Impact of an Interventional Program on Improving Compliance of Hand Hygiene and Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection in the Critical Care Unit.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to determine the effect of a hand hygiene (HH) and awareness campaign on knowledge and compliance with HH practices among health-care workers working staff in the main intensive care units and also to evaluate the rates of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) before and after the intervention. METHODS: A prospective, interventional, pre-post design was utilized and carried out in three phases: the first stage was a 1-month preintervention stage to develop the foundation of the compliance rate of handwashing; the second stage was the interventional handwashing campaign; the third stage was the postintervention stage to improve the compliance rate of handwashing. Two instruments were used in this study: the HH Knowledge Questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization to assess HH knowledge and the Handwashing Questionnaire developed to evaluate HH washing. RESULTS: HH knowledge has been increased from preintervention (M = 11.84, standard deviation [SD] = 2.41) to postintervention (M = 18.80, SD = 2.93), and the effective compliance with HH practice was as low as 49% in June 2017 to 75% in February 2018. In addition, the HAI rate was dropped from 13.2% in June 2017 to 9% in February 2018. An inverse association was recognized between HH compliance and HAI rates. CONCLUSIONS: These results recommend that reasonable approaches can decrease the HAI rate of intensive care units. A nationwide handwashing interventional program can be employed in all hospitals.

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity among Tabuk Citizens in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is considered as the main cause of death worldwide. Identifying the links among CVDs risk factors can help decrease CVD-related deaths. AIM: To assess the prevalence of risk factors for CVD and their relationships among the Tabuk City population in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used; 432 participants in the Tabuk region were included in this study. RESULTS: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) was 5.6%, the prevalence of hypertension (HTN) was 11.1% and obesity and overweight together were 69.9%. Mean Body Mass Index (BMI), HTN, and DM increased with age. There was a correlation between BMI with HTN (r=.200, p<.001), BMI and DM (r=.149, p<.001) and DM and HTN (r=.366, p<.001). CONCLUSION: Public awareness may help in reducing the prevalence of CVD.