scholarly journals Virtual Coaching Delivered by Pharmacists to Prevent COVID-19 Transmission

2021 ◽  
pp. 001857872110323
Author(s):  
Derar H. Abdel-Qader ◽  
Ahmad Z. Al Meslamani ◽  
Nadia Al Mazrouei ◽  
Asma A. El-Shara ◽  
Husam El Sharu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Coaching ◽  
The Public ◽  
Virtual Coaching ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Coaching Session ◽  
Spss Software ◽  
Potential Strategy ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

Background: While the role of pharmacists in the current pandemic control has been recognized worldwide, their coaching efforts to improve public’s behaviors that could prevent COVID-19 transmission has been rarely investigated. Objectives: To assess whether pharmacist-based virtual health coaching sessions could increase the proportion of people who practised healthy social behaviors, to test whether this model can increase the public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, and to measure whether these behaviors could actually prevent contracting COVID-19. Method: In this randomized controlled trial, adults who matched specific criteria were randomly allocated into 2 arms. The active arm received 12 pharmacist-based virtual coaching sessions delivered via Zoom® over a month. Participants allocated to the control arm received no coaching. At the end of the last coaching session, both groups were asked to complete a structured questionnaire for outcome assessment. Participants in the active group were followed up to 2 weeks after the end of the last coaching session to check if they contracted COVID-19 or not. The SPSS software version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Chicago, IL) was used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 300 participants who gave consent for participation, 295 completed the study (147 from the active arm and 148 from the control arm). The proportion of those using face masks, avoiding crowds, and willing to be isolated if infected in the active arm was increased from 51.70%, 53.74%, and 59.86% at baseline to 91.83%, 80.27%, and 96.59% at the end of coaching, respectively (all with P < .05). In addition, the proportion of behaviors, such as disinfecting surfaces, not touching the T-zone, and avoid sharing personal belongings with colleagues at work was increased from 36.05%, 27.89%, and 46.93% at baseline to 63.94%, 52.38%, and 87.75% at the end of coaching, respectively (all with P < .05). Avoid touching the T-zone (OR = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.24-0.89) and using disposable tissues (OR = 0.30; 95% CI, 0.18-0.77), each versus using face masks appropriately were more likely to get COVID-19. Conclusion: Pharmacist-based virtual health coaching could be a potential strategy to increase the proportion of behaviors that could curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Role of preoperative pregabalin in reducing inhalational anesthetic requirements in abdominal hysterectomy: randomized controlled trial

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nesrine A. El-Refai ◽  
Jehan H. Shehata ◽  
Ahmed Lotfy ◽  
Ahmed M. Elbadawy ◽  
Reham A. Abdel Rahman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Abdominal Hysterectomy ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Inhalational Anesthetic

Role of Chewing Gum in Reducing Postoperative Ileus after Reversal of Ileostomy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samiullah Bhatti ◽  
Yusra Jahangir Malik ◽  
Shabbar Hussain Changazi ◽  
Usman Ali Rahman ◽  
Awais Amjad Malik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Postoperative Ileus ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Chewing Gum ◽  
Randomized Controlled

What is the Role of the Bacterium Propionibacterium acnes in Type 1 Modic Changes? A Review of the Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Georgy ◽  
Mark Stern ◽  
Kieran Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Propionibacterium Acnes ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Modic Changes ◽  
Low Back ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Disc Disease ◽  
Randomized Controlled

This review presents a summary of the pathology and epidemiology of Modic changes and the possible role of Propionibacterium acnes. This information is followed by a synthesis of the most recent clinical research involved in culturing the discs of patients with degenerative disc disease for the presence of bacteria. We also discuss a randomized controlled trial that investigates the effects of antibiotics on patients with chronic low back pain and type 1 Modic changes. We conclude with a brief discussion of the difficulties involved in this research and the significance of the findings.

scholarly journals Can SMS Technology Improve Low Take-up of Social Benefits?

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Blanco ◽  
Juan F. Vargas
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Potential Channels ◽  
Informational Barriers ◽  
Government Benefits

AbstractLow take-up of stigma-free social benefits is often blamed on information asymmetries or administrative barriers. There is limited evidence on which of these potential channels is more salient in which contexts. We designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial to assess the extent to which informational barriers are responsible for the prevalent low take-up of government benefits among Colombian conflict-driven internal refugees. We provide timely information on benefits eligibility via SMS to a random half of the displaced household that migrated to Bogotá over a 6-month period. We show that improving information increases benefits’ take-up. However, the effect is small and only true for certain type of benefits. Hence, consistent with previous experimental literature, the availability of timely information explains only part of the low take-up rates and the role of administrative barriers and bureaucratic processes should be tackled to increase the well-being of internal refugees in Colombia.

scholarly journals Characterizing Highly Benefited Patients in Randomized Clinical Trials

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Charu ◽  
Paul B. Rosenberg ◽  
Lon S. Schneider ◽  
Lea T. Drye ◽  
Lisa Rein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
New Method ◽  
Usual Model ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Working Model ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
High Benefit ◽  
Two Stages

AbstractPhysicians and patients may choose a certain treatment only if it is predicted to have a large effect for the profile of that patient. We consider randomized controlled trials in which the clinical goal is to identify as many patients as possible that can highly benefit from the treatment. This is challenging with large numbers of covariate profiles, first, because the theoretical, exact method is not feasible, and, second, because usual model-based methods typically give incorrect results. Better, more recent methods use a two-stage approach, where a first stage estimates a working model to produce a scalar predictor of the treatment effect for each covariate profile; and a second stage estimates empirically a high-benefit group based on the first-stage predictor. The problem with these methods is that each of the two stages is usually agnostic about the role of the other one in addressing the clinical goal. We propose a method that characterizes highly benefited patients by linking model estimation directly to the particular clinical goal. It is shown that the new method has the following two key properties in comparison with existing approaches: first, the meaning of the solution with regard to the clinical goal is the same, and second, the value of the solution is the best that can be achieved when using the working model as a predictor, even if that model is incorrect. In the Citalopram for Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease (CitAD) randomized controlled trial, the new method identifies substantially larger groups of highly benefited patients, many of whom are missed by the standard method.

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