BACKGROUND Quality improvement investigators working in field settings, who typically are not trained in epidemiological methods, may not consider all three elements of the epidemiologic triad (person, place and time) when planning their projects. AIM To demonstrate how the epidemiological triad can guide analysis for quality assessment. Predictors of antibiotic use in primary care were analy...

The potential threat of bioterrorism along with the emergence of new or existing drug resistant strains of influenza virus, added to expanded global travel, have increased vulnerability to epidemics or pandemics and their aftermath. The same factors have also precipitated urgency for having better, faster, sensitive, and reliable syndromic surveillance systems. Prescription sales data can provi...

introduction: diseases of the dental pulp and periapical tissues are chiefly caused by microorganisms. antibiotics are used in some endodontic cases; however, successful cases can predominantly be achieved by mechanical and chemical cleaning of the canal or surgical intervention. materials & methods: the aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of general dental practitioners (gdps) in ...

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting about 1.6% of population in England. Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are approved AF treatments that reduce stroke risk. In this study, we estimate equality individual NOAC prescriptions with high spatial resolution Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) across England from 2014 to 2019. Methods A Bayesian spat...

OBJECTIVE To consider whether patients most likely to benefit from ACE inhibition in routine practice after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) may be identified from plasma natriuretic peptide concentrations. DESIGN Observational cohort study. SETTING Teaching hospital coronary care unit. PATIENTS 1725 patients admitted with acute coronary syndrome (56.3% ST elevation ACS; median age 67, range...

BACKGROUND Prescription drug sales may vary considerably across regions and over time. This study aimed to assess whether there is an association between mean drug sales and prevalence of excessive use in a range of psychotropic prescription drugs with an abuse potential, and if so, whether the variation in mean drug sales mostly reflects variation in the prevalence of excessive use or mostly r...

BACKGROUND Despite efforts to ensure more accurate prescribing of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections, inappropriate selection of antibiotic treatment remains a big issue. We tried to ascertain which factors best predict the nature of fluoroquinolone prescribing for acute cough in primary care. METHODS Random effects logistic regression models were applied to the baseline prescriptio...

The aims of this paper are to determine the reliability and validity of Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale as an instrument to measure the entrepreneurial attitudes among business students of higher education institutes of Malaysia. Initially, the EAO scale consisted of 75 items concerning 4 conceptual subscales: achievement in business (23 items), perceived personal control of bu...

Ecological indicators, historical land use, and invasive species detection in the lower Iowa River floodplain." MA has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Arts degree in Geography at the May 2014 graduation.