Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitude of Physicians Toward Child Abuse: A Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Child abuse refers to any type of mistreatment of a child, perpetrated by a parent, caregiver, or another individual in a custodial capacity, which may lead to instances of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Physicians play a crucial role in identifying and managing this phenomenon in the healthcare setting, as the number of unreported cases increases globally. METHODS: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted between 2022 and 2023 among physicians practicing in Saudi Arabia to assess their knowledge, awareness, and attitude toward child abuse. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26 (Released 2019; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). RESULTS: A total of 153 physicians were involved in this study, in which 65 participants (42.5%) indicated poor awareness of child abuse, while 79 participants (51.6%) indicated moderate knowledge of child abuse. Additionally, lack of knowledge was the most common barrier to reporting child abuse in 87 participants (56.9%). A positive significant correlation was identified between awareness and knowledge and between knowledge and attitude. Also, it was found that a higher attitude score was more associated with being male, having less experience, practicing in the emergency medicine department, and working in a governmental hospital. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the significance of implementing specialized training programs and workshops focused on identifying and reporting child abuse, as well as providing guidelines for recognizing signs of abuse and taking appropriate intervention measures.

Outcomes of home-isolated coronavirus disease 2019 patients in Bahrain.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a huge burden on healthcare systems and necessitated a risk assessment of patients and an update of the treatment protocol to include home isolation for low-risk patients. The primary objective was to describe the outcome of home isolation and the characteristics of patients at higher risk of admission. The secondary objectives were to determine the proportion of patients with pneumonia and hypoxemia and the correlation between cycle of the threshold (CT) value and severity of the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For this study, 394 patients were randomly selected from a total of 8000 home-isolated COVID-19 patients during July to October 2020, and were followed by Bahrain International Hospital (BIH). All data were obtained from a live Excel sheet completed by physicians covering BIH during the study period. Data analysis included Chi-square test to determine significant association between categorical variable, Pearson correlation, and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 394 home-isolated patients followed, 18 patients with missing data were excluded. The overall admission rate was 50% for ≥50 age group compared to 13.3% for 18-49 age group, while only 2.8% in <18 age group. Moreover, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions were significantly higher in the older age group: 15.2% for ≥50 age group (P < 0.001). About 14% of the patients with comorbidities needed ICU admission, compared with 1.8% of those without comorbidities (P < 0.001). Of the home-isolated patients, 6.3% were diagnosed with pneumonia and 9.9% of those presenting had low oxygen saturation. The CT value was significantly correlated with the severity of symptoms and the need for admission. CONCLUSION: Home isolation of low-risk patients with monitoring and follow-up was a safe and necessary step in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perceptions and Practices of Cannabis Use Among Emergency Department Patients.

BACKGROUND: Nationally, in states where cannabis has been legalized, increases in cannabis-related hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits have also been observed. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to: 1) Describe the sociodemographic characteristics of cannabis users presenting to two academic EDs in California; 2) Assess cannabis-related behaviors; 3) Assess perceptions of cannabis; 4) Identify and describe reasons for cannabis-related ED utilization. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of patients visiting one of two academic EDs between February 16, 2018 and November 21, 2020. Eligible participants completed a novel questionnaire developed by the authors. Basic descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis of responses. RESULTS: The questionnaire was completed by 2577 patients. A quarter were categorized as Current Users (n = 628, 24.4%). Current, Regular Users were evenly divided across gender, were relatively younger (18-34 years, 48.1%), and were largely non-Hispanic Caucasian. Over half of all respondents believed that the use of cannabis was less harmful than tobacco or alcohol use (n = 1537, 59.6%). One in five Current Users (n = 123, 19.8%) reported driving while using cannabis in the past month. A small proportion (n = 24, 3.9%) of Current Users reported ever visiting the ED for a cannabis-related chief complaint. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, many ED patients are currently using cannabis; few report utilizing the ED due to cannabis-related problems. Current, Irregular Users may represent the ideal target group for ED-based educational efforts aimed at improving knowledge of safe cannabis use.

Metastatic Lung Adenocarcinoma: Unusual Presentation with Focal Neurological Deficit.

BACKGROUND Sudden focal neurologic deficits have a high index of suspicion of stroke. It is crucial to investigate potential underlying causes of sudden neurological deficit in the Emergency Department (ED) to enhance better recognition and proper care. CASE REPORT A 63-year-old man presented to the ED with left-sided weakness and headache of a 2-week duration. Ischemic stroke was preliminarily diagnosis in the ED. Brain computed tomography (CT) showed an abnormality in the right parietal lobe. A chest X-ray showed right lung opacity, suggesting a mass in the right upper lobe of the lung. Subsequently, malignancy was suspected. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed lesions in the right temporal and right parietal region. CT scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis were ordered to identify the primary source of malignancy. Multiple nodules within the lungs and liver were found; a biopsy was taken from the nodules and sent to the Pathology Laboratory. Final impression made after the results was primary lung adenocarcinoma with brain and liver metastasis. The patient was referred to Palliative Care team by the Oncology team after malignancy workup to get the proper attention. CONCLUSIONS A hypodense area in CT/MRI with unilateral weakness and headache does not necessarily mean that there is an underlying stroke. However, it can represent brain metastasis. In this case report, we aim to increase awareness that hypodensity in the brain could represent brain metastasis, not necessarily simple ischemic stroke. Therefore, further workup should be done to avoid missed diagnoses, as the approach is different.