Qualitative Rural Indonesian Study of Diabetes Knowledge, Health Beliefs, and Behaviors in Type 2 Diabetes Patients

This study was aimed at understanding diabetes knowledge, health beliefs, and behaviors among type 2 diabetes patients in Balinese rural areas. The study used the Health Belief Model (HBM) in applied thematic analysis. It involved semi-structured focus groups with 20 patients (M = 49.95 years old, SD 6.7). Three themes formulated: poor diabetes knowledge, diabetes perceived as a life burden, and the factors affecting self-efficacy in practicing healthy lifestyle. The poor diabetes knowledge was due to traditional indigenous beliefs and low health literacy. The perception that diabetes is a life burden was related with physical and psychological condition. The factors affecting the self-efficacy were the perceived barriers and external influence. It is need to understand the traditional indigenous beliefs, burdens, and lacking internal intention as the modifying factors of health beliefs. This study suggests that the development of integrated health promotion of diabetes should consider the HBM’s modifying factors in rural areas.

Assessment of knowledge,cultural beliefs,and behavior regarding medication safety among residents in Harbin,China

BACKGROUND Medication misuse or overuse is significantly associated with poor health outcomes.Information regarding the knowledge,cultural beliefs,and behavior about medication safety in the general population is important.AIM To conduct a survey on medication habits and explored the potential factors impacting medication safety.METHODS The current survey included adults from 18 districts and counties in Harbin,China.A questionnaire on medication safety was designed based on knowledge,cultural beliefs,and behavior.Both univariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the factors that impacted medication safety.RESULTS A total of 394 respondents completed the questionnaires on medication safety.The mean scores for knowledge,cultural beliefs,and behavior about medication safety were 59.41±19.33,40.66±9.24,and 60.97±13.69,respectively.The medication knowledge score was affected by age(P=0.044),education(P<0.001),and working status(P=0.015).Moreover,the cultural beliefs score was significantly affected by education(P<0.001).Finally,education(P=0.003)and working status(P=0.011)significantly affected the behavior score.CONCLUSION The knowledge,cultural beliefs,and behavior about medication safety among the general population was moderate.Health education should be provisioned for the elderly,individuals with a low education level,and the unemployed to improve medication safety in Harbin,China.

Influence of Nursing Students Handwashing Knowledge, Beliefs, and Attitudes on Their Handwashing Compliance

Information regarding current status of handwashing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and compliance with handwashing practice in nursing students in Jordan is limited. This study aims to explore handwashing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and self-reported compliance and to examine significant variables predicting compliance with handwashing practice among nursing students. The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Results found a statistically significant relationship between nursing students’ handwashing compliance and their handwashing knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (r = 0.68, 0.65, 0.58, P β = 0.423, P = 0.000), followed by attitudes (β = 0.322, P = 0.000), and beliefs (β = 0.171, P = 0.027). Specific handwashing training courses integrated in nursing education curriculum are recommended. These courses need to consider nursing students’ handwashing attitudes and beliefs in conjunction with handwashing knowledge.

Indigenous Knowledge, Practices, Beliefs and Social Impacts of Porcine Cysticercosis and Epilepsy in Iringa Rural

Porcine Cysticercosis (PCC) and Human Cysticercosis (HCC)/Neurocysticercosis (NCC) are a burden to the community owing to the reduced value of animals, associated costs of treatment, decreased labour productivity and social discrimination. There is limited knowledge on the management and prevention of PCC and epilepsy in Iringa rural. Therefore, the present study aimed at assessing indigenous knowledge, practices, attitudes and social impacts of PCC and epilepsy in Iringa rural district. A total of 588 people participated in the survey whereby 306 were pig farmers, 223 non-pig farmers and 59 families with epileptic individuals. It was found that 49.8% (χ2 = 0.003, DF = 1, p = 0.954) of pig keepers were aware of PCC, whereas the remaining 50.2% were not aware (χ2 = 25.5, DF = 1, p χ2 = 3.814, DF = 1, p = 0.51). People in Iringa rural believe epilepsy is caused by evil spirits, witchcraft and/or inheritance. It was concluded that there was limited knowledge on T. solium cysticercosis and epilepsy. This ignorance is the cause of poor practices, negative beliefs and attitudes that negatively affect the social life of People with Epilepsy (PWE) in communities. This study recommends that health education to raise awareness on cysticercosis/taeniosis and epilepsy should be one of the intervention measures for elimination of cysticercosis and epilepsy in Iringa rural district.

HIV and AIDS related knowledge, beliefs and attitudes among rural communities hard to reach in Sudan

Background and Objective: There is a rising concern about Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) related knowledge in rural communities of Sudan. This study focuses on determining the extend of knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes about HIV/ AIDS among rural communities difficult to access in the six States of Sudan. Subjects and Methods: Six thousand and one hundred twenty five respondents were interviewed through the method of house-to-house visits. A structured questionnaire was administered by research assistants recruited from the Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum University during a rural residency campaign in six states of Central, Eastern and Northern Sudan during 2008/2009. Results: Of the total interviewees, 48% were aware of the HIV/AIDS risk;46% reported to have good health seeking behaviors for HIV/AIDS. 54.4% of women reported to have better knowledge about the disease than men (45.6%). 38% (2005) had not heard of safety use of condom whereas 16% (320) had used it. Logistic regression revealed that 5.3% of knowledge about the disease was explained by gender, education and religion adjusted over age of the respondents. Conclusions: Mass media were the most common source of information about the existent risk of HIV/AIDS in rural communities. These findings could assist Sudanese National Aids Programme (SNAP), healthcare providers and policymakers to develop informative materials and health education programs to educate rural community is about the risk of HIV/AIDS.

Diet-nutrition-related cancer prevention knowledge and beliefs of Sudanese in Khartoum: A descriptive study

Cancer appears to pose a major threat to the health of the Sudanese population. It is the third leading cause of death in the Sudan after malaria and pneumonia, accounting for 5% of all deaths. In 2005, approximately 22,000 people in the Sudan died from cancer and 17,000 of these people were less than 70 years old. This study was designed to: 1) assess nutrition knowledge and selected dietary beliefs related to cancer in Sudanese residing in Khartoum;2) identify perceived barriers to the adoption of eating behaviors consistent with those recommended for cancer prevention;and 3) describe the food preferences and dietary practices in Sudanese residing in Khartoum. An interviewer-administered questionnaire elicited demographic information, cancer-related food and nutrition knowledge, food preferences, selected dietary beliefs, barriers to healthy eating and food practices from 182 participants between the ages of 18 and 35 years. More than 50% of females and males correctly identified the food lowest in fiber from a given list. Respondents were knowledgeable about the fat content of their traditional foods, but unaware of the different types of fat. Only 8.8% of the respondents thought that consumption of fruits and vegetables reduced cancer risk. Resondents perceived nutritionists as the most reliable source of information about nutrition and cancer, and the media as the best source of information on nutrition and healthy cooking. “Samin”, feta cheese, a variety of stews, “Zalabia”, lean meat, brown bread, sesame oil, dried okra, fried fish, and chicken were described as preferred food items by respondents. Daily salt/ sodium intake was described by 44% and 39% of the male and female respondents, respectively, as “high” (>2400 mg/day). The findings of this study have clear implications for aggressive nutrition education intervention programs with emphasis on the traditional foods of the Sudan.

Mothers’ Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices on Causes and Prevention of Anaemia in Children Aged 6 - 59 Months: A Case Study at Mkuranga District Hospital, Tanzania

Aims: Anaemia in children aged 6 - 59 months is an important public health problem associated with increasing hospital costs, lengths of hospital stay, and development of complications later in life. Due to the significant caregiver roles of mothers, the level of mothers’ knowledge, beliefs and practices are important in addressing anaemia in children. This study investigated knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of select mothers on anaemia and linked these with known factors for anaemia. Methodology: The case study was conducted at Mkuranga District Hospital, Paediatric Ward between December 2014 and April 2015. A cross-sectional design was used to recruit a convenience sample of 40 mothers whose children had a confirmed diagnosis of anaemia (through routine laboratory testing). Results: Within the sample, the majority of children were male (52.5%);aged 6 - 39 months (87.5%);and had a diagnosis of severe anaemia (75.0%) according to the World Health Organization’s definition. Over one third (35%) of mothers reported a prior history of anemia in their other children, and the majority (55%) had heard about anaemia prior to their child’s hospitalization. Maternal anaemia was reported by 67.5% of mothers. Mothers reported that maternal anemia (17.5%) and feeding practices (32.5%) are known contributing factors to anaemia in children. Mothers reported that anemia could be prevented (55.0%) and cured by herbal preparations (47.5%). In addition, some mothers indicated that anaemia was caused by witchcraft (22.5%) and eating lemons (2.5%). Conclusion: Severe anaemia was high among the studied population which aligned with their hospitalization status. Findings suggested potential gaps in control and management of anemia in children possibly related to low awareness or incorrect knowledge of the relationship between maternal and child anaemia. The findings also highlighted important cultural beliefs related to anaemia. There is an imperative for culturally and socially appropriate knowledge translation and exchange with mothers in order to impact on the prevention and control of anaemia in children in Tanzania.

Knowledge, Health Beliefs and Screening Status of Prostate Cancer among Middle-Aged and Elderly Men

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine and evaluate the level of prostate cancer knowledge and health beliefs among middle-aged and elderly men. Methods: In this descriptive study carried out in December 20, 2015 through January 20, 2016, we enrolled 147 men aged 50 - 70 years old. Data were collected by using three questionnairs including knowledge, health beliefs, and screening status of prostate cancer. Results: Our findings showed that only 20.4% of interviewers had experience of digital rectal examination or prostatic specific antigen test for prostate cancer screening. The prostate cancer knowledge was found to be significantly high in prostate cancer examinees compared to non-examinees. The correct answer rate of prostate cancer knowledge was only 44.7% at average. Despite of good perceived seriousness about prostate cancer, the screening rate was only 20.4% and the examinees indicated significantly high perceived sensitivity compared to non-examinees. The level of the perceived barrier was lower in men who had experience in health examination or prostate cancer examination than without experience. Conclusion: The significant factors including age, educational level, income and cancer insurance status need to be considered in nursing education program in order to deliver accurate knowledge about prostate cancer. Also, the effective interventions are necessary to increase sensitivity and reduce barriers of prostate cancer and screening.

A Comparison of the Sexual Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Korean College Students Studying in Korea and in the United States

The number of Korean students enrolling in universities overseas is rapidly growing. However, these populations are underrepresented in sexuality related research, despite the possibility of sexually risky behavior in overseas university students. We examined the sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of university students in Korea and studying in the United States. Data were collected—131 Korean students in Korea and in the US using a web-based self-report questionnaire system. Students in the US showed greater total sexual knowledge than students studied in Korea. There were differences in the sexual knowledge, attitude and behaviors according to general characteristics between both groups. Although students in the USA had a higher level of sexual knowledge, both students in the USA and in Korea had a low level of sexual knowledge overall.

Osteoporosis Health Beliefs, Knowledge and Life Habits among Women in Saudi Arabia

Osteoporosis has been recognized as a major public health problem by healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia. The present study examines the osteoporosis knowledge, health beliefs, and some of the life habits in two different Saudi women’s groups (with family history, and without family history), to find the association of their knowledge and health beliefs with their preventive practice. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among a convenience sample of 288 young age (20 to 40 years) women attending the health centers in Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia. Both groups had an inadequate daily calcium intake with a significant difference between them. The women without family history had low mean of knowledge (8.9 ± 2.7) compared with family history group (9.3 ± 2.7) with a significant difference (p = 0.04). Based on the Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS) subscale mean score, the perceived susceptibility and perceived severity were lower in women without family history with a significant difference between the groups (p = 0.02, 0.00;respectively). The family history group had lower mean score barriers of calcium intake and exercise with a significant difference between groups (p = 0.017, 0.013;respectively). Statistically significant correlation was found between calcium intake and OHBS subscale perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits of calcium intake and exercise, and perceived barriers of exercise only for the family history group. This study indicates inadequate daily calcium intake, with moderate knowledge of osteoporosis in Saudi women and highlights the need for diet and life habits interventions to improve calcium intake and exercise, which may help to reduce the burden of osteoporosis in Saudi Arabia.

Relationship between Contraceptive Knowledge,Cognition and Behaviors among Vocational High School Students

Objective To study the relationship between contraceptive knowledge, cognition and behaviors among vocational high school students. Methods A cross-sectional survey was anonymously self-administrated by way of computer to all the 1st graders＇ among three vocational high schools in a district of Shanghai. Four cognition indicators, including perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived risks and self eJficacy were applied according to Health Belief Model. Results The percentage of respondents who reported ever sexual practices and contraceptives use at first sex was 7.01% and 56.64% respectively. Condom （58. 70%） and oral contraceptive pills （27.78%） were used by the majority. Main reasons for non-use were ＂shy to buy it＂ （26.53%） and ＂partner don＇t want to use any＂ （18.37%）. Proportion of respondents who ever had sex regarded withdrawal and rhythm as effective were 68.35% and 68.42% respectively. Proportion of respondents having sex knew ＂If a person was infected with STDs, he/she might not have noticeable symptoms＂ were 22.86%. Proportion of respondents who reported non-use of contraceptives at first sex considered that ＂infrequent intercourse could not cause a girl pregnant even she had experienced her menstruation＂ were 40.63%. Proportion of respondents who had ever used condom got full score of knowledge on ＂how to correctly use condom＂ were 23,26%. Perceived risks were poorest among four cognition indicators. High level of contraceptive knowledge was connected with high rate of contraceptives use at first sex, whereas high level contraceptive cognition was connected with high rate of contraceptive use both at first and recent sex. Conclusions It is important to provide youth-friendly services as well as message on contraceptives among vocational school students.

A Survey on the Current Situation of Prehospital First Aid about Knowledge, Belief and Behavior among University Students in Jingzhou

Objective: To understand the current situation of prehospital first aid knowledge, attitude and behavior of university students in Jingzhou City. Methods: A prehospital first aid knowledge questionnaire and the convenience sampling method were used to survey 307 university students in Jingzhou City. Results: The mean score of prehospital first aid knowledge of university students in Jingzhou City was 12.85 ± 2.643, the mean score of attitude was 50.73 ± 4.114, and the mean score of behavior was 39.05 ± 8.898;There was a statistically significant difference in the scores of prehospital first aid knowledge, attitude, and behavior of university students depending on whether or not they had received prehospital first aid training (P P Conclusion: Jingzhou University students have a positive attitude toward pre-hospital first aid, but the knowledge level and behavior are low, which suggests that the government, society and the school should create good conditions to promote the improvement of pre-hospital first aid knowledge and ability.

Knowledge,attitude,and practices toward osteoporosis among Jordanian nurses

Objective:To identify the level of knowledge,attitude,and practice(KAP)toward osteoporosis among Jordanian nurses.Methods:A cross-sectional design was adopted in this study.A convenience sample of 443 Jordanian nurses were recruited from the public and private healthcare settings in Jordan.The assessment tool used in the current study contained 35 items,measuring KAP among Jordanian nurses toward osteoporosis.The correlation Pearson test and regression test were used to analyze data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences,version 21.Results:The total KAP scores were 33.53,37.65,and 22.7,respectively.These results revealed that Jordanian nurses have a moderate level of KAP toward osteoporosis.Conclusions:Jordanian nurses showed a moderate KAP toward osteoporosis,which should be improved as an effective step to reducing the growing incidences of osteoporosis.The lack of KAP holds a serious and growing impact on the Jordanian health sector and patients’health in terms of cost,healthcare resources,and social life.Nurses can play a valuable role in educating patients on bone fracture causes,perceived percentage,risks,and prevention,as well as in helping them with nutrition and lifestyle recommendations.

Research on Deep Knowledge Tracking Incorporating Rich Features and Forgetting Behaviors

The individualization of education and teaching through the computer⁃aided education system provides students with personalized learning,so that each student can obtain the knowledge they need.At this stage,there are a lot of intelligent tutoring systems.In these systems,students􀆳learning actions are tracked in real⁃time,and there are a lot of available data.From these data,personalized education that suits each student can be mined.To improve the quality of education,some models for predicting students􀆳next practice have been produced,such as Bayesian Knowledge Tracing(BKT),Performance Factor Analysis(PFA),and Deep Knowledge Tracing(DKT)with the development of deep learning.However,the model only considers the knowledge component and correctness of the problem,ignoring the breadth of other characteristics of the information collected by the intelligent tutoring system,the lag time of the previous interaction,the number of past attempts to a problem,and situations that students have forgotten the knowledge.Although some studies consider forgetting and rich information when modeling student knowledge,they often ignore student learning sequences.The main contribution of this paper is in two aspects.One is to transform the input into a position feature vector by introducing an auto⁃encoding network layer and to carry out multiple sets of bad political combinations.The other is to consider repeated time intervals,sequence time intervals,and the number of attempts to simulate forgetting behavior.This paper proposes an adaptive algorithm for the original DKT model.By using the stacked auto⁃encoder network,the input dimension is reduced to half of the original and the original features are retained and consider the forgetting memory behavior according to the time sequence of students􀆳learning.The model proposed in this paper has been experimented on two public data sets to improve the original accuracy.

Perceived Barriers to Asthma Therapy in Ethno-Cultural Communities: The Role of Culture, Beliefs and Social Support

Background : Adherence to therapy is integral to successfully managing asthma, which requires comprehension of what, when, and how to use medication and diligence in following management plan. Asthma patients from ethnic minority groups have more morbidity and reported filling their prescriptions less often. Limited information is available in Canadian literature on ethnic differences in their perceptions of asthma management. We aimed to document patient perceived adherence to asthma therapy among targeted ethno-cultural groups. Methods : We evaluated perceived barriers to therapy adherence, including: cultural beliefs and practices, patient/care-provider communication, self-management knowledge, and medication costs. We conducted a cross sectional study and interviewed 85 Chinese or Punjabispeaking adult asthma patients. Results : Lack of sufficient instructions from physicians, language/communication barriers, lack of skills on how to use inhalers, and high medication costs and medication side effects were most reported barriers to proper self-management practices. Most participants lived with others in the same household and reported high social support from home caregivers. The influence of family on self-management practices was obvious. Conclusion: Better understanding of patient needs, provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate education, and inclusion of home caregivers into the management practices are necessary to improve asthma outcomes in Chinese and Punjabi communities.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ food safety knowledge and behavior in China

This study assesses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese residents’food safety knowledge and behavior,and explores the possible influence mechanism,namely,focus on media information.The study is based on internet survey data of 1373 residents in China.A series of econometric models are developed to estimate food safety knowledge and behavior of residents.Both the descriptive and econometric results indicate that the existence of COVID-19 cases in a community has a significantly positive effect on residents’food safety knowledge and behavior.Residents focusing on food safety-related information tend to have higher food safety knowledge and practice food safety behavior.When controlling the variable focused on food safety-related information,the marginal effects of the existence of COVID-19 cases in a community on residents’food safety knowledge and behavior significantly decrease.However,the decrease in consumers’food safety knowledge is quite minor.Hence,the COVID-19 pandemic indeed improves Chinese residents’food safety knowledge and behavior,while focus on food safety-related information is an important mechanism for improving food safety behavior.Moreover,the estimation results of the simultaneous equations model reveal that consumers’food safety knowledge has a significant and positive effect on their food safety behavior.Heterogeneous impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents’food safety knowledge and behavior among different regions and income groups are observed.The findings of this study provide evidence that public health events could enhance residents’safety awareness and behavior,while residents’focus on relevant information plays an important role in improving knowledge and impacting behavior.

Influence of transitional nursing on the compliance behavior and disease knowledge of children with purpura nephritis

BACKGROUND Purpura nephritis,also called Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis,is a systemic disease with small dead vasculitis as the main pathological change.AIM To observe the influence of transitional nursing activities on the compliance behaviors and disease knowledge of children with purpura nephritis.METHODS A total of 82 children with purpura nephritis were included and divided into a general nursing group(41 children)and transitional nursing group(41 children)using the envelope method.The general nursing group received routine nursing care,while the transitional nursing group received transitional nursing care.The behaviors,knowledge of the disease,and self-management ability of the two groups were evaluated after nursing care was provided.RESULTS The scores of four items(self-care ability,self-responsibility,health knowledge level,and self-concept)in the transitional nursing group were significantly higher than those in the general nursing group.CONCLUSION Transitional nursing can directly improve the disease knowledge level and selfmanagement ability of children with purpura nephritis and effectively reduce complications.

Agglomerative Approach for Identification and Elimination of Web Robots from Web Server Logs to Extract Knowledge about Actual Visitors

In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of ensemble-based learners for web robot session identification from web server logs. We also perform multi fold robot session labeling to improve the performance of learner. We conduct a comparative study for various ensemble methods (Bagging, Boosting, and Voting) with simple classifiers in perspective of classification. We also evaluate the effectiveness of these classifiers (both ensemble and simple) on five different data sets of varying session length. Presently the results of web server log analyzers are not very much reliable because the input log files are highly inflated by sessions of automated web traverse software’s, known as web robots. Presence of web robots access traffic entries in web server log repositories imposes a great challenge to extract any actionable and usable knowledge about browsing behavior of actual visitors. So web robots sessions need accurate and fast detection from web server log repositories to extract knowledge about genuine visitors and to produce correct results of log analyzers.

Transformation and influencing factors of scholarly communication based on knowledge transfer: A case study of science and technology literature

Purpose: The process of scientific literature use can be regarded as that of knowledge transfer. With the help of the knowledge transfer theory and data from scientific literature databases, we explored the behavior of scientific researchers during their scholarly communication, and studied the factors that influenced the behavior of researchers under network environment. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the literature databases of CNKI, Elsevier Science Direct and Springer Link, we used the knowledge transfer theory to construct a model for describing the scholarly communication process, which attempts to find out factors that may influence the communication behavior of researchers. With a focus laid on the absorption behavior of researchers during the knowledge acceptance process, we defined the independent variables of the model and proposed hypotheses on the basis of a comprehensive literature study. Afterwards, college students were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey, which was designed to prove our research model and hypotheses.Findings: Our results showed that during the scholarly communication, it is not the professional knowledge, but the ability and willingness for knowledge acceptance, organizations’ importance and internal atmosphere as well as knowledge authority and relevance that have played a positive significant role in the knowledge transfer performance. In addition, our distance indicators showed that knowledge distance and knowledge transfer performance have significant negative correlations. Research limitations: This study is mainly based on a questionnaire survey of college students, which may limit the generalization of our research results. In addition, more resource types need be considered for further studies.Practical implications: Under network environment, scholarly communication performance based on knowledge transfer theory could greatly contribute to the enrichment of the contentof the knowledge transfer theory, and stretch out the range of the field. In addition, our result could help commercial scientific database providers to learn more about the users’ needs, which would not only benefit both scientific communities and content providers, but also promote scholarly communication effectively. Originality/value: Compared with existing researches which mainly emphasized the model construction of scholarly communication, our study focused the knowledge relevance during the scholarly communication and influence factors that impacted on the performance of knowledge acceptance under the network environment, which could provide helpful guides for further studies.

Brief Probe into College English Teachers' Phonetic Teaching Beliefs and Behavior

Pronunciation is the basic of learning a language and an important breakthrough point to promote the whole level of language.As a result,pronunciation attracted more and more attention in English teaching.However,it is still a weakness in English teaching because of the multifarious and complicated factors.A large numbers of research papers indicate that teacher is the leader and organizer of teaching activities,he or she dominants the whole process of pronunciation teaching.For example,they make decisions,design and reform the content of teaching in the classroom.What's more,teacher's beliefs can influence their teaching behaviors more than their professional knowledge,namely,teacher's phonetic teaching beliefs influence their phonetic teaching behaviors deeply.This study aims at finding out about teachers'beliefs of phonetic teaching and casting some light on the relationship between teachers' phonetic teaching beliefs and behaviors,and the causes for their inconsistency if any.