Effect of Counteracting Lifestyle Barriers through Health Education in Egyptian Type 2 Diabetic Patients

BACKGROUND: Egypt is among the world top 10 countries in diabetes prevalence. It is the first country among the MENA region. Healthy lifestyle education and support help people with diabetes to improve health outcomes. Many physical and psychological barriers can hinder patients from following a healthy lifestyle. AIM: This study aimed to examine the effect of lifestyle modification educational sessions in helping Egyptian patients to overcome main barriers of diabetes self-management through improving nutritional behaviours, physical activity, medication compliance, and blood glucose monitoring. METHODS: A cohort study included 205 patients with type 2 diabetes. Baseline assessment of patients' lifestyle behaviours and barriers using personal diabetes questionnaire of Louisville University, with both anthropometric and blood glucose assessment. Interventional lifestyle health education was provided weekly through multiple integrated techniques, followed by a post-intervention assessment to evaluate the effect of the health education sessions. Statistical analysis was done to identify any statistically significant difference before and after the health education intervention. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement of the post-education mean scores of the studied behaviours when compared with the pre-education scores of the participants’ behaviours (p < 0.001). There was also a significant reduction in the barriers facing patients to diabetes self-management including nutritional barriers (P < 0.001), medication compliance barriers (P < 0.001) with a percent change (43%), physical activity barriers (p < 0.001), and blood glucose monitoring (p < 0.001) with a percent change (44%).There was a statistically significant positive correlation between improvement of medication compliance (P = 0.027), blood glucose monitoring(P = 0.045), and glycated haemoglobin of the study participants CONCLUSION: lifestyle modification education of type 2 diabetic patients can overcome the main barriers of following a healthy lifestyle and improve their anthropometric measures and blood glucose level

The awareness of neglected tropical diseases in a sample of medical and nursing students in Cairo University, Egypt: A cross-sectional study.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of chronic diseases affecting 1.2 billion people worldwide, with more burden in the developing communities. Improving awareness about NTDs is a powerful affordable long-term intervention for infection control. In literature, there is a limited number of studies in the developing countries assessing the awareness of healthcare providers regarding these diseases. The present study aimed at assessing the awareness of a sample of Cairo University medical and nursing students regarding NTDs. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 184 medical and nursing students in Cairo University. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire in English language with an estimated completion time of 15 minutes was used for evaluation. It included question categories which cover the knowledge about NTDs and control measures as well as the willingness to participate in NTDs control activities. Content analysis was performed on the materials and specifications of the epidemiology course given to medical and nursing students. Out of the study participants, 26% knew the meaning of NTDs. The main source of their knowledge was social media followed by the epidemiology course. A percentage of 33% of the students agreed that NTDs are of public health importance in Egypt. Thirty four percent of the participants expressed their willingness to participate in control activities for NTDs. Comparing medical and nursing students, a higher percentage of the nursing students stated that NTDs are causing a public health problem in Egypt with a statistically significant difference (P value < 0.001), while a statistically significant higher percentage of medical students believed that the awareness level regarding NTDs in Egypt is low (P value = 0.002). Cairo University medical and nursing students in this study showed a gap in the level of knowledge regarding NTDs and their control activities which represents a great threat to the control of these diseases

Stratification of predictors of major amputation versus limb salvage in Egyptian patients with critical limb ischemia

Aim of the study: &nbsp;To determine major predictors for limb salvage (or major amputation) in chronic limb threatening ischemia (CLTI) in Egyptian people. Design: Pilot study, observational analytical study. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted on 224 cases in the Department of Vascular Surgery in Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital – Cairo University between March 2018 to February 2019. The clinical, radiological and operative variables were collected and detect patients who need major amputation in 30 days and verify predictors of limb salvage, which was subjected to univariate analysis in order to determine the most important factors of failure of limb salvage. Results: The TLC, total CK, serum urea level and incomplete foot arch are independent factors directly proportional to the possibility of major amputation. Open interventions and presence of inline distal runoff enter the foot are independent factors inversely proportional to the possibility of major amputation. Anemia and active cardiac condition are risk factors for major amputation. Conclusion: We obtained factors that predict the limb salvage by using of univariate and multivariate analysis. These factors can help the practitioners to predict the limb salvage and guides the consumption of health care resources and personnel

Egy-score as a noninvasive score for the assessment of hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C: A preliminary approach

Background and Aims: Egy-Score is a new noninvasive score for prediction of severe hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver diseases. The aim of this study was to validate Egy-Score as a noninvasive score for predicting stage of hepatic fibrosis in a group of Egyptian chronic hepatitis C patients. Patients and Methods: One hundred Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C were enrolled. Mean age was 40.25 ± 9.39 years. They were subjected to CA19-9, alpha-2-macroglobulin, total bilirubin, platelet count and albumin, liver biopsy, and histopathological staging of hepatic fibrosis according to METAVIR scoring system as part of their assessment for treatment. Egy-Score was calculated according to the following formula: Egy-Score = 3.52 + 0.0063 × CA19-9 + 0.0203 × age + 0.4485 × alpha-2-macroglobulin + 0.0303 × bilirubin - 0.0048 × platelet - 0.0462 × albumin. Egy-Score results were correlated to the stage of hepatic fibrosis. Results: Egy-Score correlates positively with the stage of hepatic fibrosis (F0-F4). Egy-Score was able to differentiate significant hepatic fibrosis, severe hepatic fibrosis, and cirrhosis accurately. Cutoff values of Egy-Score were 2.91850 (for significant fibrosis), 3.28624 (for severe fibrosis), and 3.67570 (for cirrhosis). Sensitivity, specificity, and areas-under-ROC curve (AUROCs) were 75.8%, 68.42%, and 0.776 (for significant fibrosis "≥F2"), 91.67%, 77.63%, and 0.875 (for severe fibrosis "≥F3"), and 81.82%, 86.52%, and 0.874 (for cirrhosis "F4"), respectively. Conclusion: Egy-Score is a useful noninvasive panel of surrogate biomarkers that could accurately predict different stages of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Epidemiological characterization of viral etiological agents of the central nervous system infections among hospitalized patients in Egypt between 2016 and 2019

Abstract Viral infections of the central nervous system (CNS) are common worldwide and result in considerable morbidity and mortality associated with neurologic illness. Until now, there have been no epidemiologic data regarding viruses causing aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, and CNS infections in Egypt. We investigated 1735 archived cerebrospinal fluid samples collected from Egyptian patients between 2016 and 2019 and performed molecular characterization for infection for12 different viruses: herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpesviruses 6 and 7 (HHV-6 and HHV-7), human enteroviruses (HEVs), human parechovirus (HPeV), parvovirus B19 (B19V), adenovirus (AdV), and mumps virus (MuV). All included samples were negative for bacterial infection. Our results indicated a relatively high prevalence of viral infection, with HEVs being the most prevalent viruses, followed by HSV-1, EBV, and then HSV-2. The highest prevalence was among male patients, peaking during the summer. Data obtained from this study will contribute to improving the clinical management of viral infections of the CNS in Egypt