Effect of an audiovisual message for tetanus booster vaccination broadcast in the waiting room

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>General practitioners (GPs) often lack time and resources to invest in health education; audiovisual messages broadcast in the waiting room may be a useful educational tool. This work was designed to assess the effect of a message inviting patients to ask for a tetanus booster vaccination.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quasi experimental study was conducted in a Belgian medical practice consisting of 6 GPs and 4 waiting rooms (total: 20,000 contacts/year). A tetanus booster vaccination audiovisual message was continuously broadcast for 6 months in 2 randomly selected waiting rooms (intervention group - 3 GPs) while the other 2 waiting rooms remained unequipped (control group - 3 GPs). At the end of the 6-month period, the number of vaccine adult-doses delivered by local pharmacies in response to GPs' prescriptions was recorded. As a reference, the same data were also collected retrospectively for the general practice during the same 6-month period of the previous year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the 6-month reference period where no audiovisual message was broadcast in the 4 waiting rooms, the number of prescriptions presented for tetanus vaccines was respectively 52 (0.44%) in the intervention group and 33 (0.38%) in the control group (p = 0.50). By contrast, during the 6-month study period, the number of prescriptions differed between the two groups (p < 0.0001), rising significantly to 91 (0.79%) in the intervention group (p = 0.0005) while remaining constant in the control group (0.38% vs 0.39%; p = 0.90).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Broadcasting an audiovisual health education message in the GPs' waiting room was associated with a significant increase in the number of adult tetanus booster vaccination prescriptions delivered by local pharmacies.</p

Study of the effect of amino-functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes on dry sliding wear resistance properties of carbon fiber reinforced thermoset polymers

This work investigates the effect of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the mechanical and tribological behavior of a fiber reinforced composite (FRC). Fiber reinforced composites and nano-engineered FRCs are manufactured by resin transfer molding. In-plane tensile tests, in-plane shear tests and through-thickness compression tests are used to assess the influence of MWCNTs on the material mechanical behavior. Pin on disk dry sliding tests are used to quantify the effect of MWCNTs on the friction coefficient and the specific wear rate. It was determined that (1) MWCNTs have an influence on the improvement on both the through-thickness compression strength and the specific wear rate, and (2) they do not influence the material stiffness, in-plane tensile and shear strengths and the friction coefficient. It is assumed that the observed improvements are due to the demonstrated positive influence of the MWCNTs effect on the matrix/reinforcement interfacial strength and on the matrix fracture toughness

Evaluation of Tetanus Vaccine Coverage in Rural Society

peer reviewedThe Liege University Department of General Practice and the Association of the General Practitioners of Sprimont (Belgian municipality) have jointly drawn up a study protocol named "Evaluation of anti-tetanus cover in rural society". The aim of this epidemiological search program was to answer the 2 following questions: What is the status of anti-tetanus cover among the rural population, according to age, sex and social classes? Is vaccine protection influenced by leisure activities (sport practice, gardening and animal farming at a small scale)? We received 790 answers out of 960 forms sent in a at random selected population (82.3%). A sampling classification has been done by the general practitioners, who have determined 3 categories of patients: unprotected patients (no vaccination for the last 10 years), patients in the process of vaccination, protected patients. Protected patients represent 51.8% of the population. Surprisingly enough, more than 45% of that rural population are not protected. This study clearly shows that two factors highly influence the vaccination cover against tetanus: age (elderly are less protected) and sex (women are always less protected than men). It also emerges from our analysis that the nature of the population's professional activities does not influence the protection rate. In contrast, leisure activities seem to have a favourable impact on the vaccination rate, sport leading to a better protection for both sexes. It is also true in the case of gardening practice, frequent in rural environment. We must then be careful to reach optimal vaccination among a population with an increasing life expectancy, therefore with more and more elderly people, and we must be careful with vaccination among females, presently less protected. The role of the family doctor is paramount to carry out that mission