Assessment of the Attitude of Health Care Professionals Towards Diabetes Care in Mukalla, Yemen

Diabetes mellitus is a major public health concern and considered as a condition that leads to increased morbidity and mortality worldwide. The prevalence of diabetes in Yemen has been recently increased. The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of health care professionals towards diabetes (HCPs) care in Mukalla , Yemen . The cross sectional study was conducted among health care professionals in Mukalla city, Yemen. The diabetes attitudes questionnaire was administered to 73 health care professionals (Doctors , pharmacists and nurses ) in Mukalla , Yemen in 2009. The data were analyzed descriptively and the inferential Kruskal -Wallis test was also used. This study found that healthcare professionals have relatively adequate attitudes toward diabetes. Doctors have higher attitudes score toward the seriousness of diabetes than other healthcare professional groups (pharmacists and nurses), and nurses showed the lowest attitude score among healthcare professional groups. Therefore, nurses and pharmacists should receive more education programmes regarding diabetes care

Effect of Health Care Professionals’ Continuing Education Programme on Diabetic Patients’ Outcomes in Mukalla City, Yemen

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of educational intervention by health care providers on clinical outcomes in type 2 diabetes patients in a Yemeni health facility.Methods: A prospective, one-group and pre- and post-test design to assess the effects of health care providers’ education on clinical patient outcomes was undertaken. The study took place in Al-Noor Charity Clinic (ACC), Mukalla City, Yemen. The subjects of this study were type 2 diabetes patients who received health services at ACC and met the inclusion criteria. Patients’ diabetes-related clinical parameter assessed were fasting blood glucose, weight, blood pressure, and lipid profile, i.e., cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol and high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol) at baseline, i.e., before the intervention programme, and also at 6 months after the intervention.Results: There was significant improvement in clinical outcomes: fasting blood sugar (p = 0.004), systolic blood pressure (p = 0.003) diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.05), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (p = 0.005) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (p = 0.001), but total cholesterol (p = 0.33) weight (p = 0.404) and triglyceride (p = 0.056) did not improve.Conclusions: Educational intervention of health care providers program does improve diabetic patients’ clinical outcomes.Keywords: Diabetes care; Health care providers, Patients' outcomes, Blood pressure, Lipid profile, Cholesterol, Yeme

Impact of diabetes continuing education on health care professionals’ attitudes towards diabetes care in a Yemeni city

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of a continuing education (CE) program on the attitudes of health care professionals (HCPs) towards diabetes care in Yemen.Methods: A pre- and post-intervention study was carried out in Mukalla City, Hadramout, Yemen and was offered to all physicians, pharmacists, and nurses registered in the Health Office in the Mukalla City. The HCPs were invited to attend a CE program. All participants filled out a questionnaire before the intervention (pre-test) that measured the attitudes of the participants towards diabetes. An interventional program was given in the form of a seminar, and participants were requested to complete the same questionnaire after the seminar.Results: A total of 73 HCPs attended the CE, including 19 pharmacists (26 %), 37 physicians (50.7 %), and 17 (23.3 %) nurses. The pre- and post-intervention changes in the questionnaire responses were significant only for attitude toward the values of blood glucose levels (p = 0.009) and attitude toward autonomy of diabetes patients (p = 0.023).Conclusion: HCPs in Mukalla City have positive attitudes toward diabetes. Physicians were more aware of the sequelae of diabetes than other healthcare professional groups with nurses showing the least understanding. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed upon designing education programs for diabetes specifically tailored for nurses and pharmacists.Keywords: Diabetes, Continuing education, Attitude, Health care professional

Tackling neuroinflammation and cholinergic deficit in Alzheimer's disease: Multi-target inhibitors of cholinesterases, cyclooxygenase-2 and 15-lipoxygenase

Neuroinflammation and cholinergic deficit are key detrimental processes involved in Alzheimer's disease. Hence, in the search for novel and effective treatment strategies, the multi-target-directed ligand paradigm was applied to the rational design of two series of new hybrids endowed with anti-inflammatory and anticholinesterase activity via triple targeting properties, namely able to simultaneously hit cholinesterases, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX) enzymes. Among the synthesized compounds, triazoles 5b and 5d, and thiosemicarbazide hybrid 6e emerged as promising new hits, being able to effectively inhibit human butyrylcholinesterase (hBChE), COX-2 and 15-LOX enzymes with a higher inhibitory potency than the reference inhibitors tacrine (for hBChE inhibition), celecoxib (for COX-2 inhibition) and both NDGA and Zileuton (for 15-LOX inhibition). In addition, compound 6e proved to be a submicromolar mixed-type inhibitor of human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE). The anti-neuroinflammatory activity of the three most promising hybrids was confirmed in a cell-based assay using PC12 neuron cells, showing decreased expression levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-1\u3b2 and TNF-\u3b1. Importantly, despite the structural resemblance to tacrine, they showed ideal safety profiles on hepatic and murine brain cell lines and were safe up to 100 \u3bcM when assayed in PC12 cells. All three hybrids were also predicted to have superior BBB permeability than tacrine in the PAMPA assay, and good physicochemical properties, drug-likeness and ligand efficiency indices. Finally, molecular docking studies highlighted key structural elements impacting selectivity and activity toward the selected target enzymes. To the best of our knowledge, compounds 5b, 5d and 6e are the first balanced, safe and multi-target compounds hitting the disease at the three mentioned hubs