[Self care behaviors of diabetic patients in Qom]

Diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder and is a major public health problem in the world. Patient participation in treatment of disease is one of the most effective factors in the control of disease. The present study aimed to determine Self Care Behaviors of Diabetic Patients. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 250 patients who referred to the diabetes association of Qom in the age range of 17-75 years after at least one year from their diabetes diagnosis were selected using a simple sampling method. Data was collected by means of SDSCA [summary of diabetes self care activities] questionnaire as in-person interview. The questionnaire consists of two parts of demographic characteristics and self care behaviors questions. Data analysis performed using t-test and Pearson correlation test, p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Among studied patients, 96.4% had type 2 diabetes. The mean score of self-care behavior in patients with diabetes was 46.53 +/- 10.61. There was a significant relationship between fasting blood glucose and self care [p=0.008], physical activity and fasting blood glucose [p=0.001] level of education and self care [p=0.02]. Considering the result of this study, diabetes is one of the most important and complicated diseases that annually imposes heavy costs on patients. Therefore, necessary planning should be performed to continue education about self-care behavior of diabetes, its complications and ways of coping

[Frequency of surgical wound infection in operated patients at Golpayegani Hospital in Qom [2008-2009]]

Nosocomial infection is an infection that neither is presented or in incubation period at time of admission. This complication increases the hospital stay, cost, and mortality. Surgical wound infection [SWI] is a major nosocomial infection. The study was performed to determine the frequency of SWI, causative agents, and underlying diseases in operated patients. This was a prospective cross-sectional study carried out on operated patients by general surgeons at Golpayegani Hospital in Qom [Iran] during 2008-2009. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using t-test and chi square test. Totally, 3400 patients were operated within this period. The mean age was 55 +/- 2 years and 53% were female. The most common operations were cholecystectomy [36.4%], appendectomy [29%], gastric surgery [13.4%], herniorrhaphy [9.3%], and intestinal surgery [6%]. Of total patients operated, 2.9% developed SWI. The mean age among those was 58 +/- 2 years and 53% were female with no significant difference between the SWI cases and the total number of patients regarding the age and sex. The frequency of infection was higher in gastric, intestinal, and cholecystectomy surgeries than appendectomy and herniorrhaphy and the difference was found to be significant [P<0.01] indicating that the SWI was more common in gastric, intestinal, and gallbladder surgeries. The most common underlying diseases were diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in both total patients and the SWI patients with no significant difference between two. The commonest agent was Staphylococcus aureus [32%] and pseudomonas [20.5%]. Frequency of SWI was at expected limit indicating that it was not abnormally high or low. Although the predominant organism was different from that reported in some studies however, this could be the value of this study as each medical center should be aware of its own indices including its local specific organisms which may be different from those in other hospitals

[Epidemiologic features of admitted patients with infectious diseases in Qom]

Despite decades of dramatic progress in their treatment and prevention, infectious diseases remain a major cause of death and debility responsible for worsening the living conditions of millions of people around the world. This study was conducted to determine the epidemiologic features of patients admitted with infectious disases at Kamkar Hospital in Qom. A routine data base study was carried out to obtain relevant data from medical records of patients admitted with infectious diseases at the Kamkar Hospital during summer 2007. The epidemiologic features of patients were obtained and analyzed using chi-square, t-test and Mann Whitney statistical tests. Out of 2907 admitted cases at the Kamkar hospital 331 [11.3%] pertained to infectious diseases. The most frequent infections were urinary tract infection, septicemia and pneumonia; 61cases [18.4%], 48cases [14.5%] and 45cases [13.6%], respectively. The most common involved systems were respiratory tract and urogenital tract, with each one having 73cases [22.05%].This study confirms the continuing importance of infectious diseases especially urinary tract infection, septicemia and pneumonia in Qom, which requires more research to be done to better identify their epidemiology and pathogenesis

[Anemia rate assessment in hospitalized patients with acute bacterial infection in Qom hospitals, Qom, Iran, 2007-2008]

Immunosuppression is regarded among the risk factors for bacterial infection. But in recent studies, anemia was considered a predisposing factor for bacterial infections. The main goals of this study was to assess the rate of anemia in hospitalized patients with acute bacterial infection and to determine the relationship between anemia and bacterial infection as a predisposing factor. 311 hospitalized patients whose bacterial infection was well documented based on the files present in Kamkar, Arabnia, Fatemi, and Sahamieh hospitals in Qom. Iran, were selected for the present study. They were categorized into various age groups from newborns to the elderly. The data included, age, sex, Hb of the patients the first, third and discharge day, HCT in the first, third and discharge day, MCV, MCH, MCHC, WBC in the first, third, fourth day, Diff in the first and fourth days, ESR, CRP, maximum of fever and disease, chronic disease, smoking. A P<0.05 was considered as being significant. On the basis of hemoglobin rate, 43.9% of patients had anemia as a co-desease. There was no anemia among newborns, but 57% of infants had it. Patients who had pyorrheal lymphadenitis had maximum rate of anemia among other patients. On the average, the rate of anemia in this study was 2.1 times more than that of general population in Qom, as well as in any of the age groups. This difference indicates that anemia rate in patients with acute bacterial infections is more common than general population. However, more studies are needed for the assessment of the relationship between anemia and bacterial infection as a predisposing factor. But it seems that the hemoglobin level and severity of disease have direct effects on each other