Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene最新文献

Introduction: Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes the human immunodeficiency infection which is a major global health problem. Oral health status of people infected by HIV is also compromised. There is limited literature on oral health status of HIV/AIDS transgenders in Odisha.

Aim: This study was conducted to assess the oral health status of HIV-positive transgenders.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the HIV positive transgenders in Odisha. Snowball sampling technique was employed to reach the population. Oral health was recorded using modified WHO 2013 proforma. Clinical examination using disposable mouth mirror and explorer. Chi square statistics was used for finding the association between the socio-demographic variables and DMFT, CPI, and LOA scores.

Results: The study included 153 participants out of which seventy participants belonged to the age group 18-30 years. Majority of the participants were unemployed and most of them had spent around 6-10 years in school. Majority of the participants used toothbrush for cleaning their teeth and the average duration of cleaning tooth was less than two minutes. Toothpick was the most common method used for cleaning interdental areas and none of the participants used dental floss or interdental brushes. The mean DMFT score which was recorded to be 1.424. Around 28.10% (43) inmates had pockets of depth 4 mm to 5 mm. Loss of attachment of 6 mm to 8 mm was found in majority (57, 37.25%) of the participants. Most of the participants did not require any prosthesis both in the upper and lower arches. Around 32 participants (20.91%) had very mild fluorosis, 29 participants (18.95%) exhibited signs of moderate fluorosis. Age was found to be significantly associated with loss of attachment score (p = 0.023). Occupation had an association with the DMFT score (p = 0.002) while years in school was found to be significantly associated with CPI score (p = 0.045).

Conclusion: The oral health status of transgenders is poor and needs immediate attention.

Introduction: Foodborne Zoonotic Trematode Infections (FZTi) are neglected tropical diseases of public health concern in Vietnam. The transmission of FZTi is linked to human behavior patterns. The aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding FZTi among local people.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a mixed method, which included a baseline survey and in-depth interviews. 375 participants were interviewed face-to-face in the survey, and 27 participants had the in-depth interviews.

Results: The results showed that 36.3% passed the knowledge assessment, 86.7% passed the attitude assessment, and 24% passed the practical assessment. There were differences in average knowledge scores among gender (men higher than women, p = 0.006), ethnicities (Kinh higher than Dao and Tay, p < 0.001), and educational level (higher education, higher knowledge score, p < 0.001). There were differences in the frequency of eating raw fish between men and women (men higher than women, p < 0.001), and in the average practice score between men and women (women higher than men, p = 0.028). Eating raw fish and/or undercooked fish, raw vegetables, and drinking untreated water from Thac Ba lake in Yen Bai province were identified as FZTi risk behaviors. The occurrence of these risky habits can be explained by the lack of knowledge on FZTi, poor economic conditions and typical social features of local people.

Conclusion: The current knowledge of local people in regard to safe eating practices is poor. They keep performing unsafe practices, which lead to infection with FZTi; therefore, an integrated control of FZTi is essential.

Introduction: This study aimed to examine the trends in patient consultations for three major diseases (cancer, heart disease, and stroke) at Showa University Hospital, Japan during the state of emergency for the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Methods: The present study was a retrospective and descriptive study of Showa University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Subjects were patients who had received medical treatment at Showa University Hospital and were diagnosed from 2017 to 2020. To examine the impact of the state of emergency, the number visits to hospital by the top three causes of death or other diseases were summarised from 21 weeks of data, from week 8 to week 28, for each year.

Results: Compared to the average of the previous 3 years, a comparison of the three periods before and after the state of emergency showed a V-shaped curve in 2020, with a large drop in the number of cancer patients during the state of emergency, both from within Tokyo and from outside the city.

Conclusions: This study showed a long-term decrease in cancer patient visits to Showa University Hospital since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the previous 3 years. It is also possible that medical care that would have been available may not have been provided due to the state of emergency, so it is necessary to follow up patients while keeping a close eye on measures other than infectious diseases.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to ascertain Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQOL) and evaluate oralhygiene practices in patients visiting a dental institution during COVID-19 time.

Materials and methods: Face-to face interviews were conducted using a semi-structured close-ended questionnaire,assessing oral hygiene practices and self-reported oral problems perceived in last 6 months, using both Hindi and English version of Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) Questionnaire. Frequency distribution of oral hygiene practices were obtained, and Descriptive statistics computed the scores of OHIP-14. Kruskal-wallis test and Independent t-test were used to match the association of OHIP-14 with demographic variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was utilized to compute the association of OHIP-14 with independent variables, age and gender.

Results: Subjective evaluation of OHRQOL (Oral Health Related Quality of Life) using OHIP-14 Porforma resulted in high score for physical pain and psychological discomfort but subjects expressed less discomfort in connection to functional limitation, physical disability, psychological discomfort, social disability and handicap domains of OHIP-14. With progressive increase in age OHRQOL worsened. Females had poor OHRQOL, with significant difference as compared to males. Gender and marital status observed variance in OHIP-14 with statistically significant difference (P <0.000).

Conclusion: More than two-third subjects preferred cleaning their teeth using toothbrush and toothpaste. Therefore, COVID-19 consequently impacted OHRQOL of the general population.

Objectives: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cause of cancer death in Iranian women. Sometimes death from other causes precludes the event of interest and makes the analysis complicated. The purpose of this study was to identify important prognostic factors associated with survival duration among patients with BC using random survival forests (RSF) model in presence of competing risks. Also, its performance was compared with cause-specific hazard model.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study assessed 222 patients with BC who were admitted to Ayatollah Khansari hospital in Arak, a major industrial city and the capital of Markazi province in Iran. The cause-specific Cox proportional hazards and RSF models were employed to determine the important risk factors for survival of the patients.

Results: The mean and median survival duration of the patients were 90.71 (95%CI: 83.8-97.6) and 100.73 (95%CI: 89.2-121.5) months, respectively. The cause-specific model indicated that type of surgery and HER2 had statistically significant effects on the risk of death of BC. Moreover, the RSF model identified that HER2 was the most important variable for the event of interest.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the performance of the RSF model was better than the cause-specific hazard model. Moreover, HER2 was the most important variable for death of BC in both of the models.

Background: The advent of an effective novel COVID-19 vaccine could extinguish the current devastating pandemic but the vaccine hesitancy is a hurdle for the public health system, so this study estimated the COVID-19 vaccination intention and hesitancy among the healthcare workers, the priority target group for the COVID-19 vaccination in India.

Methods: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among the healthcare workers in Chandigarh, a union territory in North India, using a Snowball sampling technique. A total of 403 healthcare workers participated in the study between 2^nd and 25^th January 2021. The primary data collected were the intention to get vaccinated against the available COVID-19 vaccine and the concerns regarding the new vaccines. The attitude towards novel COVID-19 vaccine was assessed using developed Vaccine attitude examination scale. These questionnaire, which were delivered via WhatsApp, was filled by the participants over Google forms.

Results: Among the 403 respondents surveyed, the majority (54.6%) reported they were definitely intended to get vaccinated against COVID-19, however, 7% expressed a resistance for inoculation with COVID-19 vaccination. The perceived susceptibility (aOR = 0.511, CI 0.265-0.987) and severity of COVID-19 infection (aOR = 0.551 CI 0.196-0.704) and not being concerned about the efficacy of new COVID-19 vaccines (aOR = 0.702 CI 1.109-26.55) were found to have the highest significant odds of intention to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The majority (62%) were concerned about the safety of the vaccine, in terms of side-effects, quality control, and doubted efficacy of the vaccine. The mistrust of the benefits of the vaccine is a significant predictor for vaccine hesitancy among the healthcare workers (aOR = 5.205 CI 3.106-8.723).

Conclusion: Therefore, strategic communication and vaccine-acceptance programs should be formulated in order to combat the prevailing mistrust on the vaccine safety and efficacy and attain effective coverage to gain herd immunity.

Introduction: Sitting and standing workstations can affect individual's health outcomes differently. This study aimed to assess the effects of sit and stand workstations on energy expenditure and blood parameters, including glucose and triglyceride, musculoskeletal symptoms/pain and discomfort, fatigue, and productivity among workers of assembly line of a belt factory.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 47 male assembly line workers (24 workers in sitting workstation and 23 workers in standing workstation) with at least one year of working experience. Data were gathered via demographic/occupational characteristics, Fitbit system, medical records, the Persian version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (P-NMQ), the Persian version of the Numeric Rating Scale (P-NRS), the Persian version of the Swedish Occupational Fatigue (P-SOFI), and Persian version of the Health and Work Questionnaire (P-HWQ).

Results: The results showed that there were no statistically significant between the demographic/occupational details of the participants in sitting and standing groups, except work experience. The findings of the present study revealed that the energy expenditure, and blood glucose/triglyceride there are not statistically differences between sitting and standing groups. In addition, the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in the neck, lower back, knees, and ankles/feet in standing group was significantly higher than the sitting group. The means of severity of discomfort/pain in all body regions were significantly higher in standing group compared to other group. Generally, occupational fatigue was higher among the standing group compared to sitting group. About productivity, the 'concentration/focus' and 'impatience/irritability' subscales in sitting group were higher than the standing group. Contrariwise, other subscales of the productivity, including 'productivity', 'supervisor relations', 'non-work satisfaction', 'work satisfaction' in the standing group were higher than the sitting group.

Conclusions: To reduce the adverse effects of sitting and standing workstations on individual's health outcomes, planning to use sit-stand workstations is recommended.

[This corrects the article on p. E69-E75 in vol. 63, PMID: 35647389.].

Introduction: Due to the impact on the public health systems of the ageing and the increasing frailty of the population, the European Union and the World Health Organisation have emphasised how family and community nurses (FCNs) could play an important role in supporting the ageing process through prevention, promotion, and protection in the territory.

Methods: This study describes the first experience in Italy of a one-year postgraduate blended-learning master course divided into 5 modules for FCNs piloted as part of the EuropeaN curriculum for fAmily aNd Community nursE (ENhANCE) 2018-2020 project, funded by the European Commission. The 5 modules focused on: Epidemiology and Prevention (14 ECTS); Fundamentals of care (19 ECTS); Organisational Models and Priority Health Problems (12 ECTS); Communication Models and Continuity of Care (5 ECTS); and Nursing Research (10 ECTS). Participants included a total of 45 students and 23 lecturers and a team of clinical tutors.

Results: The Italian pilot course for the FCNs proved to be a successful example of innovative teaching methods using blended didactic methods, which enabled participants to achieve high-standard learning outcomes and competencies in the field of family and community nursing.

Conclusions: The pilot course is well suited to preparing competent family and community nurses to meet the growing healthcare needs of the population. Therefore, we have planned to replicate this course to increase the workforce of family and community nurses, who through their healthcare services aimed at prevention, promotion and protection, will ensure high quality services to the public and consequently relieve the burden on acute hospitals.

Introduction: Viral hepatitis remains a public health concern worldwide, mainly in developing countries. The public's awareness and interest in viral hepatitis information are essential in preventing and controlling this disease. Infodemiology has been used as a surrogate to assess the general understanding of disease and measure public awareness of health topics. However, this analysis has not been applied to viral hepatitis. Thus, this study investigated the online global search interest for viral hepatitis in the last decade, focusing on the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Global online search interest for hepatitis was measured using the Google Trends™ database. Spearman's rank-order correlation correlated country-specific characteristics and prevalence data with search volume index.

Results: There was a significant reduction in online search interest for hepatitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). People searching for hepatitis are also interested in hepatitis vaccination. Search volume index is positively correlated with viral hepatitis and HIV prevalence and negatively correlated with GDP. This correlation mirrors the high burden of viral hepatitis in developing countries and their citizens' desire to be informed about this disease.

Conclusions: Our study found decreased global online interest in viral hepatitis during the pandemic. Moreover, higher online interest in hepatitis was observed in countries with a lower gross domestic product and high viral hepatitis and HIV prevalence. We demonstrated that global online interest toward viral hepatitis could be assessed through the infodemiologic approach using Google Trends™.