scholarly journals Smoking Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices among Health Care Professionals from Sulaymaniyah City/Iraq

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. TUI.S38171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darya Saeed Abdulateef ◽  
Azheen Jamil Ali ◽  
Darwn Saeed Abdulateef ◽  
M.I. Glad Mohesh

Background Smoking is a serious risk to health globally. Health care professionals play a key role in the prevention of smoking as they are considered a role model by patients. Objectives The aims of this study are to evaluate smoking rate among physicians and dentists from Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq, and to understand their knowledge and attitudes toward tobacco smoking. Methods A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted involving physicians and dentists working in both University of Sulaimani and Sulaymaniyah Teaching Hospitals. A questionnaire created based on World Health Organization Global Health Professional Survey with slight modifications was emailed to the study participants and the responses received were analyzed. Results Incidence of smoking among physicians and dentists was 26.5%, with a significantly higher rate among male compared to female health care professionals. The mean age of starting smoking was 22.3 (±4.8) years. Only 7.3% of health care professionals received formal training on smoking cessation. All responders agreed that smoking is harmful to health. However, ever smokers compared to never smokers were less likely to agree that health care professionals should set a positive impact by not smoking. Conclusion Smoking rate is high among physicians and dentists from Sulaymaniyah city/Iraq, and at the same time, there is a low rate of training on smoking cessation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 1098-1101
Author(s):  
Aditi Vinay Chandak ◽  
Surekha Dubey Godbole ◽  
Tanvi Rajesh Balwani ◽  
Tanuj Sunil Patil

Ecosystem, which consists of the physical environment and all the living organisms, on which we all depend, is declining rapidly because of its destruction caused by humans. It’s a two-way relationship between the humans and mother nature. If we destroy the natural environment around us, human life will be seriously affected, and the life of next generation will be endangered unless serious steps are taken. One such effect of human overexploitations has come in the form of coronavirus outbreak. Coronavirus, a contagious disease of 2019 known as Covid-19, is the latest swiftly spreading global infection. The aetiology of Covid-19 is different from SARS-CoV which has the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but it has the same host receptor, human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The novel coronavirus which is zoonotic (spreading from an animal to a human) and mainly found in the bats and pangolins is a single stranded ribonucleic acid virus of Coronaviridae family. 1 The typical structure of 2019-nCoV possessed ‘spike protein’ in the membrane envelope, also expressed various polyproteins, nucleoproteins and membrane protein. The S protein binds to the receptor cell of host to facilitate the entry of virus in the host. Currently four genera for coronavirus are found α-CoV, ßCoV, γ-CoV, δ-CoV. SARS-CoV first originated in Wuhan, China and has spread across the globe. World Health Organization (WHO) and public health emergency of international concern declared it as 2019 - 2020 pandemic disease.2 According to WHO report, (7th April 2020) update on this pandemic coronavirus disease, there have been more than 13,65,004 confirmed cases and 76,507 deaths across the world and these figures are rapidly increasing. Therefore, actions for proper recognition, management and its prevention must be prompted for relevant alleviation of its outspread.3 Health care professionals are mainly indulged in the national crises and are working diligently around-the-clock, small ratio of the health care workers have become affected and few died tragically. Dentists are most often the first ones to be affected because they work with patients in close proximity. On 15th March 2020, the New York Times published an article titled “The workers who face the greatest Coronavirus risk” described the dentists are highly exposed, than the paramedical staffs and general physicians, to the risk of novel coronavirus disease 19.4


1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
Hope Isaacs

Despite closely maintained familial connections and cultural traditions, the Hispanic population spanning the United States-Mexico border has diverged sharply from its traditional infant feeding practices. Successive reports document a trend away from the long-established cultural pattern of breast-feeding among Hispanic mothers. At the same time, World Health Organization reports have stimulated greater awareness among health care professionals of the positive impact of breast-feeding on infant health rates in Third World countries. This paper describes a multistage project undertaken by a binational team of nursing professionals and an anthropologist. Project goals were to research, design, and implement a mode of intervention which would encourage better management of infant feeding and which could be clinically applied on both the Mexican and U.S. sides of the international border.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 947-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Zweers ◽  
Alexander de Graeff ◽  
Jette Duijn ◽  
Everlien de Graaf ◽  
Petronella O. Witteveen ◽  
...  

Introduction: Anxiety is a common symptom in the palliative phase, and symptom management depends on the competencies of individual professionals. This study aims to get insight into the needs of anxious hospice patients with advanced cancer regarding support. Method: Semi-structured interviews were performed in admitted hospice patients with cancer. Patients admitted from May 2017 till May 2018 were eligible whether or not they were anxious. Interviews were analyzed and coded within predefined topics. Results: Fourteen patients were included: 10 females, median age 71, and median World Health Organization performance score 3. Most patients were highly educated. Thirteen patients were interviewed within 6 months before death. Information, open communication, sense of control, safety, adequate symptom management, and respect for patients’ coping strategy were the 6 main expressed needs. Conclusion: Assessing patients’ needs regarding anxiety provided important angles where health-care professionals can make a difference in order to support anxious patients in their final stage of life to realize tailored palliative care. Future research should focus on the development of a systematic approach for health-care professionals to manage anxiety in daily care of terminal patients.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-95
Author(s):  
Ajay Kumar Rajbhandari ◽  
Reshu Agrawal Sagtani ◽  
Kedar Prasad Baral

Introductions: Transmission of healthcare associated infections through contaminated hands of healthcare workers are common. This study was designed to explore the existing compliance of hand hygiene among the healthcare workers workings in different level of health care centers of Makwanpur district of Nepal. Methods: This was a cross sectional observational study conducted in Makwanpur district, Nepal, during 2015. Healthcare workers from nine healthcare centers were selected randomly for the study. Standard observation checklists and World Health Organization guidelines on hand hygiene were used to assess the compliance of hand hygiene during patient care. Results: There were 74 participants. Overall compliance for hand washing was 24.25% (range 19.63 to 45.56). Complete steps of hand washing were performed by 38.3% of health care workers. The factors associated for noncompliance were lack of time (29.3%), example set by seniors (20%), absence or inadequate institution protocol (20%) and unfavourable health care setting (> 20%). Conclusions: Overall hand washing compliance rate amongst the healthcare workers in rural health facilities of Nepal were low (24.25%).


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Fei Sun ◽  
Emmanuel Chima ◽  
Tracy Wharton ◽  
Vijeth Iyengar

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) affect over 50 million persons globally, and the number is expected to rise. In response, health ministries are developing and implementing policies and programs to systemically address the needs of individuals and families affected by ADRD. While national plans of action on ADRD are advancing among European Member States of World Health Organization (WHO), those in the Asia-Pacific and Americas are lagging behind. Since previous studies have largely ignored the Americas and Asia-Pacific—where approximately two-thirds of the global ADRD population resides—this study sought to identify (a) the socioeconomic factors associated with the likelihood of having a national dementia policy, and (b) to examine common and differing features among the national plans in these regions. Employing the dementia policy guidelines of WHO and the Pan American Health Organization as an extraction guide for data collection and analysis, the national dementia plans and available socioeconomic data of 10 Member States were analyzed with comparative and qualitative analyses. Findings suggested at least a 14-fold increase in the likelihood of having a national dementia plan if a Member State had one of the following: a universal health care system, more than 14% of the population 65 years of age or older, or high-income. All the Member States in the study identified dementia as a public health priority, but priorities differed. Inconsistencies included development of information systems, training for health care professionals, and long-term care systems.


Author(s):  
Souvik Banerjee ◽  
Rakesh Kumar ◽  
Debasis Basu

Background: With about 425 million patients globally and 72.9 million patients in India, diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the global health emergency of 21st century. Perioperative hyperglycaemia is reported in 20-40% of patients undergoing general surgery. A substantial body of literature demonstrates a clear association between perioperative hyperglycaemia and adverse clinical outcomes. This study aims to find out the frequency of preoperative hyperglycaemia and factors influencing it among patients undergoing surgery at a tertiary health care hospital of Eastern India.Methods: This Institution based, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted among study subjects who were operated at IQ City Medical College and Multispecialty Hospital, Durgapur, India during January-February 2019. Relevant medical records were reviewed to collect data regarding clinic-social data. Estimation of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) has been done as per World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Hyperglycaemia was defined and classified as per American Diabetes Association (ADA). Anthropometric measurements were taken as per standard WHO protocols.Results: A total 158 study subjects participated in study. The mean age and mean FPG of the study subjects was 42.63±12.95 years and 103.3±17.37 mg/dl respectively. As per the ADA criteria, 58.9% had normal FPG, 24.0% had impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and 17.1% had diabetes. Out of total 27 T2DM patients, 22 (13.9%) were known cases of T2DM and 5 (3.2%) were undiagnosed. The frequency of preoperative hyperglycaemia i.e. sums of IFG and diabetes was found to be 41.1%. Increasing age, male gender and overweight and obesity significantly influenced the occurrence of preoperative hyperglycaemia.Conclusions: The prevalence of preoperative hyperglycaemia among patients undergoing surgery is higher than the prevalence of hyperglycaemia among non surgical patients. Routine HbA1C should be done in all surgical patients to differentiate between chronic undiagnosed hyperglycaemia and stress hyperglycaemia.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Beggs ◽  
Liza Koshy ◽  
Elena Neiterman

Abstract Background Despite public health efforts to promote breastfeeding, global rates of breastfeeding continue to trail behind the goals identified by the World Health Organization. While the literature exploring breastfeeding beliefs and practices is growing, it offers various, and sometimes conflicting, explanations regarding women’s attitudes towards and experiences of breastfeeding. This research explores existing empirical literature suggestions regarding women’s perceptions about and experiences with breastfeeding. The overall goal of this research is to identify what barriers mothers face when attempting to breastfeed and what supports they need to guide their breastfeeding choices. Methods This paper uses a scoping review methodology developed by Arksey and O’Malley. PubMed, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts, and PsychInfo databases were searched utilizing a predetermined string of key words. After removing duplicates, papers published in 2010-2020 in English were screened for eligibility. A literature extraction tool and thematic analysis were used to code and analyze the data.Results In total, 59 papers were included in the review. Thematic analysis showed that mothers tend to assume that breastfeeding will be easy and find it challenging to cope with breastfeeding challenges. A lack of partner support and social networks, as well as advice from health care professionals, play critical roles in women’s decision to breastfeed. Conclusion While breastfeeding mothers are generally aware of the benefits of breastfeeding, they experience barriers at individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels. Acknowledging that breastfeeding is associated with challenges and providing adequate institutional support can improve breastfeeding rates and have a positive impact on women’s breastfeeding experiences.


2020 ◽  
pp. 119-132

INTRODUCTION. The guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 regarding hand hygiene (HH) in health care provided health care professionals with scientific evidence that argued that HH principles should be respected when dealing with patients. Despite the passage of years and strenuous attempts to introduce these recommendations to the Polish health care facilities for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAI), these principles are still not being implemented in an optimal way for the patient’s safety. OBJECTIVE OF WORK. The aim was to examine the views and attitudes of physicians (L) and nurses (P) towards the WHO rules of hand hygiene. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The study was performed by means of a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire of our own design; random sampling was used. The study involved 231 LP: 173 (74.9%) women, 58 (25.1%) men, including 93 (40.3%) doctors and 138 (59.7%) nurses. The study was conducted in a multiprofile hospital in Małopolska in 2017. The difference between what the respondents think (their views) and what they do in reality (what attitudes they display) was examined in relation to WHO principles, such as wearing natural short nails and jewelry on their hands. RESULTS. Negative practice of observing these HH principles in relation to views was detected (R = -0.014, p<0.05, R2 = 0.016). Respondents supported the view that the ring could affect HAI and rarely used it in practice, the practice was positive (R = 0.298, p <0.001, R2 = 0.085). Women strongly emphasized the view that wearing long nails has an impact on HAI spread, but in practice they often declared keeping long nails, practice was negative (R = -0.241, p <0.01, R2 = 0.054). In response to the question about the impact of nail painting on the spread of HAI, this view was poorly represented, in practice some of them wore painted nails, the practice was negative (R = -0.226, p <0.01, R2 = 0.045). CONCLUSION. Despite high support for the principles of hand hygiene, in practice, these principles were not always respected, the impact on the practice was negative in areas such as: general adherence to the HH principles, wearing long and painted nails. The compatibility of views with practice was detected in relation to wearing a wedding ring.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
Ch. O. V. Nagateja ◽  
P. Bhavya Sree ◽  
G. Padma Sri

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared covid-19 as a pandemic on 11th march 2020. Since no treatment is available, following preventive measures is only the effective way to stop the spread of covid-19. This study aimed to assess knowledge regarding covid-19 and its preventive measures and to create awareness about covid-19 among healthcare students and non-healthcare students. Methods: An online cross sectional study was conducted in 2 months i.e., from 1st Aug. 2020 to 30th Sept. 2020 among healthcare students and non-health care students. To determine the scoring of questionnaire, mean of knowledge scores and standard deviation were calculated. Results: A total of 766 students were participated in this study. The age of participants ranged from 18 to 23. Males were 496 and females were 270. Health care students were 423 and 343 students are non-health care students. Overall knowledge about covid-19 infection was good among 480 students, average among 183 students and was poor among 103 students. The mean knowledge score of healthcare students (8.41) is higher than non-health care students (6.11) towards covid-19 infection and its preventive measures. Conclusion: This study reveals that majority of the students were knowledgeable about covid-19 infection and its preventive measures. The mean knowledge score of healthcare students (8.41) is higher than non-health care students (6.11) indicating that the health care students have more knowledge. Though the overall knowledge on covid-19 was good enough among health care students and non-health care students, still there is a need for education to increase knowledge especially among non-health care students. Keywords: SARS-COV 2 virus, Covid-19 infection, health care students, non-healthcare students, knowledge, awareness, India.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1001-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandrine Roussel ◽  
Mariane Frenay

Background. Two decades after “patient education” was defined by the World Health Organization, its integration in health care practices remains a challenge. Perceptions might shed light on these implementation difficulties. This systematic review aims to investigate links between perceptions and patient education practices among health care professionals, paying particular attention to the quality of practices in order to highlight any associated perception. Method. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched using the following search terms: “perceptions,” “patient education,” “health care professionals,” and “professional practices.” PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines were used. Results. Twenty studies were included. Overall findings supported the existence of links between some perceptions and practices. Links were either correlational or “causal” (generally in a single direction: perceptions affecting practices). Four types of perceptions (perceptions of the task including patient education, perceptions about the patient, perceptions of oneself as a health care professional, and perceptions of the context) were identified as being linked with educational practices. Links can although be mediated by other factors. Results concerning links should, however, be considered with caution as practices were mostly assessed by prevalence measurements, were self-reported and concerned exclusively individual education. When analyzing the quality of practices, the two retained studies highlighted their changing nature and the central role of perceptions with respect to the individual patient. Conclusions. This literature review led us to specify the quality criteria for further research: covering the entire spectrum of patient education, operationalizing variables, exploring specific practices, measuring the quality of practices, developing designs that facilitate causation findings, and considering a bidirectional perspective.


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