Outcomes of complex oncoplastic breast surgery in older women. Analysis of data from the Age Gap cohort study

KEY WORDS

Breast cancer, mastectomy, breast conserving surgery, post-mastectomy reconstruction, older women, quality of life.

Pattern of Self-Medication Practices among Rural Population of Mymensingh

Self-medication is widely practiced in both developed and developing countries and an age old practice. Inappropriate self-medication results in increases resistance of pathogens, wastage of resources and serious health hazards. Present study was conducted to determine the pattern of self-medication practices among rural population. This cross-sectional study was carried out at community pharmacies in a rural area of Mymensingh district, Bangladesh from January 2017 to June 2017. Self-medication data were collected from well stocked licensed retail pharmacies and 20 pharmacies were randomly selected as the study site. Considering the prevalence of self-medication practices of 73.6% and relative precision of 10%, the calculated sample size was 138. The data was collected by conducting the interview with participants when they exited from the pharmacy. All data were coded, entered and analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences program version 20 (Chicago IL, USA). Descriptive analysis was employed for statistical evaluation of results. The practice of self medication was more common among age group 30-40 years (31.9%) and most of them were male (60.9%), married (54.3%), farmer (44.9%) and illiterate (42.8%). Family, friends or neighbors were the main source of information for self-medication (65.9%) and common ailments warranting self-medication were headache (52.9%), gastric pain (39.1%), respiratory problem & asthma (34.1%) and fever (30.4%). Multivitamins (76.8%), NSAIDs (65.9%), ranitidine (50.7%), antibiotics (50%), paracetamol (46.4%) and anti-allergic (39.1%) were most commonly used drugs. Over 35% of the participants who treated themselves reported improvement in their condition. Rising prevalence of self-medication is a matter of serious concern. Health education to people regarding responsible self-medication is necessary to prevent misuse and adverse effect of self-medication.

Work-related problems in metal handling tasks in Bangladesh: obstacles to the development of safety and health measures

Many manual labourers in Bangladesh are involved with metal-handling tasks that are both physically demanding and stressful. The metal workers have been significantly exposed to prolonged hammering and cutting activities in excessive noise and with awkward body postures. Moreover, stressors from heat and humidity, welding fumes and metal dusts often cause excess strain, and are reflected in a deterioration of their physical work performance. Indeed, physical work is the economic source in many developing countries for the support of worker's family and relatives. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles and a lack of efficient steps to restore ergonomics principles as well as occupational safety and health measures. Thus, in this paper, tasks, and jobs are classified and analysed from the results of an ergonomics survey from 343 subjects (293 adults men, age 20-40 years; 17 women, 19-32 years) and 33 child workers (14-17 years). Four types of metal working sites from two districts in Bangladesh were surveyed using questionnaires and interviews. The results showed that a significant number of workers experienced a high prevalence of work-related problems. The main aim was to identify stressful task that are related to musculoskeletal and psychosocial symptoms. Moreover, the findings reveal the possibility of why ergonomics measures are unsuccessful; and if they could have an immediate effect on the safety and health of metal workers in Bangladesh.

Effect of onion extract on immune response in rabbits

A total of 40 NZW rabbits were selected for this study to see the effect of onion extract on immune response following antigenic challenge. These animals were randomly divided into four groups, each composed of ten rabbits. Group I and II were challenged with typhoid H (TH) antigen and groups III and IV with sheep red blood cells (SRBC). Groups I and III were considered as control and II and IV as treated groups. The latter two groups were treated with onion extract orally. The immunosuppressive effect of onion extract was evaluated by estimating antibody levels by Widal test and hemolysin titer. It was found that mean antibody titers were significantly lower in the treated groups than in controls. The weights of thymus and lymph nodes were higher and of adrenal glands were lower in the control groups than in the treated groups. It appeared from the current study that onion extract has an inhibitory effect on immune response.