Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology最新文献

Objectives: A woman's health and wellbeing are impacted by illegal abortion since improper procedures can lead to consequences like extreme bleeding, infection, and damage to the reproductive organs and low awareness and attitude toward abortion law is one of the public health problems in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, and attitude, and identify the effect of short birth interval and wealth index on the abortion law among reproductive-age women in Bule Hora town, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from June 20 to July 20, 2022. A systematic random sampling technique was carried out to select 402 reproductive-age women. Data was collected by using a structured questionnaire with face-to-face interviews after the tools were pretested. The data was cleaned, coded, and entered into Epidata 3.1 and exported to STATA 14 for analysis. The model goodness of fit was checked using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. Statistical significance is declared at P < .05 and a 95% confidence interval.

Results: The study revealed that 153 (38%) of respondents had good knowledge and 192 (47%) had a favorable attitude toward the Ethiopian abortion law, with a 100% response rate. Women's educational status, having information regarding the criteria of legal abortion services, and short birth intervals as a reason for induced abortion were significantly associated with knowledge. On the other hand, women who attended secondary education and above, have information regarding the criteria of legal abortion services, wealth index middle/average and richer, using the contraceptive method, and short birth interval as a reason for induced abortion were predictors of attitude toward Ethiopian abortion law.

Conclusion: This study shows that knowledge and attitude toward Ethiopian abortion law was not sufficient. So focusing on awareness creation and health education strategies by mobilization of the community to minimize the knowledge and attitude gap is essential.

Introduction: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a nonpsychotic depressive state that begins after childbirth. In Ethiopia, there was limited evidence about the prevalence and factors associated with PPD in terms of residence.

Objective: To assess disparities in PPD among urban and rural mothers in the Shashogo district, Hadiya zone southern Ethiopia 2022.

Methods: Community-based comparative cross-sectional study design was employed from May 3 to July 3, 2022. A sample size of 556 (185 from urban and 371 from rural) was calculated using a double population proportion approach and mothers in the postpartum period were randomly selected from both urban and rural settings using stratification followed by single stage and the systematic random sampling method. Data were gathered by trained data collectors using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS Version 25. Statistical significance was declared at a P value of < .05.

Results: One hundred forty-four (26.6%) mothers in the postpartum period with 95%CI [23-30] were depressed, of which 37 (19.8%) with 95% CI [14-26] in urban and 107 (30%) with 95% CI [25-35] found in a rural setting. Unplanned pregnancy, low maternal social support, assisted delivery, no antenatal care (ANC) follow-up, no postnatal care (PNC) follow-up, and low household income were independent predictors of PPD in rural residence whereas unplanned pregnancy, low maternal social support, assisted delivery, and antenatal depression were independent predictor of PPD in urban.

Conclusion: PPD was found to be high in the study area as compared to national/global burden. Unplanned pregnancy, low maternal social support, and assisted delivery were predictors for both urban and rural. Low income, no ANC, and PNC follow-up were associated with PPD in rural settings only whereas antenatal depression is a predictor of PPD in urban settings.

Background: Patients often present to emergency departments (EDs) with concerns that do not require emergency care. Self-triage and other interventions may help some patients decide whether they should be seen in the ED. Symptoms associated with low risk of hospitalization can be identified in national ED data and can inform the design of interventions to reduce avoidable ED visits.

Methods: We used the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) data from the United States National Health Care Statistics (NHCS) division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The ED datasets from 2011 through 2020 were combined. Primary reasons for ED visit and the binary field for hospital admission from the ED were used to estimate the proportion of ED patients admitted to the hospital for each reason for visit and age category.

Results: There were 221,027 surveyed ED visits during the 10-year data collection with 736 different primary reasons for visit and 23,228 hospitalizations. There were 145 million estimated hospitalizations from 1.37 billion estimated ED visits (10.6%). Inclusion criteria for this study were reasons for visit which had at least 30 ED visits in the sample; there were 396 separate reasons for visit which met this criteria. Of these 396 reasons for visit, 97 had admission percentages less than 2% and another 52 had hospital admissions estimated between 2% and 4%. However, there was a significant increase in hospitalizations within many of the ED reasons for visit in older adults.

Conclusion: Reasons for visit from national ED data can be ranked by hospitalization risk. Low-risk symptoms may help healthcare institutions identify potentially avoidable ED visits. Healthcare systems can use this information to help manage potentially avoidable ED visits with interventions designed to apply to their patient population and healthcare access.

Aim: To investigate the efficacy of a new low-profile catheter on incidence of the catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) in comatose patients admitted to the intensive care unit.

Background: Catheter-induced urothelial injury is a key component in the development of urinary tract infections in catheterized patients.

Methods: In this prospective randomized blinded clinical trial, 80 patients requiring indwelling urinary catheterization were equally randomized to either the standard Foley catheter (control) or the low-profile catheter (experimental) group. The signs of urinary tract infection for comatose patients were considered (ie, ≥10⁵ of colony-forming unit/milliliter of urine, hematuria, serum leukocytes, and body temperature) and recorded at baseline and on days 3 and 5 after catheterization. The analysis of covariance was applied by the SPSS-20 software at a 95% confidence level.

Results: An increasing proportion of patients with elevated urinary colony counts were seen in the Foley catheter group compared with the low-profile catheter group (12.5% vs 5%). However, there were no between-group differences in the urinary colony counts and body temperature after controlling for antibiotic doses and fluid intake. Patients in the low-profile catheter group had significantly lower rates of hematuria and serum leukocytes than those in the Foley catheter group.

Conclusion: A newly designed low-profile urinary catheter has demonstrated a trend toward reducing the incidence of CAUTI in patients with indwelling urinary catheters. Further studies with larger sample sizes and follow-up are needed to confirm the benefits.

Introduction: Brucellosis is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world that infects humans directly through contaminated livestock or indirectly through animal products and induces high medical and economic damage annually.

Objective: Using geographic information system (GIS) software to determine the hot spots of brucellosis and the spatial correlation and type of disease distribution.

Methods: We extracted the incidence cases of the disease from 2016 to 2020 in this retrospective cross-sectional study using the disease registration system of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences. The interpolation method (IDW) was employed for spatial analysis and disease distribution and determination of hotspot points, Moran I and General G analysis were used to determine spatial autocorrelation at a significant level (P < 0.05). GIS software 10.4.1 was applied to determine areas.

Results: 2679 cases of brucellosis were diagnosed in the province during the study that 96.97% were Iranian, 2.95% Azerbaijani, and 0.08% were Iraqi. 40.5% of patients were female and 59.5% were male. The highest number of infected cases was reported in 2020 with 29.2% and the lowest number was reported in 2016 with 16%. Rural areas had a high prevalence in terms of distribution and the north of Aslanduz and the central part of Sarein were determined as two significant rural areas of the disease. The trend of disease was increasing from east to west of the province.

Conclusion: Brucellosis is very widespread in rural areas in Ardabil Province. Ardabil University of Medical Sciences is required to take practical and educational measures to control this disease in high-risk centers. It is expected to take measures in order to educate villagers.

Aims: This study aims to introduce the OralOpioids R package, a novel research tool for the in-depth study and analysis of opioid prescriptions in Canada, which reports a significant per-capita pharmaceutical opioid consumption.

Methods: The OralOpioids R package employs data from Health Canada's Drug Product Database (DPD), focusing on authorized oral opioids. It systematically filters drug identification numbers (DINs) by narcotic schedules and administration routes. Moreover, it calculates the morphine equivalent dose (MED) for each DIN using the CDC table. Core functions include MED calculation for specific drugs, brand name retrieval, opioid content extraction, and unit computations based on Canadian MED guidelines.

Results: When juxtaposed against renowned opioid calculators such as MDCalc, Oregon Pain, and Ohio Pain, the OralOpioids package exhibited a near-perfect correlation, with R-squared values consistently at 0.99.

Conclusions: The OralOpioids package, distinctively tailored for research, marks a significant stride in understanding and monitoring Canada's opioid milieu. By encompassing data on discontinued opioids, it fosters a nuanced comprehension of the opioid panorama, enabling historical insight and post-marketing watchfulness. Primarily targeting researchers, its scope extends to healthcare providers, insurers, and administrative boards, all of whom can leverage its potent capabilities for informed decision-making. Although currently centered on Canadian opioids, its flexible design is primed for future expansion, potentially capturing a global audience and catalyzing efforts against the opioid crisis.

Background: The intensive care unit (ICU) is a separate area in which potential health care services for patients who are in critical condition with detailed observation, monitoring, and advanced treatment than other units. This study aimed to assess the incidence and predictors of inpatient mortality after inpatient treatment was started in Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital.

Methods: A facility-based retrospective cohort study was employed among 384 ICU-admitted patients from December 30, 2020 to January 1, 2022. The collected data were entered into Epi Data version 4.2 and exported to STATA 14.0 for further analysis. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was fitted after checking using the Schoenfeld residual and log-log plot test. A categorical variable with an adjusted hazard ratio of 95% CI was claimed for predictors.

Result: Overall, 384 admitted adult patients were included in the final analysis with a mean (±SD) age of 42.1 (±17.1) years. At the end of the follow-up period, 150 (39.06%) cases died in the ICU. The overall incidence of the mortality rate was 16.9 (95% CI: 13.7-19.55) per 100 person per day. Epidemiologically, 347 (90.36%) cases were medical illness, 25 (6.51%) surgical, and 12 (3.13%) were obstetric cases, respectively. The median length of inpatient stay was found to be 4.9 (IQR  ±  2.8) days. In multivariable analysis; being (+) for human immunodeficiency virus (AHR  =  0.59, 95% CI: 0.39-0.91), age ≥65yearas (AHR  =  1.61, 95% CI: 1.11-2.32), and admission on weekend-time (AHR  =  1.48, 95% CI: 1.06-2.06) were predictors of inpatient death.

Conclusion: The overall in-hospital mortality rate was significantly higher than in the previous study in this hospital with a short median survival time. The inpatient mortality rate was significantly associated with age ≥65 years, being HIV positive, and admission during weekend time. Therefore, effective intervention strategies should be highly needed for ICU team members for early risk factors prevention.

Background: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer types worldwide. The significance of the individual socio-economic position on the delay in lung cancer diagnosis has not been properly investigated. The purpose of this nationwide population-based study is to examine the association between position and the length of the primary investigation for lung cancer.

Materials and methods: This register study was based on all lung cancer patients in Denmark who were diagnosed in 2012 to 2017, in total 28,431 patients. We used a multivariate logistic regression model and multivariate zero-inflated negative binomial model to estimate the effect of education level, family income, difficulty of transport, and cohabitation status on the length of the primary investigation.

Results: We found that the patients' income, difficulty of transport, and cohabitation status were associated with the length of the primary investigation. The chance of carrying out the investigation process within 24 days is higher for patients with a high income (adjusted OR = 0.86 with 95% CI (0.81; 0.91)), lower for patients with troublesome transport (adjusted OR = 0.67 with 95% CI (0.61; 0.72)), and lower for patients living alone (adjusted OR = 0.93 with 95% CI (0.88; 0.99)).

Conclusion: Several socio-economic factors are associated with the length of the primary lung cancer investigation. To ensure that all patients receive the most appropriate health care and to avoid extra investigation time, clinicians may pay extra attention to patients who are less fortunate due to low income, troublesome transport to the hospital, or living alone.

Background: In primary care, low health literacy, particularly reading ability, is associated with worse health outcomes. Most physicians do not receive feedback on the reading levels of written communication that they may provide to patients, including result letters.

Objective: Our study compares the readability of result letters, written by resident versus attending physicians, to patients with positive or negative screens for reading ability, as determined by the single-item literacy screener (SILS).

Methods: Result letters to 50 patients at high risk and 50 patients at low risk of low reading ability were randomly selected starting from January 1st, 2020 at Albany Medical Center. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Gunning Fog Index (GFI), Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) were used to compare the readability of resident versus attending result letters.

Results: For all SILS levels, attending physicians wrote result letters at a lower grade level than resident physicians based on the FKGL, GFI, and SMOG indices. The FKGL, GFI, and SMOG readability scores of result letters written to patients with SILS 3-5 were also lower when written by attending physicians compared to resident physicians.

Conclusions: Result letters written by attending physicians may be easier to read than result letters written by resident physicians, especially for patients with low reading ability. Future electronic health record (EHR) software should give physicians and providers feedback on the reading level of their written communication.