Over the last decade, detrimental effects of human exposure to electromagnetic radiations have received widespread attention. Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in Saudi Arabia has set guideli...Over the last decade, detrimental effects of human exposure to electromagnetic radiations have received widespread attention. Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in Saudi Arabia has set guidelines and launched a national project—in collaboration with academic and research institutions—to perform measurements of the “electromagnetic fields” (EMFs) radiated from base stations of the mobile phone network. In keeping with its mission to address problems of the local community, Electrical Engineering (EE) department at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) has been commissioned to conduct this project in the western region of Saudi Arabia. The project is concerned with measuring the strength of EMFs around base stations to locate the Maximum Peak Point (MPP). The aim of measurements is to ensure the site compliance with the CITC guidelines for human exposure to Radiofrequency (RF). This paper discusses possible health consequences caused by human exposure to RF radiations. Furthermore, it sum- marizes the results from 20 selective base stations located in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Taif and Yanbu. The results show that EMF levels at all surveyed sites are far below the National Guidelines for public exposure to RF and that the MPPs are found within the distance range suggested in the CITC guidelines. The paper concludes by providing some useful comments and recommendations for RF sites surveyors.展开更多
Setting: Private and public tuberculosis (TB) treatment centers in Lagos State, Nigeria. Objective: To compare adherence of private and public providers of directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) in the Lagos ...Setting: Private and public tuberculosis (TB) treatment centers in Lagos State, Nigeria. Objective: To compare adherence of private and public providers of directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) in the Lagos State TB control program, Nigeria (LSTBLCP) with the national TB guidelines. Design: A retrospective review of treatment cards of TB patients managed within the first and second quarter of 2012 in 34 DOTS facilities {23 public, 7 private for profit (PFP), and 4 private not for profit (PNFP)} involved in the private public mix of the LSTBLCP. Results: Of the 1896 treatment cards reviewed, 1524 (80.4%), 132 (7.0%) and 240 (12.6%) were from public, PFP and PNFP DOTS facilities, respectively. About 19%, 25% and none of the patients managed at the public, PNFP, and PFP DOTS facilities were treated in full adherence with the national guidelines respectively. A significantly higher proportion of adults and sputum smear positive TB patients were treated in full adherence with the national guidelines (p < 0.05). Treatment success was associated with full adherence with the national guidelines. Conclusion: There is a need to reorient health care providers in public and private health facilities in Lagos State Nigeria to ensure full adherence with the national TB guidelines.展开更多
Introduction: In Sweden, new national guidelines for elderly care have been introduced containing core values and local guarantees of dignity that highlight the need for dignity, well-being and the organisation of the...Introduction: In Sweden, new national guidelines for elderly care have been introduced containing core values and local guarantees of dignity that highlight the need for dignity, well-being and the organisation of the older person’s daily life, so it is perceived as meaningful. Unit leaders play a crucial role in health care organisations when guidelines are to be implemented. Aim: The aim was therefore to describe unit leaders’ experiences about what constituted a meaningful daily life for older persons receiving municipal care and the opportunities and obstacles that might exist. Method: Repeated interviews using reflective conversations with nine leaders were performed and analysed with qualitative content analysis. Results: Unit leaders felt a shared vision regarding a meaningful life was needed. Daily routines and habits that promoted independence, a feeling of community together with familiarity with the job, and got the little extra from knowledgeable staff were important. The historical collective paradigm in elderly care needed to be abandoned in favour of one promoting more individualism. Fundamental was the courage to ask the older person what was important and dared to follow through to “Give power to the older person to decide what care to be given”. Conclusion: Organisational conditions affect unit leaders’ ability to succeed in the implementation of the work. Further studies are required regarding the nature of the support that the unit leaders need to succeed in their work.展开更多
Objective： To organize the clinical practice guidelines（CPGs） related to acupuncture included in the National Guideline Clearinghouse（NGC） to systematically summarize the diseases and disorders most commonly trea...Objective： To organize the clinical practice guidelines（CPGs） related to acupuncture included in the National Guideline Clearinghouse（NGC） to systematically summarize the diseases and disorders most commonly treated with acupuncture, the strength of recommendations for acupuncture and the quality of evidence. Methods： The NGC database was systematically searched for guidelines that included acupuncture as an intervention. Two independent reviewers studied the summaries and the full texts of the guidelines and included guidelines based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thirty-nine guidelines were collected with 80 recommendations. The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation（AGREE） Ⅱ instrument was used to assess the quality of these guidelines. Results： Of the 80 recommendations on acupuncture, 49 recommendations were clearly for acupuncture, 25 recommendations were against acupuncture and 6 recommendations did not indicate any clear recommendations, 37 recommendations were for painful diseases/disorders, and 12 recommendations were for non-painful diseases/disorders. Locomotor system disorders were the most common in the painful diseases/disorders category. Out of all the recommendations for acupuncture, most recommendations（87.76%） were weak in strength, and most of the evidence（40.84%） was of low quality. Conclusion： In the National Guideline Clearinghouse, the recommendations for acupuncture focus on painful diseases/disorders. The recommendations in the guidelines are not high in strength, and most of the evidence is moderate or low in quality.展开更多
Introduction: Human malaria infection remains a problem of public health importance in many regions of the world. The infection continues to spread particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, malaria and its treat...Introduction: Human malaria infection remains a problem of public health importance in many regions of the world. The infection continues to spread particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, malaria and its treatment have been affected by factors like wrong diagnosis, wrong attitude of the people, unavailability of drugs, fake and substandard drugs, attitude and practices of medical and paramedical personnel. Nigeria’s national standard for malaria treatment was recently changed to artemisinin combination therapy. Methods: A descriptive study using a structured questionnaire was administered to all doctors (123) practicing in the three Army hospitals in Lagos. The study was done between March, 2009 and April, 2009. The findings were precoded;data entry and analysis was done using EPI INFO version 3.5.1 statistical software. Results: Presumptive/clinical diagnosis was still a common practice for diagnosing malaria among doctors, as well as the use of microscopy. None of the doctors had the facility for diagnosing malaria with rapid diagnostic test in their hospitals. Fifty one percent of the doctors stated that they utilized the current National antimalarial treatment guidelines. Significant proportion of the doctors used Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACTs) as first line treatment of uncomplicated malaria in adults and children. Chloroquine was the commonest drug for first line treatment of uncomplicated malaria in pregnancy. Only 45.5% of the doctors had correct knowledge of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), while 33.3% knew the stage of pregnancy in which a pregnant woman should receive IPTp with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine. Awareness and the content of knowledge of the current National antimalarial treatment guideline were not affected by the category or current position of the doctors. Thirteen percent of the respondents had attended training/update workshop organized by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) Roll Back Malaria programme on the current National antimalarial tr展开更多
文摘Over the last decade, detrimental effects of human exposure to electromagnetic radiations have received widespread attention. Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in Saudi Arabia has set guidelines and launched a national project—in collaboration with academic and research institutions—to perform measurements of the “electromagnetic fields” (EMFs) radiated from base stations of the mobile phone network. In keeping with its mission to address problems of the local community, Electrical Engineering (EE) department at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) has been commissioned to conduct this project in the western region of Saudi Arabia. The project is concerned with measuring the strength of EMFs around base stations to locate the Maximum Peak Point (MPP). The aim of measurements is to ensure the site compliance with the CITC guidelines for human exposure to Radiofrequency (RF). This paper discusses possible health consequences caused by human exposure to RF radiations. Furthermore, it sum- marizes the results from 20 selective base stations located in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Taif and Yanbu. The results show that EMF levels at all surveyed sites are far below the National Guidelines for public exposure to RF and that the MPPs are found within the distance range suggested in the CITC guidelines. The paper concludes by providing some useful comments and recommendations for RF sites surveyors.
文摘Setting: Private and public tuberculosis (TB) treatment centers in Lagos State, Nigeria. Objective: To compare adherence of private and public providers of directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) in the Lagos State TB control program, Nigeria (LSTBLCP) with the national TB guidelines. Design: A retrospective review of treatment cards of TB patients managed within the first and second quarter of 2012 in 34 DOTS facilities {23 public, 7 private for profit (PFP), and 4 private not for profit (PNFP)} involved in the private public mix of the LSTBLCP. Results: Of the 1896 treatment cards reviewed, 1524 (80.4%), 132 (7.0%) and 240 (12.6%) were from public, PFP and PNFP DOTS facilities, respectively. About 19%, 25% and none of the patients managed at the public, PNFP, and PFP DOTS facilities were treated in full adherence with the national guidelines respectively. A significantly higher proportion of adults and sputum smear positive TB patients were treated in full adherence with the national guidelines (p < 0.05). Treatment success was associated with full adherence with the national guidelines. Conclusion: There is a need to reorient health care providers in public and private health facilities in Lagos State Nigeria to ensure full adherence with the national TB guidelines.
文摘Introduction: In Sweden, new national guidelines for elderly care have been introduced containing core values and local guarantees of dignity that highlight the need for dignity, well-being and the organisation of the older person’s daily life, so it is perceived as meaningful. Unit leaders play a crucial role in health care organisations when guidelines are to be implemented. Aim: The aim was therefore to describe unit leaders’ experiences about what constituted a meaningful daily life for older persons receiving municipal care and the opportunities and obstacles that might exist. Method: Repeated interviews using reflective conversations with nine leaders were performed and analysed with qualitative content analysis. Results: Unit leaders felt a shared vision regarding a meaningful life was needed. Daily routines and habits that promoted independence, a feeling of community together with familiarity with the job, and got the little extra from knowledgeable staff were important. The historical collective paradigm in elderly care needed to be abandoned in favour of one promoting more individualism. Fundamental was the courage to ask the older person what was important and dared to follow through to “Give power to the older person to decide what care to be given”. Conclusion: Organisational conditions affect unit leaders’ ability to succeed in the implementation of the work. Further studies are required regarding the nature of the support that the unit leaders need to succeed in their work.
基金Supported by Project of Hubei Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center of Preventive Treatment by Acupuncture and Moxibustion(No.HBPCIC-2016-002)
文摘Objective： To organize the clinical practice guidelines（CPGs） related to acupuncture included in the National Guideline Clearinghouse（NGC） to systematically summarize the diseases and disorders most commonly treated with acupuncture, the strength of recommendations for acupuncture and the quality of evidence. Methods： The NGC database was systematically searched for guidelines that included acupuncture as an intervention. Two independent reviewers studied the summaries and the full texts of the guidelines and included guidelines based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thirty-nine guidelines were collected with 80 recommendations. The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation（AGREE） Ⅱ instrument was used to assess the quality of these guidelines. Results： Of the 80 recommendations on acupuncture, 49 recommendations were clearly for acupuncture, 25 recommendations were against acupuncture and 6 recommendations did not indicate any clear recommendations, 37 recommendations were for painful diseases/disorders, and 12 recommendations were for non-painful diseases/disorders. Locomotor system disorders were the most common in the painful diseases/disorders category. Out of all the recommendations for acupuncture, most recommendations（87.76%） were weak in strength, and most of the evidence（40.84%） was of low quality. Conclusion： In the National Guideline Clearinghouse, the recommendations for acupuncture focus on painful diseases/disorders. The recommendations in the guidelines are not high in strength, and most of the evidence is moderate or low in quality.
文摘Introduction: Human malaria infection remains a problem of public health importance in many regions of the world. The infection continues to spread particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, malaria and its treatment have been affected by factors like wrong diagnosis, wrong attitude of the people, unavailability of drugs, fake and substandard drugs, attitude and practices of medical and paramedical personnel. Nigeria’s national standard for malaria treatment was recently changed to artemisinin combination therapy. Methods: A descriptive study using a structured questionnaire was administered to all doctors (123) practicing in the three Army hospitals in Lagos. The study was done between March, 2009 and April, 2009. The findings were precoded;data entry and analysis was done using EPI INFO version 3.5.1 statistical software. Results: Presumptive/clinical diagnosis was still a common practice for diagnosing malaria among doctors, as well as the use of microscopy. None of the doctors had the facility for diagnosing malaria with rapid diagnostic test in their hospitals. Fifty one percent of the doctors stated that they utilized the current National antimalarial treatment guidelines. Significant proportion of the doctors used Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACTs) as first line treatment of uncomplicated malaria in adults and children. Chloroquine was the commonest drug for first line treatment of uncomplicated malaria in pregnancy. Only 45.5% of the doctors had correct knowledge of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), while 33.3% knew the stage of pregnancy in which a pregnant woman should receive IPTp with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine. Awareness and the content of knowledge of the current National antimalarial treatment guideline were not affected by the category or current position of the doctors. Thirteen percent of the respondents had attended training/update workshop organized by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) Roll Back Malaria programme on the current National antimalarial tr
