BackgroundThe purpose was to measure the prevalence and related risk factors of low back pain (LBP) among health care workers (HCWs) at different levels of health care in southwestern Saudi Arabia.MethodsA cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted among HCWs providing primary, secondary and tertiary health care services in the Aseer region, southwestern Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire collected data regarding having LBP in the past 12 months, socio-demographics, work conditions and history of chronic diseases, regular physical exercise and overexertional back trauma. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed.ResultsOut of 740 participants, the overall prevalence of LBP in the past 12 months amounted to73.9% (95% CI: 70.7–77.0). The prevalence of LBP with neurological symptoms reached 50.0%. The prevalence of LBP necessitating medications and or physiotherapy was 40.5%, while the prevalence of LBP requiring medical consultation was 20%. Using multivariable logistic regression, the following risk factors were identified: working in secondary and tertiary hospitals (aOR = 1.32, 95% CI:1.01–1.76), increased BMI (aOR = 1.10, 95% CI:1.01–3.65), and positive history of overexertional back trauma (aOR = 11.52, 95% CI:4.14–32.08). On the other hand, practising regular physical exercise was a significant protective factor (aOR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.42–0.89).ConclusionsLBP is a common problem among HCWs. Many preventable risk factors have been identified, including exertional back trauma, increased BMI and lack of regular physical exercise. Occupational health and safety programmes to build ergonomically safe working conditions and encourage regular physical exercise are needed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12891-019-2431-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Cervical cancer is frequently a deadly disease, common in females. However, early diagnosis of cervical cancer can reduce the mortality rate and other associated complications. Cervical cancer risk factors can aid the early diagnosis. For better diagnosis accuracy, we proposed a study for early diagnosis of cervical cancer using reduced risk feature set and three ensemble-based classification techniques, i.e., extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), AdaBoost, and Random Forest (RF) along with Firefly algorithm for optimization. Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) data sampling technique was used to alleviate the data imbalance problem. Cervical cancer Risk Factors data set, containing 32 risks factor and four targets (Hinselmann, Schiller, Cytology, and Biopsy), is used in the study. The four targets are the widely used diagnosis test for cervical cancer. The effectiveness of the proposed study is evaluated in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive accuracy (PPA), and negative predictive accuracy (NPA). Moreover, Firefly features selection technique was used to achieve better results with the reduced number of features. Experimental results reveal the significance of the proposed model and achieved the highest outcome for Hinselmann test when compared with other three diagnostic tests. Furthermore, the reduction in the number of features has enhanced the outcomes. Additionally, the performance of the proposed models is noticeable in terms of accuracy when compared with other benchmark studies for cervical cancer diagnosis using reduced risk factors data set.
Multiple myeloma (MM) is the most common bone malignancy that occurs frequently in older persons.It is the second most common blood cancer in which the patient usually presents with bone pain, nausea, malaise, anemia, renal insufficiency and hypocalcaemia. There is a wide variety of risk factors that may predispose to MM. It is usually discovered on routine laboratory investigations and usually diagnosed with serum or urine protein electrophoresis or immunofixation and bone marrow aspirate analysis. MM often has bad prognosis, although advances in therapy resulted in significant improvement in the overall survival rate. This review sheds light on the incidence, etiology, clinical presentation, the methods of diagnosis, prognosis and the possible lines of management of MM.
Materials that both sequester chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and then catalytically decontaminate the entrapped CWAs are highly sought. This article reports such a system for airbased catalytic removal of the sulfur mustard (HD) simulant, 2chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES). Hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) sequester CEES, and an HCP-embedded oxidation system comprising tribromide, nitrate, and acid (NO x Br x H + ) simultaneously catalyzes the aerobic and selective, oxidative conversion of the entrapped CEES to the desired far less-toxic sulfoxide under ambient conditions (air and temperature). (NO x Br x H + ) has been incorporated into three HCPs, a fluorobenzene HCP (HCP-F), a methylated HCP (HCP-M), and an HCP with acidic moieties (HCP-A). HCP-A acts as both an absorbing material and a catalytic component due to its acidic side chains. All three HCP/ NO x Br x H + systems work rapidly under these optimally mild conditions. No light or added oxidants are required. The HCP/ NO x Br x H + systems are recyclable.
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