Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards drug-food interactions among patients at public hospitals in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Background: Drug-food interactions can lead to adverse drug reactions and therapy failure which can potentially impact patient safety and therapy outcome. Objectives: This study assessed patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding drug-food interactions. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients at three public hospitals in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS® version 25. The association between demographic variables and patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices were assessed. Results: Of the 342 patients, 70.5% were female, and the mean age was 42.87±0.89 years. Almost 50% of patients had secondary level education, and 64% were unemployed. About 52% of patients had high knowledge of drug-food interactions; however, only 30-50% of the patients could identify potential drug-food interactions of their drugs. More than half of the patients (51.5%) answered that they took multivitamin pills with medications and 61.7% responded they consulted healthcare professionals for drug-food interactions' information before taking new medications. Few patients (15.2%) had experienced drug-food interactions. Conclusions: Overall, patients had gaps in their knowledge and practices, and positive attitudes towards drug-food interactions. Many patients could not identify food items that can potentially interact with their drugs. It is important that education and medication counselling are provided to patients to prevent drug-food interactions, ensure optimal drug therapy and patient safety

A Questionnaire-Based study to assess Health Care Providers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding Oral Health and Oral Care for Hospitalized patients at St Giles Psychiatric Hospital in Fiji

@#A mental disorder is a pattern of behavior or thought that causes severe suffering or impairs one's ability to function. Due to their inability to lead a regular life, mentally challenged people have been found to have poor oral health. The aim of this study was to assess health care providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding oral health care of hospitalized patients at St Giles Psychiatric Hospital in Fiji. A cross-sectional survey design was employed in which 29 health care providers completed a questionnaire that collected socio-demographic information, knowledge, attitude and practices regarding oral health maintenance and care of psychiatric patients. Results revealed that all participants (100%), had knowledge on oral health and oral hygiene practices. However, only 9 nurses (50%) and 5 ward orderlies (63%) reported practicing oral hygiene for in – patients. In fact, 5 (17%) respondents did not view oral hygiene as an important aspect in their patients’ health. All participants (100%) reported unavailability of oral hygiene aids and absence of frequent dental visits, as a key barrier in the oral health care of patients. The results emphasize on the need for a formal training program for health care providers, and clear policies and guidelines about oral health care of hospitalized patients must be instituted.

Validación del cuestionario de medida del conocimiento del paciente sobre su medicamento adaptado al portugués / Validation of the Portuguese version of an instrument to measure the degree of patient knowledge about their medication

Validación de un cuestionario adaptado transculturalmente al portugués en cinco farmacias comunitarias de Portugal. Se determino la capacidad discriminante de los ítems, la validez de contenido y de constructo, análisis factorial de componentes principales, la fiabilidad y su estabilidad. Se observó un elevado grado de equivalencia semántica entre el cuestionario original y el cuestionario adaptado transculturalmente al portugués. Se obtuvo un índice de Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin de 0.550, y el test de esferidad de Bartlett confirmó la adecuación de los datos para la aplicación del análisis factorial (p < 0.0001). Se consideraron 3 factores que explicaron el 52.6% de la variabilidad total. Con respecto a la fiabilidad se obtuvo un á de Cronbach de 0.519, un C.Kappa = 0.89 y CCI = 0.756 (IC = 0.598-0.963). En este trabajo se elabora la primera adaptación para la cultura portuguesa de un cuestionario específico para medir el grado de conocimiento que tienen los pacientes sobre los medicamentos.

The scope of this study was the validation of a cross-culturally adapted questionnaire into Portuguese in five community pharmacies in Portugal. The discriminatory power of items, content and construct validity and factor analysis of the main components and their reliability and stability were determined. A high degree of semantic equivalence between the original questionnaire and the cross-culturally adapted questionnaire into Portuguese was observed. A Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index of 0.550 was obtained and the Bartlett sphericity test confirmed the adequacy of the data for the application of factor analysis (p <0.0001). Three factors which accounted for 52.6% of the total variability were considered. With respect to reliability the following results were obtained: 0.519 for Cronbach's alpha test; 0.89 for Cohen's kappa coefficient; and 0.756 (IC=0.598-0.963) for the CCI exam. In this work, the first adaptation for the Portuguese culture of a specific questionnaire was produced to measure the degree of knowledge patients have about their medication.