Semi-structured Data Collection Research Articles

Efficacy of amiodarone in the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with coronary artery disease in Bangladesh

Background: Ventricular arrhythmias (VA) are among the most feared complications of coronary artery disease (CAD) and one of the major contributors of death in CAD patients. Antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) therapy is required for recurrent significant VA in the absence of need for further revascularization. But all AADs do not have the same efficacy against life threatening VA and supraventricular arrhythmias (SVAs).
 Methodology: All (50) patients admitted in the department of Cardiology, BSMMU with ventricular arrhythmias with CAD fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Informed written consent was taken from each patient before enrollment. Detailed history was taken and relevant physical examinations were done. Loading dose followed by maintenance dose of amiodarone was given and recorded. Relevant lab investigations were performed and recorded in predesigned semi-structured data collection sheet. Symptomatic improvement was assessed, relevant physical examination was done and lab investigations were performed at 1, 3 and 6 month follow up. After editing data analysis was carried out by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0 windows software.
 Results: The mean age was found 57.7±8.0 years with a range of 45 to 78 years. Almost two third (62.0%) patients were male and 19(38.0%) patients were female. Male female ratio was 1.6:1. Almost three fourth (74.0%) patients had chest pain, 15(30.0%) had palpitation and 11(22.0%) had shortness of breath. Two third (66.0%) patients had hypertension, 23(46.0%) had dyslipidemia, 17(34.0%) had smoking and 9(18.0%) had diabetes mellitus. Twenty nine (58.0%) patients had family history of IHD. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05) when compared to baseline. Regarding arrhythmia, 45(90.0%) patients was found to have PVC in baseline and 3(6.4%) at 6th month. The reduction of PVC and VT at six month were statistically significant (p<0.05) when compared to baseline. Regarding outcome 2(4.1%) patients died, one patient dropped out due to thyroid dysfunction and 47 were alive.
 Conclusion: In conclusion it was found that different forms of ventricular arrhythmias like PVCs, VT were significantly reduced gradually with amiodarone therapy at 6th month follow up.
 J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 29, No.2, October, 2020, Page 158-164

Nursing students challenges towards clinical learning environment at the school of nursing and Midwifery in Addis Ababa University. A qualitative study

BackgroundNursing is a practice based profession that is built on theoretical knowledge, both of which gained through nursing education program. Clinical learning environment component has a great role in providing students with professional abilities by combining cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills. Evidences have identified clinical learning environment as one of the key factor to achieve the desired out comes. Students often face challenges during the courses of clinical learning, which may affect their competence. The aim was to explore challenges faced by nursing students in clinical learning environment. MethodAn exploratory approach qualitative method was used in Addis Ababa University, Department of Nursing in January 2018. Semi-structured data collection tool was designed to gather information from students. Final year nursing students were purposively selected and interviewed about their experiences and challenges they faced in the clinical learning environment during their stay in the school. Data was audio record, verbatim transcribed, condensed, coded and analyzed based on content analysis. The data was peer reviewed to ensure its trustworthiness. ResultThe participants consisted of nine nursing students, five males and four females aged between 22 and 24 years were involved. Three major themes including Theme 1: learner’s non-readiness, Theme 2: insufficient clinical supervision and Theme 3: unsupportive clinical environment were emerged. Conclusionproper preparation of students, good selection of ideal clinical environment that fulfill the objective and adequate coaching, guidance and supervision may be necessary to enhance quality education and to produce competent nurse professionals.

Assistência estudantil no contexto da EPT

O estudo analisa a Assistência Estudantil no contexto da Rede Federal de Educação Profissional, Científica e Tecnológica (EPT), particularizada no âmbito dos Institutos Federais, tendo como campo empírico o Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Sergipe (IFS). Abordamos acerca da Assistência Estudantil concebendo-a como política de acesso e permanência face às desigualdades socioeconômicas no Brasil. Trouxemos à tona as marcas da LGBTfobia no cotidiano escolar das juventudes cada vez mais hostil e violador das existências que subvertem a heteronormatividade. Caracterizou-se como uma pesquisa quali-quantitativa, realizamos entrevistas semiestruturadas e coleta de dados abrangendo a realidade macro e micro constitutivas do objeto perquirido, utilizamos o materialismo histórico dialético.

The Usefulness of Patient-Reported Outcomes and the Influence on Palliative Oncology Patients and Health Services: A Qualitative Study of the Prospective Outcomes and Support Initiative.

Through the British Columbia, Prospective Outcomes and Support Initiative (POSI), registered nurses collect patient-reported outcome (PRO) data during telephone follow-up with palliative oncology patients. The research objective was to describe the usefulness and influence of the nursing care provided through POSI follow-up on palliative patients and health services. We used a qualitative interpretive description approach involving the collection and analysis of semistructured interview data with 20 palliative patients and 12 oncology nurses. All participant data were subjected to an inductively derived coding framework. Analytic categories were identified and iteratively revised through constant comparative techniques to develop representative themes. The accounts of patients and nurses suggest that telephone follow-up with PROs enabled the nurses to (1) focus on the priorities of patients experiencing complex health challenges, (2) manage complex symptoms, (3) ease the patient's transition home, and (4) improve access to and use of health services. Suggestions for improving POSI nurse follow-up centered on flexibility in the timing of the follow-up, creating dedicated POSI work assignments, and having additional time to personalize assessments and nursing care beyond the PRO questionnaires. Nursing care employing PROs via telephone follow-up can improve palliative cancer patients' quality of life and health service use. Nurses are optimally positioned to use PROs following cancer treatment completion but require organizational resources and support to optimize patient and system outcomes.

Complementary Feeding Practices Among Mothers of Rural Bangladesh; A Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Study

Background. In developing countries, inadequate knowledge and cultural practice on complementary feeding (CF) is one of the main reasons for malnutrition.
 Objective: This study aimed to document the knowledge, attitude, and practices pertaining to CF among the mothers of rural area in Bangladesh.
 Materials and Methods: A communitybased cross-sectional study was conducted in upazila health complex, kachua, Chandpur from July to December, 2017. A total 408 mothers of the babies aged 6-24 months and children under six months were included. Data were collected from the mothers/caregivers of the children in a pretested semi-structured data collection sheet and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Appropriate statistical tests were done. Statistical significance was considered if p value was <0.05.
 Results: Knowledge regarding recommended CF practice only 50.8% but feeding should be started at 6 months of age (52.9),thick consistency (40.2%), adequate quantity( 61.8%), and appropriate quality (62.3%) cases. Knowledge in recommended appropriate timing and consistency varied significantly with maternal education. Frequency of CF was not appropriate in many cases. Most common first complimentary food was thick dal with rice/roti, khichuri rice 166(40.7%). One hundred twenty four (30.4%) mothers did not properly clean their hands before feeding and 138(33.8%) of mother used bottle for feeding, force full feeding (56.9%) and environment during feeding playing 72.5% and roaming around 25.5%.
 Conclusion: CF knowledge and practices are far gap from ideal in our country. Awareness building in the community may change improper feeding practices need health education.
 KYAMC Journal Vol. 11, No.-1, April 2020, Page 26-31

Disclosure, Privacy and Workplace Accommodation of Episodic Disabilities: Organizational Perspectives on Disability Communication-Support Processes to Sustain Employment

Purpose Employers increasingly are asked to accommodate workers living with physical and mental health conditions that cause episodic disability, where periods of wellness are punctuated by intermittent and often unpredictable activity limitations (e.g., depression, anxiety, arthritis, colitis). Episodic disabilities may be challenging for workplaces which must comply with legislation protecting the privacy of health information while believing they would benefit from personal health details to meet a worker’s accommodation needs. This research aimed to understand organizational perspectives on disability communication-support processes. Methods Twenty-seven participants from diverse employment sectors and who had responsibilities for supporting workers living with episodic disabilities (e.g., supervisors, disability managers, union representatives, occupational health representatives, labour lawyers) were interviewed. Five participants also had lived experience of a physical or mental health episodic disability. Participants were recruited through organizational associations, community networks and advertising. Semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis framed data collection and analyses, and mapped communication-support processes. Results Seven themes underpinned communication-support process: (1) similarities and differences among physical and mental health episodic disabilities; (2) cultures of workplace support, including contrasting medical and biopsychosocial perspectives; (3) misgivings about others and their role in communication-support processes; (4) that subjective perceptions matter; (5) the inherent complexity of the response process; (6) challenges arising when a worker denies a disability; and (7) casting disability as a performance problem. Conclusions This study identifies a conceptual framework and areas where workplace disability support processes could be enhanced to improve inclusion and the sustainability of employment among workers living with episodic disabilities.

Rage Against the Machine: The Legacy of Education Leaders’ Valiant Struggle for Social Justice in Abbeville v. South Carolina

Purpose: Abbeville v. South Carolina was a nearly three-decade long school funding lawsuit initiated by the education leaders of South Carolina's most rural and impoverished school districts that primarily educated students of color. Recently, the State Supreme Court dismissed the entire case. Guided by a multiperspective framework of social justice, one year after the dismissal, we sought to understand the perspectives and experiences of five of the original plaintiff superintendents who either initiated or engaged in the court hearings for the case. These education leaders shared unique insights on their valiant struggle against systemic inequities in order to improve the quality of their students’ education. Research method: To address our research questions, we relied on an intrinsic retrospective case study methodology that relies on face-to-face semistructured interview data collection with five of the original superintendents who were involved in the legacy case. We then supplemented the qualitative findings with quantitative descriptive data and results from our differences-in-differences analyses to support the qualitative analysis. Findings: Participants shared rich detailed experiences concerning both the struggle their districts faced that necessitated the lawsuit and the struggle they faced while fighting to ameliorate those conditions. There was a mixed reaction concerning whether participants felt the struggle was worth the effort, yet they universally felt the conditions have not improved for their districts. Some further felt that the funding gap between the rich (urban/suburban) school districts and their poor rural counterparts has actually widened. These perceptions were supported by the revenue data.

The support process for high school students’ employment: Act-cognition interaction model

PurposeIn Japan, high school students who seek employment can apply to only one company at a time at the school’s recommendation, and cannot decline a job offer. This shortens the time available for helping students’ career selection process, resulting in problems related to effective support and students’ consent. Nonetheless, the actual support process and students’ cognitive processes have not been examined. The purpose of this study is to elucidate these processes.DesignIn this study, we adopted semi-structured interview data collection and the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA) for qualitative analysis.MethodParticipants were 31 Japanese high school students who had decided where to work.ProcedureThe constant comparative method and determining theoretical saturation.ResultThe analysis generated three core categories, nine categories, five subcategories, and 32 concepts. ‘High school students’ place-of-employment, decision-making process, and others’ support process’ had a structure in which three processes coexisted: (i) changes in internal orientation of students; (ii) decision-making with help from parents; and (iii) job-readiness progress with help from teachers. The second and third processes had different effects on the first process.ConclusionThis study presents a theory that predicts and explains a ‘career selection process integrated with others’ which involves multiple people and is not performed by a single person. Further, this study presents guidelines for practice which differ from conventional career education. It is not realistic to ask high school students for objectives such as self-understanding, life planning, and self-concept formation, or motivations such as interest-oriented, self-realization, and contribution to others. Teachers are required to do their best within the scope of what they and their students can do. The result diagram generated in this study is useful for this purpose.

Predisposing factors of hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus presented with symptomatic hypoglycemia in a tertiary hospital of Bangladesh

Background: Hypoglycemia is almost inevitable complication of diabetes treatment and the most important barrier in achieving tight glycemic control in diabetes patients. Objective: To describe characteristics of the patients with T2DM presenting with hypoglycemia and identify the predisposing factors of hypoglycemia in them. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary hospital of Bangladesh from January 2017 to March 2018. Venous plasma glucose was measured in all patients with T2DM presented with signs-symptoms of hypoglycemia, patients having biochemically confirmed hypoglycemia (venous plasma glucose <3.9 mmol/L) were finally selected for the study. A semi-structured data collection sheet was used to obtain the demographic and clinical data including hypoglycemic symptoms. Results: One hundred patients with T2DM were included in the study among whom 59% were female, 53% aged ≥60 years, 90% lived in rural and sub-urban areas, 60% had diabetes for ≥10 years, and 88% took insulin. Hypertension was the most common (45%) co-morbid condition followed by ischemic heart disease (28%). Adrenergic symptoms were present in the majority of the subjects and 62% lost consciousness before reaching the hospital. Their mean plasma glucose at presentation was 2.41 mmol/L (±0.48); mean HbA1c was 7.5% (±1.7) and 86% of them had eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73m2. Most of them (92%) received no education on hypoglycemia management and did not perform (95%) self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). More than half had (51%) hypoglycemic episodes in the preceding 6 months and 28% were hospitalized for that. The meal-related factors (missed, inadequate or delayed meals) were the most common precipitating factors followed by drug overdose and excess exercise before hypoglycemia. Conclusion: Diabetes education emphasizing on appropriate lifestyle and dietary habit, and SMBG at recommended frequency are of utmost importance to prevent hypoglycemia.

Strengths employed by resilient nurse managers in dealing with workplace stressors in public hospitals

BackgroundNurse managers work in complex health care environments that expose them to challenging workplace conditions. As nurse managers face significant workplace stressors, some will succumb to the pressure and stress contemplating to leave for other opportunities or even leave the profession. However, the resilient nurse managers seem to adapt, recover and have the strengths required to manage workplace stressors. ObjectiveTo explore and describe the strengths that resilient nurse managers employ when dealing with work related stress.Setting and sampling: A purposive sampling method was used with resilient nurse managers working in the general wards of the public hospitals in Botswana.Participants: A total of forty-two (42) resilient nurse managers who measured moderate to high resilience participated in the study. MethodsA qualitative exploratory design was used in the study. Data was collected through written narratives guided by a semi-structured data collection tool. Thematic analysis was used to identify strengths that resilient nurse managers utilized while dealing with workplace stressors. ResultsThe main themes that emerged from the study were: upholding personal values, employing life skills, applying appropriate leadership skills and access to social support. ConclusionsThe study revealed that the identified resilient nurse managers utilized their strengths and other resilient characteristics in dealing with workplace stressors. These strengths are used as buffers in dealing with workplace stressors, enabling them to overcome difficulties and provide quality nursing services.

A Ward-Round Non-Technical Skills for Surgery (WANTSS) Taxonomy

Around half of surgical adverse events occur outside the operating room. However the majority of nontechnical skills (NTS) training programs have been developed for the intraoperative environment. Ward rounds are a crucial part of extraoperative care and to date no specific NTS training manual has been developed targeting emergency general surgical ward rounds. To develop a NTS taxonomy for emergency general surgical ward rounds that can be used to improve surgical team members' NTS and improve outcomes. A literature review of existing NTS taxonomies was conducted, followed by semistructured interviews and observational data collection, to determine good and poor surgical ward-round behaviors. These behaviors were reviewed by a panel of subject matter experts and categorized into a taxonomy, using the Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons taxonomy framework as a guide. The Ward-round Non-Technical Skills for Surgery taxonomy includes examples of good and poor ward-round-specific behaviors, grouped into elements and categories. The taxonomy can be used as both a training and teaching manual for the surgical team. Ward rounds are a crucial part of extraoperative surgical care. The Ward-round Non-Technical Skills for Surgery taxonomy provides surgical teams with a manual to help them improve their ward-round NTS.

Perception between Faculties and Pupils for Alignment in English Syllabus: A Study Based on Vietnamese University

Throughout the world it is a matter of discussion that what should be the constructive alignment in a syllabus. This study contributes something in this area. For English syllabus perceptions have been studied for both teachers and students’ in a Vietnamese university. Through structured and semi-structured data collection tools data had been collected from 60 faculties and 167 pupils of South Vietnam. Data were of two types: qualitative and quantitative. An agreement has been noticed for both teachers and students regarding the association between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English syllabus. Based on result, effect of syllabus reframing has been captured.

A comprehensive survey on cross-language information retrieval system

Cross language information retrieval (CLIR) is a retrieval process in which the user fires queries in one language to retrieve information from another (different) language. The diversity of information and language barriers are the serious issues for communication and cultural exchange across the world. To solve such barriers, Cross language information retrieval system, are nowadays in strong demand. CLIR is a subset of Information Retrieval (IR) system. Information Retrieval deals with finding useful information from a large collection of unstructured, structured and semi-structured data to a user query where the query is a set of keywords. Information Retrieval can be classified into different classes such as Monolingual information retrieval, Bi-Lingual Information Retrieval, Multilingual information retrieval and Cross language information retrieval. This paper focuses on the various IR variants and techniques used in CLIR system. Further, based on available literature, a number of challenges and issues in CLIR have been identified and discussed. It gives an overview of the advantages, limitations, tools available in CLIR research. It also describes new application areas of CLIR such as medical, multimedia, question answering system etc. The need for exploring and building more specialized information system that enable speakers of an Odia language to discover valuable information beyond linguistic and cultural barriers. This study is aimed at building an experimental CLIR system between one of the under-resourced language (i.e. Odia) and one of the most commonly used online language (i.e. English) in future.

A autonomia da escola na perspectiva da gestão democrática: entre o preposto e o existente no interior de uma escola pública de Belo Horizonte/MG

Neste texto tem-se como objetivo compreender até que ponto a autonomia da escola pode contribuir para o enfrentamento das situações concretas relativas à gestão da escola pública ultrapassando o discurso generalizante que termina por constituir contemplativamente na construção da gestão democrática. Utilizou-se como procedimento metodológico a pesquisa qualitativa de cunho bibliográfica, análise documental e estudo de caso, utilizando para coleta de dados entrevista semiestruturada aplicada a um gestor de escola pública da rede estadual de ensino. Fortalecer o compromisso do gestor escolar e de professores para a construção da gestão democrática e para autonomia nuclear nas tomadas de decisões da escola continua a ser um bom caminho a percorrer.Palavras-chave: autonomia da escola; gestão democrática; práticas de gestão escolar.

Similarity analysis of court judgments using clustering of case citation data: a study

Information retrieval (IR) is an automatic mechanism to extract required information from a collection of unstructured or semi-structured data. IR systems minimize the effort of a user to locate the information based on the requirements. Clustering of documents is carried out as a preprocessing step for filtering irrelevant information in an IR system. Legal domain is a producer as well as consumer of huge in-formation which also contains invaluable legal knowledge and its interpretation. Knowledge based legal information retrieval systems is need of the day. Citation analysis is a technique to find the hidden relationships between the documents and is used for understanding knowledge transfer across various domains and hence becomes very important in legal domain. In this study, similarities among documents are analyzed using data clustering when applied on data of citations in court judgments.

Perceived barriers to breast cancer screening among Saudi women at primary care setting.

Screening for breast cancer (BC) is of low rate in Saudi Arabia; although it is provided in the country free of charge to the population. This cross-sectional study aimed at investigating the perceived barriers towards BC screening in Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia.Participants and methods. A total of 816 adult Saudi women aged ≥ 30 years attending for routine primary health services or accompanying patients at the selected primary health care centers (PHCs) were randomly selected from 12 PHCs (8 urban and four rural) using multi-stage sampling method. Participants were invited to personal interview using semi-structured data collection instrument including inquiries about socio-demographics, reproductive history, previous histories of diagnosed breast lesions and breast cancer. The perceived individual barriers towards screening, their attitudes, the reasons for not attending previously held screening campaigns in Al Hassa, were also included. Low utilization of BC screening being significantly positively associated with woman's age, higher educational status, higher family income, using hormonal contraception and positive history of previous breast as shown by the results of the logistic regression model. Exploratory factor analysis showed that personal fears (especially fear of doctors/examiners, fear of hospitals and health facilities and fear of consequences/results) were the major factors that hinder women from utilizing the free of charge BC screening with high loading eigenvalue of 3.335, explaining 30.4% of the barriers. Educational interventions aim at improving breast cancer knowledge and addressing barriers should be incorporated as core component of the screening program in Saudi Arabia.

Humor Climate of the Primary Schools.

The aim of this study is to determine the opinions primary school administrators and teachers on humor climates in primary schools. The study was modeled as a convergent parallel design, one of the mixed methods. The data gathered from 253 administrator questionnaires, and 651 teacher questionnaires was evaluated for the quantitative part of the study. The study group of the qualitative part consists of 9 administrators and 12 teachers working in the primary schools. For data collection, the researcher developed and used a semi-structured data collection form consisting of open-ended questions. Qualitative data was also gathered by observation notes. In the quantitative part, a scale was used for gathering data on schools’ humor climate. A five-point Likert Scale was used in the questionnaire. Specific descriptive analyses which were conducted to calculate the quantitative data included percentage, frequency, arithmetic means, standard deviation, t-test and one-way ANOVA for unrelated sampling. Where the assumptions of one-way ANOVA were not satisfied, the Kruskal Wallis test was used. The qualitative data obtained was subjected to descriptive analysis and content analysis. The results of humor climate revealed that positive humor types were mostly used in primary schools. The beneficial effect of humor used by administrators was higher than the negative effect on school and subordinates. Parallel to these results, the study observed that positive humor climate styles were predominant in schools. Article visualizations:

A Method of Extracting The Semi-structured Data Implication Rules

The semi-structured data is a data form between structured data and unstructured data. Now it has been extensively used at the internet platforms and implied a lot of valuable information. In view of the semi-structured data implication rules, the paper discussed a method of extracting the semi-structured data implication rules, and designed the genetic algorithm SDIR of the semi-structured data implication rules based on the method of data conversion and genetic algorithm. Using network crawler tools to complete the semi-structured data collection and data conversion, the experiment verifies it’s effective in implication rules by crawling the data of “Dianping.com”.

Benchmarking project management dimensions at the lapse of a century

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate project management dimensions while constructing the Panama Canal from the end of ninetieth century to the start of twentieth century and then benchmarking against the Palm Diera Island at the lapse of a century. Second, to highlight issues of project management, specially the risk management with its economic, social and political domains at the construction site and in France and America.Design/methodology/approachThe case study research method of qualitative research has been adopted when comparing two mega projects executed in different time and space. For the Panama Canal project documentation investigation was performed. However, a semi-structured interview data collection method was adopted for the Palm Diera Island project. A comparative study of two projects helps in deeper understanding of cross-project management dimensions.FindingsThe research reveals that the French team failed to complete the Panama Canal construction project due to inadequate planning, inappropriate design, lack of risk management, health and safety of the staff and non-availability of finances. However, the Americans successfully completed construction of the canal within budget and time and this was due to the support of change in the purpose of the canal construction adding to achieve its commercial objectives and at the same time strengthen its naval presence. American took its construction as a national objective than the individual enterprise as executed by the French team.Research limitations/implicationsData collection for the Panama Canal was limited to only historical data available from the literature as documentary investigation. The researchers visited the canal to get in-depth understanding of the construction practices and the scale of construction. However, for the Palm Diera project, data collection was limited to three key personnel interviews.Practical implicationsThe Americans were successful in completing the canal due to the US Government control on management and finances of the canal construction and lessons learned during the French construction period. The paper serves as a benchmark for project management dimension in two different regions in different times. The paper bears economic implications for the construction of the mega projects both in South America and the Middle East. Cost overrun construction of the Panama Canal during the French period influenced political spectrum in France resulting into the defeat of the government. During the American period of construction first time out of country visit by the sitting president of the USA reflects its economic and social importance. The valley of death was converted into the valley comfort during the American period resulting into social welfare of the workers. Completion of the canal by the Americans helped them secure operations of the Panama Canal for the next 100 years, contributing to its economic and naval strength.Social implicationsThe paper reveals that safety and social implications for the work place in two different regions and at two different times. The impact of safe and improved working conditions at Palm Diera Island resulted into no injury or loss of life, however, during the Panama Canal construction more than 30,000 workers died affecting not only families of the respective workers but their nations as well. The impacts of both the projects on the society were also significant. The public opinion against the construction of the canal during the French period of construction was so significant that they had to abandon their construction equipment at the site. On the contrary, completion of construction of the Panama Canal during the French period helped secured political mileage for President Roosevelt and his party.Originality/valueThe paper benchmarks two different mega projects with different scope executed in two different regions at the lapse of a century. No such research work was found to have compared project management dimensions of two mega projects at the lapse of a century and in two different regions.

STUDY ON QUALITY OF LIFE ASSESSMENT IN DIABETIC RETINOPATHY AMONG PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES

Objective: The aim was to study the vision-related quality of life (QOL) for diabetic retinopathy (DR) among patients with Type 2 diabetes and to assess the direct medical cost of different treatment modalities. Methods: It was based on an individual-based analysis of QOL before and after the treatment for DR. The main objective of the study was to compare QOL between patients based on the different treatment modalities using vision function questionnaire (VFQ)-25, to evaluate the direct medical cost for DR patients undergoing different treatment modalities and to compare the cost and QOL of different treatment modalities in samples with non-proliferative DR (NPDR)/proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) macular edema. The population included were patients with Type 2 diabetes with NPDR, with clinically significant macular edema and PDR, patients diagnosed to have diabetes above 5-year duration, adult patients, ocular pain those who are on regular follow-up and those who are willing to be a part of study. A total of 256 patients were selected out, of which 141 patients were satisfied the study criteria and participated in the study. Data relevant to the voice-related QOL study were obtained and recorded using VFQ-25 questionnaire. Other data relevant to the study were obtained and recorded in a semistructured data collection form by interviewing the patient or their caregivers and by direct examination of patient’s medical record. Expenditure was calculated in Indian Rupees. Results: After comparing the baseline QOL with QOL after treatment, it was found that the overall QOL of the study samples in accordance with the treatment undergone was found to be improved. The overall QOL had improved after the treatment for all samples and major improvement was seen on dependency, social functioning (SF), and mental health (MH). Conclusion: The overall QOL had improved after the treatment for all samples and major improvement were seen on dependency, SF, and MH. In conclusion, the study analyzed that intravitreal bevacizumab therapy is the cheapest one and with the comparatively same clinical outcome when compared with intravitreal ranibizumab therapy for macular edema cases in patients with NPDR and PDR.