OBJECTIVE To explore the equity of utilization of inpatient health care at rural Tanzanian health centers through the use of a short wealth questionnaire. METHODS Patients admitted to four rural health centers in the Kigoma Region of Tanzania from May 2008 to May 2009 were surveyed about their illness, asset ownership and demographics. Principal component analysis was used to compare the weal...

This study explored how nursing practitioners perceived inpatients' anxiety, self-esteem, purpose-in-life and multidimensional health locus of control. Seventy-three nurses, 60 third-year and 70 first-year nursing students, and 61 control students not majoring in nursing science estimated how inpatients rated these four psychological states. Their ratings were compared with those given by 121 i...

haemorrhage (÷ = 2.64, P > 0.05). The inpatients remained in hospital longer after stroke (median 31 (interquartile range 13-59) days) than the admitted patients (16 (6-43) days). Twenty four (24%) inpatients returned to their previous residence, compared with 799 (63%) admitted patients (odds ratio 0.19, 95% confidence interval 0.11 to 0.31). Sixteen (16%) inpatients were newly discharged to a...

BACKGROUND: We evaluated changing HIV testing coverage and prevalence rates before and after expanding city-wide antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs in Lusaka, Zambia. METHODS: We conducted serial cross-sectional surveys on the University Teaching Hospital medical ward to assess HIV prevalence among inpatients of unknown status in 2003 and 2006. Willing participants received counseling and d...

BACKGROUND The burden of neurological disorders (NDs) in older adult inpatients is often underestimated. We studied diagnostic frequency and comorbidity of NDs among inpatients aged ≥60 years. We compared rates of hospital mortality, length of stay (LOS), and readmission with younger patient counterparts (aged 18-59 years) and older adult non-neurological patients. METHODS This was a retrospe...

OBJECTIVE Inappropriate prescribing in elderly is considered as common (40% of subjects from community from the 3CStudy in France had a inappropriate prescription, using Beer's criteria), and can lead to severe issues. Few studies have assessed inappropriate prescribing for elderly inpatients in acute care, with multiple tools. Our study was designed to assess outcome prescriptions concordance ...

background: sleep disturbances have negative effects on medical conditions, mental health and cognitive performance. it was shown that about 60% of inpatients suffer from sleep problems. the aim of this study was to assess the correlation between sleep quality and other factors in the inpatients of rasoul-e-akram hospital.   methods: in this cross-sectional study, all the hospitalized patients ...

AIMS Previous studies investigating dose-response relations between volume of drinking and diseases have focused on single diseases only. Until now, the relation between the drinking volume and the risk of having any alcohol-attributable disease is largely unknown. The aim of the present study is to investigate to what extent is the risk of diseases with different alcohol-attributable fractions...

BACKGROUND Healthcare practitioners should provide patients with information regarding their clinical conditions. Patients should also feel free to seek clarity on information provided. However, not all patients seek this clarity. OBJECTIVES To explore the reasons inpatients gave for not seeking clarity on information that was received but not understood. METHODS This was a qualitative arm ...

BACKGROUND Nosocomial transmission has been implicated as a key factor in the outbreak of extensively drug resistant (XDR) and multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) tuberculosis at Church of Scotland Hospital (CoSH), in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. The aim of this study was to quantify the burden of potentially infectious tuberculosis and the proportion of drug resistance among hospital inpatients...