Assessing commitment to principles of prescription writing for outpatients in teaching hospitals of Ahvaz: 2015

Background: The observance of standard prescription principles by physicians increases the likelihood of proper treatment, its effectiveness and patients’ recovery. The present study aims to explore the level of physicians’ observance of prescription standards while visiting outpatients referring to teaching hospitals in Ahvaz.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 550 prescriptions written for outpatients referring to (Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences) affiliated hospitals in 2015. In each prescription, issues related to legibility, medication form and order and identity information were extracted and recorded on a checklist prepared based on the World Health Organization guidelines. Each prescription was scored with a score range from 0 to 21 and then analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: The average number of items per prescription was 3.48; 1396 drugs (72.78%) were written legibly; 1032 drugs (58.81%) were prescribed incorrect forms; 1281 drugs (66.07%) were prescribed in correct order; doctor’s identity was written in 98.08% of the examined prescriptions; patient’s identity was written in 80.36% of the prescriptions; and 1428 drugs were prescribed consistent with the standards of prescription.Conclusions: Study results revealed that most of the examined doctors prescribed medications consistent with the standards of prescription; however, the two dimensions of medication form and order of use were not adequately noticed by doctors. Use of electronic prescriptions can improve the communication of prescriptions in teaching hospitals

Satisfaction of Mobile Users with mobile Application "Identification, Prevention, and Control of Bed Bugs": Designing and Developing Mobile Health Application

Introduction: Bed bugs are considered as public health nuisance insects, which can feed on humans and cause psychological distress, insomnia, anxiety, anemia, and skin itching in individuals. The aim of this study was to design and implement a mobile application "identification, prevention, and control of bed bug", and also to assess the satisfaction of mobile users with this application. Method: In the first phase of this study, the mobile application that includes three steps of identification, prevention, and control of bed bug, was designed and installed on the people's mobile phone. In the second phase, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 mobile users using an electronic questionnaire. Descriptive data were analyzed by SPSS version 18. Results: The satisfaction rate of the application users in most of the questions was at high level (more than 80%). According to the users' answers to the question about the impact of educational data presented through this application, its impact was high (78%). Conclusion: Due to high accessibility, this application increases individuals' knowledge, saves cost and time to control bed bugs, therefore, the use of this mobile health application is recommended

Design and Development of a Mobile-Based Application for Identification, Prevention, and Control of Head Lice and Survey of User Satisfaction

Introduction: Using mobile phones is one of the ways to increase people's knowledge and awareness. The objective of this study was to design and develop a mobile-based application for “identification, prevention, and control of head lice” and also to assess the satisfaction of mobile users with this educational application. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in two stages including design and development of an educational application for head lice and assessment of the level of satisfaction among 140 users using electronic questionnaires. Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 24) using descriptive statistics indices. Results: The descriptive findings of this study showed that 61.4% of users participating in the study were women, 45.8% of them were in the age group of 20 to 30 years, and 42.1% had high school diploma. Moreover, more than 95% of users stated that the scientific content in the application was easy to understand and the data were up-to-date. Overall, the results revealed that 81% of users in this study preferred to use this educational application over reading texts when exposed to head lice infestation and the effect of using the educational information of this mobile-based application was reported to be at high level (61%). Conclusion: The target population including families involved with head lice, school teachers, health center experts, and medical students are recommended to use this educational application

Assessing commitment to principles of prescription writing for outpatients in teaching hospitals of Ahvaz: 2015

Background: The observance of standard prescription principles by physicians increases the likelihood of proper treatment, its effectiveness and patients’ recovery. The present study aims to explore the level of physicians’ observance of prescription standards while visiting outpatients referring to teaching hospitals in Ahvaz.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 550 prescriptions written for outpatients referring to (Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences) affiliated hospitals in 2015. In each prescription, issues related to legibility, medication form and order and identity information were extracted and recorded on a checklist prepared based on the World Health Organization guidelines. Each prescription was scored with a score range from 0 to 21 and then analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: The average number of items per prescription was 3.48; 1396 drugs (72.78%) were written legibly; 1032 drugs (58.81%) were prescribed incorrect forms; 1281 drugs (66.07%) were prescribed in correct order; doctor’s identity was written in 98.08% of the examined prescriptions; patient’s identity was written in 80.36% of the prescriptions; and 1428 drugs were prescribed consistent with the standards of prescription.Conclusions: Study results revealed that most of the examined doctors prescribed medications consistent with the standards of prescription; however, the two dimensions of medication form and order of use were not adequately noticed by doctors. Use of electronic prescriptions can improve the communication of prescriptions in teaching hospitals