Role of micronutrients in the management of coronavirus disease 2019.

Micronutrients play an important role in enhancing the immune system, therefore, proper nutritional support of micronutrients could have a positive impact on COVID-19 outcome.

Predictive factors for nutritional behavior among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic in 6th of October City.

BACKGROUND: Good maternal nutrition during pregnancy is important to ensure health for both the mother and the foetus. This study aimed to assess nutritional knowledge and behavior among a group of Egyptian pregnant women in addition to identify the factors influencing both their nutritional knowledge and behavior. METHODS: This comparative cross sectional study included 300 pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinics in 6th of October University private hospital and El-Hussary primary health care (PHC) unit. The data was collected through a modified nutritional survey that was translated from Spanish to Arabic and revised by language experts for clarity. RESULTS: Almost all of the women attending the private hospital were university educated while about half of the women attending the PHC unit were graduated from technical education. In general, the level of knowledge about food requirements of both groups was satisfactory good; however, neither of them fulfilled the WHO recommendations of food intake during pregnancy or the optimum number of meals per day. The mean of random blood glucose was higher among the women attending the PHC unit; the BMI, mid arm circumference and subcutaneous fat were higher among the same group as well. In regard to fulfilling the WHO recommended servings per day, only starch and fat items were fulfilled by both groups, whereas the other three items (vegetables, fruits and dairy products) were merely included in the diets of both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy behavior among pregnant women in both group were influenced by their educational level, occupation as well as their pre-gestational BMI. Those were the only three significant predictive factors, where women with higher education showed an active lifestyle. In addition, women starting with normal BMI before pregnancy had better healthy behaviours including the choice of healthy diets.

Assessment of patient safety culture among healthcare providers at a teaching hospital in Cairo, Egypt.

A previous study in Cairo, Egypt highlighted the need to improve the patient safety culture among health-care providers at Ain Shams University hospitals. This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed healthcare providers' perceptions of patient safety culture within the organization and determined factors that played a role in patient safety culture. A representative sample of 510 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and labourers in different departments answered an Arabic version of the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality hospital survey for patient safety culture. The highest mean composite positive score among the 12 dimensions was for the organizational learning for continuous improvement (78.2%), followed by teamwork (58.1%). The lowest mean score was for the dimension of non-punitive response to error (19.5%). Patient safety culture still has many areas for improvement that need continuous evaluation and monitoring to attain a safe environment both for patients and health-care providers.

Assessment of patient safety culture among health-care providers at a teaching hospital in Cairo, Egypt

A previous study in Cairo, Egypt highlighted the need to improve the patient safety culture among health-care providers at Ain Shams University hospitals. This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed health-care providers' perceptions of patient safety culture within the organization and determined factors that played a role in patient safety culture. A representative sample of 510 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and labourers in different departments answered an Arabic version of the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality hospital survey for patient safety culture, The highest mean composite positive score among the 12 dimensions was for the organizational learning for continuous improvement [78.2%], followed by teamwork [58.1%]. The lowest mean score was for the dimension of non-punitive response to error [19.5%], Patient safety culture still has many areas for improvement that need continuous evaluation and monitoring to attain a safe environment both for patients and health-care providers

Knowledge, attitude and practice of medical students towards self medication at Ain Shams University, Egypt.

INTRODUCTION: Self medication is usually defined as intake of any type of drugs for treating oneself without professional supervision to relieve an illness or a condition. Self medication is an issue with serious global implications. In this study it was aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes and behavior of self medication by the near coming physicians. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of randomly selected medical students from Ain Shams University. Data was collected using self administered questionnaire. Verbal consent was ensured before applying the questionnaire. The Chi square was performed using SPSS 16 to identify associations and differences. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 300 students 67% females and 33% male students. Prevalence of self medication was 55%. Out of which 58.8%, 54.4%, 87.2%, 12%, 28% took antibiotic, vitamins, analgesics, sedatives, herbal products respectively without physician prescription. As regards the personal behavior towards following any prescription 14.4% always followed properly the prescription compared to 63.3% always discontinued the drug on feeling improvement, and 13.6% always repeated the prescription without seeking medical advice. Also 60% said that they increased the dose without medical advice. As regards the reported side effects 4.8%, 1.6%, 12% as a result of interaction between drugs, increase dose without medical advice and early stopping of treatment respectively. CONCLUSION: Self medication by medical students is an important issue to be avoided and need to be added to the curriculum of undergraduate students and raise the community awareness about these hazards and drawbacks.