explain the basic concepts of rural tourism and agritourism based on the literature. The figures were also quoted, for example, the number of agritourism farms in Poland and other European countries. The last part of the study provides the results of our own research. The study demonstrates that in 2020 agritourism was profitable, as the owners of the farms recorded a profit. The research confirms the massive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agritourism. During a pandemic, many people choose places with few people (e.g., rural areas). The research also considered the importance of innovation on agritourism farms and business profitability. The issues discussed in the study relate to current events—scientific studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on agritourism concern other countries; however, the authors were not able to find studies focusing on agritourism farms in Poland. A new element of methodology in this article was to organize the concepts of agritourism and to present the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the profitability of agritourism. It was also essential to present the classification of rural tourism. According to the authors of the study, the problems covered here are new and point to new trends in the development of agritourism during the pandemic. Full article

The article presents a spatial variation in particulate emission from animal farming in Poland. In addition, this paper estimates the PM2.5 and PM10 particulate emissions. The data on respective emissions sources have been acquired from the Central Statistics Authority (GUS) of 2019 (Local Data Bank). The emissions of PM2.5 and PM10 particulates were estimated from the structure of the emissions sources covered in the “EEA/EMEP Emission Inventory Guidebook” following the Tier 1 method. The research shows that, in Poland, the biggest share in particulate emission is found for poultry and cattle farming, which are the emissions of 5.5 and 3 m kg of particulates annually all across Poland, respectively. The highest pollution with PM2.5 resulting from animal farming was recorded for the Podlaskie (0.19 kg/ha), Wielkopolskie (0.16 kg/ha), and Mazowieckie (0.14 kg/ha) provinces, whereas the highest pollution with PM10 was recorded for the Wielkopolskie province (0.83 kg/ha). The key sources of particulate emission indicated in the study facilitate adapting the adequate method to reduce the particulate emissions in respective provinces. It is essential, especially due to the negative effect of particulates on human health. Full article

The aim of the article is to present the analysis of tourism competitiveness of the rural areas of the Eastern Poland microregion (Podlaskie, Warmińsko–mazurskie, Lubelskie, Świętokrzyskie, Podkarpackie provinces). To group the rural communes in terms of tourism competitiveness, a cluster analysis with Ward’s method was applied. To do so, the data provided by the Central Statistical Office (Warsaw) in Poland of 2019 were used. The analyses provided in the article confirm the dependence between the size of the areas of outstanding natural beauty and the region’s tourism competitiveness. The results can be applied by the representatives of various institutions and organizations supporting the development of tourism in those areas. Full article

The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of financing renewable energy sources on the assessment of sustainable development in Poland’s provinces. There are also two detailed objectives: (1) define how Polish policies are being passed on to local authorities; (2) realize a Poland’s provinces ranking, taking into account the indicators of sustainable development, thanks to the taxonomic measure of development in the area of environmental order. This study deals with the taxonomic assessment of local sustainable development in the local administration units of Poland. To this end, the methods of linear ordering were applied for the assessment of the level of objects differentiation with the use of a closed set of statistical features. The presented analysis proved that the taxonomic distances between synthetic measures for particular provinces are considerable. The highest values of the integrated measure in 2018 were obtained by the following provinces: Podlaskie, Subcarpathian and Lubusz. It is noteworthy to point to the big changes in the ranking between 2018 and 2016. The cluster analysis showed some progress in achieving the goals of sustainable development. The group of provinces with an average level of sustainable development in 2018 included six provinces compared to two provinces in 2016. Removing one indicator from the integrated measure (the financing of renewable energy sources (RES)) led to a moderate increase in the integrated measure across all the provinces. This implies that, on average, the financing of renewable energy sources exerts increasingly smaller impacts on the level of sustainable development in Poland. Full article