An Assessment of Personal Hygiene Practices Among Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional, Descriptive Study.

Background Personal Hygiene behavior and practices play a major role in health promotion and disease prevention. Socio-demographic, behavioral, and psychological factors sway a person's overall adaptation of good practices. Disease burden leading to loss of productivity and its influence on the economy cannot be overstated. As medical professionals come in contact with a large number of people, they carry the potential to be super-spreaders in disease outbreaks. Thus, it is of utmost importance that medics and paramedics maintain hygiene to the highest standards. Method This cross-sectional study comprised 323 young adult participants from Muslim Town, Faisalabad. A structured questionnaire containing close-ended questions was used for data collection regarding personal hygiene behavior and practices. Dependency between various qualitative categorical variables and hygiene practices was analyzed using Chi-squared tests. Results It was found that although the majority of the participants followed good hygiene for most of the practices; laziness, lack of relevant education, improper time management, and unreliable water supply posed a significant barrier to good practices. Females had demonstrably better practices compared to males. Urbanity did not have a significant correlation with the results.  Conclusion We conclude that a rigorous program of awareness and education regarding this subject is the need of the hour to facilitate an improvement in predictive and preventive health care and reduce morbidity and mortality. Steps should be taken to ease the barriers that are obstructing optimal hygienic practices.

Investigating Edaravone Use for Management of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): A Narrative Review.

The use of Edaravone, given orally, for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was officially approved by the Federal Drug Association (FDA) in 2017. ALS is a rare and progressive degenerative disease that worsens over time. It attacks and destroys the nerve cells that control voluntary muscles, thus leading to weakness, eventual paralysis, and, ultimately death. Edaravone was given initially intravenously, but recent evidence shows better results with oral suspension. This narrative review is aimed to investigate the benefit of Edaravone for the management of ALS, compare it to Riluzole, discuss its mechanism of action, route of use, and side effects, and ultimately discuss future implications of this pharmacotherapy.

An Evaluation of Socio-Demographic and Risk Factor Profile in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients: A Cross-Sectional Assessment.

Background The global incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is skyrocketing. In Asia, the prevalence of CKD varies from 10%-18%. However, as Asia is largely populated by developing countries with nascent health care systems, there is a dearth of research and data. It is estimated that a large number of cases go unreported. As a result, the exact disease burden remains unclear. The knowledge about risk factors and their proportionate role in CKD is indispensable in regards to patient management and care.  Objective The early recognition of the most important risk factors for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is key to early diagnosis, successful treatment, and general heightened awareness regarding CKD. In developing countries, the provision of medical services, in general, and nephrological services, in particular, is wholly inadequate. The insufficiency of solid and regularly updated data compounds the problem. This research study aims to partake in catering to that need. Methodology A structured questionnaire was used to obtain quantitative and categorical data from 119 ESRD patients in the nephrology ward, Allied Hospital, Faisalabad through non-probability sampling. Socio-demographic profile of the patients and information regarding the presence or absence of risk factors were collected. The resulting dataset was analyzed using R version 3.6.3 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) for data visualization and descriptive analysis. Results The most common age group for ESRD presentation was 46-60 years (52.1%). Among the 119 ESRD patients, the most frequent risk factor was hypertension with 85.7% of the patients presenting with the condition, followed by diabetes mellitus (DM) in 54.6%, renal calculi in 28.6%, glomerulonephritis (GN) in 31.1%, Family history of CKD in 24.4%, and polycystic kidney disease (PKD) in 5% of the patients. Gender-wise distribution of the patients shows that the proportion of patients with hypertension, renal calculi, and family history of CKD varied very little among the two groups. Conclusion In conclusion, our study has reinforced the existing body of knowledge and brought some fresh evidence regarding the prevalence of risk factors in ESRD to light. Hypertension and DM, together, represent the vast majority of cases with ESRD. However, hypertension far outpaces DM as the leading risk factor. Nephrolithiasis was also present in a considerable minority, with a figure much higher than previously reported. Finally, a relatively younger age group (45-60 years) formed the majority of the ESRD patients which is a concerning development. It points to early progression of CKD to ESRD. Long-term adequate control of these risk factors limits disease progression.