Semi-developed Countries Research Articles

Factors affecting patients' knowledge about dispensed medicines: A Qualitative study of healthcare professionals and patients in Pakistan.

BackgroundPatients’ knowledge about their prescribed medicines is one of the most important antecedents of successful therapy. Poor knowledge about medicines can lead to serious consequences such as non-adherence and misunderstanding of the significance of adverse events. The objective of this study is to understand the factors that are responsible for a patients’ lack of knowledge regarding their medicines, by taking the perspective of the patient as well as that of healthcare professionals. Much of the work in this area has been undertaken in the setting of developed or semi-developed countries, and there is a scarcity of information from developing nations such as Pakistan.MethodsThis was a large qualitative study set in the hospital outpatient environment in a teaching hospital in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Data were collected from dialogue with patients (n = 19) and healthcare providers (n = 16) i.e., doctors and dispensers (where a dispenser is a person who merely dispenses medicines; i.e. is not a pharmacist) through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Patients having limited knowledge about their dispensed medicines were assessed using a checklist. The healthcare providers were recruited through a convenience sampling strategy, based on their availability and willingness to participate in the study. Based on the objectives of the study, a pilot tested interview protocol was developed, and used to conduct the interviews. The sample size was controlled by using saturation point criteria. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed to draw conclusions using inductive thematic content analysis.ResultsThe analysis of data yielded 31 categories (patients = 19, healthcare professionals = 12), 10 subthemes and three themes. The major themes were healthcare professional-related factors, patient-related factors and system-related factors. The health professional related subthemes included: behaviour and attitude and professional liabilities and liaison. The patient related subthemes included: eagerness of the patients and lack of understanding and misconception. The system-related factors included: patients with special needs, perceived role of the pharmacist, prescription and medicines, and staff workload.ConclusionHealthcare professional related, patient related and system related factors have a significant influence on patients’ knowledge about dispensed medicines. The non-professional behaviour of doctors, increased staff workload, inadequate time and attention provided by healthcare professionals to patients, illiteracy of patients, lack of specialized labelling on medicines for illiterate patients and absence of pharmacists at the hospital, were the major concerns identified in this study. The study points to a need for appropriate patient education and counselling with regards medicines, improved coordination between hospital staff, and provision of some basic system-related facilities which are pivotal for enhancing patients’ knowledge and adherence to their treatment regimens.

Does Decentralization Reform Always Increase Economic Growth?: A Cross Country Comparison of the Performance

This study aims to test the impact of decentralization on the economic growth of a country. Based on the longitudinal data set of 63 countries with a time series spanning 1960 to 2007, the test result reveals that there is a negative relationship both between fiscal decentralization and GDP growth and between political decentralization and GDP growth. In order to examine the different impacts of decentralization, the same analysis was applied to subsets of countries categorized into three groups according to the economic stage of the country. This further analysis found that there is a negative relationship between political decentralization and growth in developing countries, between fiscal decentralization and growth in semi-developed countries, but no relationship in developed countries. These results show that decentralization is not always instrumental in economic growth, which means that the time variable, or more precisely the stage of economic development of a country, is an important factor when introducing decentralization reforms.

A Study on the Functional Panty Basic Pattern for Elderly Women

Korea is now entering into aging society next to Japan in Asia, which is considered as unusual in the semi-developed countries. More than 50 year-old consumer market is anticipated to grow to 28.7% of the total in 2010 from 20.4% in 2000. In particular, the silver market is estimated to be formed in full range in 2010 when the generation born in 50s and 60s after the Korean War start to retire. In this study, body shapes are classified as standard, obese, and tiny according to the previous studies based on the body shape characteristics and the body measurement of the Elderly Women. Based on the classification, we developed pattern of the panty for the obese Elderly Women to provide basic materials for the quality enhancement of the clothing of the increasing Elderly Women. The followings are the result of the study 1. To categorize the body shapes of the Elderly Women focusing on the lower half, we grouped the target subjects using the nested approach by the average standard deviation and the factor analysis minimal diffusion method. Accordingly, type 1 and 2 had 36 members respectively and type 3 had 43 members. In this study, two Elderly Women subjects with standard body shape falling under the type 1 were selected as the subjects. 2. In the second trial evaluation for the panty pattern for the Elderly Women 32 items for appearance test and 3 items for functional test were evaluated. The scores in leg, sideline and hip were shown high and the balance between the parts was maintained very well. In the functional test, the panty used to be too tight for the leg curve but in the second trial it was improved, too. In each item, the second trial test showed better score than the first trial test. Conclusively, the most optimal panty prototype for the Elderly Women was proposed according to the trial test result.

Modern technologies and food safety

To resolve the problem of lack of food in the World within primary food production, processing and procedures of preserving, new methods have been implemented (implementation of materials for protection, medications utilization of new areas for production purposes, use of GM microorganisms plants, even animals, utilization of food additives, introduction of new procedures of preservation, etc) However, these procedures do not always move in the direction of ensuring food safety. Implementation of mentioned procedures creates resistance by consumers. The opinion and the attitude about this issue are very important all over the World. According to recent research performed in last five years, most of the population of developed and semi-developed countries considers food safety a priority, as second place the presence of ingredients that can be harmful for human health and as third the content of nutrients required for normal functioning of the body. The WHO, CAC, WTO and other international institutions support these attitudes of consumers. There is more and more obvious pressure on food producers to preserve the environment, which has resulted in the introduction of production procedures known as "cleaning production".Regardless of which procedure is involved, it is necessary to implement the efficient quality control system and food safety. It is mandatory to request the compulsory implementation of different systems that are defined through the GMR GHR HACCR ISO 9000. In food production, these systems are complementary and only with full implementation of all of them in practice will if be possible to ensure the continuous production of quality and safe products. Food production must be seen as an undisturbed chain: primary production, transport, processing, storage, distribution and consumption. With strict implementation of the mentioned standards in all parts of the chain, the risk of injuries and poisoning of consumers will be decreased to the minimum, and the whole chain will be under control.

Anticholinesterase Poisoning in Turkey - Clinical, Laboratory and Radiologic Evaluation of 269 cases

A retrospective study was conducted on 269 patients with anticholinesterase poisoning who had been admitted to the Internal Medicine and Pediatric Clinics over the past 10 years. Their ages ranged from 17 d to 62 years. In adults, suicide was the most common means of intoxication. Miosis was the most frequent symptom and was seen in 80.66% of the patients. Hyperglycaemia, hypoglycaemia, hypokalaemia, hyperkalaemia, hyperchloraemia, hypochloraemia and hyponatraemia were among the electrolytic and haematologic disorders (hyperglycaemia 48.00%, hypoglycaemia 6.40%). There were also electrocardiographic abnormalities. Asthma, although usually a late complication, was also noted at the beginning of treatment. Mortality rates were 8.98% for children and 9.6% for adults. Since hypoglycaemia was found in all the patients who died, it was accepted as an ominous prognostic sign. We think that anticholinesterase poisoning is an important health problem in our country. It is much less common in developed than semi-developed countries, and a complete understanding of it is essential for the emergency physician.

Trends of education in computer techniques

The main aim of this study is to give a comprehensive survey and a detailed analysis of current tendencies of the education in computer techniques. The widespread influence of scientific and technical revolution causes quite a mixed situation in the field of computer education. Some semi-developed countries have concentrated their efforts to plan their own computer education. This study is one of the ‘products’ of this planning work. The study has two different parts. First is a theoretical introduction into the study of the rate of development of computer techniques. Second is a practical approach of present trends. The author is fortunate to be a member of the Training Planning Department of the International Computer Education and Information Centre, Hungary.