Assessment of Mental Health and Quality of Life Status of Undergraduate Students in Indonesia during COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic globally impacted physical, spiritual, and mental health (MH). The consequences significantly affected students' quality of life (QoL) too. This cross-sectional study assessed MH status and its relationship to the QoL of college students in Indonesia. This study collected data (September 2021-April 2022) online using the depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21 (DASS-21) to measure MH and the world health organization quality-of-life scale (WHOQoL-BREF) to measure the QoL. The data were analysed using SPSS with a bivariate and multivariate linear regression test. A total of 606 respondents participated in this study, with the majority being women (81.0%), aged 21-27 years (44.3%), and unmarried (98.5%) respondents. We observed 24.4% (n = 148) moderate depression, 18.3% (n = 111) very severe anxiety, and 21.1% (n = 128) moderate stress status. The QoL measurement determined that a moderate QoL in the physical and environmental health domains (>70%) and poor QoL in the psychological health domain (58.3%) were found. Gender, age, family support, history of COVID-19 diagnosis, family with COVID-19 diagnosis, vaccination status, and physical symptoms are significantly associated with MH status and QoL (p-value < 0.05). This study demonstrated that COVID-19 was negatively related to college students' MH and QoL. Targeted interventions may be needed to ameliorate both MH and QoL.

A Cross-Sectional Assessment of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Use among Patients with Chronic Diseases (CDs) in Qassim, Saudi Arabia.

This study aims to investigate CAM use among CD patients from Qassim, Saudi Arabia and to compare CAM practice with different demographic and disease characteristics of the participants. A cross-sectional study was conducted among CD patients. During the three-months of data collection period, a total of 377 patients were approached and 208 patients participated in the study, giving a response rate of 55.17%. A p value of <0.05 was considered as significant. Among the study population, 94 (45.2%) patients were CAM users. Diabetes mellitus patients were the majority (48 (51.06%)) followed by hypertensive patients (34 (36.17%)). Spiritual therapies were the most common CAM followed by herbal products. Among CAM users, 41 (19.7%) patients reported disclosing CAM use to their health care providers. Among all the sociodemographic variables, gender (p = 0.029), marital status (p = 0.034) and education level (p = 0.047) were significantly associated with CAM use. In conclusion, the use of CAM among CD patients was relatively high in Qassim. Patients reported using CAM without disclosing to their health care providers which is a major health risk. It is critical to counsel CD patients regarding rational and informed CAM use in order to prevent harmful and unwanted effects.

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Antibiotic Use among the Population of Boyolali, Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Misuse and overuse of antibiotics are potential causes of the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance (ABR). Having information about the knowledge, attitude, and practices concerning antibiotics use by the public might help control ABR growth. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the levels and associated factors of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of antibiotics use among the public. A questionnaire was designed and validated, which consisted of a total of 51 questions with four sections: demographics (6), knowledge (20), attitude (12), and practice (13) to measure KAP. Univariate analysis (using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis analysis) was applied to assess the differences in the mean scores of KAP. Linear regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with KAP. Finally, using Spearman analysis we have examined the correlation between responses to the KAP. The sample size of this study was 575, with a 99.96% response rate. Regarding knowledge, 73.12% of respondents stated that antibiotics could be used to treat viral infections, and 63.35% of respondents answered that antibiotics could reduce fever. Concerning attitude, 50% of respondents had considered stopping taking antibiotics as soon as symptoms had disappeared. In analyzing practice, we found 40% of respondents obtained antibiotics from a pharmacy without a prescription from a physician, a nurse, or a midwife. Statistical analysis revealed that KAP about antibiotic use was significantly associated with gender, area of residence, level of education, and monthly income (p < 0.05). Our findings concluded that men, respondents with low income, those with low-level education, and those living in rural areas are more prone to excessive use of antibiotics without knowing the adverse effects of improper use and how it can contribute to high ABR. So it is urgently necessary to strengthen policies on antibiotics use, including drug provision, distribution, and sales. In addition, people with low KAP should be a priority consideration in education outreach initiatives.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) disclosure to health care providers: A qualitative insight from Malaysian thalassemia patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study investigated the disclosure of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use to health care providers by Malaysian thalassemia patients. METHODS: The semi-structured interviews were audio taped, transcribed verbatim, and translated into English. RESULTS: Thematic analysis identified four themes: 1) reason for CAM disclosure, 2) attempt to disclose CAM, 3) withdrawal from CAM disclosure, and 4) non-disclosure of CAM use. The reason for patients' disclosure of CAM use to healthcare providers is because they wanted to find information about CAM and were afraid of the interaction between the conventional medicine and CAM. Patients also disclosed the use of CAM because they were not satisfied with the conventional medicine that had caused them harm. CONCLUSION: Effective communication between patients and health care providers is important, especially for patients who are undergoing conventional thalassemia treatment, for fear that there is an interaction between conventional treatment and CAM use.