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Background: Keratoconus (KC) is a progressive, bilateral, asymmetric, ectatic disease that leads to progressive corneal thinning and protrusion, which results in progressive visual impairment and irregular astigmatism. Early detection plays a critical role in the management and prognosis. Awareness of the population at risk improves early screening and utilization of eye health care. The aim of the present study is to assess the awareness level among non-medical students toward KC, Abha city, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the nonmedical students from January 2019 to May 2019 in the Southern Region of Saudi Arabia. A total of 393 nonmedical students were randomly selected through the university admission deanship records. Electronic consents were obtained from all participants. Close-ended questionnaires were circulated using the university official electronic mails. Results: A total of 374 females and 19 males were responded. Among those who had poor awareness, majority were female (95.7%) and belonged to the age group of 17–21 years (68.3%). Similar pattern was seen in the study participants with fair awareness. However, 57.1% of the study participants with good awareness belonged to the age group of 22–26 years. Conclusion: Visual impairment is a common condition among young population. Onset and severity of KC are diverse among countries. Early screening for the population at risk could hasten the appropriate medical intervention and reduce the burden of this condition. The level of awareness considered a key factor for a better utilization of the eye health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality in health care is a worldwide phenomenon and commitment to quality is pre requisite from all healthcare professionals. Nursing service is an integral part of comprehensive health care delivery. They have an objective to provide safe, compassionate and comfortable patient care. Meeting the standards of NABH accreditation is not possible without the understanding and acceptance of the satndards by the nursing staff. A descriptive study was carried out in a teaching hospital on nursing staff, of which a purposive sampling technique was done to select 100 nurses who had an experience of at least one year. A questionnaire was prepared according to NABH guidelines to assess the level of Attitude ofnurses on acceptance of NABH accreditation. The study revealed 74.5% of the nursing staff had a positive attitude and felt that accreditation will improve the quality of healthcare. Whereas 25.5% of the nursing personnel had no knowledge on the benefits of N ABH accreditation. Nursing care is an important component of quality health care. It is a pre requisite that before implementing NABH standards, all the nursing staff needs to be trained and made acquainted with the benefits of accreditation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundIn early 2020, the I-MOVE-COVID-19 hospital surveillance system was adapted from an existing influenza surveillance system to include hospitalised COVID-19 cases.AimTo describe trends in the demographic and clinical characteristics of hospitalised COVID-19 cases across Europe during the first 2 years of the pandemic, and to identify associations between sex, age and chronic conditions with admission to intensive care or high dependency units (ICU/HDU) and in-hospital mortality.MethodsWe pooled pseudonymised data from all hospitalised COVID-19 cases in 11 surveillance sites in nine European countries, collected between 1 February 2020 and 31 December 2021. Associations between sex, age and chronic conditions, with ICU/HDU admission and in-hospital mortality were examined using Pearson's chi-squared test, and crude odds ratio (OR) estimates with respective 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsOf 25,971 hospitalised COVID-19 cases, 55% were male, 35% were 75 years or older and 90% had a chronic underlying condition. Patients with two or more chronic underlying conditions were significantly more likely to die in-hospital from COVID-19 (OR: 10.84; 95% CI: 8.30-14.16) than those without a chronic condition.ConclusionThe surveillance demonstrated that males, those 75 years or older and those with chronic conditions were at greater risk of in-hospital death. Over the surveillance period, outcomes tended to improve, likely because of vaccinations. This surveillance has laid the groundwork for further research studies investigating the risk factors of hospitalised COVID-19 cases and vaccine effectiveness.