Journal of Public Health Research (PAGEPress Publications)
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The determinant of healthcare childbirth among young people in Indonesia
Full text linkBackground: Young people is a vulnerable period of the emergence of various problems that may occur especially to those who are pregnant. The study was aimed to analyze the determinants of healthcare childbirth among young people in Indonesia in 2017.Design and Methods: The samples of this study were young people (15-24 yo.) who labored in the last 5 years, and there were 3,235 female young people involved. The study analyzed some variables, such as childbirth healthcare, a type of residence, age, education, employment, marital, parity, wealth, insurance, the autonomy of family finances, the autonomy of health, knowledge of pregnancy danger signs, and ANC. The data were analyzed by binary logistic regression.Results: Young people in urban were 2.23 times more likely to attend healthcare childbirth than those in rural (95%CI 1.84-2.70). Young people who completed secondary education were 4.12 times more likely to undergo delivery care than no education (95% CI 1.51-11.23). The richest were 5.60 times more likely to experience delivery care than the poorest (95%CI 3.52-8.93). Health insurance gave 1.44 possibilities for undergoing labor and delivery care (95%CI 1.22-1.70). Besides, knowing the danger signs of pregnancy allowed 1.50 times the possibilities for them to access labor and delivery care (95%CI 1.27-1.78). Young people with ANC visits of ≥4 times had more 1.68 times possibilities for taking healthcare childbirth compared to those with that of <4 times (95%CI 1.38-2.06).Conclusions: The study concluded that the determinants of healthcare childbirth among female adolescents in Indonesia included a residence, education, wealth, insurance, knowledge of pregnancy danger signs, and ANC
Systems dynamics approach for modelling South Africa’s response to COVID-19: A “what if” scenario
Full text linkBackground: Many countries in the world are still struggling to control COVID-19 pandemic. As of April 28, 2020, South Africa reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Sub-Sahara Africa. The country took aggressive steps to control the spread of the virus including setting a national command team for COVID-19 and putting the country on a complete lockdown for more than 100 days. Evidence across most countries has shown that, it is vital to monitor the progression of pandemics and assess the effects of various public health measures, such as lockdowns. Countries need to have scientific tools to assist in monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of mitigation interventions. The objective of this study was thus to assess the extent to which a systems dynamics model can forecast COVID-19 infections in South Africa and be a useful tool in evaluating government interventions to manage the epidemic through ‘what if’ simulations.Design and Methods: This study presents a systems dynamics model (SD) of the COVID-19 infection in South Africa, as one of such tools. The development of the SD model in this study is grounded in design science research which fundamentally builds on prior research of modelling complex systems.Results: The SD model satisfactorily replicates the general trend of COVID-19 infections and recovery for South Africa within the first 100 days of the pandemic. The model further confirms that the decision to lockdown the country was a right one, otherwise the country’s health capacity would have been overwhelmed. Going forward, the model predicts that the level of infection in the country will peak towards the last quarter of 2020, and thereafter start to decline. Conclusions: Ultimately, the model structure and simulations suggest that a systems dynamics model can be a useful tool in monitoring, predicting and testing interventions to manage COVID-19 with an acceptable margin of error. Moreover, the model can be developed further to include more variables as more facts on the COVID-19 emerge
Senior interior design students’ perceptions about distance learning in the shadow of COVID-19
Full text linkBackground: Like many international universities and institutions of higher education that have shifted the entire educational system from the traditional face-to-face education model to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, universities in Saudi Arabia have expended great effort to change the behavior of educators and students to accommodate the transition. This rapid shift has had a significant impact on students, especially in programs such as interior design, in which different practical courses are taught along with the theoretical ones. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the benefits and challenges senior interior design students experienced while taking their classes online.Design and Methods: The current paper has adopted a qualitative approach for assessing the data obtained. Semi-structured interview was used to collect all the needed information regarding participants’ opinions about distance learning.Results: Increased time to spend on assignments, reduction of costs to the student, and improvement in achievement of learning outcomes were the three main benefits students reported in their experience of distance learning. On the other hand, technical issues, changes in grade distribution, and changes in project types were identified as student concerns. Although students found many advantages in communicating with others remotely, some issues arose.Conclusions: Students expressed a preference for the hybrid learning method, or at least for having their exams, juries, and presentations on campus in person, not remotely
COVID-19 lockdown: impact on online gambling, online shopping, web navigation and online pornography
Full text linkBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic and control measures may have had an impact on unpleasant emotions experimented during the lockdown (LD). This may have increased the number of hours spent online and could have impacted the quality of the enacted behavior, in terms of loss of control of Internet use. In this online survey, we were interested in measure how much loss of control was perceived regarding online gambling, online shopping, the fruition of online pornographic content and web navigation.Design and methods: The online survey was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic in the post-lockdown and 1232 subjects participated in the survey. In the participating sample, healthcare workers (HW) were 43.1% of the sample, of which 18.7% were directly involved in the Coronavirus emergency, and 52.3% of the sample is not a HW. Only 0.6% of the sample gambled online and 37.5% of those reported losing control of their gambling mode. Most of the sample shopped online during the LD (70.1%), but only 7.2% of those lost control by buying and/or spending more than what they had set themselves.Results: Significant data emerged showing that those who lost control while online shopping also lost control regarding the amount of time spent online (p<0.001); 21.6% of the sample, reported making use of online pornographic material during LD, 4.7% of them stated that the frequency increased and 5.1% reported losing control by having spent more money or more time than what was intended. Finally, 44.7% of the sample have experienced loss of control during the web navigation. Furthermore, during the LD 67.8% of the sample reports having experienced unpleasant emotions. Of these, 8.4% state that they enacted behaviors such as online gambling, online shopping, online pornographic material viewing and web navigation to counter their negative emotions. Interestingly, we found a correlation between loss of control during web navigation and online shopping and the emotional states “upset”, “scared” and “restless” (p<0.05).Conclusion: To conclude, there was no significant increase in potentially addictive behaviors, nor an increase in loss of control of these behaviors when enacted online. However, the loss of control in online shopping and web navigation was significantly correlated to the unpleasant emotional states of nervousness, fear and restlessness, whereas those who reported feeling strong and able to handle the situation experienced a lower loss of control in their web navigation. These correlations may suggest that these online behaviors may act as modulators of unpleasant emotional states
Possible correlation of electrochemiluminescence based numerical cut off index value with concentration of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody: Is it worth reporting?
Full text linkBackground: Many laboratories are reporting a numerical cutoff index value (COI) value for most anti-SARS-CoV-2 qualitative tests. These numerical values in patients’ report ultimately created great confusion in the public and physicians, therefore this study was designed to evaluate the correlation of electrochemiluminescence (ECLIA) based numerical COI values with quantitative ELISA of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody.Design and Methods: Two hundred and twenty-eight (228) recovered COVID-19 patients were included; their serum samples were analyzed by quantitative ELISA and ECLIA for anti-SARS-COV-2 antibodies.Results: One hundred and seventy-three (75.8%) patients tested positive by ECLIA and ELISA assay and thirty-seven (6.2%) were tested negative by both methods. A weak positive correlation (r=0.37) was found between numerical COI value of ECLIA with ELISA concentration, which was statistically significant with p<0.001. All values were dispersed on scatter plot and there was no significant linear relationship between ECLIA and ELISA assay.Conclusions: As both testing techniques are base upon the same immunological phenomena of detecting antibodies against nucleocapsid protein. We suggest that COI values are not meant to describe the immunity level of the individuals thus the physicians should not consider it as a quantitative value for antibody levels in COVID-19 patients
Practice of wound closure techniques among emergency physicians and surgeons in Makkah City Hospitals in Saudi Arabia
Full text linkBackground: Wound suturing is a procedure performed by medical and surgical specialists. While there are many different suturing techniques and materials used to treat patients, the choice of which to employ depends on different variables that affect the outcome of the procedure.Design and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted to provide descriptive data regarding the practice of wound closure techniques, and to develop an awareness of scar formation factors. A total of 172 general surgery (GS) surgeons and emergency (EM) physicians in Makkah city hospitals in Saudi Arabia participated in the study.Results: More than 50% of the practitioners favored the simple interrupted technique for the treatment of all types of studied wounds. The other most common techniques among participants were the subcuticular and vertical mattress methods, respectively, while the use of a stapler was limited to certain wound types. Regarding suturing material, polyglycolic acid was the most frequent material used by 50.1% of participants, whereas only 22% of the participants selected nylon material for wound suturing. However, this study showed a good level of awareness among participants, with significant p-values (p<0.05) of strongly agree and agree regarding the essential factors affecting wound healing and scar formation.Conclusions: The result provides insight into the most common suture techniques and materials used in wound closure. There are wide variations in selecting these techniques and materials among the participants. Also, we found that there is good awareness among participants about factors that lead to scar formation
The time pattern of selenomethionine administration in preventing free radicals due to exposure to electric cigarette smoke
Full text linkBackground: Most people believe that electric cigarettes have no negative effect on health, which causes them to use it more. However, exposure to the smoke from these cigarettes is bad for the health and causes cell damage. Antioxidants play an important role in preventing cell damage, and they can be obtained through the oral administration of selenomethionine.Design and methods: This study used an experimental method and a post-test control group design. Male Wistar rats, which were exposed to cigarette smoke were given selenomethionine orally and then tested for the presence of free radicals. The measurement of lung tissue damage was conducted by assessing the level of malondialdehyde in the blood and immunohistochemistry (IHC) of the lung tissue.Result: The study showed that differences in the time of administration of selenomethionine affect the levels of malondialdehyde in the blood and expression of malondialdehyde in the lung tissue (p<0.05). Consequently, the two groups showed a strong (r=0.861) and significant (p=0.000) relationship with each other.Conclusion: The early application of selenomethionine can prevent increased levels of malondialdehyde in the blood and lung tissue due to exposure to e-cigarette smoke
Is instant porridge with a high calcium content based on Moringa oleifera as an alternative baby food to prevent stunting in Indonesia?
Full text linkBackground: According to WHO, stunting is a state of height-for-age index below minus two standard deviation. However, the condition could be prevented by giving suitable complementary food to babies and toddlers. Moringa leaves are rich in vitamins A, C, B6, as well as calcium, potassium, iron, as well as protein, and are therefore used as complementary foods for breast milk, in baby feeding.Design and Methods: Instant porridge was developed using three formulas. Each formula comprised Moringa leaf flour (5, 6 and 7 grams each) combined with 30 grams of oatmeal powder, 40 grams of powdered formula, 10grams of refined sugar, and 5 grams of banana flour.Results: Based on the organoleptic test, Formula 3 (created with 5 grams of Moringa leaf flour) was discovered to be the best. The organoleptic evaluation panel consisted of 3 trained and 30 untrained participants, while the statistical results showed the parameters of colour, texture, and taste, have no significant effect on panellists’ acceptance.Conclusions: The flavour parameter has a significant effect on panellists’ acceptance, with a p-value <0.05
The role of knowledge, attitude, gender, and school grades in preventing drugs use: findings on students’ intentions to participate in peer education program
Full text linkBackground: Student groups are prone to drug abuse. The prevalence of drugs in the past year among high school students in Surabaya, Indonesia occupies the highest provincial capital (9.4%). The purpose of this study analyzed the relationship between knowledge about drugs, attitudes about peer education, gender, class, and students' intention to participate in peer education programs in HEY (Health Educator for Youth) activities.Design and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with student participants (12-18 years) in six high schools in Surabaya, Indonesia (n=167). This study used an online survey to assess knowledge of drugs and students' attitudes about HEY peer education activities.Results: More than half of the students have insufficient knowledge about drugs and have negative attitudes about peer education in HEY activities. This study also showed that students' intention to participate in peer education was not influenced by the level of knowledge, student attitudes, and gender. The results of statistical tests showed that there was a relationship between class and student participation in peer education activities. This showed that the student's factor regarding participation in peer education was a class category where the lower class is more motivated to participate.Conclusion: Most students have less knowledge about drugs and a negative attitude about peer education. However, the intention to participate in peer education activities is more thus it is necessary to improve the quality of peer educators through activities that are performed regularly by various relevant stakeholders
An educational video improves physician knowledge of a public health care law that affects patient care during hospital clinical practice
No full textWhen public health laws are passed that affect clinical practice within hospitals, it is important to educate physicians about best practices in implementing these laws into routine patient care in hospitals. An educational video was developed to inform physicians about a new state public health care law. This study sought to determine whether an educational video about a new state public health care law improves physicians’ knowledge of the law and how to implement the law during clinical practice. A total of n=33 internal medicine physicians participated in this study. This study found that an educational video was successful in increasing physician knowledge about a new public health care law that affects clinical practice. The utilization of validated educational videos may provide a useful resource when attempting to provide education about new public health laws that effect the provision of medical car