Denture characteristics, oral hygiene practice and periodontal changes of partial denture wearers and non-denture wearers in a Teaching Hospital- A comparative study

Background: There can be localized periodontal inflammation around abutment teeth of dentures as a result of plaque accumulation. This study assessed the periodontal changes of removable partial denture wearers compared to that of non-denture wearers. Methodology: Participants were recruited from the prosthodontic and restorative outpatient clinics of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. The self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographics, denture characteristics, periodontal changes and oral hygiene practice of participants. Periodontal status assessed included gingival inflammation, plaque accumulation and tooth mobility. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Armonk, New York) and presented as frequencies and percentages. Test for significance was done using Chi-square statistics, and the level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: A total of 96 participants between age 16 and 74years were recruited with mean age of 40±14.5years. There were 56 females and 40 males (F:M; 1.4:1). Fifty-four denture wearers and forty-two non-denture wearers were recruited into the study. Among participants wearing partial denture, 49(90.7%) had gingival inflammation; 45(91.8%) had mild inflammation compared to 4.8% participants who are non-denture wearers. 29(53.7%) denture wearers had fair oral hygiene while most 31(73.8%) non-denture wearers had excellent oral hygiene. Abutment teeth in denture wearers had tooth recession; mostly on the upper arch and also posteriorly. Conclusion: The periodontal inflammation, tooth recession and mobility in denture wearers were worse compared to non-denture wearers. Thus, they need to be motivated for more adequate oral hygiene practices and have regular recall system to monitor their periodontal health.

Biogenic Amine Content in Retailed Cheese Varieties Produced with Commercial Bacterial or Mold Cultures

Biogenic amines (BAs) are considered a potential microbiological toxicological hazard in aged cheese. Risk mitigation strategies include good hygiene practice measures, thermal treatment of milk and the use of competitive dairy cultures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the amount of BAs—tryptamine, β-phenylethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, tyramine, spermidine and spermine—in the core and rind of cheeses ripened by bacteria (n = 61) and by mold cultures (n = 8). The microbial communities were counted, and the dominant lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were identified, corresponding to the BA concentrations. The total BA content was highest in the core of semi-hard cheeses (353.98 mg/kg), followed by mold cheeses (248.99 mg/kg) and lowest in hard cheeses (157.38 mg/kg). The highest number of BAs was present in the rind of cheeses with mold (240.52 mg/kg), followed by semi-hard (174.99 mg/kg) and hard cheeses (107.21 mg/kg). Tyramine was the most abundant BA, represented by 75.4% in mold cheeses, 41.3% in hard cheese and 35% of total BAs in semi-hard cheeses. Histamine was present above the defined European maximum level (ML) of 100 mg/kg in only two semi-hard and three hard cheeses. High amount of BAs (above 600 mg/kg) in cheeses, mainly tyramine, were associated with the presence of Enterococcus durans, while negligible BA concentrations were found in cheeses ripened with Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, Lactococcus lactis or Lacticaseibacillus paracasei cultures. This study has shown that retailed cheese varieties produced with commercial bacterial or mold cultures have acceptable levels of biogenic amines with respect to consumers.

Awareness of the Practice and Use of Contact Lenses amongst Students of the Health Faculty at Jazan University during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Contact lenses are medical devices which are used as an alternative to spectacles to correct problems with eyesight. Poor hygienic handling of these lenses poses an ocular health risk. Increased popularity and usage of contact lenses in combination with insufficient cleanliness results in increased bacterial infections of the eye, even resulting in blindness. Materials and Methods: We employed a quantitative cross-sectional study, where we used questionnaires to gather data. We conducted the study among students of the Health Faculty at Jazan University where we recruited 361 participants. Using the questionnaires, we assessed the use of contact lenses and the hygiene practice when handling them among the participants. To the best of our knowledge, only one study has been conducted in the Jazan region to assess contact lens awareness and practice, which can be consider as a gap of knowledge that make our study can be consider a vital observation about usage of contact lens in the Jazan region. Results: We found that 52.6% of the participants use contact lenses. Among those it is predominantly females who use contact lenses, and their motivation is primarily for cosmetic reasons. We further found that the majority of contact lens users exhibit good hygiene practices when handling contact lenses. However, there remains more than a quarter of participants for whom the hygiene practice is poor to moderately good. Conclusion: The majority of participants 172 (84.7%) had good practice level regarding wearing contact lenses. Considering the significant fraction of participants who showed inadequate hygiene practice, we recommend better information and training for those who use contact lenses. This information and training should be predominantly made available on the internet or through contact lens vendors, as these are the most common information channels among the participants.

Hygiene practices in abattoir and slaughter slab, determinants and assessment of abattoir and slaughter slab facilities in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State South-East Nigeria

Background: Workers in slaughterhouses engaging in unhygienic practices create conducive environments for zoonoses and meat contamination. Knowledge of hygiene practices and their determinants provides evidence for the design of targetedinterventions.Objectives: We investigated knowledge and determinants of hygiene practices among workers in slaughterhouses and assessed slaughterhouse facilities in Abakaliki.Methods: Workers in the Central Meat Market abattoir and Slaughter slab Abakaliki were interviewed in a cross-sectional quantitative study to ascertain their knowledge and hygiene practices while abattoir facilities were assessed using a checklist. Associations were analysed with Chi-square while predictors were determined using binary logistic model.Results: We interviewed 188 workers 75.5% and 85.6% of whom had good knowledge and good hygiene practices respectively. However, hand-washing before and after handling meat (44.1%), cleaning work surfaces with soap and water (45.2%) and sanitary disposal of waste (6.9%) were suboptimal. Knowledge of good hygiene practice was a predictor of good hygiene practice (AOR: 4.6, 95% CI: 2.0-11.3, p=0.001). Well water and borehole were present in both slaughterhouses and cold rooms were available in Central Meat market abattoir.Conclusions: The level of good knowledge was high and this was a determinant of good hygienic practices. Training on hygiene practices is recommended to prevent meat contamination and zoonoses. Keywords: Knowledge; Hygiene Practices; Abattoir; Slaughter slab; Determinants; Ebonyi; Nigeria.

Prevention Practice of COVID-19 Using Personal Protective Equipment and Hand Hygiene Among Healthcare Workers in Public Hospitals of South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia

Objective: The use of personal protective equipment and hand hygiene are often the most recommended line of defense against coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). The purpose of this study is to determine the magnitude of compliance and associated factors of personal protective equipment (PPE) utilization and hand hygiene practice among healthcare workers in public hospitals of South Wollo Zone, Northeastern Ethiopia.Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 489 healthcare workers in public hospitals of South Wollo Zone, Northeastern Ethiopia from June 15 to July 30, 2021. Proportional sample size allocation to each selected hospital followed by simple random sampling techniques were used to select the study participants using human resource records from each hospital. A pre-tested and structured self-administered questionnaire with WHO's standardized hand hygiene and PPE utilization observational checklist were used to collect data. Bivariate and multivariable analyses with 95% CI and p-value &lt; 0.05 were employed to identify the associated factors of personal protective equipment utilization.Results: About 32 and 22.3% of healthcare workers were compliant with personal protective equipment utilization and hand hygiene practice, respectively. Feedback for safety (AOR = 2.05; 95% CI: 1.26–3.35), training on COVID-19 prevention (AOR = 3.43; 95% CI: 2.01–5.86), and perception to infection risk (AOR = 1.98; 95% CI: 1.18–3.33) were significant factors of good compliance with personal protective equipment utilization.Conclusion: The magnitude of good compliance with personal protective equipment utilization and hand hygiene was low. Interventions to promote personal protective equipment utilization and hand hygiene should focus on feedback for safety, training on COVID-19 prevention, and perception of infection risk.

Oral Hygiene Practice among 18-year-old Norwegian Adolescents Using Health Belief Model: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives The aim was to compare oral hygiene practice (brushing/flossing) among 18 years old from two regions, Hordaland County, Norway, and possible perceptional correlates using the Health Belief Model. Materials and Methods The participants from six municipalities from the south district with high prevalence of dental caries to six municipalities from the rest of Hordaland county, with low prevalence of dental caries (control), using a web-based questionnaire. Statistical analyses: the Mann–Whitney U test was used and the t-test for independent samples. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses to examine associations. Results A total of 416 people participated. The south district’s participants had lesser percentage brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a day, they significantly visited lesser the dental service, perceived more susceptibility to dental caries, and lower benefits of brushing/flossing compared with the controls. Girls (odds ratio [OR]: 0.34) who perceived higher severity of dental caries (OR: 1.86), higher self-identity (OR: 2.14), and lesser barriers to brushing (OR: 0.14) had higher odds to brushing twice a day compared with their counterparts. Girls (OR: 0.34) who perceived higher severity of dental caries (OR: 2.34), higher benefits (OR = 2.8), and lesser barriers to flossing (OR = 0.23) had higher odds to flossing at least once a day compared with their counterparts. Conclusion South district’s participants significantly had some of risk factors to the recommended brushing/flossing practice compared with the control and these might help in explaining the difference in oral hygiene practice.

Maternal mental health and child nutritional status in an urban slum community in Bangladesh

Objective: Poor mental health may diminish a mother's capacity to adequately care for her child, resulting in a negative impact on the child’s nutrition. This study aims to determine the association between maternal mental health and child nutritional status in a poor urban population in Bangladesh.Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study among 264 mother-child pairs in an urban slum area of Bangladesh. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20) was used to assess maternal mental health. An SRQ-20 score ≥7 was considered a common mental disorder (CMD). Anthropometric measurements were performed to assess child nutritional status.Results: The prevalence of maternal CMD was 46.2%. Maternal CMD was associated with poorer child feeding practice (p<0.001), poorer hygiene practice (p<0.001), poorer preventive care service use (p=0.016) and suffering from diarrheal disease (p=0.049). The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight was 44.3%, 18.2% and 33.7%, respectively. Poorer child feeding practice was associated with wasting (p=0.004) and underweight (p<0.001) but not with stunting. Poorer hygiene practice and suffering from diarrheal disease were associated with stunting and underweight but not with wasting. In multivariate analysis, maternal CMD was associated with child wasting (AOR=2.25, 95% CI=1.15-4.43). Association between maternal CMD and child underweight found in bivariate analysis was attenuated and no longer statistically significant after multivariate analysis (AOR=1.77, 95% CI=0.94-3.33). No statistically significant association was observed between maternal CMD and stunting in this study (AOR=1.46, 95% CI=0.84-2.54).Conclusions: Maternal mental health affects child nutritional status through child feeding practice, hygiene practice and preventive care use. Interventions to address the mental health of mothers in child nutrition programs might contribute to improving child nutritional status.

Complementary feeding hygiene practice and associated factors among mothers with children aged 6–24 months in tegedie district, Northwest Ethiopia: Community-based cross-sectional study

IntroductionThe hygienic practices of mothers during complementary feeding are crucial in the protection of vulnerable infants and children aged 6–24 months from childhood communicable diseases like diarrhea and malnutrition. However, sufficient evidence on the hygienic practices of mothers during complementary feeding and their associated factors is limited.ObjectiveTo determine the levels of complementary feeding hygiene practice and its associated factors among mothers of children aged 6–24 months in the Tegedie district, northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 17 to April 17, 2021, among 576 mothers with children aged 6–24 months in the Tegedie district, northwest Ethiopia. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire administered by an interviewer and entered into Epi-data version 4.6 before being exported to SPSS version 20.0 for data cleaning and further analysis. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were employed to identify predictors of complementary feeding hygiene practice with p-value < 0.25 that entered into the multivariable logistic regression model. Then variables with a p-value of 0.05 in multivariable logistic regressions were considered statistically significant.ResultsThe prevalence of hygienic practice during complementary feeding of their children aged 6–24 months was 33.6%, with 95% CI 29.7–37.6%) of them had good practice. Living in an urban area [AOR=7.02, 95% CI: (4.14, 11.88)], the presence of a handwashing facility near the latrine [AOR = 3.02, 95% CI: (1.18, 7.70)], the presence of a separate area to store raw and cooked foods [AOR = 5.87, 95% CI: (2.84, 12.13)], and the presence of a three-compartment dish washing system [AOR = 5.70,Conclusion and recommendationThe prevalence of good hygienic practices during complementary feeding among mothers is still low; the district health office and health extension workers should work to improve maternal hygienic practices during complementary feeding.

Complementary feeding hygiene practice and associated factors among mothers with children aged 6–24 months in tegedie district, Northwest Ethiopia: Community-based cross-sectional study

IntroductionHygienic practice of mothers during complementary feeding is crucial in the protection of vulnerable infants and children aged 6–24 months from childhood communicable diseases like diarrheal and malnutrition. However, sufficient evidence on hygienic practice of mothers during complementary feeding and its associated factors is limited.ObjectiveTo determine the levels of complementary feeding hygiene practice and its associated factors among mothers of children aged 6–24 months in Tegedie district, northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 17 to April 17, 2021, among 576 mothers with children aged 6-24 months in Tegedie district northwest Ethiopia. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire and it entered into Epi-data version 4.6, and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for data cleaning and further analysis. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regressions analysis were employed to identify predictors of complementary feeding hygiene practice with p-value < 0.25 enter into the multivariable logistic regression model. Then variables with p-value ≤ 0.05 in multivariable logistic regressions were considered as statistically significance.ResultsThe prevalence of hygienic practice during complementary feeding of their children aged 6-24 months was, 33.6% with 95% CI: (29.7%, 37.6%) of them had good practice. Living in urban areas [AOR= 7.02, 95% CI: (4.14, 11.88)], presence of hand washing facility near the latrine [AOR= 3.02, 95% CI: (1.18, 7.70)], presence of separate area to store raw and cooked foods [AOR= 5.87, 95% CI: (2.84, 12.13)] and presence of three-compartment dishwashing system [AOR= 5.70, 95% CI: (3.41, 9.54)] were significant predictors of hygienic complementary feeding practice.Conclusion and recommendationThe prevalence of good hygienic practice during complementary feeding among mothers was still low; the district health office and health extension workers should work to improve the maternal hygienic practices during complementary feeding practice.