Effect of Ramadan environment on Fagerstrom Test For Nicotine Dependence (FTND) among smokers

Background: Measurement of the nicotine dependence of the smokers can become valuable information in understanding the smoker’s level of addiction. One of the methods in measuring the nicotine dependence is by using the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND). Understanding the accurate level of addiction level can help in the process of developing approach for smoking cessation. Approaches for smoking cessation intervention can be found during Ramadan where every Muslim is obligated to fast. Ramadan environment can provide a supportive environment for the smokers in smoking cessation. Materials and Methods: A total of 61 male smokers who currently smoke cigarette on daily basis were recruited. The study used the time-series experimental study design to evaluate the effect of Ramadan environment on FTND among a group of smokers who work at a local authority in Selangor. The data were collected three times which were one week before Ramadan, 21st of Ramadan and 21 days after Ramadan. The FTND questionnaire used in this study was already translated into Bahasa Malaysia and validated from previous study. Data analysis was conducted by using repeated measure One-way ANOVA and paired t-test. Result: The study showed a significant difference in the FTND score from before, during and after Ramadan (p = 0.003). From the post-hoc test, there is a significant decrease in the FTND score from before Ramadan to during Ramadan and also from before Ramadan to one month after Ramadan (p = 0.001, p = 0.002). Conclusion: The positive environment during Ramadan has helped to reduce the FTND score of the smokers. Health care professional should use this opportunity to help the smoker to quit smoking

Characteristics of human spermatozoa harvested in culture media with and without serum proteins

This study was aimed to determine the efficiency of synthetic protein-free media in spermatozoa washing, preparation and retention of the activity of washed spermatozoa over short periods in vitro. Normozoospermic semen samples (n = 71) were equally apportioned and washed using synthetic protein-free medium (PFM), minimum essential medium + HSA (MEM) or commercial protein-containing medium (CPC). Washed spermatozoa were cultured in vitro using PFM, MEM or CPC media and held for 24 hrs at 4°C, 15°C, 22°C or 37°C. Spermatozoa activity was evaluated at 0 hr, 4 to 7 hrs and 24 hrs post-wash. The effects of PFM on spermatozoa motility, vitality, membrane integrity and DNA fragmentation level were not significantly different from that of MEM and CPC media at 0 hr, 4 to 7 hrs and 24 hrs post-wash in vitro. Synthetic PFM, MEM and CPC retained spermatozoa activity highest when specimen were held at 22°C and it was significantly higher (p 0.05) were noted in spermatozoa DNA fragmentation (SDF) levels when specimen were held at 22°C or 37°C at 4 to 7 hrs and also after 24 hrs post-wash in vitro in all media. The use of synthetic PFM as an alternative to the commercial protein-containing media in human spermatozoa washing and preparation procedure for an efficient and safer (Assisted Reproduction Technology) ART outcome. Spermatozoa activity can be successfully retained at room temperature post-wash over short periods; spermatozoa may lose viability rapidly if held for long hours at 37°C in all media

A systematic review on healthcare financing in Singapore

Background: Healthcare financing has been on the global agenda for many countries to elevate the health status of the citizens at the same time aim for a lean and sustainable health system. Singapore in particular has demonstrated progressive leaps in health care financing through various reforms. Materials and Methods: A systematic review of articles related to health care financing in Singapore was compiled using a series of keyword search in various databases (Medline, CINAHL, and PubMed). Studies that were conducted from 1981 to 2015, written in English and used either a quantitative or qualitative design that focus on health care reform in Singapore were included in this study. Result: Most of the studies revealed that the most innovative factor in the health care financing in Singapore was the structure and the comprehensive health insurance systems that are in place but it was not necessarily deemed beneficial or affordable to its citizens. The systematic review yielded over 125 results, only 7 of which were relevant to this study after examining in full text. A purposeful approach was then pursued. Snowballing on bibliographic references and undertaking key author and grey-literature searches proved as an effective complimentary approach to the original review and was reverted to in addition to the original search. This method brought the full-text results up to 5. Conclusion: Healthcare financing have a direct influence on the citizens of Singapore and although comprehensive, it also has deficiencies and issues that still need to be addressed

The concept of district health management in Malaysia

Background: In Malaysia, public health services sector are administered by the Ministry of Health through its central headquarters to the state and district offices. The District Health Offices particularly manage and coordinate the delivery of an effective, efficient and affordable health services in the districts throughout Malaysia. Materials and Methods: The information and statistics used in this article are based on the data collected from reports, articles, and publications by the Ministry of Health Malaysia and journals published pertaining to the District Health Management in Malaysia. Result: A District Health Office is entrusted with two major roles; to deliver public health services and to manage resources within a district. Led by a Public Health Physician, it acts as a body to oversee the execution of the national health policies and strategies at the ground level and serves to enforce existing health related legislation. It is also responsible in disease monitoring and surveillance and also the achievement of specific health indicators for each activity. There are six major services provided by the District Health Office, namely the Family Health, Disease Control, Occupational Health, Food Quality Control, Health Education, as well as Environmental Health and Water Supply Services. Conclusion: A District Health Office functions as the basic operational level in Malaysia healthcare system. Being the backbone in government healthcare system, it is essential to provide a well organised and integrated health service in delivering quality healthcare services to the population

A systematic review on radiology services quality indicators

Introduction: Services quality in radiology department became a concern of stakeholders. Quality of the service increases the consumer and provider benefits. Those benefits include services reputation improvement, increase loyalty, improve cost-effectiveness, and reduce dose of radiation. The aim of the study is to review related scientific articles that discussed radiology services indicators and to find out the gaps among those studies. Methods: A systematic search was performed utilising four electronic database which are, Pub-med, Science Direct, Medline and CINAHL using the keywords “radiology” and “indicators”. The included studies are those published until June of 2016, written in English, conducted on different diagnostic imaging sections and evaluated the quality of radiology services. Studies on therapeutic radiology, disease, pharmaceutical, or studies that examined technical effect of a particular equipment on a disease diagnosis were excluded. Results: A total of 33 scientific articles were identified. Of these, only 14 studies were eligible and included. Three of them discussed on discrepancy rate indicators, while two studies measured the repetition rate. Four discussed on report turnaround time, three was on dose of radiation, and the last was discussing on indicator and uses of them. Conclusion: Various types of indicators were used to measure quality in radiology services, mostly focussing on the process indicators. These studies indicate and emphasized on importance of quality control indicators in radiology department

Educational module intervention for radiographers to reduce repetition rate of routine digital chest radiography in Makkah region of Saudi Arabia tertiary hospitals: protocol of a quasi-experimental study

Background: Repetition of an image is a critical event in any radiology department. When the repetition rate of routine digital chest radiographs is high, radiation exposure of staff and patients is increased. In addition, repetition consumes the equipment’s life span, thus affecting the annual budget of the department. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the impact of a printed educational module on reducing the repetition rate of routine digital chest radiography among radiographers in Makkah Region tertiary hospitals. Methods: A quasi-experimental time series with a control group will be conducted in Makkah Region tertiary hospitals for 8 months starting in the second quarter of 2017. Four hospitals out of 5 in the region will be selected; 2 of them will be selected as the control group and the other 2 as the intervention group. Stratification and a simple random sampling technique will be used to sample 56 radiographers in each group. Pre- and postintervention assessments will be conducted to determine the radiographer knowledge, motivation, and skills and repetition rate of chest radiographs. Radiographs of the chest performed by sampled radiographers in the selected hospitals will be collected for 2 weeks before and after the intervention. A piloted questionnaire will be distributed and collected by a researcher in both groups. One-way multivariate analysis of variance and 2-way repeated multivariate analysis of variance will be used to analyze the data. Results: It is expected that the repetition rate in the intervention group will decline after implementing the intervention and the change will be statistically significant (P<.05). Furthermore, it is expected that the knowledge, motivation, and skill levels in the intervention group will increase significantly among radiographers after implementation of the intervention (P<.05). Meanwhile, knowledge, motivation, and skills in the control group will not change. Conclusions: A quasi-experimental time series with a control will be conducted to investigate the effect of printed educational material in reducing the repetition rate of routine digital chest radiographs among radiographers in tertiary hospitals in the Makkah Region of Saudi Arabia

A systematic review on repetition rate of routine digital radiography

Background: Repetition of radiograph is a critical event in routine digital radiography. High repetition rate also consumes equipment life time, increases operational cost, decreases patient satisfaction, increase world load and dose of radiation to the professionals. Objective: This article aims to review published literature on the repetition rate of digital radiography including its associated factors, reporting, and interventions. Methods: English articles in ScienceDirect, Pub-MED, CINAHL and Medline from 2009 to January 2016 were reviewed using key words of “repetition rate” or “digital radiography”. Inclusion criteria were studies in full free text, studies conducted in routine, conventional, or digital radiography, and focussed on repetition rate measurements. Studies conducted on other branches of diagnostic imaging department, as well as studies carried out on diseases, radiological equipment and radiation protection were not included. Results: After removal of duplicated studies, a total of 37 articles were selected, the full text were read, and seven studies fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria, of which four were intervention and three cross-sectional studies. The repetition rate reported in the studies ranged from 4.9% to 15.5%. Conclusion: Seven studies conducted all over the world imply the existing issue of repetition rate measurement and its analysis. The interventions studies are statistically significant. Interventions were almost technical. In addition, positioning errors were the main causes of repetition in the most studies which imply that radiographers are playing important role in repetition

Corrosion Resistance of AA6063-Type Al-Mg-Si Alloy by Silicon Carbide in Sodium Chloride Solution for Marine Application

The present work focused on corrosion inhibition of AA6063 type Al-Mg-Si alloy in sodium chloride (NaCl) solution with a silicon carbide inhibitor, using the potentiodynamic electrochemical method. The aluminium alloy surface morphology was examined, in the as-received and as-corroded in the un-inhibited state, with scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The results obtained via linear polarization indicated a high corrosion potential for the unprotected as-received alloy. Equally, inhibition efficiency as high as 98.82% at 10.0 g/v silicon carbide addition was obtained with increased polarization resistance (Rp), while the current density reduced significantly for inhibited samples compared to the un-inhibited aluminium alloy. The adsorption mechanism of the inhibitor aluminium alloy follows the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. This shows that the corrosion rate of aluminium alloy with silicon carbide in NaCl environment decreased significantly with addition of the inhibito