Background: Antimicrobials are often used inappropriately in paediatric wards of medical college hospitals in Bangladesh. Most of the antimicrobials are prescribed based on clinical grounds-signs and symptoms. This intervention study assessed the effectiveness of a training intervention on antimicrobials prescribing by physicians in paediatric wards of tertiary care level hospitals. Methodology: This study was conducted at medical college hospitals in Bangladesh during the period from 1998 through 2000. The preintervention survey of antimicrobial use was conducted during 1998 in five hospitals. The post-intervention survey was conducted after the interactive training during the succeeding year in three of the original five hospitals, of which one was the intervention hospital and two control hospitals. A total of 3,466 admitted paediatric patients' treatment charts (2,171 in the pre-intervention and 1,295 in the postintervention surveys) were reviewed. Results: The most commonly used antimicrobials were ampicillin, gentamicin, amoxicillin, cloxacillin and ceftriaxone. Appropriate antimicrobial therapy for the most common infectious diseases, pneumonia and diarrhoea, increased by 16.4% and 56.8% respectively in the intervention hospital compared with the two control hospitals and these improvenmts were significant (p = < 0.001 and p = 0.002, for pneumonia and diarrhoea respectively). Conclusions: An interactive, focussed educational intervention, targeted at physicians, appears to have been effective in improving appropriate antimicrobial prescribing for the most common paediatric infectious diseases in a medical college hospital in Bangladesh.
Objectives: To assess status of reproductive health and nutrition amongst girls attending high school in an urban area of Bangladesh. Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in four selected girl's high schools. A structured pre-tested questionnaire and a checklist were used to collect data through face-to-face interview and anthropometry. Results: A total of 360 adolescents girls were interviewed. The mean age at menarche of the respondents was found to be 12.4 years. More than half (54.2%) of the respondents were malnourished (BMI < 18.5). More than four-fifths (83%) were found to be suffering from reproductive health problems during or after menstruation. The most common complain (60%) disclosed by the adolescent girls was dysmenorrhoea. Majority (300) of the respondents acknowledged practicing unhygienic protective measures during menstruation. Conclusion: More than half of the adolescents were malnourished, practiced unhygienic protective measures during menstruation and disclosed different types of reproductive health complaints. Findings of the study strongly recommend that adolescent girls of urban Bangladesh need proper and appropriate management of their reproductive health problems.Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2008; 2(1): 9-11
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