Asian Journal of Medicine and Health

Background: Despite the numerous functions of vitamin D, there are still billions of people worldwidewho have vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, and the highest prevalence is in the Middle East, mostly females.

Aim of The Study: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and behaviors of applied medical science female students regarding vitamin D. Participants and methods: A cross- sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences- Umm Al-Qura University. An electronic questionnaire was assigned for (156) students from female section and chosen from an age group (18-22 years) to assess their vitamin D knowledge and attitudes. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Package of the Social Science (SPSS) version 20, using frequency and chi-square test. A p-value less than or equal to 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: About 57% of the students were not aware that the overuse of sunscreen could block the ultraviolet rays from reaching the skin, thus decreased production of vitamin D. The overall knowledge of the students about vitamin D sources (fortified milk, mushrooms and eggs) was decent.

Conclusion: the students had a good background of vitamin D functions, sources, and deficiency symptoms but wasn't reflected on their behavior, this gap between their knowledge and their lifestyle must be filled through health education for better health.

Aim: This study is to determine the prevalence, causes, types and patterns of hearing impairment seen in a tertiary hospital in the Niger delta region.

Study Design: A hospital based descriptive study of all patients with complaints of hearing impairment seen at the ear nose and throat clinic of the university of Port Harcourt teaching hospital within the period of January 2015 to December 2019.

Results: Bilateral affectation was commoner among those that have hearing impairment n = 366(65.2%) 91.2% while n = 54(8.8%) was found to have normal hearing. Majority of the ears had profound degree of hearing loss n= 313 (25.4%) with the highest number of it found in the right ear 27.0% however, there is no statistical significance between the side of the ear affected and the degree of hearing loss.

Conclusion: The young adults are the most affected; age 30-39 years with bilateral affectation and profound degree of hearing loss. Infective conditions such as CSOM are still very predominant in the aetiology of hearing loss in our environment.

Background: Standard precautions (SPs) in the hospital are very important in the reduction of health care workers’ exposure to occupational health hazards but most hospitals are used to reactive rather than proactive safety practices. The effect of reactive safety practices is overwhelming to health care workers, hospitals and the society. Thus, this study assessed health care workers’ knowledge and compliance with standard precautions.

Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional design and proportionate stratified random sampling method was adopted and a sample size of 391was selected using Taro-Yamane formula. The study relied on a structured questionnaire to elicit information from respondents and a reliability of 0.87 was obtained. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS) software version 21.

Results: Healthcare workers’ (HCWs) have fair knowledge of SPs and poor compliance with SPs. Also, there is significant association between HCWs’ knowledge of SPs and gender, marital status, years of experience and job category in the hospitals (p < 0.05). Consequently, there is significant association between compliance with SPs and gender, years of experience and job categories in the hospitals (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: There is great need for strong advocacy on knowledge of SPs and compliance with SPs in the hospitals to curb increasing occupational health hazards. The Nigeria government and hospital managements should develop an all-encompassing integrated SPs policies, strategies and procedures consistent with global best practices.

Background: Learning preference is the effective and efficient modality or manner in which a learner has a natural preference to perceive process, store and recall new information. Learning style is the composite of cognitive, affective and physiological characteristics that indicate how a learner perceives, interacts and responds to the learning environment.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the teaching and learning style preferences of medical students at UTAR by using VARK (Visual/Auditory/Reading/Kinesthetics) inventory questionnaires and to identify the different learning style preferences between gender and the academic year of medical education (pre-clinical year versus clinical year). 

Methodology: This was a university-based cross-sectional study involving 235 students from year 1 to year 5 in University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia from December 2017 to December 2018. Students, selected via universal sampling, were given the VARK inventory questionnaires determine their preferences of learning style. Data were further analysed using SPSS (version 22.0, IBM). 

Results: Of the 203 students (86.4%) who responded to the questionnaire, 62.1% of them were females while 80.3% of them were between 21-25 years of age. 86 students (42.4%) were from the preclinical phase while 117 (57.6%) were from the clinical phase. 70.4% of the students preferred studying alone to studying with a partner or group of friends (29.6%). Among them,157 medical students (77.3%) preferred multimodal learning style, with the most preferred mode trimodal which means combination of three sensory preference for example VAR or ARK, 35.67%, followed by quadrimodal which means combination of all four sensory preference for example VARK, 33.76% and bimodal which means combination of two sensory preference for example VA or AR, 30.57%. The remaining 46 students (22.7%) were unimodal learners (visual or auditory or reading or kinaesthetic) and 37% of them preferred kinesthetics which was learners prefer hands-on, practical experience. There was no significant difference in VARK modalities in terms of gender (p=0.39) and academic year (p=0.16). 

Conclusion: In conclusion, majority of UTAR medical students preferred multiple modalities with trimodal being the most prevalent mode. Among unimodal learners, kinesthetics were the most preferred mode. There was no significant difference in VARK modalities in terms of gender and academic year.

Background: In India, Anaemia among children is still one of the major nutritional problems of public health concern.

Aim of the Study: The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of anaemia among Anganwadi children (3-6 years of age) and to determine the important risk factors associated with anaemia.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted among 390 Anganwadi children of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand, during April, 2019- August, 2019.

Methodology: In this cross sectional study, data on socio-demographic, socioeconomic, hygiene and dietary practices were collected using a self-structured questionnaire. Hemoglobin (Hb) and anthropometric measurements were carried out. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was employed to estimate the adjusted odds ratio (AOR).

Results: A majority, 70.54% of the Anganwadi children were found to be anaemic, with higher prevalence among male children (51.30%) as compared to female children (48.70%). The mean hemoglobin concentration of children was 9.91 (±1.9 g/dl). Stunting was higher among males (54.83%) as compared to females (45.17%).Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that anaemia was significantly associated with monthly income of family AOR (95% CI) 3.25(2.49, 4.00), mother's illiteracy AOR (95% CI) 1.98 (1.49, 2.46), history of anaemia in mother AOR (95% CI) 1.60(0.67, 2.52 ), history of worms in child's stool AOR (95% CI) 3.17(2.26,4.03), barefoot walking AOR (95% CI) 3.08(2.11,4.04) and lack of habit of hand washing AOR (95% CI) 1.55(0.98, 2.11).

Conclusion: The prevalence of anaemia among children was high. Iron supplementation, nutrition education among mothers and overall personal hygiene are important to ameliorate their iron status.

Background: Skin diseases are common among children in the developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa where there is low level of hygiene, overcrowding and warm humid climates.  However, there are no known community based studies on the prevalence of skin diseases among primary school children in Rivers State, Nigeria. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and types of skin diseases among primary school children in three semi urban communities in ObioAkpor LGA in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted in five public primary schools in three semi urban communities in ObioAkpor LGA over a three months period from September to November 2017.  Five hundred and twenty four children were recruited for the study from the selected schools. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographics and a team of investigators examined each child for evidence of skin diseases.

Results: There were 263 (50.2%) males and 261 (49.8%) females, with male to female ratio of 1.01: 1. Their ages ranged between 5 to 16 years, with a mean age of 9.5±2.22 years. The prevalence of skin lesions among the children was 35.3% (185/524). Skin infections, inflammatory dermatitis and other skin lesions accounted for 39.5%, 14.1% and 46.5% respectively of the skin diseases. The most prevalent specific skin disease found was Dermatophyte infection in 50 (27.0%) children, followed by Xerosis 21 (11.4%). Tinea capitis was the most common (52.1%) skin infection. The commonest inflammatory dermatitis found was Seborrheic dermatitis 53.8%. Age had no significant influence on the prevalence of skin infections (p=0.711).

Conclusion: The prevalence of skin diseases was high among primary school children in the semi urban communities in ObioAkpor LGA and Dermatophyte infection accounted for more than a quarter of the  skin diseases found. Maybe regular inspection of the skin of primary school children by health professionals and teachers should be done in order to reduce the spread of infectious skin diseases within the schools.

Pneumonia triggered by novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, China in December 2019 is a extremely contagious disease. The WHO has stated the outbreak of Covid 19(Corona virus) as a pandemic issue. Currently, the research on this virus is in its primary stage. Based on the existing and available data, this is to enlighten on the epidemiology, its clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19. This review is for the public to effectively recognize and fight with the 2019 novel coronavirus and providing a spark for future studies.