ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Previous studies have suggested that young individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) face challenges in achieving optimal diabetes self-management, leading to difficulties in attaining the recommended glycaemic target. The reasons behind these suboptimal practices remain unclear due to the limited number of studies conducted in Malaysia that focused on diabetes self-management among young people. This qualitative study aimed to understand the lived experience of young people with T2DM on self-management in Malaysia. Methods: Young people at the age of 10 to 24 years, who had been diagnosed with T2DM and the caregivers who managing young people with T2DM were interviewed. Data were thematically analysed with the aid of QSR NVivo version 12. Results: Sixteen young informants and eleven caregivers participated in this study. Three major themes conceptualised the lived experience of diabetes self-management: (1) the trajectory to T2DM diagnosis; (2) perceived causes of T2DM; (3) the efforts in diabetes self-management. The route of diagnosis and experiential knowledge about T2DM might determine their efforts in the self-management among the young people. Healthy eating, medication taking and physical activity were perceived as important tasks in diabetes self-management. The involvement of the caregivers in diabetes self-management evolved over time. Conclusion: The study highlighted the experience of young people and caregivers since the beginning of the diagnosis and their strategies in diabetes self-management. More understanding of the lived experiences of patients and caregivers in disease management within the socio-ecological context could help to improve health-care services and intervention for this population.
ABSTRACT
Objectives@#This study aimed to compare the severity of COVID-19, inflammatory parameters and clinical outcomes among patients with normal and subnormal levels of Vitamin D.@*Methodology@# This is a retrospective cohort study of 135 patients admitted in a tertiary hospital for COVID-19. Patients were grouped according to their Vitamin D level. Primary outcome measure was the composite of all-cause mortality and morbidity. Other outcome measures determined were the comparison among the groups on the severity of COVID-19 infection, changes in inflammatory parameters, length of hospital stay and duration of respiratory support.@*Results@#There was a significant trend of higher ICU admission, mortality (p-value= 0.006) and poor clinical outcome (p-value=0.009) among the Vitamin D deficient group. No significant difference was found for most of the inflammatory parameters, duration of hospital stay and respiratory support. Overall, patients with deficient, but not insufficient Vitamin D level had 6 times higher odds of composite poor outcome than those with normal Vitamin D (crude OR=5.18, p-value= 0.003; adjusted OR =6.3, p-value=0.043).@*Conclusion@#The inverse relationship between Vitamin D level and poor composite outcome observed in our study suggests that low Vitamin D may be a risk factor for poor prognosis among patients admitted for COVID-19.
Subject(s)
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 , Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver DiseaseABSTRACT
We report a case of a 54-year-old man with severe HTG which did not respond to conventional anti lipid therapies. He was treated with intravenous insulin and concurrent dextrose infusions which led to a dramatic reduction in serum triglyceride levels.