Assessing quality of a worksite health promotion programme from participants’ views: findings from a qualitative study in Malaysia

Background An assessment of the process and outcomes of a health promotion programme is necessary for the continuous improvement of a programme. Objective To explore the participants’ perceptions of the quality and effectiveness of the ‘Love Your Heart Programme’. Design A qualitative study using semi‐structured interviews with a purposive sample of participants of the ‘Love Your Heart’ programme. Interviews were based on an interview guide that grouped questions into four main subgroups: structure, process, immediate outcomes and impact. The interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the principles of grounded theory. Results A total of 17 interviews were conducted. The participants were satisfied with the structural aspects of the programme. Different opinions arose regarding the ideal frequency and duration of the programme. The content of the seminars was thought to be too general. There was also a lack of interest in the ‘Road to a Healthy Heart’ booklet. All of the respondents had positive opinions about the communication skills and attitude of the health educator. The potential advantages and disadvantages of participating in the programme were discussed. Finally, the respondents expressed their satisfaction with the programme and the impact it had on them. Discussion and conclusions In general, the participants who were interviewed held the programme, and the health educator conducted the programme in high regard. The suggestions that were received can be used to further improve the acceptability and feasibility of the programme.     

Assessment of GPs' beliefs relating to the care of people with intellectual disabilities: A Taiwan-based,opportunity-guided approach

Purpose. This study was designed to investigate general practitioners' (GPs) beliefs about the perceived importance of their role in, and their satisfaction with, providing healthcare to people with intellectual disabilities. The identification of healthcare issues with potential for improvement was assessed using gap analysis and an opportunity-guided method.

Method. A cross-sectional census survey by a mail-structured questionnaire recruited 331 GPs (response rate = 16%) who provided information on healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities in 2006 in Taiwan.

Results. The results indicated that GPs considered their role in providing healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities to be important (mean score 7.2 – 8.3). However, the respondents generally did not feel satisfied (mean score 4.6 – 5.5) with their achievements in treating patients with intellectual disabilities. We found that the gender and educational level of the respondents were statistically correlated to the perceived importance they considered their work to have, while the factors of age, medical practice setting and training experience in intellectual disability were statistically correlated to GPs' perceived satisfaction in providing healthcare to people with intellectual disabilities (p < 0.05). Those healthcare issues of ‘training and experience in intellectual disability’, ‘multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral cooperation’, ‘adequate competence in disability diagnosis’, ‘genetic consulting services’, ‘duty of disease prevention and health promotion’, and ‘adequate medical consultation time’ were the five most promising areas to be improved in healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities according to the opportunity-guided analysis.

Conclusions. This study highlights that health professionals need to examine carefully healthcare issues pertaining to people with ID, and that much more effort is required to develop appropriate healthcare policies based on the opportunity-guided health issues identified here.     

The Clinical Significance of Jejunal Diverticular Disease Diagnosed by Double-Balloon Enteroscopy for Obscure Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Background  

Jejunal diverticular disease is a rare cause of gastrointestinal bleeding. The reported incidence of this disease is low in the studies of double-balloon enteroscopy.     

Significance of histone methyltransferase SETDB1 expression in colon adenocarcinoma

This study investigated the clinical implications of SETDB1 (also known as KMT1E) in human colon adenocarcinoma. Expression levels of SETDB1 proteins were analyzed by immunohistochemistry staining, and tissue microarrays were used to examine expression profiles in human patients. Our results revealed that SETDB1 protein expression was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in normal tissue for the breast, colon, liver, and lung (p < 0.05). Moreover, an analysis with SurvExpress software suggested that elevated expression of SETDB1 mRNA was significantly associated with the overall survival of colon adenocarcinoma patients (p < 0.05); and additional analysis involving 90 paired samples of colon adenocarcinoma tissue and normal tissue revealed that SETDB1 protein expression was 82% higher in cancerous cells (p < 0.001). High SETDB1 expression was also found to be significantly correlated with histological grade (p = 0.005), TNM stage (p = 0.003), T‐class/primary tumor (p = 0.001), and N‐class/regional lymph nodes (p = 0.017); and Kaplan–Meier survival curves indicated that SETDB1 protein expression was significantly associated with poor survival. Finally, univariate analysis demonstrated that SETDB1 protein expression was related to TNM stage (p = 0.004) and SETDB1 score (p = 0.001), whereas multivariate analysis showed that the influence of SETDB1 on overall colon adenocarcinoma survival was independent from other risk factors. Taken together, our results suggest that the SETDB1 protein could serve as a clinical prognostic indicator for colon adenocarcinoma.