Pregnant Women and Malaria Preventive Measures: A Case of Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Background. In Saharan Africa, an estimated 25 million pregnancies are all at risk of malaria every year, with substantial morbidity and death effects for both the mother and the fetus. Aim. To investigate the use of malaria preventive measures among pregnant women patronizing antenatal services of Tamale Teaching Hospital. Methodology. This study was conducted using a descriptive cross-sectional survey of 250 participants. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 20. Graphs and tables were used to present the study data. Bivariate analysis was done using Chi-square use to determine the relationships and binary logistics regression used for identification of predictor variables. Results. The mean age of the study participants was 30.0 ± 4.5 years and most of them (73.0%) were within the age group of 25–35 years. Respondents’ favorable knowledge, a favorable attitude, and favorable practice were 78.0%, 62.0%, and 57.6%, respectively. And the following variables were associated with malaria preventive practice: age of the respondent (X2 = 6.276, P = 0.043 ), religion (X2 = 6.904, P = 0.032 ), level of education (X2 = 41.482, P < 0.001 ), employment status (X2 = 20.533, P < 0.001 ), monthly income (X2 = 21.838, P < 0.001 ), and attitude level towards malaria prevention (X2 = 35.885, P < 0.001 ). Further analysis revealed educational level and attitude level as predictors of malaria preventive practice. Conclusion. This study recorded favorable knowledge, attitude, and practice with regards to malaria prevention among more than half of the study participants.

Assessment of Awareness and Preventive Practice of Corona Virus (COVID-19) Among Communities; The Case of Kaffa Zone, South Western Ethiopia

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and resultant coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have evolved into a pandemic, requiring persons around the world to attend to rapidly changing messages about public health and take immediate actions. Related to this, community’s awareness toward the preventive practice of coronavirus is assessed. Hence, the purpose of this was to investigate the awareness and preventive practice among communities. Cross-sectional survey design was conducted among 400 participants. Simple random sampling, technique particularly lottery method was used to select the study participants. Data was collected by using questionnaire and observation. After the data was collected, data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 26. Hence, data gathered using questionnaire and observation was computed by using simple descriptive statistics (percentage and frequencies). Regarding awareness level of communities 61% of respondents aware that covid-19 transmits from victim by hand shaking and close contacts. And hence, 37.8% of participants aware that awareness creation was done by health organization service centers. And hence, the findings in this study revealed that community’s awareness was high on each specific aspect of COVID-19 among the study participants. Communities are not still totally pay attention to aware about COVID 19, crisis. According to finding in this research communities wash their hand in order to prevent covid-19 better than the previous. Kaffa zone as well as stakeholders should have to provide ample information for all communities including urban and rural societies to aware about COVID-19 and practice how to prevent.

Historic Indoor Microclimate, the role of HVAC in heritage buildings’ restoration: the case of the Palace of Venaria Reale

The paper is aimed to illustrate how the study of the indoor microclimate, supported by the virtual simulation and by the knowledge of the historical evolutions of the building (managerial, usage and architectonical changes over the years), represents a preventive practice which allows to evaluate and predict the interactions between the object and the environment. To do that the authors present a case-study: room 33 in the Palace of Venaria Reale, in Turin, Italy. We have reproduced a virtual building model which presents the same indoor and outdoor microclimatic conditions of the original building. Moreover, we evaluated an alternative scenario that simulates the indoor microclimate of room 33 considering the HVAC systems continuously off. The comparison between the two virtual buildings allowed to estimate the impact of the HVAC system on the preventive conservation of the historical building, of the artefacts and of the occupants’ thermal comfort. Those simulations clarified which indoor microclimatic conditions could be guaranteed by the building itself, after the restoration project of the whole Palace started in 2001.

Self-reported experience of orofacial injury, preventive practice, and knowledge of Iranian adolescent martial art athletes towards sports-related orofacial injuries

Background Increased engagement of adolescents in martial arts exposes them to a relatively high risk of experiencing orofacial injuries. We evaluated self-reported experience of orofacial injuries, preventive practice, and knowledge of management of sport-related orofacial injuries and related factors in adolescent Karate and Taekwondo athletes in Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on Iranian martial arts athletes including Karate and Taekwondo aged 11–17-year-old in 2020 via an online questionnaire. The anonymous self-administrated questionnaire had four parts: background (age, gender, duration of sports activity, training sessions per week, and previous education on orofacial injury); self-reported experience of orofacial injury; preventive practice including mouthguard and helmet use; and knowledge of emergency management of orofacial injuries. Preventive practice and knowledge scores were calculated by summing up the scores of corresponding questions (possibly range 0–7). A linear regression model and the Pearson correlation served for statistical analysis. Results Totally, 295 athletes with a mean age of 14.56 ± 1.91 years participated in the study. A quarter (n = 74, 25.1%) of athletes stated that they had received training on prevention of orofacial injuries. Only 3.7% (n = 11) of the participants reported the use of custom-made mouthguards, and 62% (n = 183) reported a positive history of orofacial injuries. A significant relationship existed between self-reported orofacial injury and age (β = − 0.32, p < 0.001), hours of training per week (β = 0.12, p = 0.037), type of sport (β = 0.11, p = 0.049), and previous training on orofacial injuries (β = − 0.14, p = 0.010). No difference existed in the history of orofacial injury between females (n = 114) and males (n = 69) (p = 0.374). The mean score of self-reported preventive practice and knowledge of management of orofacial injuries was 3.53 ± 1.82 (out of 7) and 1.67 ± 1.10 (out of 7), respectively. Age (β = 0.19, p = 0.002) and history of orofacial injury (β = − 0.15, p = 0.010) were associated with the score of self-reported preventive practice. Female athletes (β = 0.11, p = 0.048) and athletes who exercised more per week (β = 0.15, p = 0.012) had significantly more knowledge on management of orofacial injuries. Conclusion Adolescent athletes had relatively undesirable preventive practices and a distinct lack of knowledge. The high occurrence of self-reported orofacial injuries indicates the importance of more education and stricter rules for the athlete population.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Prevention Practice of Cosmetology Students toward Covid-19 Infectious Disease

Purpose: This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice of college students majoring in cosmetology toward covid-19 and the factors responsible for influencing affecting prevention practices.Methods: Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software. Descriptive statistics (frequency and proportion), Scheffé's test for analyzing a group of and stepwise multiple regression were used for analyses.Results: College students majoring in cosmetology had deep knowledge of Covid-19. Covid-19 prevention practices were found to be affected by attitudes, knowledge, and gender.Conclusion: This study, identified factors influencing cosmetology college students’ Covid-19 prevention practices. Future studies, must analyze larger samples.

Development and validation of a structured survey questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, preventive practice, and treatment-seeking behaviour regarding dengue among the resident population of Sabah, Malaysia: an exploratory factor analysis

Background Several studies have reported a significant association of knowledge, attitude and preventive practice (KAP) regarding dengue infection among community’s resident in endemic areas. In this study we aimed to assess and develop a reliable and valid KAP survey on the subject of dengue that is suitable for the resident population of Sabah, Malaysia. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2019 to February 2020 involving 468 respondents. Information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants (six items), their KAP (44, 15 and 18 items on knowledge, attitude and practice, respectively) and treatment-seeking behaviour (five items) towards dengue was collected using a structured questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and R software in the R Studio environment. The knowledge section was analysed by two-parameter logistic item response theory (2-PL IRT) using ltm package. The construct validity and reliability of items for sections on attitude, practice and treatment-seeking behaviour were analysed using psy package. Results For the knowledge section, only 70.5% (31/44) of items were within or close to the parameter acceptable range of −3 to + 3 of difficulty. In terms of discrimination, 65.9% (29/44) of items were within or close to the acceptable range of 0.35 to 2.5, and 24 items (54.5%) failed to fit the 2-PL IRT model (P < 0.05) after assessing by goodness-of-fit analysis. Only eight items were reliable and retained in the attitude section with a Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test value of > 0.7, while based on the communalities, 11 items in the attitude section were excluded due to very low h2, factor loading values and low correlation with the total (< 0.5). The practice section was found suitable for factor analysis because the KMO value was > 0.7. The communalities of the practice section showed that seven items had low h2 values (< 0.3), which were therefore excluded from further analysis, and only 11 items were retained. Conclusions The KAP items retained in the final version of the survey were reliable and valid to be use as a questionnaire reference when conducting future similar studies among the population of Sabah.