Exploring the Educational Social and Physical Activities Among Health Care Undergraduates - a Cross-Sectional Study Among Saudi Students.

BACKGROUND The time spent on diverse social, physical, and educational activities among healthcare undergraduates (HCUs) tremendously impacts their academic and personal lives. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the social, physical, and educational activities among HCUs at King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (SA). MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional, self-prepared, and pre-tested e-questionnaire (electronic questionnaire) based study using a convenience sampling design in a university in SA from August 21 to November 21, 2023 was conducted to assess their various activities outside of classes, using a 16-item e-questionnaire to investigate time spent on social (4 items), physical (3 items), and educational activities (3 items). RESULTS A total of 452 HCUs completed the e-questionnaires, giving a response rate of 92.62%. Of them, 50.45% were females, the median age was 23 years, and 32.08% (n=145) were medical undergraduates. About 57% of the HCUs spent 1-2 h per day on educational activities during the day, while 32.7% of the HCUs spent 2 h per day on social media, and 62.6% spent 3-4 h per day with family. The findings revealed that the 140 females spent significantly more time (1-2 h) reading and writing compared to the 117 male HCUs (P=0.001). Age was found to be associated with time spent on education by HCUs (P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our findings among HCUs show that most spend a significant amount of time on educational activities during the day. Undergraduates also spend time with their families and participate in other social activities.

Outcomes of Long-Term Noninvasive Ventilation Use in Children with Neuromuscular Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: To determine whether children with neuromuscular disorders using long-term noninvasive ventilation (NIV), continuous or bilevel positive airway pressure, have improved health outcomes compared with alternative treatment strategies. Data Sources: This systematic review is an extension of a scoping review. The search strategy used Medical Subject Headings and free-text terms for "child" and "noninvasive ventilation." Studies of humans from 1990 onward were searched in MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (Ebsco), Cochrane Library (Wiley), and PubMed. The results were reviewed for articles reporting on neuromuscular disorders and health outcomes including mortality, hospitalization, quality of life, lung function, sleep study parameters, and healthcare costs. Data Extraction: Extracted data included study design, study duration, sample size, age, type of NIV, follow-up period, primary disease, and primary and secondary outcome measures. Studies were grouped by primary disease into three groups: spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and other/multiple neuromuscular diseases. Data Synthesis: A total of 50 articles including 1,412 children across 36 different neuromuscular disorders are included in the review. Mortality is lower for children using long-term NIV compared with supportive care across all neuromuscular disease types. Overall, mortality does not differ when comparing the use of NIV with invasive mechanical ventilation, though heterogeneity suggests that mortality with NIV is higher for spinal muscular atrophy type 1 and lower for other/multiple neuromuscular diseases. The impact of long-term NIV on hospitalization rate differed by neuromuscular disease type with lower rates compared with supportive care but higher rates compared with supportive care use for spinal muscular atrophy type 1, and lower rates compared with before NIV for other/multiple neuromuscular diseases. Overall, lung function was unaltered and sleep study parameters were improved from baseline by long-term NIV use. There are few data to assess the impact of long-term NIV use on quality of life and healthcare costs. Conclusions: Long-term NIV for children provides benefit for mortality, hospitalizations, and sleep study parameters for some sub-groups of children with neuromuscular disorders. High risk of bias and low study quality preclude strong conclusions.

Long-term Non-Invasive Ventilation in Infants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The use of long-term non-invasive ventilation (NIV) to treat sleep and breathing disorders in children has increased substantially in the last decade; however, less data exist about its use in infants. Given that infants have distinct sleep and breathing patterns when compared to older children, the outcomes of infants on long-term NIV may differ as well. The aim of this study is to systematically review the use and outcomes of long-term NIV in infants. METHODS: Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, CINAHL (via EbscoHOST), PubMed, and Wiley Cochrane Library were systematically searched from January 1990 to July 2017. Studies on infants using long-term NIV outside of an acute care setting were included. Data were extracted on study design, population characteristics, and NIV outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 327 studies were full-text reviewed, with final inclusion of 60. Studies were distributed across airway (40%), neuromuscular (28%), central nervous system (10%), cardio-respiratory (2%), and multiple (20%) disease categories. Of the 18 airway studies reporting on NIV outcomes, 13 (72%) reported improvements in respiratory parameters. Of the 12 neuromuscular studies exclusively on spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (SMA1), six (50%) reported decreased hospitalizations and nine (75%) reported on mortality outcomes. Risk of bias was moderate to serious, and quality of the evidence was low to very low for all studies. Most studies had an observational design with no control group, limiting the potential for a meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: The outcomes reported in studies differed by the disease category being studied. Studies on airway conditions showed improvements in respiratory parameters for infants using NIV. Studies on neuromuscular disorder, which were almost exclusively on SMA1, reported decreased hospitalizations and prolonged survival. Overall, it appears that NIV is an effective long-term therapy for infants. However, the high risk of bias and low quality of the available evidence limited strong conclusions.