RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of diabetic care provided in primary health care settings in Oman. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of randomly selected 500 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) attending 6 primary care diabetic clinics in the north Al-Batinah region of Oman from January to December 2010. Nine standards on the quality of diabetes care were audited. RESULTS: The mean age of the sample was 51±13 years, ranging from 15 to 87 years; the majority (61%) were females. The mean duration of DM was 4±3 years, ranging from 1 to 18 years. Seventy-seven percent of the patients attended diabetic clinics at least 4 times per year. Of the 9 assessed diabetic standards, HbA1c was documented in 33% of the patients, body mass index in 12%, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in 40%, urinary albumin:creatinine ratio in 28%, creatinine in 63% and blood pressure (BP) in 96%. Optimal control among the documented indicators was noted in 32, 21, 25, 85, 95 and 19%, respectively. Twenty percent of the patients had their ECGs done while only 39% of the patients had foot examination. No patient had attained control in all of HbA1c., BP and LDL-C. CONCLUSION: There is a gap between the recommended DM care guidelines and current practice with consequent poor quality of care in these patients.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and severity of climacteric symptoms and associated risk factors among a cohort of healthy, middle-aged Omani women. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 472 healthy Omani women between 40 and 60 years old from the representative regions of Omani society were surveyed using the Menopause Rating Scale. The scores obtained were plotted against their demographic data and menopausal stage. RESULTS: Overall, 39.6% of the participants were premenopausal, 15.2% were perimenopausal, and 43.6% were postmenopausal. The Menopause Rating Scale scoring showed that somatic and psychological symptoms occurred more frequently than did urogenital symptoms in all three stages. Muscle and joint pain was the most common symptom (73.3%), followed by mental and physical exhaustion (47.2%) and anxiety (46.6%). An increase in the mean scores for both somatic and psychological symptoms and their severity was observed when the following factors were present: progression of menopausal stage (mean ± SD, 22.5 ± 2.6, 3.6 ± 2.9, 4.5 ± 3.2), old age (4.2 ± 3.2) versus young age (2.9 ± 2.6), single (4.3 ± 3.3) versus married (3.3 ± 2.9), illiterate (3.9 ± 3.1) versus educated (2.7 ± 2.6), and sexually inactive (4.4 ± 3.4) versus sexually active (3.1 ± 2.7). CONCLUSIONS: Omani women were found to exhibit highly atypical symptoms of menopause. Increased severity of symptoms was found to be related to age, advanced stage of menopause, and lower educational level.
