Modern Care Journal
Volume:17 Issue: 3, Jul 2020

Vitamins had been reported repeatedly as important micronutrients, on immune system.

In this study roles of vitamins on immune system were discussed in detail, as well as their probable roles on the prevention/treatment of viral infections including COVID-19 infection.

Totally, 57 articles had been extracted from common indexing databases/websites, which were then classified to different main groups and subgroups. The roles of Vitamins on the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19 infection had been also reviewed, and finally their contents had been purified and listed into different categorizations. Moreover, differential percentages of each vitamin related studies, differential percentages of studies on the association with COVID-19, and mechanisms of the vitamins effects on immune system had been reviewed for each vitamin.

In this study, the reviewed articles had been categorized into 5 main vitamin groups and 7 subgroups for vitamin B family groups. The most studied vitamin group was identified to be the B vitamins group followed by the vitamins A, D, and E groups that were ranked in next steps, respectively. However, in individual comparison of vitamins, vitamin A had been identified as the vitamin with maximum number of studies. Accordingly, more than half of these studies (66.66%) had focused on the immune-modulatory effects of vitamin D on the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19 infection.

Briefly, this study showed that, among all vitamins, roles of vitamin A, C, D, and E are more defined and maybe more effective on immune system, which emphasizes on the importance of vitamins in prevention of several viral infections like COVID-19. Therefore, sufficient vitamin intake can be recommended to prevent viral infections like COVID-19 infection.

Hemophilia is a rare inherited sex-linked disease caused by the deficiency or lack of some blood coagulation factors. The severity varies depending on the levels of these factors in the blood.

Therefore, this study aimed at determining the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and risk factors of cardiovascular disease in patients with hemophilia compared to a control group in 2015.

A case-control study was done on all hemophilia patients referring to the Birjand University of Medical Sciences (n = 91). Healthy subjects with no hemophilia were selected using systematic random sampling from healthy individuals in Birjand City, who were matched in terms of age and sex. The data were entered into SPSS19 software. The significance level of less than 0.05 was considered in this study.

The mean age was 34.11 ± 14.68 and 33.72 ± 13.46 years in the case and control groups, respectively. The rate of metabolic syndrome was 12.1% in the control group and 4.4% in the hemophilia group. The results of Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of TG (P = 0.016) and LDL (P < 0.001), and the waist circumference was significantly higher (P = 0.001) in the control group than in the hemophilia group.

In the present study, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was significantly lower among hemophilia patients than in the control group. The prevalence of diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia was significantly lower in hemophilia patients than in the control group (healthy subjects).

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Avoiding adverse reactions requires comprehensive knowledge about how they can be monitored, controlled, and reported.

The current study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practices, and perceptions of the health care professionals concerning the adverse drug reactions monitoring and reporting in Lahore, Pakistan.

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, from October 2018 to December 2018. Descriptive statistics were obtained and the Pearson chi-square test was used to analyze the association between categorical variables.

In total, 150 pharmacists, physicians, and nurses were approached, that 40, 39, and 46 of them responded, respectively. Almost 95% pharmacists, 17.3% of nurses, and 58.9% of physicians correctly defined the “pharmacovigilance”, while 70, 10, and 30.5%, respectively, defined ADRs correctly. The current study revealed that 87% of pharmacists, 82.5% of physicians, and 82.6% of nurses had a history of identifying ADR in patients. Out of which only 52, 41, and 19% of pharmacists, physicians, and nurses had a history of reporting adverse drug reactions, respectively.

This study revealed inadequate knowledge of health care professionals. Most healthcare professionals were motivated to report identified ADRs. However, the responsibility lies with the governing authorities to provide them with a suitably efficient platform to practice proper ADR reporting and monitoring. Educational campaigns and training, financial incentives, and simplification of the reporting process might change the levels of knowledge and attitude.

Toxoplasmosis is a common parasitic disease, which leads to serious disease symptoms in immunocompromised hosts and infants. Recent epidemiologic surveys showed that microbial agents may be associated with some cases of multiple sclerosis (MS).

This case-control study aimed to examine the role of Toxoplasma gondii in MS by evaluating sero-frequency of anti-T. gondii IgG (ATXAb) antibody between patients with MS and ordinary people in Shiraz Province, south of Iran during 2016 - 2018.

Serum samples obtained from MS patients (n = 130), and a group of age and gender-matched controls (n = 130) with the same socioeconomic status with the patients’ group were collected to evaluate the prevalence of T. gondii IgG antibodies (ATXAb). Moreover, the presence of the ATXAb antibody of the patients and controls was determined by the ELISA test. SPSS 20 software was used to perform the statistical analysis (SPSS, inc., Chicago, USA).

Out of 130 (35.4%) cases with MS and 130 (13.8%) controls, 46 and 18 subjects were seropositive for ATXAb, respectively. Based on the chi-square test, a significant difference was observed in terms of the positivity rates of ATXAb between the MS patient group and the control group (P = 0.001). The mean ± standard deviation ATXAb levels in controls and MS patients were found to be 61 ± 34 and 114 ± 47 IU/mL, respectively. Also, there were statistically significant differences between the levels of these two groups (P = 0.001).

Given the relationship between toxoplasmosis and MS, it is possible that the prevalence of MS decreases by increasing hygiene and preventing toxoplasmosis.

Anxiety is an outcome of a stressful work environment, like the clinical environment, which decreases the mental health level and delays the provision of services to patients.

This study examined the effects of resilience skills training and metacognitive therapy on nurses’ anxiety working in Intensive Care units (ICUs) and Emergency Department (ED).

This randomized controlled field trial was carried out on 54 nurses working in ICU, PICU, NICU, and ED of Valiasr Hospital, Birjand, Iran. The participants were allocated via permuted-block randomization into three groups of resilience, metacognitive therapy, and control. Research instruments included a demographics form and the Spielberger anxiety inventory. Parametric statistics (e.g., ANOVA, repeated-measures ANOVA, Chi-square, and Fisher’s exact test) were used for data analysis in SPSS (V.19) (P < 0.05).

In the resilience group, the mean scores of trait and state anxiety significantly decreased immediately and one month after the intervention compared to before the intervention (P < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the metacognitive therapy group in terms of the mean score of trait and state anxiety at the three stages of the study (P > 0.05). There were significant differences between the three groups in terms of trait and state anxiety mean score changes before and immediately after the intervention, as well as before and one month after the intervention (P < 0.05).

Resilience skills training was more efficient than metacognitive therapy in the attenuation of anxiety in ICU and ED nurses. Nursing managers are proposed to hold resilience skills training to control nurses’ anxiety.

Thyroid functional disorders are relatively common in the general population. Different factors play a role in the development of thyroid disorders. These factors can be associated with the deterioration of the oxidation state of the body and the induction of oxidative stress. Thyroid hormones play an important role in the oxidation state.

Regarding the role of oxidative stress in different pathologies and the development of various complications, including thyroid disorders, we aimed to compare the biochemical and oxidative stress parameters in hypo and hyperthyroid rat models.

Twenty-one male Wistar rats were assigned into three groups of control, hypothyroid, and hyperthyroid. Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism were inducted with PTU (propylthiouracil) and LTX (levothyroxine), respectively. After five weeks of induction, serum biochemical factors and oxidative stress parameters, such as TAC (total antioxidant capacity), MDA (Malondialdehyde), and the thiol group, were measured in these groups.

The means of TAC, MDA and UA (uric acid) in the hyperthyroid group were significantly higher than those in the hypothyroid group (P < 0.01, P < 0.01, P < 0.05) but the mean of thiol in the hypothyroid group was significantly higher than that of the hyperthyroid group (P < 0.01). Also, the mean of TAC level in the hypothyroid group was significantly lower than the control group (P < 0.05) and the mean of thiol group in the hypothyroid group was significantly higher than the control group (P < 0.05), but there was no other significant difference between the groups compared to the control group. Among the biochemical parameters, the mean LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) in the hyperthyroid group also showed a significant difference in comparison to the hypothyroid group (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the groups in the mean of the other biochemical parameters.

According to the results of this study, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are associated with a disturbance in the oxidation state of the body, and the use of antioxidants can help improve these diseases, especially in hyperthyroidism, due to enhanced metabolism and production of more free radicals.

Human development is influenced by genetic, environmental, and social factors whose foundation is formed from infancy and childhood. Preterm birth and low birth weight are important issues that can affect the development and threaten the public health.

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare motor development manipulation, balance, aiming, and receiving in low, very low birth weight, and normal children aged 3 to7 years.

In this comparative study, 63 children were selected from among the preterm infants admitted to NICU ward. They were divided into three groups of (1) low birth weight children (mean 2066 ± 354 g) (n = 30), (2) very low birth weight children (mean 1325 ± 117 g) (n = 13), and (3) preterm twin children (mean 1781 ± 385 g) (n = 20).Also, 15 term children with an average weight (3345 ± 365 g) were selected. To evaluate the motor development of children, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Second Edition) (MABC-2) test was used. The results were analyzed by SPSS using one-way ANOVA test (P ≤ 0.05).

Low birthweight and very low birthweight children had poorer performance on manipulation, aiming, catching, and balance compared to normal children (P ≤ 0.05).

VLBW children performed significantly poorer than LBW and Twin children on the subscales of posting coins, threading beads, drawing trail, one-leg balance, and walking heels raised.

 Pregnant women are at increased risk of HIV acquisition, whose rapid diagnosis not only saves the lives of the mother and fetus and prevents the infection of the husband, but also prevents the transmission of the virus to other people in the community.

 In this line, this study aimed to assess pregnant women’s knowledge and beliefs in Birjand about voluntary HIV counseling and testing based on health belief model constructs.

 In this descriptive-analytical study, 238 pregnant women referring to Birjand comprehensive health centers (CHC) in 2018 are studied. Participants were selected using multi-stage random sampling. First, Birjand was divided into four districts as north, south, east, and west. Then, one health center and one CHC were selected from each district. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of demographic information, knowledge, model constructs, and behavior, whose validity and reliability were determined. Data were analyzed using SPSS19 and independent t-test and one-way ANOVA.

 The mean age of participants was 28.3 + 5.1 years. Mean score of knowledge, susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers and perceived self-efficacy were 5.9 + 3.6, 8.9 + 2.21, 23.7 + 4.7, 34.7 + 4.2, 28.2 + 5.9, and 24.5 + 7.3 respectively and behavior was determined to be 5%. Knowledge was evaluated to be poor in 1.7%, moderate in 51.7%, and good in 46.6%. There was a significant negative relationship between barriers and all model constructs (P < 0.05) and a significant positive relationship between knowledge with perceived susceptibility (r = 0.15) and guidance for action (r = 0.2), susceptibility with perceived severity (r = 0.23).

 This study showed the insufficiency of pregnant women’s knowledge about the importance of HIV screening. Therefore, it is recommended to use the Health Belief model in CHC to improve the knowledge, attitude, and practice of this target group.