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

Construction of Linear Codes from the Unit Graph G(Zn)G(\mathbb{Z}_{n})

In this paper, we consider the unit graph $G(\mathbb{Z}_{n})$, where $n=p_{1}^{n_{1}} \text{ or } p_{1}^{n_{1}}p_{2}^{n_{2}} \text{ or } p_{1}^{n_{1}}p_{2}^{n_{2}}p_{3}^{n_{3}}$ and $p_{1}, p_{2}, p_{3}$ are distinct primes. For any prime $q$, we construct $q$-ary linear codes from the incidence matrix of the unit graph $G(\mathbb{Z}_{n})$ with their parameters. We also prove that the dual of the constructed codes have minimum distance either 3 or 4. Lastly, we stated two conjectures on diameter of unit graph $G(\mathbb{Z}_{n})$ and linear codes constructed from the incidence matrix of the unit graph $G(\mathbb{Z}_{n})$ for any integer $n$

Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Physicians towards Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To assess the knowledge and attitudes of physicians towards adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Method: The study was conducted in King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over a three-month period (April to June 2014). A  self-administered questionnaire was delivered to 116 physicians. The questionnaire comprised of close-ended as well as open-ended questions. Descriptive  statistics including, frequency distribution and percentages, were used for both demographic data and various responses to the questions.Results: The response rate was 81.09 %. The mean age of the respondents was 33.3 ± 11.49 years. Of the 94 physicians who completed the questionnaire, 88.7 % of them didn’t know about the National  Pharmacovigilance Center. Almost all the physicians (95.7 %) were not satisfied by their training in ADRs reporting while half (49.3 %) of the respondents thought that only serious ADRs should be reported.Conclusion: There is a need for more educational and training programs for physicians regarding the pharmacovigilance system and ADRs reporting. More  research is needed to study the knowledge and attitudes of other healthcare professionals and in various settings.Keywords: Health care providers, Pharmacovigilance, Adverse drug reactions, Reporting, Knowledg

Attitudes and Perceptions of Healthcare Providers towards Clinical Pharmacy Services at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To evaluate the attitudes and perceptions of health care providers towards clinical pharmacy services at King Khalid University Hospital Riyadh Saudi ArabiaMethod: A cross-sectional survey of healthcare providers was conducted in King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from September to November 2013. A self-administered questionnaire was delivered to health care professionals (HCPs) who included physicians, pharmacists and nurses.Results: The response rate was 78 % (457/600). The majority of the respondents (92.4 %) knew that the clinical pharmacist is an integral part of the medical team while 86.5 % of the participants expressed confidence in the ability of clinical pharmacists to improve the quality of patient care through their practice. Despite the relative lack of awareness of the increasing interest in clinical pharmacy practice (59.6 % were not aware of such a trend), pharmacists were less appreciative (p < 0.05) of the positive role of clinical  pharmacists in direct patient care compared to both physicians and nurses (67.4, 74.3 and 72.3 %, respectively).Conclusion: The findings of this study reveal that health care professionals HCPs have positive attitude towards the role of the clinical pharmacist in the health care setting studied. However, there is a need for Saudi hospitals to adopt full clinical pharmacy service including drug monitoring, drug information and pharmacotherapy for enhanced health care.Keywords: Saudi Arabia, Clinical pharmacy services, Healthcare professionals, Attitude, Patient car

PENYULUHAN KESEHATAN SEBAGAI UPAYA PENGENDALIAN HIPERTENSI PADA MASA NEW NORMAL DI DUSUN GUPAK WARAK YOGYAKARTA

ABSTRAKHipertensi merupakan masalah kesehatan yang membutuhkan perhatian karena menyebabkan kematian yang tidak dapat diidentifikasi penyebabnya. Prevalensi Hipertensi yang ada di Indonesia dari tahun ke tahun mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan. Faktor utama penyakit Hipertensi di sebabkan oleh faktor pola hidup yang tidak sehat. Kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini mempunyai tujuan untuk memberikan pemahaman kepada lansia agar dapat memahami dan mengetahui gejala hipertensi, faktor penyebab hipertensi, komplikasi dari penyakit hipertensi, dan cara menurunkan tekanan serta dapat membantu masyarakat dalam mengurangi angka peningkatan tekanan darah atau Hipertensi.  Pelaksanaan kegiatan dilakukan di Dusun Gupak Warak, Desa Sendangsari, Bantul Yogyakarta.  Kegiatan diikuti oleh 30 lansia dengan metode ceramah dan pemeriksaan kesehatan. Hasil evaluasi akhir dengan metode tanya jawab menujukan bahwa  terjadinya peningkatan pemahaman dan pengetahauan yang dimiliki oleh lansia tentang hipertensi. Kata kunci: hipertensi; penyuluhan kesehatan; lansia ABSTRACTHypertension is a health problem that requires attention because it causes death whose cause cannot be identified. The prevalence of hypertension in Indonesia from year to year has increased significantly. The main factor of hypertension is caused by unhealthy lifestyle factors. This community service activity has the aim of providing understanding to the elderly so that they can understand and know the symptoms of hypertension, the factors that cause hypertension, complications of hypertension, and how to reduce pressure and can help the community in reducing the increase in blood pressure or hypertension.  The activity was carried out in Gupak Warak Hamlet, Sendangsari Village, Bantul Yogyakarta. The activity was attended by 30 elderly people with lecture methods and health checks. The results of the final evaluation using the question and answer method showed that there was an increase in the understanding and knowledge possessed by the elderly about hypertension Kata kunci: hypertension; health education; elderly

The characteristics of appendicoliths associated with acute appendicitis

Introduction: Differences between appendicoliths associated with appendicitis and those found incidentally have not been studied. The objective of this study was to determine the characteristics of appendicoliths that are associated with acute appendicitis. Methods: A cross-sectional study of patients with appendicoliths identified on computed tomographic (CT) scan from January 2008 till December 2014 was conducted. Patients were divided into two group: appendicitis and appendicoliths (AA) and incidentally discovered appendicoliths (IA). Results: Overall, 321 patients were included in the study. Of these, 103 (32%) patients were in the AA group while 218 (68%) patients were in the IA group. Both groups were similar in age and gender distribution. Significantly greater proportion of patients in the AA group had more than one appendicolith [AA vs. IA: 63 (62%) vs. 82 (38%), p \u3c 0.001], appendicolith location at the base [AA vs. IA: 34 (33%) vs. 33 (15%), p \u3c 0.001] and appendicolith diameter of 5 mm or more [AA vs. IA: 71 (69%) vs. 28 (13%), p \u3c 0.001]. On multivariate analysis, more than one appendicolith [Odds ratio (OR): 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1-3.4; p = 0.02] and diameter of 5 mm or more (OR: 13, 95% CI: 7.1-23.6; p \u3c 0.001) were independently associated with acute appendicitis. Conclusion: Multiple appendicoliths and appendicoliths larger than 5 mm are associated with acute appendicitis

Microduplications encompassing the Sonic hedgehog limb enhancer ZRS are associated with Haas-type polysyndactyly and Laurin-Sandrow syndrome

Laurin-Sandrow syndrome (LSS) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by polysyndactyly of hands and/or feet, mirror image duplication of the feet, nasal defects, and loss of identity between fibula and tibia. The genetic basis of LSS is currently unknown. LSS shows phenotypic overlap with Haas-type polysyndactyly (HTS) regarding the digital phenotype. Here we report on five unrelated families with overlapping microduplications encompassing the Sonic hedgehog (SHH) limb enhancer ZPA regulatory sequence (ZRS) on chromosome 7q36. Clinically, the patients show polysyndactyly phenotypes and various types of lower limb malformations ranging from syndactyly to mirror image polydactyly with duplications of the fibulae. We show that larger duplications of the ZRS region (>80 kb) are associated with HTS, whereas smaller duplications (<80 kb) result in the LSS phenotype. On the basis of our data, the latter can be clearly distinguished from HTS by the presence of mirror image polysyndactyly of the feet with duplication of the fibula. Our results expand the clinical phenotype of the ZRS-associated syndromes and suggest that smaller duplications (<80 kb) are associated with a more severe phenotype. In addition, we show that these small microduplications within the ZRS region are the underlying genetic cause of Laurin-Sandrow syndrome

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