BACKGROUND

Medication compliance contributes to preventing significant morbidities, such as stroke, among hypertensive patients.

This study aimed to examine the factors affecting hypertensive patients' medication compliance in Sambag II, Cebu City.

This study is an observational cross-sectional study. The study was conducted in Barangay Sambag II of Cebu City and involved 170 random, voluntary, self-reporting hypertensive patients. The Tao Yamane formula was used to determine the sample size. An interviewer-guided survey questionnaire was utilized to collect the data for the pilot study. The data were analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha Test for internal consistency and reliability.

Three factors were shown to influence compliance with antihypertensive medications. These are the source of medication, access to medication, and symptoms experienced before intake of anti-hypertensive medications. A factor that significantly affects compliance is the source of medication, wherein hypertensive patients prefer medications from retail pharmacies compared to the free medications supplied by the local health center.

Residents of Sambag II, Cebu City preferred medications from retail pharmacies over the free medications provided by the local health center. Local health units may use this information to implement information drugs regarding the efficacy of medications provided by government agencies. Further studies are recommended to use subgroup analysis on factors influencing compliance and non-compliance to anti-hypertensive medicines.

BACKGROUND

Medication compliance contributes to preventing significant morbidities, such as stroke, among hypertensive patients.

This study aimed to examine the factors affecting hypertensive patients' medication compliance in Sambag II, Cebu City.

This study is an observational cross-sectional study. The study was conducted in Barangay Sambag II of Cebu City and involved 170 random, voluntary, self-reporting hypertensive patients. The Tao Yamane formula was used to determine the sample size. An interviewer-guided survey questionnaire was utilized to collect the data for the pilot study. The data were analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha Test for internal consistency and reliability.

Three factors were shown to influence compliance with antihypertensive medications. These are the source of medication, access to medication, and symptoms experienced before intake of anti-hypertensive medications. A factor that significantly affects compliance is the source of medication, wherein hypertensive patients prefer medications from retail pharmacies compared to the free medications supplied by the local health center.

Residents of Sambag II, Cebu City preferred medications from retail pharmacies over the free medications provided by the local health center. Local health units may use this information to implement information drugs regarding the efficacy of medications provided by government agencies. Further studies are recommended to use subgroup analysis on factors influencing compliance and non-compliance to anti-hypertensive medicines.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed care provision models, with a rapid increase in the adoption of telemedicine to reduce in-person visits. Although there are many benefits to teledermatology, there are also factors that hinder its widespread adoption. We aimed to examine patients' perceptions of teledermatology to identify the barriers to its adoption. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted from 15 June to 14 August 2020. Patients were invited to complete a questionnaire in an outpatient dermatology clinic via direct approach by clinical staff or posters posted at the door of consultation rooms. RESULTS: Out of 2,276 clinic attendances, 997 survey responses (43.8%) were collected over a 3-month period. When asked if they would change their subsequent visit to teledermatology, 294 (29.5%) patients were keen, 166 (16.6%) were unsure and 537 (53.9%) declined. Significant factors for declining teledermatology were lack of prior exposure to videoconferencing ( P < 0.01) and lower educational level ( P = 0.019). Patients also raised concerns regarding the ability of teledermatology to address medical concerns (32.1%) and indicated a preference for face-to-face consultation (29.7%). CONCLUSION Factors that influence patients' decision to adopt teledermatology, such as concerns about its ability to address medical issues, lack of IT literacy or experience in teleconferencing, are modifiable. Targeted strategies such as careful patient selection, a dedicated teleconsultation workflow, and the use of a novel 'teledermatology patient journey' (including a clinic walkthrough at the first visit) and an intuitive audio-enabled user interface, may improve patient perceptions and adoption of teleconsultation service.
Humans ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; Dermatology/methods* ; Telemedicine ; Male ; Female ; Prospective Studies ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Aged ; Perception ; Young Adult ; Pandemics ; Skin Diseases/diagnosis* ; Videoconferencing

BACKGROUND

Tobacco smoking remains a primary health concern, more significantly in developing countries and continuously exerts a huge impact on global health. Available treatments for smoking cessation are often associated with adverse side effects, thus there is a great need for new therapies for smoking cessation. N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is a widely available and well tolerated drug that would increase the intracellular levels of glutathione which modulates oxidative, immune-inflammatory, glutamatergic and neurotrophic pathways. There is suggestive evidence for the use of NAC in smoking cessation. Despite promising preclinical and preliminary clinical findings, randomised controlled trials which aim to evaluate NAC’s efficacy for smoking cessation and substance use disorders have shown mixed outcomes. With this gap in literature this study aims to determine the effect of NAC as an adjunctive treatment for smoking cessation.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of NAC as an adjunctive treatment for smoking cessation

The study covered randomised clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals registered in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and PubMed. Study population in the selected studies had patients 18-65 of age years and with tobacco-use disorder or patients who smoke an average of 5 sticks per day. The primary outcome would be the effect of NAC on smoking cessation. The researcher utilised Review Manager 5.4.1 for the analysis of this study.

Initial Search in PubMed and Cochrane Library identified 23 clinical trials (6 PubMed, 17 Cochrane Library). 3 articles were included in the analysis. A total of 238 participants were enrolled in the studies, with 121 enrolled in the treatment group (NAC) and 106 were in the placebo group. The mean age of participants is 36.59 years and treatment duration vary up with the shortest duration of 1 month and longest duration of 3 months. Pooled odds ratio (2.41) shows that the true population odds of smoking cessation were between 1.32 and 4.41 in favor to the participants in the NAC group with 95% confidence interval. Measurement of secondary outcomes showed a significant reduction on carbon monoxide exhaled in the NAC group compared to the placebo group (P-0.0001, MD (95CI) -2.04 (3.09,-0.99). Pooled odds ratio (3.4) shows that there is a higher odds of adverse events between 1.72 and 6.90 higher in the NAC group with 95% confidence interval.

The results of this study showed a favourable effect of NAC as an adjunctive treatment for smoking cessation. NAC has shown a great potential to address the limited access to therapy due to its good safety profile and its wide availability.

BACKGROUND

Nursing, as a profession, is a facet where job satisfaction and performance matter. In the changing landscape of nursing practice in the Philippines and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to revisit and to perform an empirical investigation of the current state of nurses' job satisfaction and performance in the hospital setting. This study aimed to describe the job satisfaction and performance among staff nurses in private and government hospitals in Baguio City.

Using a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional survey design, a sample of 313 randomly selected staff nurses working in two private and two government hospitals in Baguio City were surveyed from March to April 2023, using a questionnaire. This study's protocol was approved by two ethics committees, namely the Saint Louis University Research Ethics Committee and the BGHMC REC. Nominal data was analyzed using the SPSS trial version employing frequencies, percentages, and the Chi-square test.

There are more staff nurses in both private and government hospitals who reported satisfactory job satisfaction levels (276 nurses, 87.9%) and had good job performance (303 nurses, 96.5%) in all domains. However, results show that there are more nurses (209 nurses, 90.7% ) in government hospitals who are satisfied with their jobs than in private hospital nurses (67 nurses, 80.1%) in the domains Intra practice Partnership/Collegiality (p=0.010); Challenge/Autonomy (p=0.001); Professional, Social and Community Interaction (p=0.010); Professional Growth (p=0.036); Time (p=0.009); and Benefits (p=0.045). In terms of job performance, more government nurses at 97.3% (224 nurses) rated a higher self-appraisal of job performance. In comparison, only 94.8% (79 nurses) of private staff nurses appraised themselves as having good performance. No significant differences were found in the domains of job performance, namely leadership, teaching, planning, communications, and professional development, except in critical care. In "Critical care," which showed significance, the results suggest that more nurses in government hospitals perceive higher job performance, revealing a significant difference (p=0.011) in the "critical care" domain, indicating that a higher proportion of nurses in government hospitals demonstrate superior performance in this area.

Through this study, it was learned that nurses in both private and government hospitals generally experience high job satisfaction and performance, reflecting a fulfilled workforce and indicating commendable competency among the staff nurses. However, more nurses in government hospitals report high satisfaction and perceived performance in critical care compared to those in private hospitals. Thus, the findings of this study can contribute to and serve as a rationale for policy making regarding creating a positive work environment, proper management and leadership, creation of training and skill development for critical care, providing opportunities for professional growth, and conducting regular evaluation and feedback----- all geared towards a satisfied and productive workforce.

Background and Objectives: There are limited national data on the trends and outcomes of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of early COVID-19 pandemic on the trends and outcomes of AMI using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Methods: The NIS database was queried from January 2019 to December 2020 to identify adult (age ≥18 years) AMI hospitalizations and were categorized into ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. In addition, the in-hospital mortality, revascularization, and resource utilization of AMI hospitalizations early in the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) were compared to those in the prepandemic period (2019) using multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis. Results: Amongst 1,709,480 AMI hospitalizations, 209,450 STEMI and 677,355 NSTEMI occurred in 2019 while 196,230 STEMI and 626,445 NSTEMI hospitalizations occurred in 2020. Compared with those in 2019, the AMI hospitalizations in 2020 had higher odds of inhospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], [1.23–1.32];p<0.01) and lower odds of percutaneous coronary intervention (aOR, 0.95 [0.92–0.99];p=0.02), and coronary artery bypass graft (aOR, 0.90 [0.85–0.97]; p<0.01). Conclusions We found a significant decline in AMI hospitalizations and use of revascularization, with higher in-hospital mortality, during the early COVID-19 pandemic period (2020) compared with the pre-pandemic period (2019). Further research into the factors associated with increased mortality could help with preparedness in future pandemics.

Background and Objectives: There are limited national data on the trends and outcomes of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of early COVID-19 pandemic on the trends and outcomes of AMI using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Methods: The NIS database was queried from January 2019 to December 2020 to identify adult (age ≥18 years) AMI hospitalizations and were categorized into ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. In addition, the in-hospital mortality, revascularization, and resource utilization of AMI hospitalizations early in the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) were compared to those in the prepandemic period (2019) using multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis. Results: Amongst 1,709,480 AMI hospitalizations, 209,450 STEMI and 677,355 NSTEMI occurred in 2019 while 196,230 STEMI and 626,445 NSTEMI hospitalizations occurred in 2020. Compared with those in 2019, the AMI hospitalizations in 2020 had higher odds of inhospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], [1.23–1.32];p<0.01) and lower odds of percutaneous coronary intervention (aOR, 0.95 [0.92–0.99];p=0.02), and coronary artery bypass graft (aOR, 0.90 [0.85–0.97]; p<0.01). Conclusions We found a significant decline in AMI hospitalizations and use of revascularization, with higher in-hospital mortality, during the early COVID-19 pandemic period (2020) compared with the pre-pandemic period (2019). Further research into the factors associated with increased mortality could help with preparedness in future pandemics.

Background and Objectives: There are limited national data on the trends and outcomes of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of early COVID-19 pandemic on the trends and outcomes of AMI using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Methods: The NIS database was queried from January 2019 to December 2020 to identify adult (age ≥18 years) AMI hospitalizations and were categorized into ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. In addition, the in-hospital mortality, revascularization, and resource utilization of AMI hospitalizations early in the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) were compared to those in the prepandemic period (2019) using multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis. Results: Amongst 1,709,480 AMI hospitalizations, 209,450 STEMI and 677,355 NSTEMI occurred in 2019 while 196,230 STEMI and 626,445 NSTEMI hospitalizations occurred in 2020. Compared with those in 2019, the AMI hospitalizations in 2020 had higher odds of inhospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], [1.23–1.32];p<0.01) and lower odds of percutaneous coronary intervention (aOR, 0.95 [0.92–0.99];p=0.02), and coronary artery bypass graft (aOR, 0.90 [0.85–0.97]; p<0.01). Conclusions We found a significant decline in AMI hospitalizations and use of revascularization, with higher in-hospital mortality, during the early COVID-19 pandemic period (2020) compared with the pre-pandemic period (2019). Further research into the factors associated with increased mortality could help with preparedness in future pandemics.

Background and Objectives: There are limited national data on the trends and outcomes of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of early COVID-19 pandemic on the trends and outcomes of AMI using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Methods: The NIS database was queried from January 2019 to December 2020 to identify adult (age ≥18 years) AMI hospitalizations and were categorized into ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. In addition, the in-hospital mortality, revascularization, and resource utilization of AMI hospitalizations early in the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) were compared to those in the prepandemic period (2019) using multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis. Results: Amongst 1,709,480 AMI hospitalizations, 209,450 STEMI and 677,355 NSTEMI occurred in 2019 while 196,230 STEMI and 626,445 NSTEMI hospitalizations occurred in 2020. Compared with those in 2019, the AMI hospitalizations in 2020 had higher odds of inhospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], [1.23–1.32];p<0.01) and lower odds of percutaneous coronary intervention (aOR, 0.95 [0.92–0.99];p=0.02), and coronary artery bypass graft (aOR, 0.90 [0.85–0.97]; p<0.01). Conclusions We found a significant decline in AMI hospitalizations and use of revascularization, with higher in-hospital mortality, during the early COVID-19 pandemic period (2020) compared with the pre-pandemic period (2019). Further research into the factors associated with increased mortality could help with preparedness in future pandemics.