International Journal of Chronic Diseases
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Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices regarding Obesity among Population of Urban (Douala) and Rural (Manjo) Areas in Cameroon

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International Journal of Chronic Diseases publishes original research articles and review articles in all areas of chronic diseases.

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International Journal of Chronic Diseases maintains an Editorial Board of practicing researchers from around the world, to ensure manuscripts are handled by editors who are experts in the field of study.

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Research Article

Medication Nonadherence and Associated Factors among Heart Failure Patients at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

Background. Medication nonadherence, being one of the best predictors of hospitalization, increases the mortality rate and hospital readmission and reduces the quality of life of heart failure (HF) patients. Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing medication nonadherence and associated factors among HF patients at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 adult patients with HF from June to August 2017. The data were collected by using the medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) and then entered and analyzed using SPSS® (IBM Corporation) version 24. Summary statistics were presented using frequency, proportion, and mean. Binary logistic regression analysis was done for identifying factors associated with medication nonadherence with a 95% confidence level and value of less than 0.05. Results. Among 245 patients with HF, about a quarter (23.7%) of them were medication nonadherent. More than one-third (37%) of HF patients had a history of at least one HF medication discontinuation. Refilling problems (48%) and getting better from the illness (27%) were the most commonly reported reasons for nonadherence. Presence of comorbidity (; , 5.589), taking three or more types of medication (; , 5.60), and being unmarried (, , 5.443) was significantly associated with medication nonadherence. Conclusion. The self-reported medication nonadherence among HF patients was considerably high. Refilling problems and getting better from the illness were the most commonly reported reasons for nonadherence. The presence of comorbid illness, taking three or more types of medication, and being unmarried was significantly associated factors of medication nonadherence. Awareness creation among patients on the importance of medication adherence and targeted efforts to assess and mitigate reasons for medication nonadherence may be helpful.

Research Article

Adherence to Self-Care Recommendations and Associated Factors among Adult Heart Failure Patients in West Gojjam Zone Public Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia

Background. Self-care practices are an important part of heart failure patient management and essential to control symptoms of the disease and its exacerbation. However, poor adherence to these self-care behaviors could be associated with an increase in hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality. Even if it is an important part of management for heart failure patients, yet information is not adequate in the study area about adherence to self-care recommendations and associated factors among heart failure patients. Purpose. To assess self-care recommendation adherence and associated factors among heart failure patients in West Gojjam Zone public hospitals. Methods. Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 304 selected heart failure patients attending follow-up at public hospitals in West Gojjam Zone from March 16 to April 16, 2021. Consecutive sampling technique based on patient arrival with proportional allocation to each hospital was employed to select the study participants. Data were collected through face-to-face interview and reviewing patients’ medical records. Data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Binary logistic regression model was fitted to assess the association between adherence to self-care recommendations and associated factors. value < 0.05 with 95% confidence interval (CI) was considered to declare a statistically significant association in multivariable logistic regression. Results. In this study, 304 patients participated with a response rate of 97.4%. Only 32.9% of them had good adherence to self-care recommendations. Having good knowledge on heart failure (adjusted odds ratio ; 95% CI: 1.82, 11.86), no depression (; 95% CI: 1.92, 19.37), having strong social support (; 95% CI: 1.56–8.33), age 30-49 years (; 95% CI: 1.14, 9.89), and college and above level of education (; 95% CI: 1.22, 31.25) were factors significantly associated with good adherence to self-care recommendations. Conclusion. This study showed that most of the heart failure patients had poor adherence to self-care recommendations. Policymakers and other stakeholders should develop and implement appropriate strategies to increase patients’ adherence level to self-care recommendations by emphasizing on addressing identified factors.

Research Article

Improving Diabetes Care: A Fijian Diabetes Service Improvement Study

Background. Achieving good outcomes in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients’ needs a decent integrated care service with access to resources. The Fiji Islands has one of the highest rates of diabetes disease burden and has available resources to alleviate the diabetic disease pandemic in its population, yet patient outcomes are getting worse. We hypothesize that a dysfunction in health-care delivery system may be accentuating the diabetic disease process; therefore, this service evaluation study was conducted to provide insight into the management of T2DM in a secondary care clinic setting. Methods. We conducted a retrospective chart review of patient records for the past three years (2015-2018). Random quota sampling was used to extract patient folders over a one-month period. A total of 113 patient charts were analyzed which met the inclusion criteria. Results. The overall glycemic levels were uncontrolled in every seven out of ten patients. Most of the patients were on combination drug therapy and at maximum dosing ranges. HbA1c tests, as a monitoring tool, were being inadequately used. Nonadherence to management was prominent in poor controlled patients, and physicians failed to provide appropriate interventions in this group. Nearly all the patients had not received eye assessments, foot risk assessment, and individualized dietetic counselling over three years. Macrovascular complications were more common than microvascular end organ damage. Conclusion. There is a high degree of uncontrolled glycemia and comorbidities in patients attending the service of study which is being perpetuated by poor integrated diabetes care. Strengthening educational initiatives, using validated strategic tools to streamline diabetic services and astute evidence-based resource allocation and management, is needed.

Research Article

Prevalence and Influencing Factors of Overweight and Obesity among Adult Residents of Western China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background. Overweight and obesity have become a serious health problem. There are a few data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Baoji city of western China, this study was conducted to investigate the epidemiologic features of overweight and obesity and explored influencing factors among Baoji adult residents. Methods. A cross-sectional study, including 36,600 participants aged above 15 years, was carried out in Baoji city in 2018. Each participant’s weight and height were measured, and demographic and behavioral characteristics were collected using questionnaires. Data were analyzed by means of logistic regression considering 95% level of significance. Results. Overall, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 30.73% and 3.11%, respectively. Male had a significantly higher prevalence of overweight (31.45% vs. 29.98%, ) while female had a higher prevalence of obesity (3.50 vs. 2.74, ). In the logistic regression analysis, being married or living with a partner (, ), unemployed or retired (, ), former smokers (, ), drinking alcohol (, ), sleeping more than 10 hours (, ), and increasing age were all significantly associated with a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, whereas people who lived in rural areas (, ) or had a sufficient leisure time physical activity per week (, ) were associated with a lower prevalence. Conclusion. Our results demonstrate that demographic and behavioral factors play an important role in prevalence of overweight/obesity, which can support the implementation of interventions aimed at weight control and consequently prevention of related diseases in this population.

Review Article

Global Burden of Anxiety and Depression among Cystic Fibrosis Patient: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Aims. This systemic review and meta-analysis were aimed at determining the level of anxiety and depression among cystic fibrosis patients in the world. Methods. We conducted a systematic search of published studies from PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and manually on Google Scholar. This meta-analysis follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The quality of studies was assessed by the modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Meta-analysis was carried out using a random-effects method using the STATA™ Version 14 software. Trim and fill analysis was done to correct the presence of significant publication bias. Result. From 419,820 obtained studies, 26 studies from 2 different parts of the world including 9766. The overall global pooled prevalence of anxiety and depression after correction for publication bias by trim and fill analysis was found to be 24.91(95% CI: 20.8-28.9) for anxiety. The subgroup analyses revealed with the lowest prevalence, 23.59%, (95% CI: 8.08, 39.09)) in North America and the highest, 26.77%, (95% CI: 22.5, 31.04) seen in Europe for anxiety and with the highest prevalence, 18.67%, (95% CI: 9.82, 27.5) in North America and the lowest, 13.27%, (95% CI: -10.05, 16.5) seen in Europe for depression. Conclusion. The global prevalence of anxiety and depression among cystic fibrosis patients is common. Therefore, close monitoring of the patient, regularly screening for anxiety and depression, and appropriate prevention techniques is recommended.

Review Article

Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in the Field of Diabetology

Ultrasound is increasingly used in daily clinical practice to improve the efficiency of the clinical examination. In this article, we reviewed its various possible uses in the field of diabetology. The ultrasonic evaluation of the carotid arteries (plaques and intima media thickness) allows improving the assessment of the cardiovascular risk. Steatosis can be detected relatively easily on liver ultrasound. Ultrasound also allows a more sensitive detection of lipohypertrophy resulting in glycemic fluctuations and thus increasing the risk of hypoglycemia than the clinical examination. Finally, muscle ultrasound appears to be a promising tool to assess the nutritional status and its consequences (e.g., falls).

International Journal of Chronic Diseases
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