Investigation on Household Medication-Taking Behavior and Affordability Among Patients Under Chronic Condition: A Survey Study in Gansu Province, China.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the household medication-taking behavior and affordability of patients with chronic diseases in Gansu Province. As well as to propose suggestions to assist improvement of related policies. METHODS: A multistage stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select the research sites and households according to the WHO manual for the "Household Survey to Measure Access and Use of Medicines". The impact factors of medication-taking behavior were estimated using binary logistic regression models. Medication treatment affordability of hypertension patients was evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 1,080 completed questionnaires were collected, in which 690 families reported to have chronic patients in their home. The total number of chronic disease patients were 915. About 93% of the patient reported scheduled medicine intake. Approximately 86.60% of patients with chronic medical conditions were able to adhere to the physicians' prescriptions. Age, gender, and the number of household chronic disease patients were the main factors influencing whether the patients take medication. Respondents' self-reported monthly expenditure on household medicine accounted for 16.95% of their total monthly expenditure. The total cost of irbesartan and valsartan for hypertension treatment was two-fold higher than the minimum daily wage of the families. CONCLUSION: This study found that patients with chronic diseases have a high proportion of medication and medication compliance. However, family drug burden, especially for those living with hypertension are among the key challenges. Related policy needs to be revised to promote the affordability of medication under chronic conditions.

Study on the efficient removal of azo dyes by heterogeneous photo-Fenton process with 3D flower-like layered double hydroxide.

As organic dyes are the main pollutants in water pollution, seeking effective removal solutions is urgent for humans and the environment. A novel environmentally friendly three-dimensional CoFe-LDHs (3D CoFe-LDHs) catalyst was synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller technique as well as UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra were used to characterize the prepared samples. The experimental results revealed that 3D CoFe-LDHs exhibited a rapid decolorization of methyl orange and Rhodamine B by heterogeneous photo-Fenton process after reaching the adsorption equilibrium, and the final decolorization efficiency reached 91.18% and 93.56%, respectively. On the contrary, the decolorizing effect of 3D CoFe-LDHs on neutral blue was relatively weak. The initial concentrations of azo dyes, pH and H2O2 concentration affected the decolorization of dyes and the catalyst maintained excellent reusability and stability after reuse over five cycles. The quenching experiments found that •OH, •O2 - and h+ were the main active substances and reaction mechanisms were further proposed. The study suggests that the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and Fenton oxidation process significantly improved the removal of azo dyes and the synthesized catalyst had potentially promising applications for difficult-to-biodegrade organic pollutants in wastewater.