Privacy, confidentiality, security and patient safety concerns about electronic health records.

AIMS: This study explored concerns among nurses working in the United Arab Emirates associated with the use of electronic health records, including privacy, confidentiality, security and patient safety. BACKGROUND: Given the widespread implementation of electronic health records, there are concerns about data integrity that could jeopardize healthcare quality. Addressing nurses' concerns about data integrity and safety is critical to inform health policies and promote public trust. METHODS: Nurses working in healthcare settings in the United Arab Emirates (N = 562) were invited to share their concerns about data integrity and patient safety using a mixed-method approach. Data were collected between January and June 2018 via questionnaires and focus group interviews. Following a survey of nurses' concerns about privacy, confidentiality, security and patient safety in electronic health records, six focus groups were held to gain deeper insights about their concerns. Major themes that emerged from the focus groups were extracted to align with the main sections of the questionnaire. RESULTS: Nurses expressed concern over the security of electronic health records (n = 270, 48%). Administrative-related security, inadequate training and access by unauthorized users were the most frequently reported concerns. The main patient safety concerns were associated with non-technological factors, including lack of audit by staff, poor communication with technology vendors and length of time required for documentation. The focus group results reflected similar issues, with an additional theme being inconsistency in data integrity policies. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING/HEALTH POLICY: Frontline nurse managers need to integrate pragmatic policies to support staff compliance with the code of ethics when using online data. Nurses must follow workplace policies that foster reporting of risks to online incident systems to ensure data integrity. A unified health policy based on multidisciplinary partnership is critical to safeguard online data and promote public trust.

C-Peptide versus insulin: relationships with risk biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in metabolic syndrome in young arab females.

Background. Obesity is a major health concern and is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) that increases the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Since little is known about the relationships between MetS components and CVD in overweight/obese young Arab females, our study aimed at examining these relationships and further to explore the associations between connecting peptide (C-peptide) and insulin with these biomarkers. Subjects and Methods. In this cross-sectional study, 80 apparently healthy young Arab females were recruited and grouped by their body mass index (BMI) into normal-weight (GI) and overweight/obese (GII) groups. Results. The two groups significantly differed in BMI, waist circumference (WC) and values of biomarkers, namely, leptin, fasting insulin, uric acid (UA), insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), C-peptide, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). C-peptide significantly correlated with WC, leptin, UA, and HDL-C and was predicted by three biomarkers; UA, WC and HDL-C. Whereas, insulin significantly correlated with only two biomarkers including leptin and DBP and was predicted by UA and DBP. Conclusions. The present study highlighted the association between MetS and CVD in young Arab females and the possible role of C-peptide in the prediction of CVD.

Evaluation of the health-related quality of life of Emirati people with diabetes: integration of sociodemographic and disease-related variables.

This study aimed to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL)of Emirati people with diabetes and to explore the sociodemographic and disease-related variables affecting it. The Arabic version of the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire, short version (WHOQOL-BREF) was administered to 200 people with diabetes. The overall mean score was 63.1 (SD 15.0), ranging from 61.5 to 65.5 on subscales. Three factors significantly influenced the total HRQOL: presence of diabetes complications, duration of diabetes and marital status. Presence of complications was the most powerful variable influencing the 4 domains of HRQOL, especially the physical domain. Duration of diabetes did not influence the psychological domain and marital status did not influence the physical and psychological domains. The study provides further evidence of the usefulness and reliability of the Arabic WHOQOL-BREF.