Search results for: emergency care units

Authors: Mutasim A. M. Ez Eldin, Tareq Saeid Al Zahrani, Gabel Zamil Al-Barakati, Ibrahim Mohamed AlHarthi, Marwan Mohamed Al Saikhan, Waleed Abdel Aziz Al Aklouk, Waheed Mohamed Saeid Ba Amer

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The Knowledge Economic City (KEC) of Al Madinah Al Munawarah is one of the major projects and represents a cornerstone for the new development activities for Al Madinah. The study area contains different geological units dominated by basalt and overlain by surface deposits. The surface soils vary in thickness and can be classified into well-graded SAND with silt and gravel (SW-SM), silty SAND with gravel (SM), silty GRAVEL with sand (GM), and sandy SILTY clay (CL-ML). The subsurface soil obtained from the drilled boreholes can be classified into poorly graded GRAVEL (GP), well-graded GRAVEL with sand (GW), poorly graded GRAVEL with silt (GP-GM), silty CLAYEY gravel with sand (GC-GM), silty SAND with gravel (SM), silt with SAND (ML), and silty CLAY with sand (CL-ML), sandy lean CLAY (CL), and lean CLAY (CL). The relative density of the deposit and the different gravel sizes intercalated with the soil influenced the Standard Penetration Tests (SPT) values. The SPT N values are high and approach refusal even at shallow depths. The shallow refusal depth (0.10 to 0.90m) of the Dynamic Cone Penetration Test (DCPT) was observed. Generally, the soil can be described as inactive with low plasticity and dense to very dense consistency. The basalt of the KEC site is characterized by slightly (W2) to moderately (W3) weathering, their strength ranges from moderate (S4) to very strong (S2), and the Rock Quality Designation (RQD) ranges from very poor (R5) to excellent (R1). The engineering geological map of the KEC characterized the geoengineering properties of the soil and rock materials and classified them into many zones. The high sulphate (SO₄²⁻) and chloride (Cl⁻) contents in groundwater call for protective measures for foundation concrete. The current study revealed that geohazard(s) mitigation measures concerning floods, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes should be taken into consideration.

Keywords: engineering geology, KEC, petrographic description, rock and soil investigations

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Authors: Abdulkabir Abdullahi

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The paper is a pre-use evaluation of grammar activities in three primary English course books (two of which are international primary English course books and the other a popular Nigerian primary English course book). The titles are - Cambridge Global English, Collins International Primary English, and Nigeria Primary English – Primary English. Grammar points and grammar activities in the three-course books were identified, grouped, and evaluated. The grammar activity which was most common in the course books, simple past tense, was chosen for evaluation, and the units which present simple past tense activities were selected to evaluate the extent to which the treatment of simple past tense in each of the course books help the young learners of English as a second language in Nigeria, aged 8 – 11, level A1 to A2, who lack the basic grammatical knowledge, to know grammar/communicate effectively. A bespoke checklist was devised, through the modification of existing checklists for the purpose of the evaluation, to evaluate the extent to which the grammar activities promote the communicative effectiveness of Nigerian learners of English as a second language. The results of the evaluation and the analysis of the data reveal that the treatment of grammar, especially the treatment of the simple past tense, is evidently insufficient. While Cambridge Global English’s, and Collins International Primary English’s treatment of grammar, the simple past tense, is underpinned by state-of-the-art theories of learning, language learning theories, second language learning principles, second language curriculum-syllabus design principles, grammar learning and teaching theories, the grammar load is insignificantly low, and the grammar tasks do not promote creative grammar practice sufficiently. Nigeria Primary English – Primary English, on the other hand, treats grammar, the simple past tense, in the old-fashioned direct way. The book does not favour the communicative language teaching approach; no opportunity for learners to notice and discover grammar rules for themselves, and the book lacks the potency to promote creative grammar practice. The research and its findings, therefore, underscore the need to improve grammar contents and increase grammar activity types which engage learners effectively and promote sufficient creative grammar practice in EFL and ESL material design and development.

Keywords: evaluation, activity, second language, activity-types, creative grammar practice

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Authors: Jia Yin Tan, Daniel Rambei, Kate Mann, Samuel price, Ahmed Aboelela

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Introduction: Breastfeeding is a complex process, influenced by various factors. Tongue-tie may lead to breastfeeding difficulties due to an inability to suck effectively, causing sore nipples and poor infant weight gain. In the UK, most frenotomies on infants are performed by doctors, nurses, health visitors or midwives. Objectives: Evaluation of safety and efficacy of a multispecialty nurse-led rapid access tongue-tie service at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, run jointly by the ENT and paediatric surgery departments. Methodology: A retrospective observational study, including all patients attending the ENT and paediatric surgery nurse-led tongue tie clinics between 1/10/2021 and 30/09/2022. Results: During the study period there were 1135 referrals for frenotomy, with a mean of 15 days between referral to clinic episode. 86.8% of referred patients underwent frenotomy, with a complication rate of 0.1% and revision rate of 5.4%. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that our rapid access nurse-led outpatient tongue tie service is safe and efficacious, with low complication and revision rates. This suggests a potential for developing a community-based service, allowing safe and effective care closer to home.

Keywords: tongue tie, frenotomy, cost, nurse-led

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Authors: G. Yoga Sairam Teja, K. Harsha Vardhan, A. Vinay Kumar, K. Nithish Kumar, Ch. Shanthi Priyag

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The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has facilitated better device control and monitoring in the modern world. The constant monitoring of a patient would be drastically altered by the usage of IoT in healthcare. As we've seen in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's important to keep oneself untouched while continuously checking on the patient's heart rate and temperature. Additionally, patients with paralysis should be closely watched, especially if they are elderly and in need of special care. Our "IoT BASED PATIENT HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM" project uses IoT to track patient health conditions in an effort to address these issues. In this project, the main board is an 8051 microcontroller that connects a number of sensors, including a heart rate sensor, a temperature sensor (LM-35), and a saline water measuring circuit. These sensors are connected via an ESP832 (WiFi) module, which enables the sending of recorded data directly to the cloud so that the patient's health status can be regularly monitored. An LCD is used to monitor the data in offline mode, and a buzzer will sound if any variation from the regular readings occurs. The data in the cloud may be viewed as a graph, making it simple for a user to spot any unusual conditions.

Keywords: IoT, ESP8266, 8051 microcontrollers, sensors

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Authors: Osuagwu Justine Ugochukwu

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Investigating the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles on the performance of healthcare employees at the University Teaching Hospital (UNTH) in Enugu, Nigeria, was the goal of the research. The respondents were asked to fill out a structured questionnaire. The respondents were chosen using a straightforward random sampling technique and consisted of 370 health workers at the hospital. The result of the analysis revealed that transactional and transformational leadership style has a positive while ambidextrous leadership has a negative effect on healthcare workers' performance in UNTH, Enugu. Therefore, the management of public hospitals that have the capacity to change their top management approach to leadership styles will gain substantial support from their employees’ thereby increasing organizational commitment and performance among health workers. This will have remarkable social implications, one of which is a change in the work culture and attitude of medical personnel from the seemingly anti-community of patients to friendly engagement and treatment of patients leading to a harmonious coexistence among these individuals in society. Investigating ambidextrous leadership and the use of nonparametric analysis is unique and has brought brand-new knowledge to leadership literature.

Keywords: workers performance, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, governance quality, ambidextrous leadership

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Authors: Yeo Kyeong Lee, Hae Won Min, Ji Yeon Kang, Hee Sun Kim, Yeong Soo Shin

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Fire incidents have been steadily increased over the last year according to national emergency management agency of South Korea. Even though most of the fire incidents with property damage have been occurred in building, rehabilitation has not been properly done with consideration of structure safety. Therefore, this study aims at evaluating rehabilitation effects on fire damaged normal strength concrete beams through experiments and finite element analyses. For the experiments, reinforced concrete beams were fabricated having designed concrete strength of 21 MPa. Two different cover thicknesses were used as 40 mm and 50 mm. After cured, the fabricated beams were heated for 1hour or 2hours according to ISO-834 standard time-temperature curve. Rehabilitation was done by removing the damaged part of cover thickness and filling polymeric mortar into the removed part. Both fire damaged beams and rehabilitated beams were tested with four point loading system to observe structural behaviors and the rehabilitation effect. To verify the experiment, finite element (FE) models for structural analysis were generated using commercial software ABAQUS 6.10-3. For the rehabilitated beam models, integrated temperature-structural analyses were performed in advance to obtain geometries of the fire damaged beams. In addition to the fire damaged beam models, rehabilitated part was added with material properties of polymeric mortar. Three dimensional continuum brick elements were used for both temperature and structural analyses. The same loading and boundary conditions as experiments were implemented to the rehabilitated beam models and non-linear geometrical analyses were performed. Test results showed that maximum loads of the rehabilitated beams were 8~10% higher than those of the non-rehabilitated beams and even 1~6 % higher than those of the non-fire damaged beam. Stiffness of the rehabilitated beams were also larger than that of non-rehabilitated beams but smaller than that of the non-fire damaged beams. In addition, predicted structural behaviors from the analyses also showed good rehabilitation effect and the predicted load-deflection curves were similar to the experimental results. From this study, both experiments and analytical results demonstrated good rehabilitation effect on the fire damaged normal strength concrete beams. For the further, the proposed analytical method can be used to predict structural behaviors of rehabilitated and fire damaged concrete beams accurately without suffering from time and cost consuming experimental process.

Keywords: fire, normal strength concrete, rehabilitation, reinforced concrete beam

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Authors: Adesola Odole, Nse Odunaiya, Samuel Adewale

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Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain (CMLBP) is prevalent in the aging population; some studies have documented the association among pain intensity, functional disability and physical activity in the general population but very few studies in the elderly. This study was designed to investigate the association among pain intensity, functional disability and physical activity of elderly individuals with CMLBP in the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria and also to determine the difference in physical activity, pain intensity and functional disability between males and females. A total of 96 participants diagnosed with CMLBP participated in this cross-sectional survey. They were conveniently sampled from selected units in the UCH, Ibadan, Nigeria. Data on sex, marital status, occupation and duration of onset of pain of participants were obtained from the participants. The Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly, Visual Analogue Scale and Oswestry Disability Questionnaire were used to measure the physical activity, pain intensity and functional disability of the participants respectively. Data was analysed using Spearman correlation, independent t-test; and α was set at 0.05. Participants (25 males, 71 females) were aged 69.64±7.43 years. The majority (76.0%) of the participants were married, and over half (55.2%) were retirees. Participants’ mean pain intensity score was 5.21±2.03 and mean duration of onset of low back pain was 63.63 ± 90.01 months. The majority (67.6%) of the participants reported severe to crippled functional disability. Their mean functional disability was 46.91 ± 13.99. Participants’ mean physical activity score was 97.47 ± 82.55. There was significant association between physical activity and pain intensity (r = -0.21, p = 0.04). There was significant association between physical activity and functional disability (r = -0.47, p = 0.00). Male (87.26 ± 79.94) and female (101.07 ± 83.71) participants did not differ significantly in physical activity (t = 0.00, p = 0.48). In addition, male (5.48 ± 2.06) and female (5.11 ± 2.02) participants’ pain intensity were comparable (t = 0.26, p = 0.44). There was also no significant difference in functional disability (t = 0.05, p = 0.07) between male (42.56 ±13.85) and female (48.45 ± 13.81) participants. It can be concluded from this study that majority of the elderly individuals with chronic mechanical low back pain had a severe to crippled functional disability. Those who reported increased physical activity had reduced pain intensity and functional disability. Male and female elderly individuals with chronic mechanical low back pain are comparable in their pain intensity, functional disability, and physical activity. Elderly individuals with CMLBP should be educated on the importance of participating in physical activity which could reduce their pain symptoms and improve functional disability.

Keywords: elderly, functional disability, mechanical low back pain, pain intensity, physical activity

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Authors: Berger Saintius, Edna Ariste, Djeamsly Salomon

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Background: Maternal mortality is a preventable global health problem that affects developed, developing, and underdeveloped countries alike. Globally, maternal mortality rates have declined since 1990, but 830 women die every day from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes that are often preventable. Haiti, with a number of 529 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, is one of the countries with the highest maternal mortality rate in the Caribbean. This study consists of analyzing maternal death surveillance data in Haiti from 2017-2020. Method : A descriptive study was conducted; data were extracted from the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network of maternal deaths from 2017 to 2020. Sociodemographic variables were analyzed. Excel and Epi Info 7.2 were used for data analysis. Frequency and proportion measurements were calculated. Results: 756 deaths were recorded for the study period: 42 (6%) in 2017, 168 (22%) in 2018, 265 (35%) in 2019, and 281 (37%) in 2020. The North Department recorded the highest number of deaths, 167 (22%). 83(11%) in Les Cayes. 96% of these deaths are people aged between 15 and 49. Conclusion. Maternal mortality is a major health problem in Haiti. Mobilization, participation, and involvement of communities, increase in obstetric care coverage and promotion of Family Planning are among the strategies to fight this problem.

Keywords: epidemiology, maternal death, hospital, Haiti

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Authors: Yili Liu, Honghao Ren, Mariko Kondo

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In the field of second language (L2) speech learning, it is well-known that that learner’s first language (L1) phonetic and phonological characteristics will be transferred into their L2 production and perception, which lead to foreign accent. For L1 Mandarin learners of Japanese, the confusion of /u/ and /o/ in /CjV/ sequences has been observed in their utterance frequently. L1 transfer is considered to be the cause of this issue, however, other factors which influence the identification of /Cju/ and /Cjo/ sequences still under investigation. This study investigates the perception of Japanese /Cju/ and /Cjo/ units by L1 Mandarin learners of Japanese. It further examined whether learners’ proficiency, syllable position, phonetic features of preceding consonants and background noise affect learners’ performance in perception. Fifty-two Mandarin-speaking learners of Japanese and nine native Japanese speakers were recruited to participate in an identification task. Learners were divided into beginner, intermediate and advanced level according to their Japanese proficiency. The average correct rate was used to evaluate learners’ perceptual performance. Furthermore, the comparison of the correct rate between learners’ groups and the control group was conducted as well to examine learners’ nativelikeness. Results showed that background noise tends to pose an adverse effect on distinguishing /u/ and /o/ in /CjV/ sequences. Secondly, Japanese proficiency has no influence on learners’ perceptual performance in the quiet and in background noise. Then all learners did not reach a native-like level without the distraction of noise. Beginner level learners performed less native-like, although higher level learners appeared to have achieved nativelikeness in the multi-talker babble noise. Finally, syllable position tends to affect distinguishing /Cju/ and /Cjo/ only under the noisy condition. Phonetic features of preceding consonants did not impact learners’ perception in any listening conditions. Findings in this study can give an insight into a further understanding of Japanese vowel acquisition by L1 Mandarin learners of Japanese. In addition, this study indicates that L1 transfer is not the only explanation for the confusion of /u/ and /o/ in /CjV/ sequences, factors such as listening condition and syllable position are also needed to take into consideration in future research. It also suggests the importance of perceiving speech in a noisy environment, which is close to the actual conversation required more attention to pedagogy.

Keywords: background noise, Chinese learners of Japanese, /Cju/ and /Cjo/ sequences, second language perception

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Authors: Katie Emerson, Sara Perez-Ojalvo, Jim Komorowski, Danielle Greenberg

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate arginase activity levels in response to combinations of an inositol-stabilized arginine silicate (ASI; Nitrosigine®), L-arginine, and Inositol. Arginine acts as a vasodilator that promotes increased blood flow resulting in enhanced delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the brain and other tissues. ASI alone has been shown to improve performance on cognitive tasks. Arginase, found in human serum, catalyzes the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea, completing the last step in the urea cycle. Decreasing arginase levels maintains arginine and results in increased nitric oxide production. This study aimed to determine the most effective combination of ASI, L-arginine and inositol for minimizing arginase levels and therefore maximize ASI’s effect on cognition. Serum was taken from untreated healthy donors by separation from clotted factors. Arginase activity of serum in the presence or absence of test products was determined (QuantiChrom™, DARG-100, Bioassay Systems, Hayward CA). The remaining ultra-filtrated serum units were harvested and used as the source for the arginase enzyme. ASI alone or combined with varied levels of Inositol were tested as follows: ASI + inositol at 0.25 g, 0.5 g, 0.75 g, or 1.00 g. L-arginine was also tested as a positive control. All tests elicited changes in arginase activity demonstrating the efficacy of the method used. Adding L-arginine to serum from untreated subjects, with or without inositol only had a mild effect. Adding inositol at all levels reduced arginase activity. Adding 0.5 g to the standardized amount of ASI led to the lowest amount of arginase activity as compared to the 0.25g 0.75g or 1.00g doses of inositol or to L-arginine alone. The outcome of this study demonstrates an interaction of the pairing of inositol with ASI on the activity of the enzyme arginase. We found that neither the maximum nor minimum amount of inositol tested in this study led to maximal arginase inhibition. Since the inhibition of arginase activity is desirable for product formulations looking to maintain arginine levels, the most effective amount of inositol was deemed preferred. Subsequent studies suggest this moderate level of inositol in combination with ASI leads to cognitive improvements including reaction time, executive function, and concentration.

Keywords: arginine, inositol, arginase, cognitive benefits

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Authors: C. E. Laburu, M. A. Barros, A. F. Zompero, O. H. M. Silva

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The work presents a teaching strategy that employs syntagmatic and paradigmatic linguistic relations in order to monitor the understanding of physics students’ concepts. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations are theoretical elements of semiotics studies and our research circumstances and justified them within the research program of multi-modal representations. Among the multi-modal representations to learning scientific knowledge, the scope of action of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations belongs to the discursive writing form. The use of such relations has the purpose to seek innovate didactic work with discourse representation in the write form before translate to another different representational form. The research was conducted with a sample of first year high school students. The students were asked to produce syntagmatic and paradigmatic of Newton’ first law statement. This statement was delivered in paper for each student that should individually write the relations. The student’s records were collected for analysis. It was possible observed in one student used here as example that their monemes replaced and rearrangements produced by, respectively, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, kept the original meaning of the law. In paradigmatic production he specified relevant significant units of the linguistic signs, the monemas, which constitute the first articulation and each word substituted kept equivalence to the original meaning of original monema. Also, it was noted a number of diverse and many monemas were chosen, with balanced combination of grammatical (grammatical monema is what changes the meaning of a word, in certain positions of the syntagma, along with a relatively small number of other monemes. It is the smallest linguistic unit that has grammatical meaning) and lexical (lexical monema is what belongs to unlimited inventories; is the monema endowed with lexical meaning) monemas. In syntagmatic production, monemas ordinations were syntactically coherent, being linked with semantic conservation and preserved number. In general, the results showed that the written representation mode based on linguistic relations paradigmatic and syntagmatic qualifies itself to be used in the classroom as a potential identifier and accompanist of meanings acquired from students in the process of scientific inquiry.

Keywords: semiotics, language, high school, physics teaching

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Authors: Charles Amoatey, Ebenezer Kumah

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of implementation of Distributor Management Solution (DMS) on supply chain performance in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry in Ghana. Methodology: A purposive sampling approach was used in selecting the respondents for the study. Data was collected from senior management and field supervisors from sales, distribution and customer service units of the case study firm and its channel members. This study made use of systematic literature review and results of survey data analysis to assess how information system has been used to improve supply chain performance. Findings: Results from the study showed that the critical effect factors from implementation of a DMS include (1) Obtain prompt and reliable feedback from the market; (2) Building the capacity and skills levels of employees as well as 3rd Party Agents; (3) Motivated top management to invest in MIS; and (4) Performance improvement in sales route management. The most critical challenges to an effective and sustainable MIS implementation are lack of enough trained IT employees and high barriers to cultural change especially with distributors. The paper recommends consistent investment in IS infrastructure and development of IT skills. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the literature by exploring the effects of distribution management solution implementation and supply chain performance in a developing country context. Considering the fact that this study is based on data from only one case study firm and its channel members, generalization of the results should be treated with caution. Practical implications: The findings have confirmed the benefits of implementing a Management Information System. The result should encourage channel members to allocate adequate resources for building MIS capacity to enhance their supply chain performance. Originality/Value: In this paper, the relationship between DMS/MIS implementation and improvement in supply chain performance, in the Ghanaian context, has been established.

Keywords: distributor management solution, fast-moving consumer goods, supply chain management, information systems, Ghana

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Authors: Urooj Saeed, Sajid Rashid Ahmad, Iqra Khalid, Sahar Mirza, Imtiaz Younas

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Pakistan, a flood-prone country, has experienced worst floods in the recent past which have caused extensive damage to the urban and rural areas by loss of lives, damage to infrastructure and agricultural fields. Poor flood management system in the country has projected the risks of damages as the increasing frequency and magnitude of floods are felt as a consequence of climate change; affecting national economy directly or indirectly. To combat the needs of flood emergency, this paper focuses on remotely sensed data based approach for rapid mapping and monitoring of flood extent and its damages so that fast dissemination of information can be done, from local to national level. In this research study, spatial extent of the flooding caused by heavy rains of 2014 has been mapped by using space borne data to assess the crop damages and affected population in sixteen districts of Punjab. For this purpose, moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) was used to daily mark the flood extent by using Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI). The highest flood value data was integrated with the LandScan 2014, 1km x 1km grid based population, to calculate the affected population in flood hazard zone. It was estimated that the floods covered an area of 16,870 square kilometers, with 3.0 million population affected. Moreover, to assess the flood damages, Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) aided with spectral signatures was applied on Landsat image to attain the thematic layers of healthy (0.54 million acre) and damaged crops (0.43 million acre). The study yields that the population of Jhang district (28% of 2.5 million population) was affected the most. Whereas, in terms of crops, Jhang and Muzzafargarh are the ‘highest damaged’ ranked district of floods 2014 in Punjab. This study was completed within 24 hours of the peak flood time, and proves to be an effective methodology for rapid assessment of damages due to flood hazard

Keywords: flood hazard, space borne data, object based image analysis, rapid damage assessment

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Authors: Nisreen Agha

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Investigation of representative core samples under the petrological microscope reveals common petrographic and mineralogical characteristics with distinct faunal assemblages, allowing establishing of the microfacies associations and deducing the paleoenvironmental trends of the Paleocene Farrud and Mabruk rock units. Recognition of the early and post-diagenetic processes, particularly dolomitization and micritization, as well as dissolution and precipitation of spary drusy calcite as a new morphism process affecting the reservoir rocks, is established. The microfacies trends detected from the investigation of 46 core samples from Farrud member (Lower Paleocene) representing six wells; QQQ1-11, GG1-11, LLL1-11, RRR1-11, RRR40-11, and RRR45-11 indicate that the deposition was started within the realm of shallow supratidal and intertidal subenvironments followed by deeper environments of the shelf bays with maximum sea level during inner shelf environment where fossiliferous bioclastic packstone dominated. The microfacies associations determined in 8 core samples from two wells LLL1and RRR40 representing Mabruk Member (Upper Paleocene), indicate paleoenvironmental trends marked by sea level fluctuations accompanied with a relatively marine shelf bay conditions intervened with short-lived shallow intertidal and supratidal warm coastal sedimentation. As a result, dolostone, evaporitic dismicrites, and gypsiferous dolostone of supratidal characters were deposited. They reflect rapid oscillation of the sea level marked by drop land-ward shift of the sea shore deposition prevailed by supratidal gypsiferous dolostone and numerous ferruginous materials as clouds straining many parts of dolomite and surrounded the micritized fossils. This situation ends the deposition of the Farrud Member in most of the studied wells. On the other hand, the facies in the northern part of the Concession -11 field indicates deposition in a deeper marine setting than in the southern facies.

Keywords: Farrud and Mabruk members, paleocene, microfacies associations, diagenesis, sea level oscillation, depositional environments

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Authors: Wallapa Boonrod

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Thai National Education Act 1999 required all educational institutions received external quality evaluation at least once every five years. The purpose of this study was to compare the awareness in the code of ethics for nurse educators among nurse educators, professional nurses, and nursing students under The Royal Thai Army Nurse College. The sample consisted of 51 of nurse educators 200 nursing students and 340 professional nurses from Army nursing college and hospital by stratified random sampling techniques. The descriptive statistics indicated that the nurse educators, nursing students and professional nurses had different levels of awareness in the 9 roles of nurse educators: Nurse, Reliable Sacrifice, Intelligence, Giver, Nursing Skills, Teaching Responsibility, Unbiased Care, Tie to Organization, and Role Model. The code of ethics for nurse educators (CENE) measurement models from the awareness of nurse educators, professional nurses, and nursing students were well fitted with the empirical data. The CENE models from them were invariant in forms, but variant in factor loadings. Thai Army nurse educators strive to create a learning environment that nurtures the highest nursing potential and standards in their nursing students.

Keywords: awareness of the code of ethics for nurse educators, nursing college and hospital under The Royal Thai Army, Thai Army nurse educators, professional nurses

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Authors: Errol J. Haarhoff

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Housing in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland, is dominated by low-density suburbs. Over the past 20 years, housing intensification policies aimed to curb outward low-density sprawl and to concentrate development within an urban boundary have been implemented. This requires the greater deployment of attached housing typologies such apartments, duplexes and terrace housing. There has been strong market response and uptake for higher density development, with the number of building approvals received by the Auckland Council for attached housing units increasing from around 15 percent in 2012/13, to 54 percent in 2017/18. A key question about intensification and strong market uptake in a city where lower density has been the norm, is whether higher density neighborhoods will deliver necessary housing satisfaction? This paper reports on the findings to a questionnaire survey and focus group discussions probing resident perceptions to living at higher density in relation to their dwellings, the neighborhood and their sense of community. The findings reveal strong overall housing satisfaction, including key aspects such as privacy, noise and living in close proximity to neighbors. However, when residents are differentiated in terms of length of tenure, age or whether they are bringing up children, greater variation in satisfaction is detected. For example, residents in the 65-plus age cohort express much higher levels of satisfaction, when compared to the 18-44 year cohorts who more likely to be binging up children. This suggests greater design sensitivity to better accommodate the range of household types. Those who have live in the area longer express greater satisfaction than those with shorter duration, indicating time for adaption to living at higher density. Findings strongly underpin the instrumental role that the public amenities play in overall housing satisfaction and the emergence of a strong sense of community. This underscores the necessity for appropriate investment in the public amenities often lacking in market-led higher density housing development. We conclude with an evaluation of the PPP model, and its part in delivering housing satisfaction. The findings should be of interest to cities, housing developers and built environment professional pursuing housing policies promoting intensification and higher density.

Keywords: medium density, housing satisfaction, neighborhoods, sense of community

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Authors: Sonia Perez-Gamboa, Qingquan Sun, Yan Zhang

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Non-intrusive sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) is utilized in a spectrum of applications, including fitness tracking devices, gaming, health care monitoring, and smartphone applications. Deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and long short term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks (RNNs) provide a way to achieve HAR accurately and effectively. In this paper, we design a multi-layer hybrid architecture with CNN and LSTM and explore a variety of multi-layer combinations. Based on the exploration, we present a lightweight, hybrid, and multi-layer model, which can improve the recognition performance by integrating local features and scale-invariant with dependencies of activities. The experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model, which can achieve a 94.7% activity recognition rate on a benchmark human activity dataset. This model outperforms traditional machine learning and other deep learning methods. Additionally, our implementation achieves a balance between recognition rate and training time consumption.

Keywords: deep learning, LSTM, CNN, human activity recognition, inertial sensor

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Authors: Matthew Cameron, Stephen Yang, Latifa Al Kharusi, Adam Gosselin, Anissa Chirico, Pouya Gholipour Baradari

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Background: Iron supplementation has been evaluated in several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for the potential to increase baseline hemoglobin and decrease the incidence of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion during cardiac surgery. This study's main objective was to evaluate the evidence for iron administration in cardiac surgery patients for its effect on the incidence of perioperative RBC transfusion. Methods: This systematic review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020161927) on Dec. 19th, 2019, and was prepared as per the PRISMA guidelines. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, Web of Science databases, and Google Scholar were searched for RCTs evaluating perioperative iron administration in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Each abstract was independently reviewed by two reviewers using predefined eligibility criteria. The primary outcome was perioperative RBC transfusion, with secondary outcomes of the number of RBC units transfused, change in ferritin level, reticulocyte count, hemoglobin, and adverse events, after iron administration. The risk of bias was assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool, and the primary and secondary outcomes were analyzed with a random-effects model. Results: Out of 1556 citations reviewed, five studies (n = 554 patients) met the inclusion criteria. The use of iron demonstrated no difference in transfusion incidence (RR 0.86; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.13). There was a low heterogeneity between studies (I²=0%). The trial sequential analysis suggested an optimal information size of 1132 participants, which the accrued information size did not reach. Conclusion: The current literature does not support the routine use of iron supplementation before cardiac surgery; however, insufficient data is available to draw a definite conclusion. A critical knowledge gap has been identified, and more robust RCTs are required on this topic.

Keywords: cardiac surgery, iron, iron supplementation, perioperative medicine, meta-analysis, systematic review, randomized controlled trial

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Authors: F. Haddadj, S. Hamdi, M. Khames, A. Kadi, S. Zenia, A. Smai, H. Saadi, B. Doumandji-Mitiche

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The use of a biopesticide based on a microorganism scale requires particular care including safety against the useful auxiliary fauna and mammals among other human beings. Due to its persistence in soil and its apparent human and animal safety, Beauveria bassiana is a cryptogram used for controlling pests organizations, particularly in the locust where its effectiveness has been proven by several highly studies. This fungus is also called for greater respect for biotic communities and the environment. Indeed, biopesticides have several environmental benefits: biodegradability, their activity and selectivity decrease unintended non-target species effects, decreased resistance to some of them. It is in this sense that we contribute by presenting our work on the safety of B. bassiana against mammals. For this we conducted a toxicological study of this fungus strain on Wistar rats Rattus norvegicus, first its effect on weight gain. In a second time were performed histological target organ is the liver. After 20 days of treatment, the results of the toxicological studies have shown that B. bassiana caused no change in the physiological state of rats or weight gain, behavior and diet. On cuts in liver histology revealed no disturbance on the organ.

Keywords: entomopathogenic fungus, B. bassiana, Rattus norvegicus, toxicological study, environment

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Authors: Mert Kıranç, Ekrem Duman, Murat Özbilen

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In order to achieve new product development (NPD) activities on time and within budgetary constraints, the NPD managers need a well-designed methodology. This study intends to create an integrated project management methodology for the ones who focus on new product development projects. In the scope of the study, four different management systems are combined. These systems are called as 'Schedule-oriented Stage-Gate Method, Risk Management, Change Management and Earned Value Management'. New product development term is quite common in many different industries such as defense industry, construction, health care/dental, higher education, fast moving consumer goods, white goods, electronic devices, marketing and advertising and software development. All product manufacturers run against each other’s for introducing a new product to the market. In order to achieve to produce a more competitive product in the market, an optimum project management methodology is chosen, and this methodology is adapted to company culture. The right methodology helps the company to present perfect product to the customers at the right time. The benefits of proposed methodology are discussed as an application by a company. As a result, how the integrated methodology improves the efficiency and how it achieves the success of the project are unfolded.

Keywords: project, project management, management methodology, new product development, risk management, change management, earned value, stage-gate

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Authors: Anupam Purwar

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In conventional consumer product industry, stockouts are taken care by carrying buffer stock to check underserving caused by changes in customer demand, incorrect forecast or variability in lead times. But, for food outlets, the alternate of carrying buffer stock is unviable because of indispensable need to serve freshly cooked meals. Besides, the food outlet being the sole provider has no incentives to reduce stockouts, as they have no fear of losing revenue, gross profit, customers and market share. Hence, innovative, easy to implement and practical ways of addressing the twin problem of long queues and poor customer experience needs to be investigated. Current work analyses the demand pattern of 11 different food items across a routine day. Based on this optimum resource allocation for all food items has been carried out by solving a linear programming problem with cost minimization as the objective. Concurrently, recommendations have been devised to address this demand and supply side problem keeping in mind their practicability. Currently, the recommendations are being discussed and implemented at ISB (Indian School of Business) Hyderabad campus.

Keywords: F&B industry, resource allocation, demand management, linear programming, LP, queuing analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: A. Calabrese, V. F. Uricchio, D. di Noia, S. Favale, C. Caiati, G. P. Maggi, G. Donvito, D. Diacono, S. Tangaro, A. Italiano, E. Riezzo, M. Zippitelli, M. Toriello, E. Celiberti, D. Festa, A. Colaianni

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Climate change has a severe impact on human health. There is a vast literature demonstrating temperature increase is causally related to cardiovascular problem and represents a high risk for human health, but there are not study that improve a solution. In this work, it is studied how the clime influenced the human parameter through the analysis of climatic conditions in an area of the Apulia Region: Capurso Municipality. At the same time, medical personnel involved identified a set of variables useful to define an index describing health condition. These scientific studies are the base of an innovative alert system, IPPOCRATE, whose aim is to asses climate risk and share information to population at risk to support prevention and mitigation actions. IPPOCRATE is an e-health system, it is designed to provide technological support to analysis of health risk related to climate and provide tools for prevention and management of critical events. It is the first integrated system of prevention of human risk caused by climate change. IPPOCRATE calculates risk weighting meteorological data with the vulnerability of monitored subjects and uses mobile and cloud technologies to acquire and share information on different data channels. It is composed of four components: Multichannel Hub. Multichannel Hub is the ICT infrastructure used to feed IPPOCRATE cloud with a different type of data coming from remote monitoring devices, or imported from meteorological databases. Such data are ingested, transformed and elaborated in order to be dispatched towards mobile app and VoIP phone systems. IPPOCRATE Multichannel Hub uses open communication protocols to create a set of APIs useful to interface IPPOCRATE with 3rd party applications. Internally, it uses non-relational paradigm to create flexible and highly scalable database. WeHeart and Smart Application The wearable device WeHeart is equipped with sensors designed to measure following biometric variables: heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, body temperature and blood glucose for diabetic subjects. WeHeart is designed to be easy of use and non-invasive. For data acquisition, users need only to wear it and connect it to Smart Application by Bluetooth protocol. Easy Box was designed to take advantage from new technologies related to e-health care. EasyBox allows user to fully exploit all IPPOCRATE features. Its name, Easy Box, reveals its purpose of container for various devices that may be included depending on user needs. Territorial Registry is the IPPOCRATE web module reserved to medical personnel for monitoring, research and analysis activities. Territorial Registry allows to access to all information gathered by IPPOCRATE using GIS system in order to execute spatial analysis combining geographical data (climatological information and monitored data) with information regarding the clinical history of users and their personal details. Territorial Registry was designed for different type of users: control rooms managed by wide area health facilities, single health care center or single doctor. Territorial registry manages such hierarchy diversifying the access to system functionalities. IPPOCRATE is the first e-Health system focused on climate risk prevention.

Keywords: climate change, health risk, new technological system

Procedia PDF Downloads 870

Authors: Barbara Covarrubias Venegas, Sabine Groblschegg, Bernhard Klaus, Julia Domnanovich

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Research Objectives: The roles and activities of human resource management (HRM) have changed a lot in the past years. Driven by a changing environment and therefore, new business requirements, the scope of human resource (HR) activities has widened. The extent to which these activities should focus on strategic issues to support the long-term success of a company has been discussed in science for many years. As many economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) experienced a phase of transition after the socialist era and are now recovering from the 2008 global crisis it is needed to examine the current state of HR positioning. Furthermore, a trend in HR work developing from rather administrative units to being strategic partners of management can be noticed. This leads to the question of better understanding the underlying competencies which are necessary to support organisations. This topic was addressed by the international study “HR Competencies in international comparison”. The quantitative survey was conducted by the Institute for Human Resources & Organisation of FHWien University of Applied Science of WKW (A) in cooperation with partner universities in the countries Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. Methodology: Using the questionnaire developed by Dave Ulrich we tested whether the HR Competency model can be used for Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. After performing confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis for the whole data set containing all five countries we could clearly distinguish between four competencies. In a further step, our analysis focused on median and average comparisons between the HR competency dimensions. Conclusion: Our literature review, in alignment with other studies, shows a relatively rapid pace of development of HR Roles and HR Competencies in BCSS in the past decades. Comparing data from BCSS and Austria we still can notice that regards strategic orientation there is a lack in BCSS countries, thus competencies are not as developed as in Austria. This leads us to the tentative conclusion that HR has undergone a rapid change but is still in a State of Transition from being a rather administrative unit to performing the role of a strategic partner.

Keywords: comparative study, HR competencies, HRM, HR roles

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Mai Ashraf Talaat

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Background: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is an essential nutrient for the development and repair of all body tissues. It can be obtained from a healthy diet or through supplementation. Due to its importance, vitamin C has become a mainstay in the treatment and prevention of many diseases and in maintaining immune, skin, bone and overall health. This review article aims to discuss the studies and case reports conducted to evaluate the effect of Vitamin C on oral health and the recent advances in oral medicine that involve the use of vitamin C. Data/Sources: The review was conducted for clinical studies, case reports and published literature in the English language that addresses this topic. An extensive search in the electronic databases of PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, National Library of Medicine and ResearchGate was performed. Conclusion: Vitamin C is thought to treat periodontal diseases and gingival enlargement. It also affects biofilm formation and therefore, it helps in reducing caries incidence. Recently, vitamin C mesotherapy has been used to treat inflamed gingiva, bleeding gums and gingival hyperpigmentation. More research and randomized controlled trials are needed on this specific topic for more accurate judgment. Clinical significance: A minimally invasive approach - the usage of vitamin C in dental care could drastically reduce the need for surgical intervention.

Keywords: oral health, periodontology, vitamin C, Gingivitis

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Authors: Marina Aferiba Tandoh, Elsie Odei

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Peptic Ulcer Disease (PUD) is amongst the commonest gastrointestinal problems that require emergency treatment in order to preserve life. The prevalence of PUD is increasing within the Ghanaian population, deepening the need to identify factors that are associated with its occurrence. This cross-sectional study assessed the nutritional status, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors associated with PUD among patients attending the Out-Patient Department of the Tema General Hospital of Ghana. A food frequency questionnaire and a three-day, 24-hour recall were used to assess the dietary intakes of study participants. A standardized questionnaire was used to obtain information on the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle as well as medical history. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. The mean age of study participants was 32.8±15.41years. Females were significantly higher (61.4%) than males (38.6%) (p < 0.001). All participants had received some form of education, with tertiary education being the highest (52.6%). The majority of them managed their condition with medications only (86%), while 10.5% managed it with a combination of medications and diet. The rest were either by dietary counseling only (1.8%), or surgery only (1.8%). or herbal medicines (29.3%), which were made from home (7.2%) or bought from a medical store (10.8%). Most of the participants experienced a recurrence of the disease (42.1%). For those who had ever experienced recurrences of the disease, it happened when they ate acidic foods (1.8%), ate bigger portions (1.8%), starved themselves (1.8%), or were stressed (1.8%). Others also had triggers when they took certain medications (1.8%) or ate too much pepper (1.8%). About 49% of the participants were either overweight or obese with a recurrence of PUD (p>0.05). Obese patients had the highest rate of PUD recurrences (41%). Drinking alcohol was significantly associated with the recurrence of PUD (χ2= 5.243, p=0.026). Other lifestyles, such as weed smoking, fasting, and use of herbal medicine and NSAIDs did not have any significant association with the disease recurrence. There was no significant correlation between the various dietary patterns and anthropometric parameters except dietary pattern one (salty snacks, regular soft drinks, milk, sweetened yogurt, ice cream, and cooked vegetables), which had a positive correlation with weight (p=0.002) and BMI (p=0.038). PUD patients should target weight reduction actions and reduce alcohol intake as measures to control the recurrence of the disease. Nutrition Education among this population must be promoted to minimize the recurrence of PUD.

Keywords: Dietary patterns, lifestyle factors, nutritional status, peptic ulcer disease

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Authors: Shu-Ching Chiu, Shu-Fang Chang

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has been actively developing intervention programs to deal with geriatric frailty. In its White Paper on Healthcare Policy 2020, the Department of Health, Bureau of Health Promotion proposed that active aging and the prevention of disability are essential for elderly people to maintain good health. The paper recommended five main policies relevant to this objective, one of which is the prevention of frailty and disability. Scholars have proposed a number of different criteria to diagnose and assess frailty; no consistent or normative standard of measurement is currently available. In addition, many methods of assessment are recursive, which can easily result in recall bias. Due to the relationship between frailty and physical fitness with regard to co-morbidity, it is important that academics optimize the criteria used to assess frailty by objectively evaluating the physical fitness of senior citizens. This study used a review of the literature to identify fitness indicators suitable for measuring frailty in the elderly. This study recommends that measurement criteria be integrated to produce an optimized predictive value for frailty score. Healthcare professionals could use this data to detect frailty at an early stage and provide appropriate care to prevent further debilitation and increase longevity.

Keywords: frailty, aging, physical fitness, optimized criteria, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 356

Authors: Oluwaseun Adeleke, Samuel O. Ikani, Fidelis Edet, Anthony Nwala, Mopelola Raji, Simeon Christian Chukwu

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Background: The DISC project collaborated with partners to implement demand creation and service delivery interventions, including the MoT (Moment of Truth) innovation, in over 500 health facilities across 15 states. This has increased the voluntary conversion rate to self-injection among women who opt for injectable contraception. While some facilities recorded an increasing trend in key performance indicators, few others persistently performed sub-optimally due to provider and system-related barriers. Methodology: Twenty-two facilities performing sub-optimally were selected purposively from three Nigerian states. Low productivity was appraised using low reporting rates and poor SI conversion rates as indicators. Interviews were conducted with health providers across these health facilities using a rapid diagnosis tool. The project also conducted a data quality assessment that evaluated the veracity of data elements reported across the three major sources of family planning data in the facility. Findings: The inability and sometimes refusal of providers to support clients to self-inject effectively was associated with the misunderstanding of its value to their work experience. It was also observed that providers still held a strong influence over clients’ method choices. Furthermore, providers held biases and misconceptions about DMPA-SC that restricted the access of obese clients and new acceptors to services – a clear departure from the recommendations of the national guidelines. Additionally, quality of care standards was compromised because job aids were not used to inform service delivery. Facilities performing sub-optimally often under-reported DMPA-SC utilization data, and there were multiple uncoordinated responsibilities for recording and reporting. Additionally, data validation meetings were not regularly convened, and these meetings were ineffective in authenticating data received from health facilities. Other reasons for sub-optimal performance included poor documentation and tracking of stock inventory resulting in commodity stockouts, low client flow because of poor positioning of health facilities, and ineffective messaging. Some facilities lacked adequate human and material resources to provide services effectively and received very few supportive supervision visits. Supportive supervision visits and Data Quality Audits have been useful to address the aforementioned performance barriers. The project has deployed digital DMPA-SC self-injection checklists that have been aligned with nationally approved templates. During visits, each provider and community mobilizer is accorded special attention by the supervisor until he/she can perform procedures in line with best practice (protocol). Conclusion: This narrative provides a summary of a range of factors that identify health facilities performing sub-optimally in their provision of DMPA-SC services. Findings from this assessment will be useful during project design to inform effective strategies. As the project enters its final stages of implementation, it is transitioning high-impact activities to state institutions in the quest to sustain the quality of service beyond the tenure of the project. The project has flagged activities, as well as created protocols and tools aimed at placing state-level stakeholders at the forefront of improving productivity in health facilities.

Keywords: family planning, contraception, DMPA-SC, self-care, self-injection, barriers, opportunities, performance

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Authors: Esther Robert, Romanus Aboh

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This paper undertakes a socio-pragmatic investigation of gender enactment in new month text messages. This study employs Gumperz’s Interactional Sociolinguistics as its theoretical point of reference to investigate how people create meaning through social interaction. This theory attempts to analyse any social interaction based on contextualization cues and presuppositions. This study explores the appropriateness of language used in texting. The text messages are collected from different mobile phones from different genders, which form the data for this paper. The study observes remarkable differences between genders in the use of informal language. The study reveals that men and women differ remarkably in conversational interaction as well as in writing. While it is observed that women are emotional, orderly, and meticulous, detailed and observed certain grammatical rules, men are casual, brief and appear to show evidence that less attention is paid to grammatical rules. Also, the study shows women as relaxing, showing love, care, concern with their emotive, spirit-raising and touching language, while mean are direct, short, and straight to the point. It is discovered through the study that women behave this way because of their brain-wiring. That is why language and communication matter more to women than to men and this reflects in their new month text messages.

Keywords: difference, emotionalised expressions, gender, texting

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: Aaron G. Laylo

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This paper mainly assumes that social entrepreneurship contributes significantly to youth empowerment i.e., work and community engagement. Two questions are thus raised in order to establish this hypothesis: 1) First, how does social entrepreneurship contribute to youth empowerment?; and 2) secondly, why is social entrpreneurship significantly incremental to youth empowerment? This research aims a) to investigate on the social aspect of entrepreneurship; b) to explore challenges in youth empowerment particularly in respect to work and community engagement; and c) to inquire into whether social enterprises have truly served as a catalyst for, thus an effective response to, youth empowerment. It must be emphasized that young people, which comprise 1.8 billion in a world of seven billion are an asset; Apparently, how to maximize that potential is crucial. By utilizing exploratory research design, the paper endeavors to generate new ideas in regards to both components, develop tentative theories on social entrepreneurship, and refine certain issues that are under observation and seek scholarly attention— a rather emerging phenomenon vis a vis the challenge to empower a significant cluster of the society. Case studies will be utilized as an approach in order to comparatively analyze youth-driven social enterprises in the Philippines that have been widely recognized as successful insofar as social impact is concerned. As most scholars attested, social entrepreneurship is still at its infancy stage. Youth empowerment, meanwhile, is yet a vast area to explore insofar as academic research is concerned. Programs and projects that advocate the pursuit of these components abound. However, academic research is yet to be undertaken to see and understand their social and economic relevance. This research is also an opportunity for scholars to explore, understand, and make sense of the promise that lies in social entrepreneurship research and how it can serve as a catalyst for youth empowerment. Youth-driven social enterprises can be an influential tool in sustaining development across the globe as they intend to provide opportunities for optimal economic productivity that recognizes social inclusion. Ultimately, this study should be able to contribute to both research and development-in-practice communities for the greater good of the society. By establishing the nexus between these two components, the research may contribute to fostering greater exploration of the benefits that both may yield to human progress as well as the gaps that have to be filled in by various policy stakeholders relevant to these units.

Keywords: social entpreneurship, youth, empowerment, social inclusion

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Authors: Jaleh Mohammad Aliha, Rezvan Razazi, Nasim Naderi

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Introduction: Despite the progress in new effective drugs in the treatment of heart failure, the disease still accompanied with frequent hospitalization, impaired quality of life, early mortality and significant economic burden. Patients with chronic disease and consequently patients with heart failure need the knowledge and optimal health literacy to improve the quality of life and minimize the rate of rehopitalizatio. So, considering to importance of knowledge and health literacy in this patients as well as contradictory literature, this study conducted to investigate the relationship between health literacy and Knowledge of heart failure with rehospitalization in patients with heart failure admitted to heart failure clinic in Rajai Heart center in 1394. Methods: The cross-sectional method with convenience sampling method was used in this study. After obtaining the necessary permissions from the ethics committee and the Shahid Rajai Heart center, 238 patients who were older than 18 years and had ejection fraction 35% or less with the ability to read and write and lack of psychiatric, neurological and cognitive disorders and signed the informed consent were recruited. Data collection were perfomed through demographic data questionnaire, short standard health literacy questionnaire 'Short-TOFHLA-16' and Vanderwall (2005) knowledge of heart failure questionnaire. Reliability was assessed by internal consistency method and Cronbach's alpha for both questionnaires was more than 0.7. Then data were analysed by SPSS-20 with descriptive statistic and analytical statistic such as T-test, Chi-square and ANOVA. Results: The majority of patients were male (66%), married (80%) and had age between 50 to 70 years old (42%). The majority of studied men and women have good health literacy and About half of them have adequate knowledge about heart failure. Fisher's exact test showed that there was a significant statistical correlation between health literacy and knowlegh about heart failure. In other words, higher health literacy associated with more knowledge about their condition. Also findings showed that there was no significant statistical correlation between health literacy and knowledge about heart failure and frequency of CCU and emergency admissions. Conclusion: The study results showed that the higher health literacy, associated with the greater knowledge about heart failure and patients' perception about caring recommendations and disease outcomes. Therefore, the knowledge about heart failure and factors which related to severity of the disease, is the important issue to problem identification and treatment and reduction of rehospitalization.

Keywords: health literacy, heart failure, knowlegde, rehospitalization

Procedia PDF Downloads 402