OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of a Home-Initiated-Programme-to-Prepare-for-Operation (HIPPO) on emotional manifestation and anxiety in children undergoing surgery.
DESIGN, SETTING AND PATIENTS: One hundred and thirty children were randomly assigned to either control or intervention group between February 2018 and April 2019 in a tertiary paediatric hospital in Singapore.
INTERVENTION: In addition to our standard pre-operative workflow, the intervention group received an additional home preparation kit consisting of an animated video on preoperative preparation and age-specific preoperative preparation activity sheets.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the Children's Emotional Manifestation Scale score to evaluate behaviour and emotion in the children before and during induction of anaesthesia. Secondary outcomes evaluated anxiety levels in parents and children, the child's behaviour and degree of co-operation using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Children scores, the Induction Compliance Checklist scores, the Visual Analogue Scale scores for anxiety and the feedback questionnaire.
RESULTS: The difference between the Children's Emotional Manifestation Scale score in control and intervention groups was not statistically significant. A promising difference was however observed in one of the secondary outcomes where the state-State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Children scores of 7 to 10-year olds in the intervention group almost reached significance; P = 0.067.
CONCLUSION: Despite being a child-friendly, easily accessible and affordable tool for patient education, HIPPO did not reduce anxiety experienced by children in the pre-operative waiting area or during induction of anaesthesia.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT04271553.
METHODS: A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted from November 2020 to June 2021. Thirteen respondents were recruited from two public rehabilitation centers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. In-depth interviews were conducted. A comprehensive representation of perspectives from the respondents was achieved through purposive sampling. The interviews were conducted in the Kelantanese dialect, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by using thematic analysis.
RESULTS: Thirteen participants were involved in the interviews. All of them agreed with the need for a mobile application in stroke management. They believed the future stroke application will help them to seek information, continuous stroke home care, and help in the welfare of caregivers and stroke patients.
CONCLUSIONS: The current study revealed two themes with respective subthemes that were identified, namely, self-seeking for information and reasons for using a stroke mobile application in the future. This application helps in reducing healthcare costs, enhancing the rehabilitation process, facilitating patient engagement in decision making, and the continuous monitoring of patient health.
METHODS: The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation third edition of the Atlas of MS was a survey that assessed the current global state of diagnosis including adoption of MS diagnostic criteria; barriers to diagnosis with respect to the patient, health care provider, and health system; and existence of national guidelines or national standards for speed of MS diagnosis.
RESULTS: Coordinators from 107 countries (representing approximately 82% of the world population), participated. Eighty-three percent reported at least 1 "major barrier" to early MS diagnosis. The most frequently reported barriers included the following: "lack of awareness of MS symptoms among general public" (68%), "lack of awareness of MS symptoms among health care professionals" (59%), and "lack of availability of health care professionals with knowledge to diagnose MS" (44%). One-third reported lack of "specialist medical equipment or diagnostic tests." Thirty-four percent reported the use of only 2017 McDonald criteria (McD-C) for diagnosis, and 79% reported 2017 McD-C as the "most commonly used criteria." Sixty-six percent reported at least 1 barrier to the adoption of 2017 McD-C, including "neurologists lack awareness or training" by 45%. There was no significant association between national guidelines pertaining to MS diagnosis or practice standards addressing the speed of diagnosis and presence of barriers to early MS diagnosis and implementation of 2017 McD-C.
DISCUSSION: This study finds pervasive consistent global barriers to early diagnosis of MS. While these barriers reflected a lack of resources in many countries, data also suggest that interventions designed to develop and implement accessible education and training can provide cost-effective opportunities to improve access to early MS diagnosis.
METHODS: Published journals before September 2021, from five databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Springer, Cochrane, and CNKI) were retrieved according to the keywords. The keywords used included cancer patients, terminally ill patients, cancer, SPB, self-perceived burden, self-burden, self-perceived, factor, predictor, associated factor, determinants, risk factor, prognostic factor, covariate, independent variable, and variable. The quality of the inclusion and exclusion criteria was independently reviewed by three researchers.
RESULTS: Out of 12,712 articles, there are 22 studies met the eligibility criteria. The prevalence of SPB among cancer patients ranged from 73.2 to 100% in Malaysia, China, and Canada. Most of them had moderate SPB. Out of the reported factors, age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, residence, educational level, occupational status, family income, primary caregiver, payment methods, disease-related factors, psychological factors, and physical factors were mostly reported across the studies.
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, SPB prevalence is high in cancer patients. Therefore, hospitals, non-governmental organizations, relevant policymakers, and communities can provide special programs for high-risk groups to provide psychological guidance or design corresponding interventions to reduce the SPB level of patients and improve the quality of life.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a pilot experimental study, six patients (10 hips) with early-stage non-traumatic ONFH were treated by core decompression, and concurrent injection of local DFO loaded on PLGA scaffold into the subchondral femoral head. Outcome measures were evaluated before the surgery and 12 and 24 months after the surgery and included visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, modified Merle d'Aubigné-Postel (MAP) score for hip function by MRI, and rate of osteonecrosis assessed by the modified.
RESULTS: The mean MPA score was 14.7 ± 1.16 before the surgery and 16.7 ± 1.41 one year after the surgery (P = 0.004). The mean VAS for pain was 4.7 ± 1.25 before the surgery and 1.8 ± 1.03 one year after the surgery (P = 0.005). The mean Kerboul angle was 219 ± 58.64 before the operation and 164.6 ± 41.82 one year after the operation (P