scholarly journals QUALITY EVALUATION AND SURVEY OF THE ESSENTIAL NEED FOR DRUG INFORMATION CENTERS

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Ming Ming Wen ◽  
Heba Aref ◽  
Ahmad Abozaid ◽  
Nahla Hesham Kandil ◽  
Yasmin Hussein Elsobky
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Treatment Guidelines ◽  
Drug Information ◽  
Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting ◽  
Community Pharmacists ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Process Stage ◽  
The Impact

Objective: The first objective of this work was to examine the services provided by six drug information centers (DICs) in Alexandria, Egypt. The second objective was to evaluate the quality of the replies to the drug information query. The third objective was to assess the conceptual need of DICs from community pharmacists, other health care professionals and the general public.Methods: This study was conducted through three stages. Stage I was a field survey to assess predefined parameters in the current DICs in Alexandria. Stage II was a retrospective cross-sectional study to assess the quality of the drug information replies through an external expert review process. Stage III was a population survey and thematic analysis using questionnaires and interview recording.Results: Activities of DICs include: DIR answering service (100%), adverse drug reaction reporting (100%), issuing bulletins (83.3%), education (83.3%), drug use evaluation (50%) and participation in P and T committees (33.3%). The most frequent question categories asked were dosing, side effects, treatment guidelines and drug interactions. Half of the DICs were affiliated with hospitals; however, a general lacking confidence level of these DICs on the professionalism and the impact on patient care for the DIC services provided was identified. There was an obvious problem in formatting the ultimate question in a question format rather than a sentence format in all DICs. The most accurately answered request was adverse drug reactions. All surveyed groups considered that it is very important to have a DIC accessible to the community free of charge.Conclusion: It is necessary to establish an university-based DIC to incorporate training, education and research into the existing services. A DIC network with definitive standards of services in the future should provide safe and effective quality-assured pharmaceutical care to meet the needs and expectations of the community and improve its delivery to the public. The results and recommendations of this study can be inspired and generalized to other developing countries that have similar health systems as in Egypt. 

scholarly journals The Needs and Resources of Drug Information at Community Pharmacies in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dessalegn Asmelashe Gelayee ◽  
Gashaw Binega Mekonnen ◽  
Mequanent Kassa Birarra
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Guidelines ◽  
Drug Information ◽  
Community Pharmacists ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Northwest Ethiopia ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
National Standard ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
Cross Sectional

Background. Community pharmacists are in a key position to provide information on drugs and thus promote the rational use of drugs. Objectives. The present study was designed to determine the needs and resources of drug information in community pharmacies. Methods. A prospective institution based cross-sectional study was carried out and data were collected on 48 community pharmacists in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia, using interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Results. Almost all pharmacists (N=47, 97.9%) often receive drug related queries and these were mainly from consumers (N=41, 85.4%). While most questions relate to drug price (N=29, 60.4%) and dosage (N=21, 43.8%), the information resources mainly referred to were drug package inserts and national standard treatment guidelines. However, limited availability of information resources as well as limited ability to retrieve relevant information influenced the practice of pharmacists. Female pharmacists claimed better use of different information resources than males (P<0.05). Conclusions. Community pharmacists in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia, are often accessed for drug related information. But there are limitations in using up to date and most reliable resources. Therefore, intervention aimed at improving pharmacists’ access to and evaluation of drug information is urgently needed.

The impact of the use of a footrest on the quality of chest compressions. A prospective, randomized, cross-sectional study

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Majer ◽  
Sandra Pyda ◽  
Jerzy Robert Ladny ◽  
Antonio Rodriguez-Nunez ◽  
Lukasz Szarpak
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Chest Compressions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Impact

Correlation of Altmetric Attention Scores with Citations in Major Pharmacy Journals (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave L Dixon ◽  
William L Baker
Keyword(s):  
Citation Count ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Scientific Output ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Promotion And Tenure ◽  
Article Type ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND The impact and quality of a faculty members publications is a key factor in promotion and tenure decisions and career advancement. Traditional measures, including citation counts and journal impact factor, have notable limitations. Since 2010, alternative metrics have been proposed as another means of assessing the impact and quality of scholarly work. The Altmetric Attention Score is an objective score frequently used to determine the immediate reach of a published work across the web, including news outlets, blogs, social media, and more. Several studies evaluating the correlation between the Altmetric Attention Score and number of citations have found mixed results and may be discipline-specific. OBJECTIVE To determine the correlation between higher Altmetric Attention Scores and citation count for journal articles published in major pharmacy journals. METHODS This cross-sectional study evaluated articles from major pharmacy journals ranked in the top 10% according to the Altmetric Attention Score. Sources of attention that determined the Altmetric Attention Score were obtained, as well each articles open access status, article type, study design, and topic. Correlation between journal characteristics, including the Altmetric Attention Score and number of citations, was assessed using the Spearman’s correlation test. A Kruskal-Wallis 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the Altmetric Attention Scores between journals. RESULTS Six major pharmacy journals were identified. A total of 1,376 articles were published in 2017 and 137 of these represented the top 10% with the highest Altmetric Attention Scores. The median Altmetric Attention Score was 19 (IQR 15-28). Twitter and Mendeley were the most common sources of attention. Over half (56.2%) of the articles were original investigations and 49.8% were either cross-sectional, qualitative, or cohort studies. No significant correlation was found between the Altmetric Attention Score and citation count (rs=0.07, P = 0.485). Mendeley was the only attention source that correlated with the number of citations (rs=0.486, P<0.001). The median Altmetric Attention Score varied widely between each journal (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The overall median Altmetric Attention score of 19 suggests articles published in major pharmacy journals are near the top 5% of all scientific output. However, we found no correlation between the Altmetric Attention Score and number of citations for articles published in major pharmacy journals in the year 2017.

scholarly journals Prevalence and quality of life in high school pupils with acne in Serbia

2013 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 935-939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Peric ◽  
Natasa Maksimovic ◽  
Janko Jankovic ◽  
Biljana Mijovic ◽  
Vesna Reljic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
High School ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Demographic Questionnaire ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Serbian Version ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Spearman’S Correlation

Background/Aim. Acne is a common problem in adolescent children with considerable emotional and psychological effects. The aim of this study was to determine the self-reported prevalence of acne and to assess its impact on the quality of life in high school pupils in Serbia. Methods. The cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2011 in two medical high schools in Serbia. Only pupils who gave a written informed consent to participate in the study (n = 440) were asked to fill in two questionnaires: short demographic questionnaire and Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI), a disease-specific questionnaire measuring disability induced by acne. Internal consistency (tested by Cronbach?s alpha) and item-total score correlations (Spearman's correlation analysis) were used for reliability analyses. Results. The study population consisted of 440 pupils, 281 from Belgrade and 159 from Uzice. Among them 371 (84.3%) were girls and 69 (15.7%) boys, with similar sex distribution in Belgrade and Uzice. The total mean age of pupils was 16.48 years (SD = 0.55). Out of 440 pupils 228 (51.8%) self-reported their acne. The acne prevalence was significantly higher in pupils from Uzice (73.6%) than in those from Belgrade (39.6%). The overall mean CADI score for the whole sample was 2.87 ? 2.74, with the similar quality of life impairment in adolescents from Belgrade and from Uzice. The mean Cronbach?s alpha was 0.82. Conclusion. This study shows that the quality of life impairment due to acne is mild for the majority of the affected pupils. The Serbian version of the CADI is a reliable, valid, and valuable tool for assessing the impact of acne on the quality of life.

scholarly journals Tinnitus: The Sound of Stress?

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 264-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Ciminelli ◽  
Sergio Machado ◽  
Manoela Palmeira ◽  
Mauro Giovanni Carta ◽  
Sarah Cristina Beirith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Progressive Increase ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
P Value ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Subjective Tinnitus ◽  
Stress Symptoms ◽  
The Impact

Background: Emotional stress is frequently associated with otologic symptoms as tinnitus and dizziness. Stress can contribute to the beginning or worsening of tinnitus. Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate the presence of stress symptoms in patients with chronic, subjective tinnitus, and correlate its presence to annoyance associated with tinnitus. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. One hundred and eighty patients with chronic, subjective tinnitus were included. Patients answered the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) to evaluate the impact of tinnitus in the quality of life and answered the Lipp's inventory symptoms of stress for adults (ISSL). The data obtained was organized using Excel® 2010, mean values, linear regression and p-value were calculated. Results: Of the 180 patients included in the study, 117 (65%) had stress symptoms, 52 of the 117 (44%) were in the resistance phase and 23 of the 117 (20%) in the exhaustion phase, the remaining was in the alert phase. There was a clear progressive increase in stress as THI raised, with more impact of tinnitus in quality of life. Conclusion: The presence of stress symptoms, measured by ISSL was observed in most of our patients with chronic subjective tinnitus, specially in the resistance and exhaustion phases and it is directly associated with tinnitus annoyance.

scholarly journals Evaluation of rational prescribing and dispensing of medicines in Mali

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaya Coulibaly ◽  
Fanta Sangho ◽  
Aboubacar Alassane Oumar
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Treatment Guidelines ◽  
Generic Drugs ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
The Public ◽  
Quality Of Prescribing

Objective: The drug policy of Mali is based on the concept of essential generic drugs. The adoption of generic drugs in a program is often accompanied by irrational use of these drugs precisely because of the availability of these drugs. Thus, this study was initiated to assess the quality of prescribing and dispensing drugs in Mali. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from 2004 to 2013, the survey was conducted in 20 primary health centers and 20 private pharmacies in three regions of the country. In each of these structures, 30 prescriptions filled at the time of the survey were collected. Results: The average number of drugs per prescription was 3.0 ± 1.3 and 2.4 ± 1.2, respectively, in the public and private sectors. Prescription of drugs under international name was 91.6% in the public sector and 37.2% in the private sector. The public sector prescribed 33.7% of injectable drug against 16.2% in the private sector (p <0.001). The average cost of a prescription was lower in the public sector (3415.3 FCFA or 5.21euros) than in the private sector (7111 FCFA or 10.85 euros).Conclusion: Generic drugs are commonly used in the public, but much less in the private sector. The treatment guidelines are already available, should be introduced interactively to medical practitioners, through visits and intensive supervision by more experienced managers in the hierarchy, it would be likely to improve the quality of prescribing practitioners.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF MEDICATION ADHERENCE ON HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE OF DIABETIC PATIENTS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA: FINDINGS FROM A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (34) ◽  
pp. 867-873
Author(s):  
Dhfer ALSHAYBAN ◽  
Royes JOSEPH
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Medication Adherence ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
P Value ◽  
Diabetic Patients ◽  
Health State ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
The Impact

Diabetes is a common chronic disease that is considered as one of the fastest-growing health problems in the world. Adherence to medications could be an important factor in reducing these complications and improving the quality of life. The purpose of this research was to assess the impact of treatment adherence on health-related quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes. A multicenter cross-sectional study was carried out among 368 diabetes patients. General Medication Adherence Scale was used to assess the adherence level and EuroQol-5D to assess the quality of life. The results show that 19%, 21%, and 23% of patients had maintained low medication adherence due to patient’s intentional or unintentional behavior due to additional diseases or pills burden and due to financial constraints, respectively. Overall, 43% (n=162) participants had maintained high medication adherence, and 37% (n=138) had maintained low medication adherence to antidiabetic drugs. Nearly one-third (31%) of patients with high overall adherence had perfect health state in comparison with 4% among patients with low adherence. Further, the lower proportion (21%) of patients with high overall adherence had perfect health state in comparison with that among patients with low adherence (34%). In addition to the overall adherence, the association was statistically significant for the domains related to non-adherence due to the patient’s intentional or unintentional behavior (p-value 0.001) and non-adherence due to additional diseases or pills burden (p-value 0.001) after taking into account of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the policymakers should establish an intervention to improve adherence to diabetic treatment, and thus improve the quality of life for the type 2 diabetic patients.

scholarly journals Antenatal Care Quality by Midwives as A Stunting Prevention Effort in Malang, East Java: A Comparative Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diadjeng Setya W ◽  
◽  
Miftahul Jannah ◽  
Rismaina Putri ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antenatal Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Questionnaire Data ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Child's Brain ◽  
Dominant Influence

ABSTRACT Background: Fulfilment of nutrition in the first 1000 days of life greatly affects the development of a child’s brain and body. If the nutritional intake is not fulfilled, the impact on children’s development will be permanent, one of which is stunting. This study aimed to compare the quality of antenatal care (ANC) by midwives in the stunting locus and not the stunting locus village. Subjects and Method: This was a comparative analytic with cross-sectional study conducted in stunting locus and not stunting locus village in Malang Regency from August-December 2019. A total of 84 midwives were enrolled in this study by purposive sampling. The data were collected by questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a multiple linear regression. Results: Quality of ANC in stunting locus and not stunting locus village were not showing good results. The most dominant influence on the quality of ANC midwives in the stunting locus was the length of work of the midwives. Meanwhile, the most dominant influence on the quality of ANC midwives in non-stunting locus was the latest education. Conclusion: Quality of ANC in stunting locus and not stunting locus village are not yet showing good results. Keywords: stunting, quality, antenatal care, midwives Correspondence: Diadjeng Setya Wardani. Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Brawijaya. Jl. Veteran Malang, East Java, Indonesia. [email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.26911/the7thicph.03.06

scholarly journals Knowledge, attitude and practice of Lebanese community pharmacists with regard to self-management of low back pain

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 873-878
Author(s):  
Mariam K. Dabbous ◽  
Sara M. Moustafa ◽  
Fouad R. Sakr ◽  
Marwan G. Akel ◽  
Jihan H. Safwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Back Pain ◽  
Back Pain ◽  
Community Pharmacists ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Oral Dosage ◽  
Secondary Outcome ◽  
Low Back ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Local Patch

Purpose: To determine the knowledge, attitude and reported practice of Lebanese community pharmacists who advise persons who present with low back pain.Methods: This was a multi-center cross-sectional study conducted in over 300 community pharmacies across Lebanon from December 2017 to May 2018. Pharmacists working at a community pharmacy were considered eligible, and those who volunteered to participate completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed for self-completion by the pharmacist and included demographic questions about the respondent, questions that assessed knowledge and attitude toward low back pain, and questions about treatment to reflect and characterize the nature of practice. The primary outcome was to determine the knowledge, attitude and reported practice of the Lebanese pharmacists advising people who presented with low back pain. The secondary outcome was to assess factors that affect knowledge, attitude, and practice.Results: The response of 320 community pharmacists was analysed. The proportion of pharmacists with good knowledge about low back pain (51. 7 %) was slightly higher than those with poor knowledge (48. 3 %). Oral therapy was the most prescribed dosage form for back pain compared to local patch and cream. Among oral dosage forms, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were the most prescribed medications (42 %). Of the patients’ referral to the physician if necessary, 73.1 % of the referrals were by pharmacists.Conclusion: Community pharmacists in Lebanon demonstrate an acceptable level of knowledge of back pain, yet major gaps still exist, particularly in terms of the quality of advice. Hence, more education is needed to provide better quality of advice. Keywords: Attitude, Knowledge, Low back pain, Reported practice, Quality of advice

scholarly journals Prevalence of acne and its impact on the quality of life in school-aged adolescents in Malaysia

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arshad Hanisah ◽  
Khairani Omar ◽  
Shamsul Azhar Shah
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Severe Acne ◽  
System A ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Facial Acne

AIM: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of facial acne and its impact on the quality of life among adolescents attending secondary schools in Muar, Malaysia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted where 409 samples were selected using stratified cluster random sampling from two secondary schools in Muar, involving Form 1 to Form 5 students. Students were diagnosed clinically and the severity of facial acne was assessed using Global Acne Grading System. A self-reported Cardiff Acne Disability Index was used to assess the quality of life among adolescents who had acne. RESULTS: The prevalence of facial acne among the adolescents was 67.5% (n=276). Facial acne increased with increasing age (p=0.001). It was more common among males (71.1%) than females (64.6%), p=0.165. The males also had a higher prevalence of severe acne (p=0.001). The quality of life was affected by the severity of acne. Students with severe acne had higher levels of Cardiff Acne Disability Index (rho=0.521). CONCLUSION: Facial acne is a common disorder and appears to have a considerable impact on quality of life among adolescents. The above findings should alert health care professionals and the school authorities to actively identify, manage and educate adolescents with facial acne. KEYWORDS: Facial acne, adolescents, Cardiff Acne Disability Index, quality of life

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