Mothers' acceptability of using novel technology with video and audio recording during newborn resuscitation: A cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the acceptability of a novel technology, MAchine Learning Application (MALA), among the mothers of newborns who required resuscitation. SETTING: This study took place at Bharatpur Hospital, which is the second-largest public referral hospital with 13 000 deliveries per year in Nepal. DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional survey. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Data collection took place from January 21 to February 13, 2022. Self-administered questionnaires on acceptability (ranged 1-5 scale) were collected from participating mothers. The acceptability of the MALA system, which included video and audio recordings of the newborn resuscitation, was examined among mothers according to their age, parity, education level and technology use status using a stratified analysis. RESULTS: The median age of 21 mothers who completed the survey was 25 years (range 18-37). Among them, 11 mothers (52.4%) completed their bachelor's or master's level of education, 13 (61.9%) delivered first child, 14 (66.7%) owned a computer and 16 (76.2%) carried a smartphone. Overall acceptability was high that all participating mothers positively perceived the novel technology with video and audio recordings of the infant's care during resuscitation. There was no statistical difference in mothers' acceptability of MALA system, when stratified by mothers' age, parity, or technology usage (p>0.05). When the acceptability of the technology was stratified by mothers' education level (up to higher secondary level vs. bachelor's level or higher), mothers with Bachelor's degree or higher more strongly felt that they were comfortable with the infant's care being video recorded (p = 0.026) and someone using a tablet when observing the infant's care (p = 0.046). Compared with those without a computer (n = 7), mothers who had a computer at home (n = 14) more strongly agreed that they were comfortable with someone observing the resuscitation activity of their newborns (71.4% vs. 14.3%) (p = 0.024). CONCLUSION: The novel technology using video and audio recordings for newborn resuscitation was accepted by mothers in this study. Its application has the potential to improve resuscitation quality in low-and-middle income settings, given proper informed consent and data protection measures are in place.

Association of disrespectful care after childbirth and COVID-19 exposure with postpartum depression symptoms- a longitudinal cohort study in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented mental stress to women after childbirth. In this study, we assessed the association of disrespectful care after childbirth and COVID-19 exposure before/during labour with postpartum depression symptoms assessed at 7 and 45 days in Nepal. METHODS: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted in 9 hospitals of Nepal among 898 women. The independent data collection system was established in each hospital to collection information on disrespectful care after birth via observation, exposure to COVID-19 infection before/during labour and other socio-demographic via interview. The information on depressive symptoms at 7 and 45 days was collected using the validated Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) tool. Multi-level regression was performed to assess the association of disrespectful care after birth and COVID-19 exposure with postpartum depression. RESULT: In the study, 16.5% were exposed to COVID-19 before/during labour and 41.8% of them received disrespectful care after childbirth. At 7 and 45 days postpartum, 21.3% and 22.4% of women reported depressive symptoms respectively. In the multi-level analysis, at the 7th postpartum day, women who had disrespectful care and no COVID-19 exposure still had 1.78 higher odds of having depressive symptom (aOR, 1.78; 95% CI; 1.16, 2.72). In the multi-level analysis, at 45th postpartum day, women who had disrespectful care and no COVID-19 exposure had 1.37 higher odds of having depressive symptoms (aOR, 1.37; 95% CI; 0.82, 2.30), but not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Disrespectful care after childbirth was strongly associated with postpartum depression symptoms irrespective of COVID-19 exposure during pregnancy. Caregivers, even during the global pandemic, should continue to focus their attention for immediate breast feeding and skin-to-skin contact, as this might reduce the risk for depressive symptoms postpartum.

Clinico-Radiological Profile of Patients With Lateral Medullary Syndrome: A Five Years Observation From a Single-Centered Tertiary Hospital in Nepal.

OBJECTIVE: We aim to correlate the prevalence of symptoms of the lateral medullary syndrome (LMS) based on radiological classification. METHODS: A five-year record of 41 patients diagnosed with LMS and admitted to a tertiary care center in Nepal was reviewed. We used chi-square tests to compare symptoms between rostral and caudal groups and different horizontal subtypes. RESULTS: The subtype prevalence in the horizontal classification of LMS was large (31.7%), lateral (22%), dorsal (19.5%), typical (14.6%), and ventral (12.2%). The most common symptoms in the typical subtype of the horizontal classification were: pain/temperature loss in the contralateral body (7.3%) and dysphagia (7.3%); in the ventral subtype, swaying on the Romberg test (12.2%), dysarthria (9.8%) and dizziness (9.8%); in the dorsal subtype, headache (12.2%) and vomiting (12.2%). Whereas headache (22.2%) and lateropulsion on standing (14.6%), swaying on the Romberg test (14.6%), nausea/vomiting (14.6%) were common in the large subtype, and nausea/vomiting (19.5%) and headache (17.1%) in the lateral subtypes. Whereas, in rostrocaudal classification, the rostral subtype (61%) was more common than the caudal subtype (31%). There was no significant variation in symptoms based on the rostrocaudal classification of LMS. CONCLUSION: The common clinical manifestations are different for different radiological subtypes of LMS. Further comprehensive studies are essential to understand the prevalence of symptoms in different radiological subtypes and the clinical-radiologic correlation in LMS.

Impact of free newborn care service package on out of pocket expenditure-evidence from a multicentric study in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aspires to improve universal health coverage through reduction of Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) and improving the quality of care. In the last two decades, there have been several efforts to reduce the OOPE for maternal and newborn care. In this paper, we evaluate the change in the OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before and after implementation of a free newborn care (FNC) program in hospitals of Nepal. METHODS: Ministry of Health and Population implemented a free newborn care program which reimbursed the cost of treatment for all sick newborns admitted in public hospitals in Nepal from November 2017. We conducted this pre-post quasi-experimental study with four months of pre-implementation and 12 months of post-implementation of the program in 12 hospitals of Nepal. Logistic regression analysis was conducted for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney test was applied for continuous variables to determine statistically significant differences between pre- and post- intervention period. RESULTS: A total of 353 sick newborns were admitted into these hospitals before implementation of the FNC program while 1122 sick newborns were admitted after the implementation. Before implementation, 17 % of mothers paid for sick newborn care while after implementation 15.3 % mothers (p-value = 0.59) paid for care. The OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before implementation was Mean ± SD: US dollar 14.3 + 12.1 and after implementation was Mean ± SD: USD 13.0 ± 9.6 (p-value = 0.71). There were no significant differences in neonatal morbidity after the implementation of the FNC program. The stay in a hospital bed (in days) decreased after the implementation of FNC program (p-value < 0.001) while the cost for medicine increased (p-value = 0.02). The duration of hospital stay (in days) of sick newborns significantly decreased for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) (p-value = 0.04) and neonatal sepsis (p-value < 0.001) after the FNC program was implemented. CONCLUSIONS: We found no change in the OOPE for sick newborn care following implementation of the FNC Program. There is a need to revisit the FNC program by the type of morbidity and duration of stay. Further studies will be required to explore the health system adequacy to implement such programs in hospitals of Nepal. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN- 30829654 , Registered on May 02, 2017.

Formulation and evaluation of semisolid dosage forms of an anti-inflammatory drug.

Curcumin is one of the commonly used dietary supplements with wide pharmacological activities but the main hindrance in the commercial exploitation of curcumin is the issue with its solubility and stability. Hence, the aim of the present study was to formulate curcumin silver nanoparticles (CSNP) by chemical reduction method and to evaluate its solubility, stability as well as diffusion properties. The CSNP was combined with potent anti-inflammatory drug Diclofenac sodium (DS) to prepare gels (F1-F7), cream (F8) and ointment (F9). The DS-CSNP was subjected to in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory activity by albumin denaturation method and carrageenan-induced paw oedema method using albino rats, respectively. Results of the present study revealed that CSNP possess good solution stability in different pH solutions compared to pure curcumin, and the particle size as well as zeta potential were found to be 115 nm and - 5.69 mV, respectively for CSNP. Based on the results of in vitro release study and in vitro anti-inflammatory activity, formulation F4, F5, F9 and marketed product were subjected for in vivo anti-inflammatory activity. Among the three formulations, formulation F9 showed the maximum inhibition of the oedema (82.25%) at the end of 90 min followed by F5 and F4. In addition, formulations F4, F5, and F9 exhibited better in vivo anti-inflammatory activity in comparison with the marketed product which might be due to synergistic effect of the combination of curcumin silver nanoparticles and DS. In conclusion, CSNP-incorporated DS semisolid preparations were stable and can yield promising anti-inflammatory activity compared to marketed formulation; hence, these formulation can be exploited commercially in the preparation of anti-inflammatory dosage forms.