1,720,960 research outputs found
Relationship of Serum Cholesterol and Triglycerides Levels with the Body Mass Index in a Group of Healthy Undergraduates
Get PDFIntroduction: Knowledge about the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and serum lipid levels is important in detecting the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The present study assessed the correlations of serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels with BMI in a group of healthy undergraduates. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 104 students of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Ruhuna. Serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels of fasting blood samples were measured using enzymatic kits. Students’ heights and weights were measured, and BMI values were calculated. Information regarding students’ dietary habits, lifestyle and family history of diseases related to dyslipidemia was collected using a pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS-20.0. Results: Mean (±SD) serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels of the samples were 191.34±36.13 mg/dL and 116.25±59.9 mg/dL, respectively. The mean BMI was 22.48±3.59kg/m2. The total population had significant positive correlations between; BMI and total cholesterol level (r=0.23, p=0.017), and BMI and triglyceride level (r=0.42, p<0.001). There was no significant correlation between BMI and cholesterol levels in male students (p=0.800) but, a significant positive correlation was found between triglyceride levels and BMI of them (p=0.017). Among female students, significant positive correlations with BMI were observed for both cholesterol (p=0.005) and triglyceride (p=0.002) levels. Family history of dyslipidemia related disease conditions showed a significant effect on the elevation of serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels of the students. Although there was no significant difference, the highest serum lipid levels were detected among students who consumed eggs more than once a day. Conclusions: Significant positive correlations were found between BMI and both serum total cholesterol and triglycerides levels in female students. Among the male students, there was a significant positive correlation between BMI and triglycerides, and no correlation between BMI and cholesterol levels.
Keywords: Body mass index, Cholesterol, Correlation, Triglyceride, Undergraduate
Assessment of Knowledge and Healthcare Related Practices of Caregivers Regarding Home Management of Children with Nephrotic Syndrome
Get PDFIntroduction: Nephrotic Syndrome (NS) is the commonest chronic glomerular disorder characterized by heavy proteinuria, hypoproteinaemia, oedema and hyperlipidaemia. Parental motivation and involvement are essential for home management of a child with NS. This study was conducted to assess caregivers' knowledge and healthcare related practices regarding home management of children with NS. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among caregivers (n=94) attending the Paediatric Nephrology Clinic (PNC) at the Teaching Hospital Karapitiya, Sri Lanka. Data were collected through an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: The majority of the respondents (71.3%) were mothers. The majority of children with NS in the study sample were boys (70.2%), and their mean age was 7.6±3 years. About 40.4% of children had onset of disease at the age of 2-3 years. The majority of participants (53.2%) had scored more than 75 marks for knowledge. The practice score of the majority (66.0%) was between 50-100. The mean knowledge score was significantly higher in the participants who have managed their child with NS for 6-8 years (p=0.006) and for 9-11 years (p=0.019), compared to the participants who have managed their child with NS for 3-5 years. The mean knowledge score was significantly higher in the participants with the family history with NS in compared to the participants without family history of NS (p=0.001). A statistically significant association was found between mean practice score and the number of living children in the family (p=0.009). Mean practice score of the participants who had more than four living children was significantly higher than the participants who had two living children in their family (p=0.002). However, a significant negative correlation was observed between knowledge on NS and healthcare related practices of the participants (r= -0.240, n=94, p=0.020, 2-tailed). Conclusions: The overall knowledge and practices of parents/caregivers regarding home management of children with NS attending to the PNC, Teaching Hospital Karapitiya, Sri Lanka, was adequate and satisfactory.
Keywords: Home management, Paediatric, Nephrotic Syndrome, Knowledge, Practic
Do pregnant women have adequate knowledge on daily water requirement and dehydration and do they meet with the recommended fluid intake?
No full textWater is the most essential requirement for all living organisms to survive. A safe, adequate water supply is needed for all people. Pregnant women are at a high risk of dehydration due to inadequate fluid intake. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge on daily water requirement and dehydration among the pregnant women in selected MOH areas in Galle district and to measure the total daily fluid intake of them. Participants (n=366) were recruited using purposive sampling method from three MOH areas in Galle district. A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge about daily water requirements and dehydration. From each MOH area 20 pregnant women were randomly selected for a sub-group from the main sample to measure daily total fluid intake. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25.0, using student’s t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation tests. All participants (n=366, 100%) showed poor knowledge on daily water requirements, and dehydration. The mean (SD) daily total fluid intake was 2117.47±437.69 mL/day. The average total fluid intake range was 1473-3803 mL/day. Only 20% of the pregnant women in the sub sample met with the total fluid intake recommendations for pregnant women. Results concluded that the pregnant women in Galle possess inadequate knowledge on daily water requirements and dehydration. The total daily fluid intake of the majority of the (80%) pregnant women were below the recommendations. However, there was no relationship between levels of knowledge and average total fluid intake of pregnant women. Findings emphasizes the urgent requirement of improving the hydration status of the pregnant mothers and educating them on the daily water requirement, the value of proper hydration and the consequences of dehydration.
KEYWORDS: Dehydration, water requirement, fluid intake, pregnant women, knowledg
Consumers’ Knowledge and Perception of Food Additives: A Study of Galle Municipal Area in Sri Lanka
Get PDFFood additives are substances added to food in order to maintain or improve the taste, texture, safety, freshness or appearance. Food additives have been found to cause various health problems such as allergies, hormone imbalances, cancers, fertility problems, obesity and hyperactivity. Limited data is available regarding the consumer’s knowledge and perception of food additives in Sri Lanka. This descriptive cross -sectional study was conducted to assess the consumers’ knowledge and perception on food additives to use the findings to improve those aspects. Study sample consisted of 305 participants aged 30-50 years from Galle municipal area. Data were collected by using a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software version 22.0. Results indicated that the knowledge score on food additives in 73.7% of the participants was poor, 20.7% were an average knowledge level, and 5.6% had having good knowledge. Only 36.1% of participants knew about the “E” numbers in foods, and 89.8% of participants believed food additives cause an adverse effects on their health. Majority (79.3%) had the habit of reading food labels. About 71.2% of participants do not frequently consume packed foods. Only 34.4% of participants knew about mono-sodium glutamate. The level of knowledge on food additives is significantly different among the respondents with different education levels (p=0. 001) and occupations (p=0.012). Females have the habit of reading food labels more than males (p=0.032). Tamil and Muslim consumers use more food additives than Sinhalese people, and graduates had a limited usage than the others. Usage of food additives showed significant differences among the respondent’s educational levels (p=0.019) and ethnicity (p=0.009). The necessity of educating public on the adverse health effects of food additives to minimize their consumption is emphasized. Controlling food additives usage through necessary government legislations would be more effective.
KEYWORDS: E numbers, Food additives, MSG, Knowledge, Perceptio
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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