ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Medical services at trauma centers regularly encounter severe burn patients but prehospital care of these patients in Saudi Arabia is comparatively unexplored. This study evaluates the knowledge and experience of physicians working in trauma centers of Qassim province of Saudi Arabia for the management of patients with burn injuries. METHODS: This is a cross sectional study performed on 204 physicians working in the trauma centers of Qassim province. Physicians' knowledge and experience were assessed via administration of validated questionnaires and the data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Among total studied physicians, only 35.3% and 24.0% gave the right answer to the question on the diagnosis of burn skin in depth/extent for adults and pediatric patients, respectively. Importantly, 93.6% physicians responded correctly for first aid treatment. For the parkland concept, 62.2% responded correctly, however, only 22.5% understand the colloid fluid concept. The 74% physicians knew the methods of fluid revival for mass burn injuries and about half of studied physicians showed right knowledge for intubation for breathing for mass burn injuries. Only 47.5% physicians understand the concept of electrolyte disorder. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study from the central region of Saudi Arabia that analyzed the knowledge and experience of physicians working in trauma centers for the management of patients with burn injuries. Overall data showed that ~60% physicians working in trauma centers have knowledge for handling the patients with burn injuries but the rest needed counseling, therefore proper training sessions for them are needed for management of burn patients.
ABSTRACT
AIM: This study aimed to measure breast cancer (BC) awareness among women in Al-Qassim and to compare the results to previous studies in Saudi Arabia and international studies. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. All women above 18 years of age were included and those who could not complete the questionnaire for any reason were excluded. The data were collected by using a valid pretested structured questionnaire taken from previous studies. Descriptive statistics were presented using frequency and proportion for all categorical variables and mean ± standard deviation for continuous variable. The relationship between dependent variable versus independent variables had been conducted using Chi-square test. P value of ≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: Nearly all participants were highly aware of BC (95.4%) and half of them correctly identified that not only females are affected by BC. With regards to personal breast assessment, more than a half of them have done breast self-examination; however, only one out of four females had done clinical breast examination and mammography test. The most common risk factor of BC was family history and the commonest signs and symptoms were the size and shape changes of the breast. The prevalence of poor knowledge was 202 (38.9%) while good knowledge was 317 (61.1%). Age group in years and use of oral contraceptives were the independent significant factors of poor knowledge. CONCLUSION: The overall knowledge of women about BC in this study was inadequate. While half of the women performed breast self-examination on the contrary, the actual clinical breast examination found to be low. The most common risk factor being identified was family history of BC and smoking. Size and shape changes of breast as well as breast lump were the most common signs and symptoms. Age group in years and the use of contraceptives pills were being identified as the significant factors of knowledge toward BC.
