Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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To assess and evaluate consumer awareness and common medication use practices towards OTC analgesics, with a focus on the impact of irrational drug use and its implications for public health and safety. This includes identifying gaps in knowledge, evaluating the potential consequences of misuse, and discussing how these findings can inform future educational initiatives and policy development to promote safer medication practices. ⋯ Our study highlights the menace of self-medication practices and irrational use of OTC analgesic by the study participants. Immediate remedial measure need to be taken to discourage self-medication and improve rational use of OTC drugs which can be achieved by focusing on improving the consumers' awareness of self-medication and the rational use of medications.
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In people with Parkinson's disease (PD), quantitative assessment of activities inside and outside the home is crucial for planning effective rehabilitation tailored to a person's living conditions and characteristics. ⋯ Of the 10 participants, nine had a complete data set (adoption rate 90%). The mean physical activity metre wearing time was 14.12 ± 2.26 h/day, with a mean missing time of 25.7 ± 18.1 min/day in the daily activity diary. Combining a physical activity metre and a daily activity diary is feasible in people with PD, particularly when planning rehabilitation protocols to enhance daily physical activity.
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Implementing standardised outcome measures (SOMs) in stroke rehabilitation practices enhances patient care, communication, and overall clinical effectiveness. However, the implementation of Arabic-validated SOMs in stroke rehabilitation practices among Arabic-speaking patients has not been fully explored. ⋯ Implementing Arabic-validated SOMs is essential to ensure culturally appropriate and linguistically accurate evaluations that support evidence-based decision-making and enhance patient management in stroke rehabilitation among Arabic-speaking patients. Enhancing familiarity with clinical practice guidelines and addressing barriers such as time constraints and financial challenges can further promote the implementation of Arabic-validated SOMs into routine practice, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
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Telehealth navigation programmes have shown potential to improve video visit usage and attendance. However, their effectiveness in safety-net healthcare settings remains uncertain. ⋯ Patients unresponsive to outreach had lower portal activation rates and higher non-attendance, suggesting the presence of distinct engagement subgroups within the population. While volunteer-staffed programmes may provide a practical method to reach patients, telephone outreach alone was insufficient to improve video visit usage or attendance rates. Further research is needed to explore alternative or complementary strategies to enhance telehealth engagement in safety-net settings.
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Peter Drucker pointed out an important distinction between 'doing things right' and 'doing the right thing', which recognised that all problems are embedded in a context and thus can only be understood within their unique contextual setting. Contemporary research practices in clinical medicine often regards contextual factors as potential confounders that will bias effect estimates and thus must be avoided. However rigorous, research devoid of context ultimately deprives users of understanding of the support factors that make research transferable to policy decisions or managing care of individual patients-it stands in the way of 'doing the right thing' in 'real life' settings. ⋯ We discuss the need for researchers to a-priori consider the context of their research question as well as the structural relationships of the variables under investigation, which in turn provides the basis for choosing the most appropriate research design. We have a moral imperative to first 'do the right thing'-ask questions that address the contextual needs of our patients, and then to 'do it right'-choose the best research method to answer this contextually framed need. Only then will our research efforts have meaningful and lasting impacts on patient care.