Frequency of COPD in health care workers who smoke

ABSTRACT Objective: COPD is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Health care providers should counsel their smoking patients with COPD to quit smoking as the first treatment step. However, in countries with high prevalences of smoking, health care workers may also be smokers. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and severity of COPD in health care workers who smoke. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. All health care workers who smoke, from nine health care centers in Serbia, were invited to participate in the study and perform spirometry. The diagnosis of COPD was based on a post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio of < 0.70. All patients completed the COPD Assessment Test and the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence. Results: The study involved 305 subjects, and 47 (15.4%) were male. The mean age of the participants was 49.0 ± 6.5 years. Spirometry revealed obstructive ventilatory defect in 33 subjects (10.8%); restrictive ventilatory defect, in 5 (1.6%); and small airway disease, in 96 (31.5%). A diagnosis of COPD was made in 29 patients (9.5%), 25 (86.2%) of whom were newly diagnosed. On the basis of the Global Initiative for COPD guidelines, most COPD patients belonged to groups A or B (n = 14; 48.2%, for both); 1 belonged to group D (3.6%); and none, to group C. Very high nicotine dependence was more common in those with COPD than in those without it (20.7% vs. 5.4%, p = 0.01). Conclusions: In this sample of health care workers, the frequency of COPD was comparable with that in the general population. The presence of COPD in health care workers who smoke was associated with higher nicotine dependence.

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A cross sectional study on knowledge, attitude and practice towards tuberculosis among health care workers

International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences ◽

10.26452/ijrps.v10i4.1521 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 2632-2646

Author(s):

Ajith Kumar G ◽

Saranya P

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Attitude And Practice ◽

Care Workers ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Knowledge Attitude And Practice

Health care providers play a major role in the management of tuberculosis (TB). The knowledge, attitude and practice towards TB in health care providers will have an impact on the treatment success or failure. Studies have reported that inadequate knowledge of the health care providers led to the delivery of improper counselling content to the recipients. We assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards tuberculosis among health care workers in and around Chennai. A cross sectional study was conducted among 382 health care workers of the chest and tuberculosis department of government hospitals and directly observed treatment short-course clinics. The principal investigator administered a structured and validated questionnaire to the study participants. Around 500 healthcare workers were approached, and 382 showed interest to sign the informed consent. A majority (70%) of the study participants were between the age group 20-30 years. There was a highly significant difference (P = 0.006) in response to this between participants who had a history of active tuberculosis and undergone treatment for the same, and the participants with no history of TB. There was a significant difference between the study population based on their qualification and profession (P = 0.001 and P = 0.007 respectively) in using the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program guideline for reference. The knowledge attitude and practice towards TB was good in more than 80% of the respondents, yet there is room to improve. Structured periodic training towards TB will further improve the KAP of health care workers.

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AWARENESS AND PRACTICES APPLIED BY HEALTH CARE WORKERS TO ACHIEVE PATIENT SAFETY DURING PHLEBOTOMY AND ULTRASOUND BIOPSY

Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal ◽

10.51253/pafmj.v70i6.5032 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 70 (6) ◽

pp. 1750-55

Author(s):

Salahuddin Balooch ◽

Fakhra Noureen ◽

Abid Saeed Khan ◽

Ibad ur Rehman ◽

Aleena Bakhtawar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Patient Safety ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Military Hospital ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Care Workers ◽

Practice Implementation

Objective: To assess awareness and practices applied by health care workers to achieve patient safety during phlebotomy and ultrasound biopsy. Study Design: Cross-sectional study Place and duration of study: The present study was conducted from Jan 2019 to Jan 2020 at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Kharian, Pakistan. Patients and Methods: The health care providers were interrogated about their knowledge and practices regarding patient safety with respect to phlebotomy and ultrasound biopsy. The responses of participants were evaluated through correlation analysis by SPSS v.17. Results: The results show that awareness and practice implementation for patient safety in phlebotomy and ultrasound biopsy enhance in accordance to age, education and experience. The findings of present study suggest that physicians and nurses tend to have better awareness and practices of patient safety as compared to other health care workers. However, all the health care workers included in present study showed adequate level of awareness and practice implementation. Conclusion: The managers and co-workers need to support the health care workers’ groups that tend to show lower levels of awareness and practice implantation in patient safety. This will not only enhance their competence but also help in better and secure provision of health care.

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Risk Perception and Worries among Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from an Italian Survey

Healthcare ◽

10.3390/healthcare8040535 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 535

Author(s):

Mariangela Valentina Puci ◽

Guido Nosari ◽

Federica Loi ◽

Giulia Virginia Puci ◽

Cristina Montomoli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Risk Perception ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Sleep Disturbances ◽

Well Being ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Care Workers

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.

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Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Health Care Providers towards the Prevention and Control of Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis at Nekemte Referral Hospital, Western Ethiopia

Innovative Journal of Medical and Health Science ◽

10.15520/ijmhs.v9i1.2418 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 234-241

Author(s):

Ginenus Fekadu*, Ayalesew Melese, Getu Bayisa

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Good Knowledge ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Good Level ◽

Care Workers ◽

Mdr Tb ◽

Level Of Knowledge

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) has existed for millennia and remains a major global health problem. Although it may be assumed that in general health care workers (HCWs) know about MDR-TB and its implications, several studies from around the globe have found that HCWs do not always exhibit sufficient knowledge, positive attitudes, and acceptable practices regarding preventing and treating MDR-TB. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted by means of self-administered semi structured questionnaires that was provided to health care workers of NRH from March 10 to April 2, 2017. Using convenient sampling technique, from 155 health professionals’ 140 individuals returned the questionnaires. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics was used to determine frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was used to identify the relationships between dependent and independent variables (P<0.05 and 95% CI). Results: The mean age of participants was 30.76+6.42 years. About 56.4% of the participants were males and majority of participants were Nurses (42.2%). Greater than half (59.3%) of respondents had good level of knowledge about MDR-TB and the overwhelming majority of them held positive attitude (60.7%) towards patients with MDR-TB. Overall 21%, 55%, 72.1% of respondents reported that they had their own copy of MDR-TB management guidelines, used the protective masks and were individually involved in educating patients about MDR-TB respectively. Respondents who had good knowledge about MDR-TB significantly wore their Protective masks than those with insufficient knowledge which was statistically significant (P=0.01). Based on the assessed level of knowledge, respondents with good level of knowledge reported they referred to the manual more than those with insufficient level (30.1% versus 19.3%, P=0.172). Conclusion: The finding indicates that the level of knowledge about MDR-TB did not influence the attitude and practices of respondents towards patients suffering from MDR-TB. Contrary to this good knowledge was positively associated with safer practices such as using protective masks, educating patients, and referring to the MDRTB guidelines manual. This situation needs to be remedied by making the guidelines available to all healthcare workers in Ethiopia.

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A cross-sectional study regarding Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of hand washing among health care providers in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Tripura

International Journal Of Medical Science And Clinical Invention ◽

10.18535/ijmsci/v5i2.07 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 3527-3531 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dr. Tamal Chakraborty ◽

Dr. Nabarun Karmakar ◽

Dr. Kaushik Nag ◽

Dr. Anjan Datta ◽

Prabir Kumar Saha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Tertiary Care Hospital ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Hand Washing ◽

Care Hospital ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Care Workers

Introduction:- Infection prevention and control is an integral component of health care delivery in any setting to reduce risks for morbidity and mortality in patients and care givers at all levels. The practice of hand hygiene by health care workers, through the use of either soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, is widely considered to be the most important and effective means of preventing health care – associated infections. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practices of health care providers regarding hand washing. Materials and methods:- An institutional based cross sectional study was carried out in outdoor patient, indoor ward among 193 health care providers (doctors, nursing staffs, OT assistants, laboratory technicians, ward boys and ward girls) in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Tripura from September – October 2017. A pre-tested questionnaire was used as study tool to collect information on knowledge, attitude and practices about hand washing. Result:- Majority (73.6%) of the populations was among 18-25 years age group with a female predominance (70.5% females) and most of them were Hindu (94.5%). Most of them (97.5%) know about the importance of hand washing. Around (48.3%) wash hand with soap followed by liquid hand wash (44%) that showed (91%) washed hands with soap and water. Conclusion:-The current study revealed the knowledge, attitude and absence of sufficient practice of hand washing among health care providers. Future studies in this context are recommended to further determine the factors responsible for these lacunae. Also there is a need to educate the health care workers about hand washing practices and to periodically train them about the six steps of hand washing.

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Covid-19 and its financial effects on the dental fraternity and health-care workers: A literature review

International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences ◽

10.26452/ijrps.v11ispl1.2883 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽

pp. 628-631

Author(s):

Devangi Agrawal ◽

Namisha Khara ◽

Bhushan Mundada ◽

Nitin Bhola ◽

Rajiv Borle

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Care Providers ◽

Dental Procedures ◽

Care Workers ◽

Dental Practices ◽

Precautionary Measures ◽

The Government ◽

Set Up

In the wake of the current outbreak of novel Covid-19, which is now declared as a 'pandemic' by the WHO, people around the globe have been dealing with a lot of difficulties. This virus had come into light in December 2019 and since then has only grown exponentially. Amongst the most affected are the ones who have been working extremely hard to eradicate it, which includes the hospitals, dental fraternity and the health-care workers. These people are financially burdened due to limited practise. In the case of dentistry, to avoid the spread of the virus, only emergency treatments are being approved, and the rest of the standard procedures have been put on hold. In some cases, as the number of covid cases is rising, many countries are even trying to eliminate the emergency dental procedures to divert the finances towards the treatment of covid suffering patients. What we need to realise is that this is probably not the last time that we are facing such a situation. Instead of going down, we should set up guidelines with appropriate precautionary measures together with the use of standardised PPEs. The government should also establish specific policies to support dental practices and other health-care providers. Together, we can fight this pandemic and come out stronger.

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Epidemiology of needlestick injuries among health-care workers in Awassa City, Southern Ethiopia

Tropical Doctor ◽

10.1258/td.2009.090191 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 111-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Moges Tadesse ◽

Takele Tadesse

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Needlestick Injury ◽

Public Health Issue ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Needlestick Injuries ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Care Workers

Accidental needlestick injuries sustained by health-care workers are a common occupational hazard and a public health issue in health-care settings. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted and 30.9% of health-care workers had experienced at least one needlestick injury in the previous year.

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