scholarly journals Substantial and sustained reduction in under-5 mortality, diarrhea, and pneumonia in Oshikhandass, Pakistan: evidence from two longitudinal cohort studies 15 years apart

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea L Hansen ◽  
Benjamin JJ McCormick ◽  
Syed Iqbal Azam ◽  
Khalil Ahmed ◽  
Julia M Baker ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Oshikhandass is a rural village in northern Pakistan where a verbal autopsy study from 1989-1991 showed that diarrhea and pneumonia were the top causes of under-5 mortality. Intensive surveillance, active community health education and child health interventions were delivered in 1989-1996; here we assess improvements in under-5 mortality, diarrhea, and pneumonia over this period and 15 years later.Methods: Two prospective open-cohort studies in Oshikhandass from 1989-1996 (Study 1) and 2011-2014 (Study 2) enrolled all children under age 60 months. Study staff trained using WHO guidelines conducted weekly household surveillance and promoted knowledge on causes and management of diarrhea and pneumonia. Information about household characteristics and socioeconomic status was collected. Hurdle models were constructed to examine putative risk factors for diarrhea and pneumonia.Results: Against a backdrop of considerable change in the socioeconomic status of the community, under-5 mortality, which declined over the course of Study 1 (from 114.3 to 79.5 deaths/1000 live births (LB) between 1989 and 1996), exceeded Sustainable Development Goal 3 by Study 2 (19.8 deaths/ 1000 LB). Reductions in diarrhea prevalence (20.3 to 2.2 days/ Child Year [CY]), incidence (2.1 to 0.5 episodes/ CY), and number of bloody diarrhea episodes (18.6% to 5.2%) seen during Study 1, were sustained in Study 2. Pneumonia incidence was 0.5 episodes /CY in Study 1 and 0.2/CY in Study 2; only 5% of episodes were categorized as severe or very severe in both studies. While no individual factors predicted a statistically significant difference in diarrhea or pneumonia episodes, the combined effect of water, toilet and housing materials was associated with a significant decrease in diarrhea; higher household income was the most protective factor for pneumonia in Study 1. Conclusions: We report a 4-fold decrease in overall childhood mortality, and a 2-fold decrease in childhood morbidity from diarrhea and pneumonia in a remote rural village in Pakistan between 1989-2014. We conclude that significant, sustainable improvements in child health may be achieved through improved socioeconomic status and promoting interactions between locally engaged health workers and the community, but that continued efforts are needed to improve health worker training, supervision, and the rational use of medications.Trial Registration: Not Applicable

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea L Hansen(Former Corresponding Author) ◽  
Benjamin JJ McCormick ◽  
Syed Iqbal Azam ◽  
Khalil Ahmed ◽  
Julia M Baker ◽  
...  

Abstract Oshikhandass is a rural village in northern Pakistan where a verbal autopsy study from 1989-1991 showed that diarrhea and pneumonia were the top causes of under-5 mortality. Intensive surveillance, active community health education and child health interventions were delivered in 1989-1996; here we assess improvements in under-5 mortality, diarrhea, and pneumonia over this period and 15 years later. Two prospective open-cohort studies in Oshikhandass from 1989-1996 (Study 1) and 2011-2014 (Study 2) enrolled all children under age 60 months. Study staff trained using WHO guidelines conducted weekly household surveillance and promoted knowledge on causes and management of diarrhea and pneumonia. Information about household characteristics and socioeconomic status was collected. Hurdle models were constructed to examine putative risk factors for diarrhea and pneumonia. Against a backdrop of considerable change in the socioeconomic status of the community, under-5 mortality, which declined over the course of Study 1 (from 114.3 to 79.5 deaths/1000 live births [LB] between 1989 and 1996), exceeded Sustainable Development Goal 3 by Study 2 (19.8 deaths/ 1000 LB). Reductions in diarrhea prevalence (20.3 to 2.2 days/ Child Year [CY]), incidence (2.1 to 0.5 episodes/ CY), and number of bloody diarrhea episodes (18.6% to 5.2%) seen during Study 1, were sustained in Study 2. Pneumonia incidence was 0.5 episodes /CY in Study 1 and 0.2/CY in Study 2; only 5% of episodes were categorized as severe or very severe in both studies. While no individual factors predicted a statistically significant difference in diarrhea or pneumonia episodes, the combined effect of water, toilet and house construction was associated with a significant decrease in diarrhea; higher household income was the most protective factor for pneumonia in Study 1. We report a 4-fold decrease in overall childhood mortality, and a 2-fold decrease in childhood morbidity from diarrhea and pneumonia in a remote rural village in Pakistan between 1989-2014. We conclude that significant, sustainable improvements in child health may be achieved through improved socioeconomic status and promoting interactions between locally engaged health workers and the community, but that continued efforts are needed to improve health worker training, supervision, and the rational use of medications.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea L Hansen ◽  
Benjamin JJ McCormick ◽  
Syed Iqbal Azam ◽  
Khalil Ahmed ◽  
Julia M Baker ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Oshikhandass is a rural village in northern Pakistan where a verbal autopsy study from 1989-1991 showed that diarrhea and pneumonia were the top causes of under-5 mortality. Intensive surveillance, active community health education and child health interventions were delivered in 1989-1996; here we assess if any improvements in under-5 mortality, diarrhea, and pneumonia over this period continued 15 years later. Methods Two open-cohort studies in Oshikhandass from 1989-1996 (Study 1) and 2011-2014 (Study 2) enrolled all children under age 60 months. Study staff trained using WHO guidelines conducted weekly household surveillance and promoted knowledge on causes and management of diarrhea and pneumonia. Information about household characteristics and socioeconomic status was collected. Hurdle models were constructed to examine putative risk factors for diarrhea and pneumonia. Results Against a backdrop of considerable change in the socioeconomic status of the community, under-5 mortality, which declined over the course of Study 1 (from 114.3 to 79.5 deaths/1000 live births between 1989 and 1996), exceeded Sustainable Development Goal 3 by Study 2 (19.6 deaths/ 1000 live births). Reductions in diarrhea prevalence (20.3 to 2.2 days/ Child Year [CY]), incidence (2.1 to 0.5 episodes/ CY), and number of bloody diarrhea episodes (18.6% to 5.2%) seen during Study 1, were sustained in Study 2. Pneumonia incidence was 0.5 episodes /CY in Study 1 and 0.2/CY in Study 2; only 5% of episodes were categorized as severe or very severe in both studies. While no individual factors predicted a statistically significant difference in diarrhea or pneumonia episodes, the combined effect of water, toilet and house construction was associated with a significant decrease in diarrhea; higher household income was the most protective factor for pneumonia. Conclusions We report a 2-3-fold decrease in childhood morbidity and mortality from diarrhea and pneumonia in a remote rural village in Pakistan. Household water and sanitation predicted small differences in diarrhea morbidity, but the decrease in disease burden over the first study suggests that promoting tight linkages between health workers and the community to increase knowledge and management of child health can lead to sustainable reductions in child morbidity and mortality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
T O'Dowd

Abstract Background Worldwide smoking remains the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are increasingly used by tobacco smokers as an aid to smoking cessation; however, their efficacy remains uncertain. Methods Electronic databases, clinical trial registries and grey literature sources were searched. The aim was to examine randomised controlled trials or prospective cohort studies, published since the 2016 Cochrane review on this topic, that assessed the efficacy of ECs in achieving smoking cessation among current smokers. Results Two RCTs and five cohort studies, including a total of 16,460 participants, were eligible for inclusion. One RCT found sustained 1-year abstinence of 18.0% in the EC group versus 9.9% in the nicotine replacement therapy group (RR: 1.83; 95% CI 1.30 to 2.58; P < 0.001). The second RCT did not find a statistically significant difference in abstinence rates between EC users and non-users (RR 0.71). Of the five included cohort studies, four reported statistically significant RRs. Two found a positive association (RRs of 1.45 and 1.84) between EC use and smoking cessation but two studies showed EC use was associated with reduced smoking cessation (RRs of 0.25 and 0.35). Due to significant heterogeneity between the studies the data were deemed unsuitable for pooling into a meta-analysis. All trials assessing smoking reduction reported higher rates of reduction among EC users. No serious adverse events were reported with EC use. Follow-up periods of included trials ranged from one to four years, with an average of 1.6 years. Conclusions There is limited, low-quality evidence that ECs are an effective intervention for smoking cessation and smoking reduction. The overall quality of evidence is low as it is based on a small number of studies with inconsistent and imprecise results. Due to the short follow-up periods of the included trials, the long-term safety of ECs is unclear from this review. Key messages Limited evidence that electronic cigarettes are an effective smoking cessation intervention. Further well-designed randomised controlled trials are required to investigate the efficacy of ECs for smoking cessation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 126 (5) ◽  
pp. 717-721
Author(s):  
Giulio Francolini ◽  
Isacco Desideri ◽  
Giulia Stocchi ◽  
Lucia Pia Ciccone ◽  
Viola Salvestrini ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and purpose COVID-19 constitutes a worldwide threat, prompting Italian Government to implement specific measures on March 8, 2020, to protect patients and health workers from disease transmission. The impact of preventive measures on daily activity of a radiotherapy facility may hamper the ability to fulfill normal workload burden. Thus, we assessed the number of delivered treatments in a specific observation period after the adoption of preventive measures (since March 11 to April 24, 2020) and compared it with the corresponding period of the year 2019. Materials and methods Overall number of delivered fractions was related to actual time of platform daily activity and reported as a ratio between number of delivered fractions and activity hours (Fr/Hrs). Fr/Hrs were calculated and compared for two different periods of time, March 11–April 24, 2019 (Fr/Hrs1), and March 11–April 24, 2020 (Fr/Hrs2). Results Fr/Hrs1 and Fr/Hrs2 were 2.66 and 2.54 for year 2019 and 2020, respectively, for a Fr/Hrsratio of 1.07 (95% CI 1.03–1.12, p = 0.0005). Fr/Hrs1 was significantly higher than Fr/Hrs2 for SliR and PreciseR, with Fr/Hrsratio of 1.92 (95% CI 1.66–2.23, p < 0.0001) and 1.11 (95% CI 1.03–1.2, p = 0.003), respectively. No significant difference was reported for SynergyR and CyberknifeR with Fr/Hrsratio of 0.99 (95% CI 0.91–1.08, p = 0.8) and 0.9 (95% CI 0.77–1.06, p = 0.2), respectively. Fr/Hrs1 was significantly lower than Fr/Hrs2 for TomotherapyR, with Fr/Hrsratio of 0.88 (95% CI 0.8–0.96, p = 0.007). Conclusion Preventive measures did not influence workload burden performed. Automation in treatment delivery seems to compensate effectively for health workers number reduction.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1328
Author(s):  
Jorge Martin-Gutierrez ◽  
Marta Sylvia Del Rio Guerra

There has been a conscious shift towards developing increasingly inclusive applications. However, despite this fact, most research has focused on supporting those with visual or hearing impairments and less attention has been paid to cognitive impairments. The purpose of this study is to analyse touch gestures used for touchscreens and identify which gestures are suitable for individuals living with Down syndrome (DS) or other forms of physical or cognitive impairments. With this information, app developers can satisfy Design for All (DfA) requirements by selecting adequate gestures from existing lists of gesture sets. Twenty touch gestures were defined for this study and a sample group containing eighteen individuals with Down syndrome was used. A tool was developed to measure the performance of touch gestures and participants were asked to perform simple tasks that involved the repeated use of these twenty gestures. Three variables are analysed to establish whether they influence the success rates or completion times of gestures, as they could have a collateral effect on the skill with which gestures are performed. These variables are Gender, Type of Down syndrome, and Socioeconomic Status. Analysis reveals that significant difference is present when a pairwise comparison is performed, meaning individuals with DS cannot perform all gestures with the same ease. The variables Gender and Socioeconomic Status do not influence success rates or completion times, but Type of DS does.


2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 262-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Branislava Brestovacki ◽  
Dragana Milutinovic ◽  
Tomislav Cigic ◽  
Vera Grujic ◽  
Dragana Simin

Introduction. Health care workers often come into conflict situations while performing their daily activities. People behave differently when they come into conflicts and they are usually not aware of their own reactions. The aim of this paper was to establish the presence of conflict styles among health workers and the differences in relation to demographic characteristics (education, working experience, managerial position). Material and Methods. The research was done as a cross-sectional study and through surveys. The conflict handling questionnaire was used as the research instrument. The questionnaire contained 30 statements arranged in five dimensions of conflict styles. The sample included one hundred nurses and fifty-five doctors. Results. The research showed that accommodating was the most often used conflict style. There was no significant difference in styles of managerial and non-managerial staff, but there was a significant difference in the styles adopted by doctors and nurses. It should be noted that nurses used avoiding and accommodating conflict styles much more often. Conclusion. It is important to increase the awareness of conflict existence and the possibility of solving the problem constructively in order to achieve more efficient duty performance.


Rheumatology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
O Gacem ◽  
L Labboun ◽  
N Mansouri ◽  
M Gherbi ◽  
Z Zeroual ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Pediatric Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (pSLE) is a chronic mutisystemic autoimmune disease with complex clinical manifestations whose diagnosis is not always easy and the course is generally severe and the treatment is not very well codified and often extrapolated from that of adults. This study aims to describe the clinical, immunological, therapeutic characteristics and short outcome of systemic lupus erythematosus in Algerian children. Methods This was a prospective, multicentre and descriptive study 36 months (January 2015 - December 2018) at the department of Pediatrics of University Hospital Nefissa Hamoud ex Parnet Algiers. Children less than16 years of age fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology SLE criteria were included. Disease activity estimated by Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity index (SLEDAI) whose use has been validated in children and damage index based on Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) score were determined. Results Eighty-three (83) patients were studied. Female: male ratio was1:49. Mean ages at lupus onset and diagnosis were respectively: 10, 12 ± 3, 88 and 11, 3 ± 3, 62 years. All patients had skin involvement while constitutional signs including fever and asthenia were observed in (98.8%). Rheumatological, renal, neuropsychiatric, cardiac, hepato-digestive, pleuropulmonary and ocular disorders were observed respectively: 65, 1%, 44, 6%, 41%, 27, 7%, 41%, 19, 3% and 7, 2%. All patients were positive for antinuclear antibodies. Anti-double-stranded DNA (75%) was the most frequently observed autoantibody profile. Antiphospholipid antibody positivity was noted in 52% whereas hypocomplementemia in fractions C3, C4 was observed in 55% and 56% respectively. In our study, the severe forms were more frequent (83%) than the mild ones (17%) with a significant difference (P = &lt; 10–6). Overall, the mean SLEDAI at disease onset was 22.11 ± 11.87 with high activity ≥ 20 in 59% of cases. The mean damage score was 1.8 ± 2.045 (interquartile range 0–8). Among induction drugs, oral corticosteroids were the most frequently used (92%), and in a third of cases intravenously at high doses in combination with immunosuppressive therapy. In induction therapy, cyclophosphamide (CYC) was the most used drug (23%) compared with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) (14%). Unlike the maintenance phase where MMF observed an increase (28%) vs (8%) CYC. The use of MMF was correlated with severe lupus nephritis with a significantly effective difference in the decrease in SLEDAI (P = 0.0001). The use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was observed in 81% in induction and 89% in maintenance treatment. The correlation of HCQ use with survival was significantly positive (P = 0.04). Indeed, adherence to treatments and essentially HCQ was a protective factor, its odds ratio is &lt; 1 with a significant p-value, [OR 0.016 95% CI (0.001–0.353)]. Mortality was estimated at 11%. Multivariable regression analysis showed that the neurological involvement (odds ratio = 6,093 95% confidence interval ((1,1 8 0 ∼ 31 446)) and macrophage activation syndrome were associated with a high risk of mortality. Conclusion we report a series of pSLE characterized by great clinical and biological heterogeneity. It follows a severe course of the disease with high disease activity at the diagnosis and therefore leads to high morbidity and mortality. However, these results must be confirmed by other pediatric studies which could form the basis of a diagnostic and therapeutic approach more adapted for children. Keywords Algeria, Child, Clinical features, Disease activity, lupus


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Gianna Spitta ◽  
Tobias Gleich ◽  
Kristin Zacharias ◽  
Oisin Butler ◽  
Ralph Buchert ◽  
...  

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Reduced striatal dopamine D2/3 receptor availability in alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been demonstrated in recent clinical studies and meta-analyses. However, only a limited number of studies investigated extrastriatal D2/3 availability in AUD or in at-risk populations. In line with a dimensional understanding of addiction, extrastriatal dopaminergic neuroadaptations have been suggested to be relevant from a pathobiological perspective. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We investigated D2/3 receptor availability via <sup>18</sup>F-fallypride positron emission tomography applying a region of interest (ROI) approach. We selected ROIs for the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Our sample included 19 healthy controls (low risk [LR]), 19 individuals at high risk (HR) to develop addiction, and 20 recently detoxified AUD patients. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We found significantly higher D2/3 receptor availability of HR compared to AUD in the left and right rostral ACC (rACC), as well as in the left ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC). We did not observe a significant difference between AUD and LR. After corrections for multiple comparisons none of the ROIs reached significance throughout the group comparison. The D2/3 receptor availability in the left rACC was inversely correlated with symptom severity assessed with the Alcohol Dependency Scale. <b><i>Discussion:</i></b> To our knowledge, the present work is the first study investigating extrastriatal D2/3 receptor availabilities in individuals at HR and patients with AUD. The observation that D2/3 receptor availabilities are highest in HR might suggest that their pathobiology differs from subjects with AUD. Future studies are necessary to clarify the intraindividual course of this biomarker over different disease stages and its possible role as a risk or protective factor.


Author(s):  
Mgbahurike AA ◽  
Oduogu SO ◽  
Bagbi BM

Background to study: Effective management of hypertension is influenced by several factors that center on social and economic status of the patient. Identification of these factors will enable informed intervention in the management of hypertensive patients. Objective: The study aimed to determine possible association between blood pressure control and socioeconomic status of patients who are managed in community pharmacies in Rivers State. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional survey of thirty-nine community pharmacies was conducted between July and December 2018.  A total of 195 respondents participated in the study. Every patient’s consent was obtained. Further information on patients’ demographics were extracted from pharmacists’ documentation files. Such include age, medication patient is on, duration of hypertension, co-morbidity, income/ social status, and habits like smoking, alcohol consumption, educational status, and mean blood pressure over the study period. The outcome measure taken as controlled blood pressure was mean BP ≤140/90 mm Hg for the general population and BP 130/80 mmHg for patients with diabetes as co-morbidity. BP >140/90 mm Hg was considered as uncontrolled blood pressure. Result: A total of 195 respondents participated in the study, of which 105(53.8%) were male and 90(46.2%) were female. Out of this number 75(38.5%) were below 40yrs of age, 105(53.8%) were between 41–50yrs of age and only 15(7.7%) were 60yrs and above. More female had BP control compared to the male (OR 1.89, 95% CI (1.16 - 3.0), P=0.009. Patients within ages 41 - 59yrs had more controlled BP compared to older age, 60yrs and above, OR 1.48, 95% CI (0.84 - 2.42) p 0.18. Uncontrolled BP was found more among employed patients and patients with highest monthly income, OR 1.05 95% CI (0.58 - 2.00); OR 1.16 95% CI (0.49 - 2.78) P, 0.36 respectively. Exercise activities have significant impact on BP control as alcohol consumption increased OR of BP control with no significant difference in OR on amount of monthly expenditure on medications. Conclusion: Male gender, employment, and high income earning have negative effect on BP control while exercise is associated with BP control.                    Peer Review History: Received: 4 September 2021; Revised: 10 October; Accepted: 21 October, Available online: 15 November 2021 Academic Editor:  Dr. Gehan Fawzy Abdel Raoof Kandeel, Pharmacognosy Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, 12622,  Giza, Egypt, [email protected]  UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency.  Received file:                Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 6.0/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewers: Dr. Muhammad Zahid Iqbal, AIMST University, Malaysia, [email protected] Dr. Vanina Doris Edo’o, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroun, [email protected] Similar Articles: PRESCRIPTION PATTERN OF ANTI-HYPERTENSIVE DRUGS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN KERALA AND ADHERENCE TO JNC-8 GUIDELINES


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