Context: The survey is nationally representative and community based and is conducted by the Institute for Public Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, to generate health-related evidence and to support the Malaysian Ministry of Health in policy-making. Its planned scope for 2020 was the seroprevalence of communicable diseases such as hepatitis B and C.
Action: Additional components were added to the survey to increase its usefulness, including COVID-19 seroprevalence and facial anthropometric studies to ensure respirator fit. The survey's scale was reduced, and data collection was changed from including only face-to-face interviews to mainly self-administered and telephone interviews. The transmission risk to participants was reduced by screening data collectors before the survey and fortnightly thereafter, using standard droplet and contact precautions, ensuring proper training and monitoring of data collectors, and implementing other administrative infection prevention measures.
Outcome: Data were collected from 7 August to 11 October 2020, with 5957 participants recruited. Only 4 out of 12 components of the survey were conducted via face-to-face interview. No COVID-19 cases were reported among data collectors and participants. All participants were given their hepatitis and COVID-19 laboratory test results; 73 participants with hepatitis B and 14 with hepatitis C who had been previously undiagnosed were referred for further case management.
Discussion: Preparing and conducting the National Health and Morbidity Survey during the COVID-19 pandemic required careful consideration of the risks and benefits, multiple infection prevention measures, strong leadership and strong stakeholder support to ensure there were no adverse events.
DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two hospitals in Jordan among 310 parents of infants in the NICU by using PSS: NICU and PROMIS.
RESULTS: Both parents experienced high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance. There was a significant difference in stress level between mothers and fathers [t (308)=3.471, p=0.001], with the mothers experiencing higher stress than the fathers [mean: mothers=108.58; fathers=101.68]. The highest and lowest sources of stress were infant behavior and appearance (M=4.09) and sights and sounds in the NICU (M=3.54), respectively. The correlation between stress levels with anxiety (r=0.79) and depression (r=0.75) was strong and positive while sleep disturbance was significant and moderate (r=0.43).
CONCLUSIONS: The mothers experienced higher levels of stress compared to fathers, with positive correlations between stress and anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings of this study create nursing awareness of parent stress and its impact, which will help them to improve nursing care for parents.
Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical outcomes that resulted from the use of a new proposed VTE risk stratification protocol for selecting a suitable extended VTE prophylaxis for post TKR surgery patients administered in conjunction with patient education programs.
Method: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in two medical centers in Saudi Arabia. A total of 242 patients were enrolled in the study, 121 patients in each group. The experimental group (A) was assessed by using the proposed VTE risk stratification protocol and also took part in patient education programs about TKR and its complications. The control group (B) was assessed by using the 2005 Caprini risk assessment tool and no education programs were given to this group. Both groups were followed for 35 days post operation.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 65.86 (SD 8.67) and the majority of them were female 137 (56.6%). The mean body mass index of the study sample was 32.46 (SD 5.51). There were no significant differences between the two groups except for surgery type; the proportion of bilateral TKR in group A was higher than in group B (69/121 (28.5%) vs. 40/121(16.5%), p<0.05). There were no confirmed pulmonary embolism cases in the study sample and diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis was confirmed in 12/242 (5.0%) of patients: 1/121 (0.8%) in group A and 11/121 (9.1%) in group B (p<0.05). The readmission rate for all patients was 2.5% (6/242), all of whom were in group B (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The proposed VTE risk stratification protocol that was applied in conjunction with patient education programs reduced VTE complications and readmission events, post TKR surgery. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: Identifier: NCT04031859.