Creating a Dual Degree: Nursing Education Goes Global.

A global health human resource crisis has intensified the need for innovative education programs to maximize the supply of nurses worldwide. In response to the current and anticipated shortage of nurses globally, a novel collaborative undergraduate nursing program was developed at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, NB, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Karnataka, India. The resulting dual degree model is shaped by the contexts of the participating countries and current activities related to the international recruitment and migration of registered nurses. This partnership will increase program capacity and the potential number of graduates and will ease the immigration of internationally educated nurses.

Caring burden and quality of life among the caregivers of people living with dementia - a cross-sectional study in Udupi district of Karnataka.

Dementia is a chronic disorder of the brain that affects cognitive performance. The caregivers of individuals with dementia experience a greater burden that affects their Quality of Life (QoL). This cross-sectional study conducted in India was designed to assess the caring burden and QoL among the caregivers of people with dementia, as well as to ascertain the relationship between QoL scores and burden. Our sample included 80 caregivers of people with dementia. Most of the caregivers (n = 59, 73.8%) had a higher level of caregiver burden. There was a negative correlation between caregiver burden scores and QoL. A higher level of caregiver stress and low QoL were experienced by caregivers of dementia patients. In developing countries like India, counseling, and education on home health care for people with dementia should be provided to reduce the burden and enhance the QoL of caregivers.

Efficacy of mHealth Interventions for Improving Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes Among Pregnant Women With Hypertensive Disorders: Protocol for a Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the most prevalent medical conditions that arise during pregnancy, resulting in maternal and neonatal complications. Mobile health (mHealth) has emerged as an innovative intervention for delivering maternal and child health care services. The evidence on the effectiveness of mHealth interventions in improving the health outcomes of pregnant women with hypertensive disorders is lacking. Therefore, there is a need for evidence synthesis using systematic review methods to address this evidence gap. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to determine the efficacy of mHealth interventions in improving maternal and neonatal outcomes among pregnant women with hypertensive disorders. The review will answer the following research questions: (1) What are the types of mHealth interventions used in pregnant women with hypertensive disorders? (2) Are the various mHealth interventions effective in improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes, health behaviors, and their knowledge of the disease? and (3) Are mHealth interventions effective in supporting health care providers to make health care decisions for pregnant women with hypertensive disorders? METHODS: This review will include randomized controlled trials, nonrandomized controlled trials, and cohort studies focusing on mHealth interventions for pregnant women with hypertensive disorders. Studies reporting health care providers use of mHealth interventions in caring for pregnant women with hypertensive disorders will be included. The search strategy will be tailored to each database using database-specific search terms. The search will be conducted in PubMed-MEDLINE, ProQuest, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, and CENTRAL. Other literature sources, such as trial registries and bibliographies of relevant studies, will be additionally searched. Studies published in English from January 2000 to January 2023 will be included. A total of 2 review authors will independently perform the data extraction and the quality appraisal. For quality appraisal of randomized controlled trials, the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool will be used. The Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-1) tool will be used for nonrandomized controlled trials, and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist for cohort studies will be used. Any disagreements between the 2 reviewers will be resolved through discussion and a third reviewer if required. A meta-analysis will be performed based on the availability of the data. RESULTS: As per the protocol, the study methodology was followed, and 2 independent reviewers conducted the search in 6 databases and clinical registries. Currently, the review is in the full-text screening stage. The review will publish the results in the first quarter of 2024. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence synthesized from this systematic review will help guide future research, support health care decisions, and inform policy makers on the effectiveness of mHealth interventions in improving the maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with hypertensive disorders. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/51792.

The utilization of systematic review evidence in formulating India's National Health Programme guidelines between 2007 and 2021.

Evidence-informed policymaking integrates the best available evidence on programme outcomes to guide decisions at all stages of the policy process and its importance becomes more pronounced in resource-constrained settings. In this paper, we have reviewed the use of systematic review evidence in framing National Health Programme (NHP) guidelines in India. We searched official websites of the different NHPs, linked to the main website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), in December 2020 and January 2021. NHP guideline documents with systematic review evidence were identified and information on the use of this evidence was extracted. We classified the identified systematic review evidence according to its use in the guideline documents and analysed the data to provide information on the different factors and patterns linked to the use of systematic review evidence in these documents. Systematic reviews were mostly visible in guideline documents addressing maternal and newborn health, communicable diseases and immunization. These systematic reviews were cited in the guidelines to justify the need for action, to justify recommendations for action and opportunities for local adaptation, and to highlight implementation challenges and justify implementation strategies. Guideline documents addressing implementation cited systematic reviews about the problems and policy options more often than citing systematic reviews about implementation. Systematic reviews were linked directly to support statements in few guideline documents, and sometimes the reviews were not appropriately cited. Most of the systematic reviews providing information on the nature and scale of the policy problem included Indian data. It was seen that since 2014, India has been increasingly using systematic review evidence for public health policymaking, particularly for some of its high-priority NHPs. This complements the increasing investment in research synthesis centres and procedures to support evidence-informed decision making, demonstrating the continued evolution of India's evidence policy system.

Burden of Osteopenia and Osteoporosis Among Postmenopausal Women in India: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Aim: Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a major public health problem around the world. The objective of this systematic review is to determine the prevalence of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women in India. Materials and Methods: This review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We identified relevant studies through a search of literature published from 2010 to January 2021 in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, ProQuest, CINHAL, and PEDro databases. We searched for cross-sectional studies involving India that were published in English. Results: There was a total of 1631 hits in the initial search and out of which 60 studies were selected for full-text review. Twelve studies were selected for qualitative analysis. Excluded studies were 48 with reasons: 20 studies had included other diseases such as knee arthritis, celiac diseases, diabetes mellitus, and kidney diseases. Eleven studies included premenopausal women, young adults, and men. Ten studies outcomes were different, and seven studies were excluded as they have done retrospective analysis and were commentaries. The pooled prevalence of osteoporosis at the lumbar spine region was 29%, the hip region was 6% and the femoral neck region was 29% whereas the pooled prevalence of osteopenia at the lumbar spine region was 37%, the hip was 6%, and femoral neck region was 37%. Conclusion: This systematic review found that postmenopausal women are at significant risk of developing low bone mineral density, and the prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia was high in the lumbar area.

Improving the Knowledge and Attitude on 'Standard Days Method' of Family Planning Through a Promotional Program Among Indian Postgraduate Students.

INTRODUCTION: The 'Standard Days Method' is a fertility awareness-based method of family planning that identifies day 8 through day 19 of the menstrual cycle as fertile days during which a woman is likely to conceive with unprotected intercourse. OBJECTIVE: The study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of a promotional program on the 'Standard Days Method' in terms of improving the knowledge scores and attitude scores. DESIGN: A pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest research design was adopted. The samples included 365 female postgraduate students from selected colleges of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka. The data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The plan for the promotional program was also established. RESULTS: The findings of the study were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics. The mean pretest and posttest knowledge scores were computed, and it was found that there was an increase in the mean knowledge score from 8.96 ± 3.84 to 32.64 ± 5.59, respectively. It was observed that the promotional program on 'Standard Days Method' was effective in improving the knowledge (p < 0.001) and attitude (p < 0.001) of the postgraduate students. CONCLUSION: The promotional program on Standard Days Method of family planning was effective in improving the knowledge and attitude of the postgraduate female students. This will enable the women to adopt this method and plan their pregnancies naturally and reduce the side effects of using oral contraceptives.