RESUMO
Purpose: The objective of our study was to assess awareness, attitudes, and practices regarding artificial intelligence (AI) among healthcare workers in private polyclinics in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods: We conducted cross-sectional study among healthcare workers in private clinics in Jeddah. Data was collected using a structured, validated questionnaire in Arabic and English on awareness, attitudes, and behaviors regarding AI. Cronbach's alpha for the questionnaire ranged from 0.6 to 0.8. Descriptive and bivariate analysis was done to assess the scores and their association of various sociodemographic variables with awareness, attitudes, and behaviors regarding AI. Multiple linear regression was performed to predict the scores of awareness, attitudes, and behaviors based on the sociodemographic variables. Results: We recruited 361 participants for this study. Approximately, 62% of the healthcare workers were female. The majority (36%) of healthcare workers were nurses, while 25% were physicians. The median awareness, attitude, and behavioral scores were 5/6 (IQR 3-6), 5/8 (IQR 4-7), and 0/3 (IQR 0), respectively. Approximately three-fourths (74%) of the healthcare workers believed that they understood the basic computational principles of AI. Only half of the participants were willing to use AI when making future medical decisions. We found that male healthcare workers had better knowledge scores regarding AI as compared to female healthcare workers (Beta = 0.555, 95%, p value = 0.010), while for attitude scores, being administrative employee as compared to other employees was found to have negative attitude towards AI (Beta = 0.049, 95%, p value = 0.03). Conclusion: We found that healthcare workers had an overall good awareness and optimistic attitude toward AI. Despite this, the majority is worried about the potential consequences of replacing their jobs with AI in the future. There is a dire need to educate and sensitize healthcare workers regarding the potential impact of AI on healthcare.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Tuberculosis (TB) is a global public health issue. The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB has further complicated the situation in the form of poor treatment outcomes and costs to individuals and health-care systems. We therefore aimed to measure the prevalence and associated risk factors of MDR TB among TB patients in Makkah city. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Al-Noor Specialist Hospital, a public-sector hospital in Makkah. We included records of 158 confirmed TB patients from the list of all patients admitted in the hospital from January 2009 to January 2019 by systematic random sampling. Data were collected on socio-demographics, clinical profile and drug resistance patterns. Analysis was done in SPSS version 21.0. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 43.4 ± 18.7 years, and two-thirds (66.5%) were male. About 40% of the patients had chronic disease while lung disease other than TB was present in 5% patients. About 13% of cases were extrapulmonary infections. Prevalence of drug resistance was found to be 17.1% among TB patients. Among the resistant cases, streptomycin (25.9%) and isoniazid (11.1%) were the drugs most commonly affected by resistance. Prevalence of MDR TB was 5% among TB patients. Age, smoking, lung disease and previous TB were significant factors associated with MDR TB. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of MDR TB, although comparable to current national estimates, is higher compared to previous reports. There is a need to reduce this burden through strengthening TB control programs to prevent further emergence of a public health threat of MDR TB. History of previous TB was the strongest risk factor in this study. This calls physicians, program managers and policy makers to focus on counselling and support of TB patients for compliance with the regimen to complete treatment without interruption.
