Infrastructural Challenges Lead to Delay of Curative Radiotherapy in Nigeria

PURPOSE In low- and middle-income countries, there has been an exponential increase in cancer incidence. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the biggest gap in radiotherapy availability and need is in Nigeria, where each machine serves an estimated 25.7 million people. This study aimed to characterize the barriers to radiotherapy and to identify areas for intervention. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria, from June 2017 to August 2017. Demographic, sociocultural, and infrastructural factors relating to radiotherapy were collected through a questionnaire (N = 186). Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify the factors leading to delays in referral and delays in treatment initiation. RESULTS Patients traveled from 20 of Nigeria’s 36 states. The median age was 50 years (range, 19-79 years). The most common cancers treated were breast (37.5%), cervical (16.3%), head and neck (11.9%), and prostate (10.9%). In ordinal logistic regression, sociocultural factors, including the inability to pay (odds ratio [OR], 1.99; P = .034), a bad hospital experience (OR, 7.05; P = .001), and travel time (OR, 1.36; P = .001), increased the odds of referral delay to radiotherapy. In contrast, there was no significant relationship between time to treatment initiation and sociocultural factors including age, education, and inability to pay. Infrastructural barriers, including machine breakdown (OR, 2.92; P = .001), worker strikes (OR, 2.64; P = .001), and power outages (OR, 2.81; P = .022), increased the odds of treatment delay. CONCLUSION Although delays caused by patient factors are reported extensively, patients overcame these barriers in the hopes of curative treatment. However, staff and equipment malfunctions prevented patients from receiving timely radiotherapy. Policies aimed at addressing machine maintenance, health care worker satisfaction, and the aging power grid in Nigeria must be implemented in the future to strengthen the health care system to care for patients with cancer.

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Anxiety Levels of Doctors Working in Kolkata during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study

Journal of Comprehensive Health ◽

10.53553/jch.v09i01.006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 23-31

Author(s):

Ankush Banerjee ◽

Bobby Paul ◽

Aparajita Dasgupta ◽

Madhumita Bhattacharyya ◽

Lina Bandyopadhyay ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Logistic Regression ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

High Anxiety ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Multivariable Logistic Regression ◽

Anxiety Levels ◽

Study Participants

Introduction: Doctors are amongst the major frontline health-care providers combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation. This overwhelming burden has not only resulted in physical exhaustion but also taken a toll on their mental health. It is thus important to determine the anxiety levels among doctors working in Kolkata and identify its associated factors which can serve as important evidence for promotion of mental well-being among them. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was done through online social media platform-based survey from August to October 2020, in Kolkata, among 313 doctors. Levels of anxiety was assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (modified for COVID-19 pandemic). Univariate and multivariable logistic regression was done to find out the association of risk factors with high anxiety levels among the study participants. Results: Among 313 study participants,31.9% had mild, 22% moderate and 6.4% had severe anxiety levels. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that younger age, female gender, working in government sector, presence of associated co-morbid medical condition, working as designated frontline COVID-19 health-care worker, working in increasing number of high-risk areas in the health facility, poor quality of available personal protective equipment and increasing number of difficulties faced while working had significant association with high anxiety levels. Conclusion: Present study showed that considerable proportion (28.4%) of doctors had high anxiety levels. Maintaining appropriate COVID-19 protocols at the workplace, periodic health check-up to detect co-morbidity at the earliest, counseling services with particular attention to female providers would add on to betterment of their mental health.

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Dietary, Physical Exercises and Mental Stress in A Chinese Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

10.21203/rs.3.rs-138627/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xiaona Li ◽

Dan Tian ◽

Pei Qin ◽

Wen Guo ◽

Jing Lu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Logistic Regression ◽

Mental Stress ◽

Regression Tree ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Ordinal Logistic Regression ◽

Classification And Regression Tree ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Logistic Regression Models ◽

Fresh Vegetables

Abstract Background: Mental health is affected by both genetic and environmental factors. However, previous studies have showed conflict findings about the role of lifestyle. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between diet, exercise, and mental health, as well as factors related to mental stress.Methods: We recruited 8160 residents who had health examinations in a public hospital during June 2016 to May 2018.Demographic characteristics, diet, exercises, and mental health status. was collected by a questionnaire. We estimated the association using the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) based on Binary or ordinal logistic regression models. A classification and regression tree (CART) demonstrated the prediction of the value of a target variable based on other values.Results: Fried food intake, male, unmarried state, and aged ≤43 were associated with increased risks of mental stress while consuming more fresh vegetables or fruits showed a protective effect. The ordinal logistic regression model showed that increased consumption of meat (OR=1.50, 95% CI: 1.33-1.68), dessert (OR=1.24, 95% CI: 1.08-1.43) and pickled or smoked food (OR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.08-1.35) in males and increased consumption of dessert (OR=1.20, 95% CI: 1.05-1.38), pickled or smoked food (OR=1.14, 95% CI: 1.01-1.29), quitting smoking (OR=2.99, 95% CI: 1.14-7.85), quitting drinking (OR=2.42, 95% CI: 1.65-3.54), and drinking (OR=1.47, 95% CI: 1.21-1.79) in females are related to mental stress. Conclusions: Our study showed that both diet and behaviors were associated with mental health and affected the degree of stress, which provided novel insights into interventions.

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CHOLECYSTECTOMY;

The Professional Medical Journal ◽

10.29309/tpmj/2017.24.05.1432 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (05) ◽

pp. 697-701

Author(s):

Gulshan Ali Memon ◽

Bilal Ahmed ◽

Syed Kashif Ali Shah

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care System ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

College Hospital ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Medical College ◽

Study Population ◽

Operative Assessment ◽

Surgical Unit ◽

Care System

Introduction: Gallstones patients are mostly asymptomatic, but yet, it addsconsiderable burden to health care system as only in United States more than 600000laparoscopic cholecystectomies are performed annually. The introduction of day care withlaparoscopic (LC) surgery in the late 1980s increased the rate of cholecystectomy for about20%. This new intervention introduced changes in indications of cholecystectomy and putfurther impact on health care system. After the introduction of LC, many studies have highlightedand discussed the importance of adequate surgical skills in order to improve the timing andoutcome of surgery. The aim of this study was to see the conversion from laparoscopic to opensurgery in symptomatic patients. Study Design: Descriptive Cross Sectional Study. Period:January 2013 to 2015. Setting: Surgical unit I of Peoples Medical College Hospital Nawabshah.Methods: Study population consists of two hundred cases having non probability consecutivepatients of cholelithiasis who were eligible on inclusion criteria. Results: The conversion ratewas 10 %, seven (3.5%) patients had biliary injury, six (3%) had adhesions, four (2%) patienthad vascular injury, two (1%) patients had gut injury, one (0.5%) patient had dilated commonbile duct. Conclusion: Proper pre-operative assessment and proper anatomical recognition ofCalot’s triangle reduce the rates in conversion from laparoscopic to open surgery.

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Modern health-seeking behaviour and associated factors among mothers having under 5-years old children in Shire town, Tigray, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study 2018

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine ◽

10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.1913 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Girmay T. Weldesamuel ◽

Tsega T. Alemayoh ◽

Hagos T. Atalay ◽

Teklewoini M. Zemichael

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Logistic Regression ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

P Value ◽

Health Care Seeking ◽

Care Seeking ◽

Health Seeking ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Modern Health Care ◽

Health Care Seeking Behaviour

Background: The practice of appropriate health care-seeking is important to reduce severe and life-threatening childhood illnesses. In Shire town, little is known about the mother’s health care-seeking behaviour on childhood illness.Aim: To assess modern health-seeking behaviour and associated factors of mothers having under 5-years old children in Shire town.Setting: The study setting was Shire town, northwest Tigray, Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted to interview 504 mother-child pairs by systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected through interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires. Data were coded, entered, cleaned and edited using EPIDATA version 3.1 and export to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22.0 for analysis. To identify the significant variables, binary logistic regression was employed. Variables with p-value 0.05 at 95% CI (confidence interval) in multivariate logistic regression were considered statistically significant.Results: In this study, around 76.2% (72.1, 80) of mothers sought modern health care. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis at a p-value of 0.05, caregivers with age of ≥ 28 years (AOR [adjusted odds ratios]: 1.65; 95% CI [1.02, 2.68]), educational level of secondary school and above (AOR: 0.44; 95% CI [0.23, 0.86]), child feeding per day 8 times (AOR: 2.77; 95% CI [1.75, 4.38]) and perceived severity of illness (AOR: 2; 95% CI [1.07, 3.82]) were statistically associated with modern health care-seeking behaviour.Conclusion: Strengthen healthcare services is recommended at the community level through information, education and communication/behavioural change strategies to improve the mother’s health care-seeking behaviour.

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Knowledge, attitude and practice towards use of herbal aphrodisiac among unani & ayurvedic health care seekers in Dhaka city

Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research ◽

10.3329/ajmbr.v4i4.40113 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 400-405

Author(s):

Mohammed Saiful Islam Chowdhury ◽

Md Monir Ahammed ◽

Mohammad Abu Taher ◽

Md Anisur Rahman ◽

MSA Mansur Ahmed

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

World Health ◽

Dhaka City ◽

College Hospital ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Attitude And Practice ◽

Health Organization ◽

Knowledge Attitude And Practice

Geographically Bangladesh is the treasure-house of medicinal plants especially herbal aphrodisiac medicines. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 70%–80% of the global population relies on herbs for primary health care. Sexual health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all aspects related to the reproductive system. The study aimed as assessing the use of herbal aphrodisiac among Unani & Ayurvedic health care seekers in Dhaka city, knowledge, attitude and practice. The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional study. This study was conducted at Unani and Ayurvedic Medical College Hospital among 220 patients at Mirpur-13, Dhaka using a semi-structured interviewed questionnaire. The study result depicted that 47.7% respondents were in 21-30 years age group. The mean age was 31.22±8.265 years and the range was from 17-50 years. It was found that the prevalence of Premature Ejaculation (PE) and Erectile Dysfunction (ED) was 26.4% and 21.8% respectively. Low level of knowledge was found about different aspects of Unani and Ayurvedic System of Medicine. It was revealed that most of the respondents (95%) knew about the very effective aphrodisiac, their safety and cost issue. It was also revealed that most (79.1%) of the respondents strongly opined about less side-effect of herbal aphrodisiac. The study findings suggest that there is a significant association between age and knowledge about Govt. teaching hospital and between education and knowledge about cost of aphrodisiac in herbal medicine. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2018, 4(4): 400-405

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Knowledge and attitude on prevention of COVID-19 among community health workers in Nepal-a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11400-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Amul Shrestha ◽

Tek Bahadur Thapa ◽

Mahendra Giri ◽

Sanjiv Kumar ◽

Sakil Dhobi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Logistic Regression ◽

Community Health ◽

Community Health Workers ◽

Health Workers ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Knowledge Level ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Knowledge And Attitude

Abstract Background Emerging and reemerging pathogens are global challenges for public health and the pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019is a reemerging case of an infectious disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corornavirus-2. Health care worker worldwide are at higher risk worldwide and the situation is the same in Nepal. The knowledge and attitude of health workers will certainly mark the outcome towards this pandemic. So, this study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude of community health workers towards the prevention of COVID-19 virus. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among the community health workers of various provinces of Nepal. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was prepared in Google form and circulated to the sampled health workers through various social media platforms like face book, messenger, Instagram and g-mails. A total of 650 invitations were send and among them 420 responded and among them only 399 provided complete response. Responses containing anonymized data was collected analyzed in using SPSS-version-20. The results were interpreted and was checked with various demographic and enabling factors using chi-square test and logistic regression model. Also, ethical approval was taken from NHRC (Nepal Health Research Council (protocol registration number: 360/2020P) prior to the conduction of study. Results Out the total sample size of 450, we took 399 responses taking into consideration all the inclusion criteria. So, from 399 valid response, 230 (47.6%) were males and 169 (42.4%) were females. 380 (95.2%) employed participants thought that wearing PPE will reduce the chances of getting COVID-19, majority of the participants 80.5% (321) responded that COVID-19 will successfully be controlled and staffs receiving excellent support from palika had high knowledge level. Knowledge level was significantly associated with the enabling factor “support from palika” (P = 0.045).45.9% of the respondents had no availability of COVID-19 response medical items for prevention of COVID-19 at their respective health facilities. Also the logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds of knowledge level was 2 times higher (AOR=1.913 at 95% CI: 1.266-2.891) compared to the female participants (Ref- female). Conclusions Proper and adequate knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 is a paramount in the prevention and control of SARS-COV-2. Health care workers are knowledgeable about COVID-19 and are proactively practicing the preventive measures to minimize the spread of infection but some lack optimistic attitude. Hence, the constantly updated educational programs related to COVID-19 will surely contribute to improving the healthcare workers knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19.

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Studying and More: Part-Time Employment as an Educational Challenge?

Journal of Medical Psychology ◽

10.3233/jmp-200024 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 57-63

Author(s):

Silke Heuse ◽

Cathrin Dietze ◽

Daniel Fodor ◽

Edgar Voltmer

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Study Data ◽

Future Health ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Professional Students ◽

Educational Challenge ◽

Part Time

Background: Future health-care professionals face stress both during education and in later professional life. Next to educational trainings, many students are forced to assume part-time employment. Objective: Applying the Job Demands-Resources Model to the educational context, we investigate which role part-time employment plays next to health-care professional students’ education-specific demands and resources in the prediction of perceived stress. Method: In this cross-sectional study, data from N = 161 health-care students were analysed, testing moderation models. Results: Education-specific demands were associated with higher and education-specific resources with lower amounts of perceived stress. Part-time employment functioned as moderator, i.e. demands were less associated with stress experiences in students who were employed part-time. Conclusion: Identifying part-time employment as a resource rather than a demand illustrates the need to understand students’ individual influences on stress. Both educators and students will benefit from reflecting these resources to support students’ stress management.

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Rapid detection of Rotavirus antigen in stool sample of acute diarrheic children

Bangladesh Journal of Medical Microbiology ◽

10.3329/bjmm.v6i1.19354 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 11-13

Author(s):

Sushmita Roy ◽

S.M. Shamsuzzaman ◽

K.Z. Mamun

Keyword(s):

Stool Sample ◽

Rapid Detection ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Rapid Diagnosis ◽

Age Group ◽

College Hospital ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Rotavirus Infection ◽

Medical College ◽

Stool Samples

Rotavirus is one of the leading causes of pediatric diarrhea globally. Accurate and rapid diagnosis of Rotavirus diarrhea should reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics and ultimately reduce drug resistance. Study was designed for rapid diagnosis of Rotavirus antigen in stool sample by ICT (Immunochromatographic test) as well as to observe the seasonal variation of rotavirus infection. This cross sectional study was carried out in the department of Microbiology, Dhaka Medical College from January 2011 to December 2011. Eighty stool samples were collected from Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Dhaka Medical College Hospital. All samples were tested for rotavirus antigen by ICT. Among 80 patients, 42 (52.5%) samples were positive for rotavirus antigen. Among these 42 positive samples, 30 (71.43%) were from 0-12 months of age group, 10 (23.81%) from 13 to 24 months of age group and rest 2 (4.76%) from 25 to 36 months of age group. Rotavirus Ag was detected in stool samples from January to April and another peak episode from October to December. Considering the importance of Rotavirus associated diarrhea, rapid detection of Rotavirus infection in human is substantially needed and should be routinely practiced.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmm.v6i1.19354 Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2012; 06(01): 11-13

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FIRST AID AND TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN ACCIDENT INJURY IN BUON MA THUOT CITY, DAK LAK PROVINCE 2014

Journal of Medicine and Pharmacy ◽

10.34071/jmp.2017.3.10 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 69-74

Author(s):

Van Hung Nguyen ◽

Van Thang Vo

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Intervention Program ◽

First Aid ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Health Care Facilities ◽

Health Staff ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Care Facilities ◽

Accident Injuries ◽

Accident Injury

Background: Accident injuries caused has been serious heatlth problem in developing coutries. Children is vulnerable group with accident injury beucase of lacking knowlegde and exposing with risk factors in eviromental household. The treatment outcome for accident injury of children usually has more serious than other groups. The aims of this study to describle some characteristics of first aid and the outcome of treatment for children accident in Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak provice in 2014. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted total 2,273 household which was 4,505 children aged under 16 in 8 communes, Buon Ma Thuot city, Daklak province. Interview technique with structural questionnaire and household observation methods were used for data collection. Results: The propotion of first aid was 75.9%; not received any first aid (23.8%); mortality at accident place (0.3%). At the time accident: The highest personal involving first aid was pedestrians 54.1%; 25% of health staff, self- first aid was 14.5%. Two main of first aid methods were hemostasis and bandeged with 45.5%; 28% respectiviely. After first aid, there was 80% delivering to health care facilities. The transport methods were motocycle (91.8%), car (5.6%) and ambulance (0.4%). The rate of approach health care facilities around early 6 hours were 86.7%. The characteristics of damages: sub-damages (scratches, dislocations, sprains...) were 36.9 %, deep damages (fractures, open wounds) accounted for 44.6%. Inpatient treatment was 23.9%; 91.5% medical therapy, surgery of 8.2%. The outcome of treatment were good (97.2%), sequelae/disability 2.6%. Conclusion: First aid activities for children at time and properly right were demonstrated effectively for prevented seriously outcome. There should be an intervention program for children with the appropriate models to reduce accident injuries in children; improvement first aid to communities and health care worker. Key words: accident injury, first aid, capacity first care, children under 16 years old

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