effect of a health education intervention on the knowledge of tuberculosis patients and their contacts

Tuberculosis continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality for young person's all over the world. One of the most important reasons for the reemergence of tuberculosis are the lack of knowledge of patients and their contacts about the disease. Nurses have a major responsibility in improving this knowledge

Aim of the study: 1] to assess the knowledge of tuberculous patients and their contacts about tuberculosis, 2] To assess the effectiveness of a health education intervention in improving their knowledge about the disease

Subjects and methods: a quasiexperimental research design was used to assess the knowledge of a convenience sample of 80 patients and 60 contacts before and after implementation of a health education intervention

Results: most studied patients [60%] came from slum areas in greater Cairo, and 17.5% came from rural areas. They were mostly living in crowded homes [75.0%], and most fathers [43.7%] and mothers [52.5%] were illiterate. Pre-test evaluation showed that patients and their contacts had very low knowledge scores about all aspects of the disease. Statistically significant improvements in all knowledge areas were revealed at the post-test, both among patients and their contacts, p<0.001

Conclusion: the health education intervention was successful in improving the knowledge of patients and their contacts about tuberculosis, which would undoubtedly affect their practices positively. It is recommended to implement the health education program in a stepwise manner by the nurses throughout all chest hospitals, and within TB control programs

Epidemiological study of risky behaviours and their relation with mental ill health among secondary school students in Cairo

A cross-sectional design was carried out on 827 students from general and technical secondary schools in Cairo. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of risky behaviours among the studied students, to assess their relation with sociodemographic factors and psychological problems and to explore student's attitude toward these behaviours. The data were collected by a standardized interviewing form. Different psychological symptoms were assessed using Middle Sex Hospital Questionnaire. The study showed, 54.1% of the students were having unhealthy diet and tobacco smoking behaviours. Also, all the risky behaviours, except absence of physical exercise practice and suicide attempt, were more common among boys. The most important sociodemographic risk factors were; positive family history of risky behaviours, one parent family and the student's work beside studying [OR=7.11, 4.07 and 3.37, respectively]. The most important reasons for unhealthy diet, carrying weapon and engagement in casual sex were imitation [55.2%], to feel grown up [47.1%] and peer pressure [39.1%], respectively. While, the most common psychological problem was hysteria [15.1%] and the most common neurotic trait was sadness [41.9%]. The most important psychological problems risk factors were obsession and hysteria [OR=5.53 and 4.59, respectively]. While, the most important neurotic traits risk were irritability and sadness [OR=9.53 and 8.05, respectively]. No awareness to the reported risk was present among 96.4% of the students having the risky behaviours [OR=6.41]

lnterleukine-6 and acute phase response in chronic renal failure

The mortality rate is high among chronic renal failure [CRF] patients, and recent evidences suggest that this may be linked to chronic inflammation. IL-6, the main pro-inflammatory cytokine, promotes inflammatory events through, the activation of lymphocytes and the induction of acute phase protein response in the liver. In vitro and in vivo studies have suggested that markers of acute phase response such as serum CRP and serum albumin are both known as important predictors for the progression of CRF. The aim of this study is to investigate the IL-6 serum levels and its relation to acute phase reactants [CRP and albumin] in both dialyzed and non-dialyzed CRF patients in compare with normal healthy subjects. Our results show an enhanced production of IL-6 in the CRF non-dialyzed and dialyzed patients, as compared to controls. A strong impact of plasma IL-6 levels on the acute phase reactants were demonstrated by its significant statistical correlation with CRP and albumin. In conclusion an increase of IL-6 and CRP inversely related with creatinine clearance has been evidenced in our results. The possibility that IL-6 causes an activated acute phase response is claimed. A negative correlation between CRP and serum albumin was found confirming the link between chronic inflammation and malnutrition in CRF patients, this was confirmed the decreased cholesterol levels in CRF patients. These data provided evidence of the activation of mechanisms known to contribute to the increased morbidity and mortality in CRF patients