An investigation of the perceptions of parents, teachers and principals concerning parental involvement in kindergartens and primary schools in Kuwait

Research conducted over nearly a quarter of a century has shown convincingly that children are more successful students at all grade levels if their parents participate at school and encourage education and learning at home (Epstein and Dauber, 1991). Despite the existence of considerable evidence of the positive effect of parental involvement on students' academic success and school development, few studies have been undertaken to examine parental involvement in Kuwait. Hence, little is known about the attitudes and opinions of parents, teachers, and principals towards certain types of parental involvement practices and their willingness to establish ongoing two-way communication to foster children's success at school. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of parents, teachers and principals about parental involvement in kindergarten through grade three in primary school in Kuwait schools in Hawalli district. Data collected from the three groups were employed to examine the ways that parents are involved and how they desire to be involved in their children's schooling. The influence of family background factors on parents' current participation at home and school as well as barriers hindering parents' participation in Kuwait schools were identified. To achieve its goals this research adopted a mixed methods design utilizing three sequential and complementary (quantitative and qualitative) methods. The study sample consisted of 12 focus groups of a total of sixty teachers, 14 interviews with principals and 430 parents who completed questionnaires. Findings from the study revealed that parents, teachers and principals agreed that parents' levels of participation in home-based involvement were generally higher than their levels of school-based involvement. The influence of family background factors was examined. Child grade level, family size, and the parent's gender, level of education and employment were each found to have a significant influence on certain types of parental involvement. The parent's lack of time and time conflicts with school schedules emerged as major barriers to family involvement as perceived by parents, teachers and principals. The findings also revealed that parents and school personnel have different perceptions of their roles. The strict nature of the educational system in Kuwait and attitudes among school staff created some limitations to the participation of parents in certain types of activities. Overall, the findings of this study could be used to provide helpful recommendations that might enhance parental involvement in a meaningful way and contribute to the success of children and improvements in schools.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

New Family of Multilevel Matrix Converters for Wind Power Applications: Final Report, July 2002 - March 2006

The goal of this project was to develop a new modular multilevel matrix converter for wind power applications and to demonstrate a working scale model in the laboratory

Probabilities of ICU admission and hospital discharge according to patient characteristics in the designated COVID-19 hospital of Kuwait.

BACKGROUND: Subsequent epidemic waves have already emerged in many countries and in the absence of highly effective preventive and curative options, the role of patient characteristics on the development of outcomes needs to be thoroughly examined, especially in middle-east countries where such epidemiological studies are lacking. There is a huge pressure on the hospital services and in particular, on the Intensive Care Units (ICU). Describing the need for critical care as well as the chance of being discharged from hospital according to patient characteristics, is essential for a more efficient hospital management. The objective of this study is to describe the probabilities of admission to the ICU and the probabilities of hospital discharge among positive COVID-19 patients according to demographics and comorbidities recorded at hospital admission. METHODS: A prospective cohort study of all patients with COVID-19 found in the Electronic Medical Records of Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Hospital in Kuwait was conducted. The study included 3995 individuals (symptomatic and asymptomatic) of all ages who tested positive from February 24th to May 27th, 2020, out of which 315 were treated in the ICU and 3619 were discharged including those who were transferred to a different healthcare unit without having previously entered the ICU. A competing risk analysis considering two events, namely, ICU admission and hospital discharge using flexible hazard models was performed to describe the association between event-specific probabilities and patient characteristics. RESULTS: Results showed that being male, increasing age and comorbidities such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and weakened immune system increased the risk of ICU admission within 10 days of entering the hospital. CKD and weakened immune system decreased the probabilities of discharge in both females and males however, the age-related pattern differed by gender. Diabetes, which was the most prevalent comorbid condition, had only a moderate impact on both probabilities (18% overall) in contrast to CKD which had the largest effect, but presented only in 7% of those admitted to ICU and in 1% of those who got discharged. For instance, within 5 days a 50-year-old male had 19% (95% C.I.: [15,23]) probability of entering the ICU if he had none of these comorbidities, yet this risk jumped to 31% (95% C.I.: [20,46]) if he had also CKD, and to 27% in the presence of asthma/COPD (95% C.I.: [19,36]) or of weakened immune system (95% C.I.: [16,42]). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides useful insight in describing the probabilities of ICU admission and hospital discharge according to age, gender, and comorbidities among confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kuwait. A web-tool is also provided to allow the user to estimate these probabilities for any combination of these covariates. These probabilities enable deeper understanding of the hospital demand according to patient characteristics which is essential to hospital management and useful for developing a vaccination strategy

The prevalence of overactive bladder and its impact on the quality of life: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACTObjective Overactive bladder (OAB) is a common condition affecting both men and women and has been shown to affect the quality of life. We conducted this study to estimate the prevalence of OAB, and to incorporate symptom severity, symptom bother and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in the assessment of OAB and evaluate associated factors.Methodology A total of 940 participants were categorized into non-OAB and OAB using the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS). HRQL and symptom bother were measured using the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire – Short Form (OAB-q SF). Descriptive analyses and multivariable regression analyses were performed.Results The prevalence of OAB among our population was 27.4%. Patients with older age (Odd ratio [OR] = 2.26, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6–3), higher body mass index (BMI) (OR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.8–3.8), comorbidities (OR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.9–3.5) and history of recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) s (OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.4–2.6) were significantly associated with increased risk of OAB (p < 0.001). The mean OAB symptom bothers score was 35.7 + 22.9 and increased significantly across OAB severity groups (p < 0.001). The mean HRQL score was 73.3 + 22 and a significant decreased across OAB severity groups (p < 0.001). All OAB symptoms showed significant positive correlation with increased symptom bother (p < 0.001) in addition to significant inverse correlation with HRQL (p < 0.001).Conclusion OAB is a prevalent condition in our population and the associated symptoms negatively affect HRQL. In this study, the detrimental effect is not exclusive to UUI and can be attributed to the other elements in the symptom spectrum of OAB. Screening for OAB should be considered during routine clinical visits using validated and reliable measures for early detection of symptoms and possible modification of risk factors to improve the outcome