This study primarily intends to determine visitors’ perception of leptospirosis health hazard warning signage and its effectiveness within natural recreational parks in the district of Hulu Langat. This cross-sectional study was conducted in four out of seven natural recreational parks, installed with leptospirosis health hazard warning signage. A total of 209 respondents were recruited purposively in this study and completed the questionnaires. Majority of the respondents were male (57.4%), 40 years old and below (89.5%), received tertiary education (68.5%), staying outside Hulu Langat district (83.2%), visited for the first time (63.6%), and noticed the presence of leptospirosis health hazard warning signage at the park entrance (69.4%) and within the recreational park (64.2%). A significant relationship was discovered between respondents’ education level and perception of the health hazard warning signage (p-value 0.034). The rate of visits and noticeability of the health hazard warning signage were significantly associated with the effectiveness of the content on the health hazard warning signage (p-value 0.002 and 0.004, respectively). The construction of health hazard warning signage at the recreational areas should suit the social and educational background of the population. Visitors’ discernment of the effectiveness of erecting leptospirosis health hazard warning signage within natural recreational parks in the district of Hulu Langat is good if the signage is perceptible even with subsequent repeated visits to the parks.
Introduction: Adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) regimens remains a difficult issue. Thus, it was hoped that the use of phone reminders would improve adherence. Methodology: The Cochrane database was searched using selected keywords for this meta-analysis. We included randomised, controlled trials (RCTs) that utilised interventions with phone reminder and reported adherence outcomes, as the proportion of prescribed pills taken, the scores on an adherence questionnaire, or the follow-up rate. Two independent authors screened titles of article for inclusion, extracted the relevant data, and assessed articles for risk of bias. Results: Seven RCTs published between 2010 and 2017 were selected for inclusion in this review. The sample size ranged from 76 to 631 participants. Most RCTs used short message service (SMS) and phone call reminders as interventions. The rate of adherence was 1.17-fold greater among those who received phone reminders than those who did not, which was statistically significant (Z = 2.86, p = 0.004). Those who received phone reminders showed a 17% higher likelihood for adherence compared with those who did not receive any phone reminder interventions. Conclusion: Phone reminders remain significantly effective means for improving adherence.
Sharps injury imposed a major threat towards safety and health among healthcare workers (HCWs). Many studies in Malaysia concentrated on prevalence of needle stick injury (NSI), however the prevalence of sharps injury among HCWs based on local guideline was still scarce in Malaysia. This information gap leads us to conduct this study. Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of sharps injury among HCWs in Hospital Melaka and to describe the factors among staff with sharps injury. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Hospital Melaka, Malaysia. 165 reported cases from 2013-2015 were reviewed and secondary data extracted. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20. Among reported sharps injury cases in this study, 65 (39.4%) were male, while 100 (60.6%) were female. The mean age was 27.41 (SD: 6.06). More than half of the reported sharps injury occurred among doctor, 113 (68.5%) specifically House Officer; 89 (53.9%) followed by paramedic, 26 (15.8%) and others, 26 (15.8%). Mostly occurred in ward, 114 (69.1%). The device which accounted for most of sharps injury cases was hypodermic needle, 67 (40.6%). Many of the sharps injury cases occurred while withdrawing needle from patient, 26 (15.9%). Prevalence of sharps injury among HCWs in this study was 0.8% in year 2013, 1.1% in year 2014 and 0.5% in year 2015. Nearly half from the total number of reported sharps injury cases among HCWs in Hospital Melaka were from Medical Department, 71 (43%). Recommended measures include usage of Safety-engineered devices (SEDs) and emphasize on standard precaution.
Scale of adherence to post–sharps injury follow-up services among healthcare workers is uncommon compared to medication adherence scale. To develop a novel and culturally adapted scale, stakeholders should be consulted to specify dimensions by deducing it from the existing framework. This study was to demonstrate how health stakeholders were consulted to specify the dimensions. This study employed two sessions of Nominal Group Technique. Each session consisted of 12 purposive-sampled mixed participants i.e., healthcare managers and providers. A four-step sequential protocol was used for collecting participants’ key ideas on what adherence factors in post–sharps injury follow-up services: silent idea generation, round-robin collection, idea clarification, and ranking. Similar ideas were clustered and coded with an appropriate group theme and categorized it into subdimensions. Results: A total of 116 key ideas, yielding 13 and 10 themes in session 1 and 2, respectively. Those themes were coded into 16 sub-dimensions affecting adherence. They were distributed under five emerged dimensions in decreasing order of relative importance: (a) healthcare team and system-related factors; (b) patient-related factors; (c) therapy-related factors; and (d) condition-related factors. These findings guide researchers in developing culturally adapted items for measuring the level of adherence to post–sharps injury follow-up services.
Introduction: Occupational sharps injury remains a never-ending issue faced by healthcare workers (HCWs). There were several types of post-exposure management available. Thus, it was hoped that a narrative overview could further illuminate this. Methodology: A search was conducted to review published and unpublished studies through searches of online databases (i.e., PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Google search and Science Direct) on occupational sharps injury management, including bloodborne diseases, post-exposure management and rationale of the follow-up interval. Results: Working in a healthcare setting, sharps appeared to be an inevitable hazard faced every day by individual HCWs. While PEP was available for HIV and Hepatitis B, none was available for Hepatitis C, albeit the latter seemed to have curative treatment for it. Conclusion: We hoped that this narrative overview could provide an impetus towards the understanding of post-exposure management in our local healthcare setting.
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