ABSTRACT
Objectives: To evaluate the effect of educational programmes on patients with bronchial asthma regarding self-care management. Method: The quasi-experimentalstudy was conducted at the El-Fayoum University Hospital, Egypt, from August 2021 to January 2022, and comprised patients of either gender aged >20 years who had a history of asthma attacks in the preceding 6 months. Data were collected through three questionnaires adapted from the literature regarding patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, their knowledge regarding asthma and self-care management, and their practices as noted through an observational checklist. After evaluation as a baseline, the subjects were given training through 30-minute sessions twice a week for a total of 10 sessions. They were also provided with a self-care management booklet in the Arabic language. The post-intervention evaluation was at the end of the 10-session programme and then again 3 months after the first evaluation. The collected data were statistically analyzed using the statistical package forsocialscience (SPSS) version (20), percentage (%), the arithmetic mean (),standard deviation (SD), and chi-square (X2 & p-value). RESULTS: Of the 100 patients with a mean age of 31.5±7.41 years, 34(34%) were in the 30-40 years bracket, 63(63%) were males, 70(70%) could read and write, 94(94%) lived in urban areas, 50(50%) were smokers and 81(81%) said asthma attack was triggered by consumption of certain foods. At baseline, 69(69%) patients had unsatisfactory knowledge and 72(72%) had unsatisfactory practices regarding self-care management. Post-intervention, there was a highly significant improvement in knowledge and practice scores (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The educational intervention improved patients' knowledge, practice, and self-care management.
Subject(s)
Asthma , Self Care , Male , Humans , Young Adult , Adult , Female , Asthma/therapy , Surveys and Questionnaires , Educational Status , EgyptABSTRACT
The objective of this work was to study the effect of foaming parameters on the physical and phytochemical properties of tomato powder. A central composite rotatable design of experiments was defined with two parameters (concentration of soy protein isolate [SPI]: 1-5% and whipping time: 2-14 min) with 5 levels for each parameter. The foam was prepared by whipping tomato puree after adding SPI and dried in a thin layer (4 mm ± 1) at 50 °C. The obtained results showed the predominant effect of the concentration of SPI on the physical and phytochemical properties compared to whipping time. The powder prepared under foaming conditions of 5% SPI and whipping time of 8 min showed an increase of 97, 39, 62, and 46% in the total phenolics, total flavonoids, antioxidant activity, and porosity, respectively, while the bulk density decreased by about 25%.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of traditional antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) versus newer AEDs on the thyroid hormone profile of children with epilepsy. MATERIALS & METHODS: A total of 80 children with epilepsy were included in this study and were divided into two groups. Group 1 included 40 children with epilepsy on traditional AEDs, and group 2 included 40 children with epilepsy on newer AEDs. Forty healthy children were also included as the control group (group 3). We analyzed the serum levels of free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). RESULTS: In epileptic children treated with traditional drugs, there was a significant reduction in the serum level of FT4 and a significant increase in TSH concentration, compared to the control group (P<0.001). Conversely, epileptic children treated with newer AEDs showed no significant changes in the serum concentrations of FT3, FT4, and TSH, compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: Traditional AEDs have more significant effects on thyroid hormone profile, compared to newer AEDs.
