Educational Intervention for Informal Caregiver of Person with Dementia: A Systematic Review

@#The role of caregivers is very important in the management of person with dementia, where it is not uncommon for them to experience psychological distress. However, the level of distress can be managed and reduced through strategic educational intervention. A systematic review has been conducted through searching Medline, Science direct, Cochrane library and EMBASE databases to provide a narrative synthesis that elaborate on methods and outcomes of the educational intervention among informal caregiver of person with dementia. From a total of 5125 records, eight studies were selected and included in this review, where the results show that educational intervention can be implemented either as individual or group intervention. Group intervention methods mainly focus on training programs such as workshops and lectures, and also group-based discussions. While for individual intervention, most of the activities were implemented through self-learning using technology or computer-based systems. In conclusion, based on the outcome of the studies, both methods of implementations are found to be useful in reducing psychological distress of the informal caregiver.

A Review of the Effectiveness of Interventions on Medication Adherence Among Hypertension Patients

@#A majority of hypertensive patients will end up suffering uncontrolled hypertension, which is partly due to poor medication adherence. This paper aimed to review a range of interventions that could improve anti-hypertensive medication adherence. Literature search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, Medline, and Science Direct databases, with publication dates confined to between October 2009 and October 2019. Eventually, only 11 studies were used for this study. It was found that interventions that are based on or include patient education, patient interviews, patient reminders, self-management and behavioural modifications have the potential to improve patients’ adherence to anti-hypertensive therapy. Most successful interventions involve patient reminder, self-management and behavioural intervention.

The Correlation of Two Nicotine Dependence Measurement Methods: Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and Saliva Cotinine among a Group of Muslim Smoker in Malaysia

Introduction: One of the known factors that hindered smoking cessation is nicotine dependence. Measurement of the nicotine dependence is important to better understand cigarette smoking addiction dependence and ways to overcome it. Among methods of nicotine dependence measurement are self-reported Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and biochemical assessment such as saliva cotinine. Biochemical assessment can be used to measure the accuracy of the self-reported measurement of nicotine dependence. Objective: To explore the correlation between the FTND and the saliva cotinine of the smokers in three different timeline. Methods: A total of 61 male smokers who currently smoke cigarette on daily basis were recruited. The study used the one-group pretest-posttest study design and the data were collected three times. The self-reported measurement were measured by using FTND and the biochemical assessment measured by using saliva cotinine from Saliva Bio oral swab (SOS) with the sensitivity of 0.15ng/ml. Data analysis was conducted by using Pearson correlation. Results: There was a significant association between the FTND score and saliva cotinine level of the smokers at baseline, second and third data collection (p=0.014, p=0.003, p<0.001). Conclusion: Both the self-reported measurement of nicotine dependence and biochemical assessment of the smokers are correlated and it could provide reliable information of the nicotine dependence.