scholarly journals Acceptability and efficacy of vaginal self-sampling for genital infection and bacterial vaginosis: A cross-sectional study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0260021
Author(s):  
Claire Camus ◽  
Guillaume Penaranda ◽  
Hacène Khiri ◽  
Sabine Camiade ◽  
Lucie Molet ◽  
...  

Background & aim Screening for genital infection (GI) such as bacterial vaginosis (BV) and yeast infection, for sexually transmitted infection (STI), and for asymptomatic carriage of group B streptococcus (GBS) in pregnant women are common reason for medical appointments. The diagnosis and control of GIs, STIs, and GBS are major issues, for fertility and overall well-being of affected women. Conventional testing is performed using vaginal/cervical classical sampling (VCS); this procedure requires pelvic examination performed by health care professionals which raises concerns among women. Vaginal-self-sampling (VSS), as an alternative to VCS, might capture more women. The aim was first to show non-inferiority of VSS compared with VCS to screen for GIs, STIs, and GBS; second to determine the feasibility of VSS. Methods VSS and VCS from 1027 women were collected by health care professionals and simultaneously carried out on each patient. GIs, STIs, and GBS were systematically screened in both paired VSS and VCS samples. Non-inferiority of VSS compared with VCS was assessed using z statistic for binomial proportions. Results Prevalence of GIs were 39.7% using VSS and 38.1% using VCS (p = 0.0016). Prevalence of STIs was 8.5% (VSS) vs 8.1% (VCS) (p = 0.0087). Prevalence of GBS was 13.4% (VSS) and 11.5% (VCS) (p = 0.0001). Most participants (84%) recommended the use of VSS. Conclusions This study shows that VSS was not inferior to VCS for the detection of GIs, STIs, and GBS. This study provides evidence that VSS can be used as a universal specimen for detection of lower genital tract infections in women. Study identification number ID-RCB 2014-A01250-4.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camus Claire ◽  
Penaranda Guillaume ◽  
Khiri Hacène ◽  
Camiade Sabine ◽  
Molet Lucie ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTObjectiveScreening for genital infection (GI), bacterial vaginosis (BV), sexually transmitted infection (STI) and asymptomatic carriage of group B streptococcus (GBS) in pregnant women is a common reason for medical appointments. Objectives were first to determine the non-inferiority of vaginal self-sampling compared with vaginal/cervical classical sampling to screen for GIs, bacterial vaginosis (BV), STIs, and GBS asymptomatic carriage in pregnant women; second to determine the feasibility of vaginal self-sampling.MethodsVaginal self-sampling (VSS) and vaginal/cervical classical sampling (VCS) of 1027 women were collected by health care professionals and simultaneously carried out on each patient. Bacterial infection, yeast infection, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoea, Mycoplasma genitalium, Trichomonas vaginalis and Herpes simplex virus types were systematically screened in both paired VSS and VCS samples.ResultsStatistical tests supported the non-inferiority of VSS compared with VCS. Agreements between VCS and VSS remained high regardless of the type of studied infection. VSS had successful diagnostic performances, especially for Predictive negative value (PNV) (over 90%) for all studied infections. Most participants (84%) recommended the use of VSS.ConclusionsThis study remains the most exhaustive in screening for GI, BV, STI agents and asymptomatic GBS carriage. Given its efficacy and acceptability, VSS seems to be a viable alternative to classic physician sampling among women in the general population. This study provides evidence that vaginal self-sampling can be used as a universal specimen for detection of lower genital tract infections in women.Study Identification numberID-RCB 2014-A01250-4


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Silke Heuse ◽  
Cathrin Dietze ◽  
Daniel Fodor ◽  
Edgar Voltmer

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.


Author(s):  
Amarjot Singh Gill ◽  
Nistara Singh Chawla ◽  
Sandeep Singh Saini

Background: The practices of various health-care professionals have been improvised to accommodate the on-going covid-19 pandemic situation. Different guidelines have been set in place to ease the process of re-opening of non-elective healthcare services like out-patient physiotherapy clinics. Although the measures taken should be guided by evidence based information, major consensus amongst practicing therapists needs to guide the India physiotherapy clinics. Objective: To identify and present the opinions of different physiotherapists about the various strategies for re-opening the out-patient physiotherapy clinics. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted. Over 169 participants were selected to participate in the survey according to the pre-decided inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data was collected and saved via google forms. Result and conclusion: A majority of respondents had a consensus over different strategies for re-opening the physiotherapy OPDs. These were regarding different measures to be adapted including modifications in the clinic infrastructure and the practice pattern. This would help in smoothly re-instating the physiotherapy services post the covid-19 lockdown.


Author(s):  
Sushma I. ◽  
Nivin Simon ◽  
A. J. S. Pravin ◽  
M. K. Padmaprasad ◽  
M. Vijayabharathi ◽  
...  

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background: </strong>Mask induced dermatitis is common among health care workers now because of the obligatory use of facemask for a longer period during COVID-19, the clinical features vary. Very few studies could be conducted due to the COVID induced constraints. Studies regarding reactions to face masks in health workers published to date are limited and hence we decided to do this study. The objective of this study was to find out the clinical presentations of mask induced dermatitis due to long term use of facemask on healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A cross sectional study was conducted among 40 healthcare workers attend our OPD with face mask for 6 months. After getting informed written consent clinical evaluation was made by history and dermatologic examination.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Total 40 health care professionals between the age group of 21-50 years (17 females and 23 males) came to our OPD with complaints of itching and dryness with signs of erythema, scaling, papules for 6 months duration. Out of them, 15 (37.5%) patients had exacerbation of pre-existing dermatoses like atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, acne. 10 patients (25%) had irritant contact dermatitis 7 patients (17.5%) had sweat-induced dermatitis, 4 patients (10%) had dermatitis due to sponge strip at the nasal bridge, 4 patients (10%) had dermatitis due to vehement use of ear loop involving retroauricular region.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study showed that wearing face masks results in the development and aggravation of other skin diseases due to various causes. Itch can induce scratching and thus lead to inappropriate use of face masks, which could compromise their function.</p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Syed Waseem Tahir ◽  
Sahila Nabi ◽  
Shazia Javaid

Background: Hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to control health care related infection. Every year millions of patients around the world are affected by infections that are transmitted by the health-care professionals(HCPs).(2)(3). Rationale: Nurses and physicians are the main health care workers contacting with patients, representing the vector in the chain of infection. Thus, assessing their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding hand hygiene is very important to decrease the incidence of health care related infection and to improve quality of care. Objective: The objective of our study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of handwashing among healthcare professionals of Kashmir Division. Methods: This study was an institutional based cross sectional study, conducted in various healthcare institutions of Kashmir Division which were selected randomly. A predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants. The questionnaires contained questions about four different parts which included sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of hand washing, attitude and practice of hand washing among healthcare professionals. The questionnaires were distributed to various healthcare professionals working in wards, emergency department, laboratories, outpatient departments, injection and dressing rooms, EPI unit and others. The distributed questionnaires were then collected back. Results: A total of 110 participants were included. Out of total 110 participants,53% were male ,36% were nurses 36% of health professionals were working in IPD (In Patient Department). 89% of the participants agreed that, direct or indirect contacts are the most important routes for transmission of hospital-acquired infections,97% agreed that
 proper and consistent hand washing prevents infections in health facilities,100% agreed that health professionals should always wash their hands immediately when they arrive at health institutions,98% said that they knew steps of handwashing(WHO)/rules of hand hygiene,91% agreed that hand washing is the single most effective mechanism to prevent spread of infection and 95% agreed that wearing jewellery, artificial fingernails, damaged skin and regular use of hand cream are associated with increased likelihood of colonisation of hands with harmful germs. 83% of the participants said that they are committed to the proper rules of hand hygiene all the time,78% said they comply with rules of hand hygiene even in emergencies,80% said that they think when they are wearing gloves it is not necessary to wash hands,92% feel irritated when others don’t follow hand hygiene rules,95% advice others to follow the rules of hand hygiene and 97% said it is easy for you to follow rules of hand hygiene. 40%(each) of the participants said that they always and usually wash hands before touching a patient,100% of the participants said that they always wash hands before performing aseptic and clean procedures, 100% of the participants said that they always wash hands after being at risk of exposure to body fluids and 95% of patients said that they wash hands after coming to and before leaving the hospital. DISCUSSION In this study we had a total of 110 participants. Health professionals had a satisfactory knowledge of hand hygiene but some lacunae are still there as is evident in the result part. Thus from this study we conclude adherence to handwashing is lacking among health professionals, so we need to have regular handwashing sessions for health professionals which will regularly sensitize them, also we need to address the reasons of this poor adherence both at the administrative and personal level. We also recommend to conduct more studies in this field so as to highlight the shortcomings in hand hygiene and then to improve upon them.


Healthcare ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 535
Author(s):  
Mariangela Valentina Puci ◽  
Guido Nosari ◽  
Federica Loi ◽  
Giulia Virginia Puci ◽  
Cristina Montomoli ◽  
...  

The ongoing pandemic scenario, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has had a considerable impact on public health all over the world. Italy was one of the most affected countries, as the first European full-blown outbreak occurred there. The exposure of the Italian health care workers to COVID-19 may be an important risk factor for psychological distress. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe worries and risk perception of being infected among Italian Health Care Workers (HCWs) during the first wave of the pandemic. In total, 2078 HCWs participated in a web survey (78.8% were females). The highest percentage of respondents were physicians (40.75%) and nurses (32.15%), followed by medical (18.00%), health care support (4.50%) and administrative (4.60%) staff. In a score range between 0 (not worried) and 4 (very worried), our results showed that participants declared that they were worried about the Coronavirus infection with a median score of 3 (IQR 2-3) and for 59.19% the risk perception of being infected was very high. In addition, HCWs reported they suffered from sleep disturbances (63.43%). From the analysis of the psychological aspect, a possible divergence emerged between the perceived need for psychological support (83.85%) and the relative lack of this service among health care providers emerged (9.38%). Our findings highlight the importance of psychological and psychiatric support services not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also in other emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) scenarios. These services may be useful for health authorities and policymakers to ensure the psychological well-being of health care professionals and to promote precautionary behaviors among them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belete Kassa Alemu ◽  
Tessema Tsehay Biru

Background. The role of health care professionals among other stakeholders in early detection, assessment, documentation, and reporting as well as preventing suspected adverse reactions is very crucial to mitigate drug-related problems in health facilities. Previous reports from literatures have indicated that adverse drug reaction reporting is highly linked to the knowledge and attitude of the health care professionals. Objective. To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of health care professionals about adverse drug reactions and the associated factors at selected public hospitals in Northeast Ethiopia. Methods. A hospital-based quantitative cross-sectional study design was employed. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on KAP of selected health care providers by the convenience sampling method. Data were entered into Epi info version 3.5.3 and analyzed using SPSS Version 20. Association between dependent and independent variables was found by using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis where p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results. Out of 120 questionnaires distributed, 114 respondents filled and returned, giving a 95% response rate. From total, 49 (43%) were nurses, 26 (22.8%) physicians, 17 (14.9%) pharmacy professionals, 12 (10.5%) health officers, and 10 (8.8%) midwives. About 86 (75.44%) study participants had an inadequate knowledge towards ADR reporting, and half of participants failed to report the adverse drug reactions they encountered. But the majority of participants (84, 73.68%) had a favorable attitude towards ADR reporting. Nurses [AOR = 0.069, 95% CI (0.018–0.275)], health officers [AOR = 0.10, 95% CI (0.015–0.647)], and physicians [AOR = 0.14, 95% CI (0.03–0.64)] were found to be less likely to have adequate knowledge on ADR reporting compared to pharmacy professionals. Conclusion. Even though the majority of health care professionals had a positive attitude, they had inadequate knowledge and poor practice towards ADR reporting.


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