Andrea Madarasová Gecková

• Professor
• University professor at Comenius University Bratislava, Faculty of Social and Economic Studies

Background The fast development of digital technology and of its use at even younger ages is significantly shaping the current generation of adolescents. This is leading to an almost unlimited accessibility that provides a large number of opportunities, but also to many challenges that adolescents have to face. The aim of our study was to explore t...

Purpose Clinical guidelines call for the inclusion of exercise interventions in every patient’s dialysis session, but these recommendations are rarely adopted. Healthcare providers play a key role in this. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how healthcare providers perceive the benefits, risks and barriers of intradialytic exercise (ID...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic endangered the quality of health care and the safety of patients and health care workers (HCWs). This provided challenges for HCWs’ resilience and for hospital management and probably increased risks for patient safety incidents (PSI). HCWs may also have experienced psychological consequences as second victims of PS...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic led to accepting a lot of various protective pandemic management-related measures (PanMan), which may have had a large impact on health care workers (HCWs) but evidence is scarce. We therefore explored the impact of measures during the second wave. We assessed the associations of PanMan with the Quality of Life (QoL...

Previous research shows the beneficial effects of an intradialytic resistance training (IRT) on muscle function in haemodialysis patients. However, patients vary highly in their functional responses to IRT, may be due to effects of age and sex heterogeneities in adaptation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which the...

Background Technology plays a significant role in the lives of adolescents. Our knowledge is predominantly based on research exploring the risks associated with it, but adolescents also feel that technology supports their lives. This has received less consideration. Therefore, we aim to examine how adolescents perceive the benefits of digital techn...

Štúdia nám už niekoľko rokov poskytuje kľúčové poznatky k lepšiemu pochopeniu správania našich mladých ľudí v súvislosti so zdravím. Skúma množstvo tém súvisiacich so zdravím, ako je spánok, duševná pohoda, nutričné správanie či fyzická aktivita. Dôležitou oblasťou skúmania je aj škola a sociálne vzťahy v nej, rodina a rodinné zázemie, či vzťahy s...

Background Parents play an important role in the psychosocial care of their children. Previous research has primarily examined their role in care entry, whereas evidence on their role in other stages of the care process is scarce and lacking particularly in regard to the perspective of care providers. Our aim was therefore to examine how psychosoci...

Background Injuries are the major cause of disability and death during adolescence, representing a significant public health burden among youth. Body-related factors such as body composition and cardiovascular fitness (CVF) may affect adolescents’ vulnerability to injuries. As evidence is lacking, we aimed to explore the associations of medically a...

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important health indicator in chronic diseases like kidney diseases. Health literacy (HL) may strongly affect HRQoL, but evidence is scarce. Therefore, we assessed the associations of HL with HRQoL in dialysed patients. We performed a cross-sectional study in 20 dialysis clinics across Slovakia (n = 542...

Background Measuring physical activity (PA) is one of the pillars of successful health promotion; however, we struggle to find a tool enabling the identification of risk groups. The current standard approach of assessing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) every day does this inadequately. The aim of this study is to explore whether three...

Objective The abuse and neglect of a child is a major public health problem with serious psychosocial, health and economic consequences. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between various types of childhood trauma, selected long-term diseases and alcohol and nicotine use disorder in Czech and Slovak representative samples. Method...

Background: Health and behavioural outcomes of adolescents have been shown to be related to school pressure, demands or unfavourable relationships with classmates or teachers. These associations may relate to school satisfaction, but evidence on this is lacking. Therefore, our aim is to explore the associations of school satisfaction with hopelessn...

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused risks and burdens for health professionals and might result in job leaving intentions. To assess the potential risks, we explored the association of the job leaving intentions with exposure to COVID-19 risk, impact of pandemic management on professional and personal life, and personal coping resources among...

Background Globally, governments adopted protective measures to stabilize the worsening COVID-19 pandemic situation. These measures had a large impact on health care workers (HCWs) and could make the work environment more stressful for them. Therefore, we explored the associations of the psychological responses of HCWs and pandemic management among...

(1) Background: Co-occurrence or overlaps of different forms or involvement in peer violence among adolescents have been broadly studied. The study aimed to assess adolescents' violence profiles related to bullying, cyberbullying, and fighting in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The study was to investigate the pattern of bullying...

Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause serious mental problems in adolescents and therefore may expected to be associated with higher use of psychosocial care, potentially varying by type of specific ACE. The aim of our study is to explore the association of the number of ACE and types of specific ACE with entering and using psyc...

Background The aim of this study is to explore the association of family socioeconomic status (SES) and internal and external schoolwork support with adolescents’ school satisfaction and whether schoolwork support modifies these associations. Methods Data come from the cross-sectional Health Behavior in School-aged Children study collected in 2018...

Background This study aims to assess which measures could improve the healthy early childhood development of children from marginalized Roma communities and to identify priority measures. Methods Concept mapping approach was used, using mixed methods. In total 54 professionals, including social workers, educators, health care providers, municipali...

Background: Most adolescents are less physically active than recommended, despite the strong effort of various stakeholders to promote physical activity (PA). Body image and body composition may play an important role not only in directly facilitating adolescents' PA but also in enabling environment-related factors. As evidence is lacking, we aime...

Objective There is evidence that experiencing childhood trauma and life stressors across the lifespan together with lower resilience is associated with chronic pain-related conditions. The aim of this study was to explore the potential mediating role of resilience in the relationship between childhood trauma and long-term pain and to explore a poss...

Introduction The purpose of this study is to identify the role of diabetes mellitus in the effectiveness of intradialytic exercise intervention among haemodialysis patients. Methods In this multicentre study 90 dialysed patients were allocated to the experimental (EXG, n = 57) or control group (CNG, n = 33). In EXG, we included 20 diabetic and 37...

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is likely to deteriorate with the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). This change may be worsened by low health literacy (HL). We performed a longitudinal study at over 20 dialysis clinics in Slovakia (n = 413; mean age = 64.8 years; males = 58.4%). We assessed the association of three HL groups with...

This study aims to explore the associations of schoolmate and teacher support with emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) and whether schoolmate and teacher support affects the associations of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and of EBP in adolescence. We obtained data from 5220 students aged from 11 to 15 (48.7% boys), who participated in the...

Objectives: To explore the role of resilience as a mediator in the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) among adolescents. Methods: We used data from the Slovak 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, comprising 2,839 adolescents aged 13–15 (mean age 13.93; 49.6% boys). We...

Cardiovascular comorbidities are independent risk factors for mortality in dialysis patients. MicroRNA signaling has an important role in vascular aging and cardiac health, while physical activity is a primary nonpharmacologic treatment for cardiovascular comorbidities in dialysis patients. To identify the relationships between muscle function, miR...

Pandemic management increases the burden on healthcare workers to provide care and also affects their personal lives, with dentists being at particular risk. Therefore, we aim to describe the quality of life (QoL) and limitations experienced due to pandemic management-related measures (PanMan), as well as to assess the association of PanMan with Qo...

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to identify the role of diabetes mellitus in the effectiveness of intradialytic exercise intervention among haemodialysis patients. Methods: In this multicentre study 90 dialysed patients were allocated to the experimental (EXG, n=57) or control group (CNG, n=33). In EXG, we included 20 diabetic and 37...

Objectives: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) strongly affects patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL), mostly in the advanced stages of CKD. Health literacy (HL) may affect this association, in particular for some aspects of HRQoL. The aim of this study is to compare the profiles of HRQoL in dialyzed patients with varying HL. Methods: We obtai...

Objectives: To explore the association of family-related adversities with physical fighting, and whether this association is mediated by hopelessness. Methods: The sample consisted of 3712 Slovak adolescents (mean age: 13.9, 50.7% girls). Participants answered questions regarding experienced family-related adversities, involvement in physical fight...

Family crisis and positive youth development: the role of gender and hopelessness in early adolescence

Frontiers in Public Health 8, 680

Care for adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) is frequently unequally distributed. Parents may play a role in the access to this care. Therefore, the aim was to explore the association between parental characteristics and their adolescent's enrollment in psychosocial care. We used data from the Care4Youth cohort study. Our sampl...

Limited health literacy (HL), depression and anxiety are common in dialyzed patients and affect health outcomes and self-management. We explored whether depression and anxiety mediate the association of HL with diet non-adherence (DN-A) in dialyzed patients. We performed a cross-sectional study in 20 dialysis clinics in Slovakia (n = 452; mean age:...

Background: Health characteristics associated with uric acid (UA) in the Roma minority remain less well known. The study sought to determine the ethnicity- and sex-specific associations of serum UA with health factors in Eastern Slovakian Roma and non-Roma populations. Methods: Data from the comparative cross-sectional HepaMeta study conducted in S...

The aim of this study was to investigate the test–retest reliability of the motives for undertaking physical activity (PA) items from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study questionnaire among Slovak and Czech adolescents and to determine whether this reliability differs by gender, age group and country. We obtained data from 580...

School physical activity (PA) is an indispensable part of daily PA, the foundation for developing lifelong PA and fitness, and an easy way to gain physical and health literacy. School PA is equally important for understanding the continuity of physical and mental health, even in broader psychosocial aspects. Regarding long-term outcomes, significan...

The miRNA-206 and miRNA-23a play an important role in muscle tissue hypertrophy, regeneration and atrophy. Both of these miRNAs have been highlighted as promising adaptation predictors; however, the available evidence on associations is inconclusive. Therefore, our aim was to assess the expression levels of these two miRNAs as predictors of change...

Objectives: To examine the associations of teacher and classmate support with school satisfaction in adolescents, and whether gender modifies these associations. Methods: Data were used from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study collected in 2018 among Slovak 15-year-old adolescents (N = 931; 50.6% boys). School sati...

Objectives: Education is an important tool to reduce health inequalities. Several factors influence the educational trajectory of children, with school satisfaction being one of them. The aim was to explore how learning difficulties, a disrupted social context and family affluence relate to school satisfaction. Methods: We used data from the 201...

Objectives. The main objective of this study was to explore the views and beliefs of schoolaged children on smoking and drinking of alcohol, using a qualitative approach and data of the cross-sectional HBSC (Health behaviour in school-aged children) 2013/2014 study. The aim was also to compare the variability of identified views and beliefs in term...

Background: The Internet may serve as a suitable environment for discriminated adolescents as they may consider the online space as the place where they have possibility to build social ties they are missing in their offline life or manage their self-presentation. Therefore, our aim was to explore the association between different types of discrim...

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and poor family support and communication can increase emotional and behavioural problems (EBP). Therefore, we assessed the association of difficult communication with mother and with father separately with both emotional and behavioural problems (EBP), and whether adolescents' communication with mo...

Background: Overweight and obesity are mostly monitored via the Body Mass Index (BMI), based on self-reported or measured height and weight. Previous studies have shown that BMI as a measure of obesity can introduce important misclassification problems. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of overweight and obesity classification based...

Background: People exposed to childhood trauma show insecure attachment patterns and are more prone to chronic and pain-related conditions, including migraine. The aim of this study was to explore the mediating role of attachment in the association between childhood trauma and adulthood chronic health conditions, with a focus on migraine. Methods...

Background: The creation of vascular access is an essential condition for providing haemodialysis, which remains the only option for most patients suffering from end-stage renal disease. Selection of the type of vascular access affects patients' clinical outcomes, access maintenance frequency, risk of infection and major adverse cardiac events dur...

Background and Aims Depression and anxiety is common in dialysed patients (Ng et al., 2015; de Brito et al., 2019) and associated with decreased quality of life, worse health outcomes and increased mortality (Schouten et al., 2019, Lopes at al., 2002). Health literacy (HL) as the ability to gain access, understand, and use information to promote an...

Purpose: The loss of muscle functions is a significant health issue among dialysis patients. Poor muscle strength negatively affects a patient’s mobility, independence and quality of life. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of an intradialytic resistance training (IRT) on lower extremity muscle functions among dialysed patients. Materia...

Our earlier article showed that increased employability of segregated Roma may improve their well-being and health. To achieve that, appropriate employment based on a public–private partnership could be the key. For optimal design of such a partnership, we need insight into its potential mechanisms. Evidence on this is lacking, however. This paper...

Background: The aim of our work is to objectify the manner of transmission of HBV infection in young adult and middle-aged Roma people who live in the settlements. Methods: We used data from the cross-sectional study HepaMeta. We analyzed Roma people living in the settlements in East Slovakia, who have had HBsAg and anti HBc IgG antibodies examined...

Background: The Roma population is one of the largest marginalized population groups in Europe. The aim of our work was to summarize the morbidity of lifestyle-related diseases and infectious diseases in the Roma population living in segregated settlements. Methods: We used data from the cross-sectional study HepaMeta, in which we examined 452 Roma...

Background: Ethnic information regarding juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) exists for various populations across the world but is fully lacking for Roma. We assessed the occurrence and clinical characteristics of JIA in Roma vs. non-Roma children. Methods: We obtained data on all outpatients (n = 142) from a paediatric rheumatology centre (age 3...

Periodontal disease is inflammation of the gums and without good oral hygiene, it can progress to periodontitis. Oral hygiene might be related to a patient’s health literacy (HL), defined as ability to gain access, understand, and use information to promote and maintain good health. The aim of our study is to examine the associations of HL with ind...

The aim is to describe a profile of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patient (socio-demographic data, course of disease, health status, and health care utilization, SLE impact on their life, SLE awareness) and to explore the association of patient’s perspective with clinical indicators. Adult patients diagnosed by SLE were recruited in outpatient...

Effective vascular access (VA) is an essential condition for providing hemodialysis, affecting patients’ health outcomes. We aim to explore how health literacy (HL) as a non-clinical factor is associated with the decision-making process regarding VA type selection. Using data from 20 dialysis centers across Slovakia (n = 542, mean age = 63.6, males...

Background: Childhood trauma is considered to be a risk factor for developing anxiety as well as chronic pain. The aim of this study was to assess the association between childhood trauma and reporting anxiety and long-term pain conditions in the general and clinical populations. Methods: Respondents from a representative sample in the Czech Rep...

Rationale Unequal provision of health care contributes to the poor health status of segregated Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Studies on the drivers and mechanisms behind this are lacking. Objective We explored what kinds of substandard practices health care frontline professionals engage in regarding segregated Roma and what mechanisms suppo...

Non-adherence to dietary and fluid intake recommendations (NADFIR) is an important factor for the effective treatment of dialyzed patients and may be hindered by low health literacy (HL). Therefore, we assessed whether low HL of dialyzed patients is associated with their NADFIR. We performed a multicentric cross-sectional study in 20 dialysis clini...

Excessive Internet use is becoming a rapidly increasing problem in today’s society. Our aim was to assess the association between socioeconomic status (SES) of the family and excessive Internet use (EIU), and whether life satisfaction mediates this association. We analyzed data from a representative sample of 2844 Slovak adolescents (mean age 14.34...

Objectives Social policies help people to overcome various unfavourable living situations, such as unemployment, which may lead to health inequalities. The aim of this study is to examine how adults and children perceive the impact of social policies connected to unemployment on well-being in the household, and whether their views differ. Methods...

Increasing employment opportunities for segregated Roma might prevent major economic losses and improve their health. Involvement of the private sector in Roma employment, on top of intensified governmental actions, is likely to be a key to sustainable improvement, but evidence on this is scarce. Our aim was to determine the potential outcomes of s...

Background: Oral health strongly affects overall health and is related to many factors. The aim of our study was to analyse oral health related behaviours (OHRBs) and gum bleeding among Slovak adolescents and assess the effect of socioeconomic factors on the outcomes. Methods: Data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) w...

This study aims to examine the association of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) with emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) among adolescents and the degree to which this association is stronger for more ACE. In addition, we assessed whether socioeconomic position (SEP) modifies the association of ACE with EBP. We obtained data from 341 adolesce...

Our findings do not confirm traditional Roma preferences, either for nonadherence or for alternative concepts of health. Instead, our findings point to another important pathway, via which Roma health status becomes adversely shaped by prevailing racist anti-Roma ideologies. They underline the need to equip epidemiologists, public health practition...

The family is a very important institution that provides relationships and contexts in which adolescents are included and where the trajectory of positive development can be activated. A family crisis can affect family functioning and endanger adolescent development. Therefore, we aimed to explore the association of crisis in the family with positi...

Background: Intradialytic resistance training (IRT) protects patients' muscle mass and functions against protein-energy wasting, malnutrition and cachexia. However, the evidence of the effects of such an intervention in haemodialysis patients is limited and not conclusive. To improve the applicability of such interventions, we need a better unders...

Objectives. The current study dealt with the concept of health literacy in adolescents. The main aim of the study was to examine the structure of adolescents, health literacy. The aim was also to discuss the current need and potential for the development of adolescents, health literacy in educational setting. Sample and settings. The sample compris...

Objective: To investigate the association between sleep duration and self-rated health and psychosomatic health complaints in a representative sample of Slovak adolescents aged 13 and 15 years. Background: According to empirically supported recommendations adolescents age 13 to 18 years old should sleep 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours on a regular ba...

Background: Regular physical activity (PA) is one of the most cited health protective factors for the prevention of the leading noncommunicable diseases. Four-fifths of adolescents are not reaching public health guidelines for recommended levels of PA globally. Understanding factors that influence PA can aid the design of more effective interventio...

Careful conceptualization and differentiation of both spirituality and religiosity is a necessary precondition for understanding the potential role they play in health, whether physical or mental. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of spirituality with self-rated health, health complaints, and life satisfaction of adolescents wit...

Objectives The aim was to explore the associations of family composition, family support and communication with emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents as well as a possible moderating effect of gender on these associations. Methods Data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study conducted in 2014 in Slovakia were used. T...

Youth subculture affiliation (SA) appears to be an important risk factor with regard to adolescents’ problem behavior. Excessive Internet use (EIU) has emerged as a new type of problem behavior; however, it has not yet been studied in adolescents affiliated with youth subcultures. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the association between SA...

Introduction: Health literacy (HL) is a key concept for interventions that aim at improving the health of individuals and populations, but it is also a way to improve the health care system, especially in the field of interaction between healthcare providers and patients. The aim of the study was to determine the level of health literacy among stud...

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the test-retest reliability of selected items based on self-reports, measuring problem behaviour in the Slovak and Czech version of the HBSC survey questionnaire. Methods: The data from test-retest study, based on an international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study and consis...

Background: The Roma population is one of the major marginalized groups in Europe, having higher incidence of all spectrums of disease and a shorter life expectancy. Yet, the reasons for higher morbidity and its exact prevalence were not properly studied. Objectives: The objective of our study was to compare the frequency of metabolic syndrome (Met...

Background Spirituality and religious attendance (RA) have been associated with personal attitudes and values, and this may affect lifestyle. The aim of this study was to explore their association with adolescent leisure-time choices in a highly secular environment. Methods A nationally representative sample of adolescents (n = 4,182, 14.4±1.1 yea...

Adolescent religious attendance and spirituality—Are they associated with leisure-time choices. (SAV)

Objectives: The health status of segregated Roma is poor. To understand why segregated Roma engage in health-endangering practices, we explored their nonadherence to clinical and public health recommendations. Methods: We examined one segregated Roma settlement of 260 inhabitants in Slovakia. To obtain qualitative data on local-level mechanisms...

Objectives: We aimed to assess the associations of involvement in selected unstructured activities (UA) with health-risk behaviours and academic achievement and the degree to which the participation in organized leisure-time activities (OLTA) changes these associations. Methods: Using a sample of 6935 Czech adolescents aged 13 and 15 years, we i...