MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and fifty mammography patients above 40 years and undergoing EIT were chosen using convenient sampling. Visual interpretation of the images was carried out by a radiologist with minimum of three years experience using the breast imaging - electrical impedance (BI-EIM) classification for detection of abnormalities. A set of thirty blinded EIT images were reinterpreted to determine the intra-rater reliability using kappa. Quantitative assessment was by comparison of the breast average electric conductivity with the norm and correlations with visual interpretation of the images were determined using Chi-square. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean electrical conductivity between groups and t-test was used for comparisons with pre-existing Caucasians statistics. Independent t-tests were applied to compare the mean electrical conductivity of women with factors like exogenous hormone use and family history of breast cancer.
RESULTS: The mean electrical conductivity of Malaysian women was significantly lower than that of Caucasians (p<0.05). Quantitative assessment of electrical impedance tomography was significantly related with visual interpretation of images of the breast (p<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative assessment of electrical impedance tomography images was significantly related with visual interpretation.
METHODOLOGY: A total of 25 participants agreed to participate in this qualitative study during the period from 20th July 2011 until 24th of September 2011. The proposal of this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Management and Science University (MSU). Once the participant agreed to be interviewed, date, time and place of the interviews were determined. Consent form was obtained from participants before the interview began. Participants were briefed about the study and its purpose, and after asking their permission, their replies were recorded. The data was organized into themes and analyzed manually.
RESULTS: Twenty-five Malaysian traditional healers participated in this qualitative study. The age of participants ranged between 26 to 78 years old. The majority were in the age group of 31-60 years old, male, Chinese, degree holders with a monthly income ranging from 1,000-5,000 Ringgit Malaysia (RM) and were married (56%, 80%, 48%, 52%, 68%, 84% respectively). The majority defined cancer as having high cholesterol or abscess accumulation. A few of them defined cancer as a type of cell growth. The majority mentioned that food and unhealthy lifestyles are the primary causes of cancer. Surprisingly some of them mentioned that cancer is caused by interference by ghosts. Regarding the diagnosis of cancer, the majority mentioned that they refer their patients to modern physicians' medical report when it comes to diagnosing or treating patients with cancer. The most common cancers that many patients came to seek treatment were breast cancers, followed by colon cancers, liver and lung cancers.
CONCLUSION: Despite good knowledge about the causes of cancer among traditional healers, misconceptions still exist. Insufficient knowledge about the definition of cancer was noted among the traditional healers. This urges immediate action by the Ministry of Health of Malaysia to set up a strict regulation and regular monitoring of the traditional healers nationally. Traditional and Complementary Medicine may be integrated into the healthcare system and need to have sustained cooperation for the benefit of patients since about 80% of patients use traditional medicines.
METHODS: Qualitative methods involving two focus group discussions and eight in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. The study was conducted at the following places: Tankisinuwari, Kanchanbari and Pokhariya of Morang district, Nepal during the months of February and March 2010. Purposive sampling method was adopted to recruit twenty mothers based on the inclusion criteria. A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct the interviews. Written informed consent was obtained from all of the participants before conducting the interviews. The interviews were moderated by the main researcher with the support of an expert observer from Nobel Medical College. The interviews were recorded with the permission of the participants and notes were written by a pre trained note-taker. The recordings were transcribed verbatim. All the transcribed data was categorized and analyzed using thematic content analysis.
RESULTS: Twenty mothers participated in the interviews and most (80%) of them were not educated. About 75% of the mothers had a monthly income of up to 5000 Nepalese rupees (US$ 60.92). Although a majority of mothers believed diarrhea to be due to natural causes, there were also beliefs about supernatural origin of diarrhea. Thin watery diarrhea was considered as the most serious. There was diversity in mothers' beliefs about foods/fluids and diarrhea management approaches. Similarly, several barriers were noted regarding diarrhea prevention and/or management such as financial weakness, lack of awareness, absence of education, distance from healthcare facilities and senior family members at home. The elderly compelled the mothers to visit traditional healers.
CONCLUSIONS: There were varied beliefs among the mothers about the types, causes and severity of diarrhea, classification of foods/fluids and beliefs and barriers about preventing or treating diarrhea.
METHODS: A sample of 758 adolescents aged 12-18 years were recruited from private and public schools in Tehran. Information about socio-demographic background and body change techniques were collected via a self-administered questionnaire.
RESULTS: A high percentage of adolescents used body change techniques frequently to alter their body appearance. Girls changed normal eating pattern significantly (p=0.007) to lose weight more frequently than boys while boys used this method significantly (p=0.01) to gain weight more frequently than girls. Overweight/obese adolescents exercised significantly to change muscle size (p=0.03) and changed normal diet to lose weight (p<0.001) more frequently than normal weight adolescents. The relation between sex and body weight status with body change techniques (p<0.0) implied that male and female adolescents especially overweight/obese adolescents were frequently trying to change their body appearance.
CONCLUSION: Significant differences existed in using body change techniques according to sex and body weight status and these should be considered in obesity prevention programs for adolescents.