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Background“Patient-centered” care positions the patient at the core and emphasizes fulfilling their unique needs, preferences, and values. This approach is particularly significant in the context of children. Although widely recognized as necessary, this approach is not universally implemented. The children find themselves in hospital wards where they are required to follow protocols and systems designed primarily for adults. In the appropriate atmosphere, children often express themselves more effectively through words, body language, and play, leading to a richer understanding of their needs. There is growing recognition of the importance of addressing children's concerns regarding hospital environments.AimThis study investigates children's satisfaction with the physical aspect of the hospital environment. Insights from this exploration could provide valuable input for creating hospital environments centered around children's needs and preferences.MethodsThis mixed-methods study involves children aged 6–14 years with parental consent from a premiere healthcare provider in the state of Qatar. The survey used nine items to gauge satisfaction with the existing hospital environment as a “child-friendly hospital” and another nine items to explore their expectations for such environments. The Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests as well as thematic analyses were employed to assess the statistical significance of differences in satisfaction levels and children's expectations of the hospital's physical environment.ResultsA total of 398 children participated in the study. Of them, 40.3% were aged 6–8 years; 60.3% had experienced two to five hospital visits; 55.8% of children participated during their outpatient service visit; and 31.7% were Asian. Children's satisfaction levels with various aspects of the hospital environment—including its physical appearance, signage, lounge, consultant rooms, corridors, bedrooms, TV content, toys, and staff uniforms—were in the range of 42.9%–59%. The children expressed a desire for a hospital environment that is spacious, colorful, attractive, and filled with cartoon characters and toys in the children's hospital from the front lounge to the inpatient units.ConclusionThe findings underline the importance of considering the perspectives of children in evidence-based healthcare design. The study reveals that children's satisfaction with the hospital environment is generally average or below average. Ultimately, a “child-friendly hospital environment” integrates children's rights into healthcare to significantly improve outcomes.

Abstract Background Vaccines are an important public health measure and effective strategy to protect the population from COVID‐19. Front‐line healthcare personnel should receive priority in vaccination programs. However, the reported hesitancy among healthcare workers (HCWs) toward the COVID‐19 vaccines cannot be ignored. It widely influences the level of vaccine hesitancy in the general population. Hesitancy, fear, and anxiety were documented in first and second rounds of COVID‐19 vaccination. This study assessed the acceptance of COVID‐19 booster doses among the HCWs in Qatar. Methods A web‐based cross‐sectional online survey was conducted using the 7C Vaccine Readiness Scale to evaluate the preparedness of the HCWs to receive COVID‐19 vaccines. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to identify factors associated with preparedness for vaccination. Results A total of 382 participants completed the survey. Allied health professionals scored the least on the readiness score (−7.0 ± 9.9) compared to the physicians (3.1 ± 7.2) and nurses (3.0 ± 7.8). Physicians scored higher on confidence (58.8%), calculation (64.7%), and complacency (60.8%). Nurses scored higher on constraints (51.6%), collective responsibility (62.7%), and compliance (39.1%), and allied health professionals scored higher on (67.9%) conspiracy. There was a significant association between readiness score and not being infected with COVID‐19, post‐vaccine symptom experience, and hesitancy for the initial two doses. Conclusion This study reports higher complacency and constraints with the perception of lower risks and the lack of interest in taking collective responsibility among the HCWs. Addressing vaccine hesitancy among them is critical to ensure successful vaccination campaigns and promote community safety during future pandemics.

Background: Health care providers (HCPs) have always been a common target of stigmatization during widespread infections and COVID-19 is not an exception. Aim: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of stigmatization during the COVID-19 pandemic among HCPs in seven different countries using the Stigma COVID-19 Healthcare Providers tool (S19-HCPs). Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: The S19-HCPs is a self-administered online survey (16-item) developed and validated by the research team. The participants were invited to complete an online survey. Data collection started from June–July 2020 using a convenience sample of HCPs from Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Kuwait. Results: A total number of 1726 participants were included in the final analysis. The majority of the study participants were Jordanians (22%), followed by Kuwaitis (19%), Filipinos (18%) and the lowest participants were Indonesians (6%). Other nationalities were Iraqis, Saudis, and Egyptians with 15%, 11% and 9% respectively. Among the respondents, 57% have worked either in a COVID-19 designated facility or in a quarantine center and 78% claimed that they had received training for COVID-19. Statistical significance between COVID-19 stigma and demographic variables were found in all aspect of the S19-HCPs. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated high levels of stigmatization against HCPs in all the included seven countries. On the other hand, they are still perceived positively by their communities and in their utmost, highly motivated to care for COVID-19 patients. Educational and awareness programs could have a crucial role in the solution of stigmatization problems over the world.

African trypanosomiasis is a haemoprotozoan disease of animals and humans. In animals particularly, the disease directly hinders production and therefore impedes socioeconomic development of Sub-Saharan Africa. The prevalence of trypanosome infection was investigated in trade goats and sheep sold at Obollo-Afor market in Enugu State, Nigeria. Wet and thin films, haematocrit test (HCT) and buffy coat methods (BCT) were used to detect trypanosomes in jugular blood of the animals. The packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell (RBC), and white blood cell (WBC) counts were also determined. A total of 200 goats and 100 sheep were examined within four months (October 2019 to January 2020). The prevalence rates of trypanosomes in the 200 goats and 100 sheep examined were 0(0.0 %) and 2(0.7 %) respectively. The RBC, WBC, and Hb of the two infected animals were significantly (p<0.05) lower than the uninfected. The average PCV of infected animals (20.65 ± 5.44%) was also lower than that of uninfected (34.17 ± 0.29%) although, it was not statistically significant (p>0.05) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vast amount of literature has well-established FDI as an important determinant of technology acquisition and modernization, economic development, capital accumulation, and employment. Economists are too engrossed in how FDI positively affects the economic growth of both the home and host countries; only a few have been associated with investigating how FDI actually improved the living standards of the people. This paper examined the impact of FDI, Inflation, Labor Force, and Population on improving living standards in the Philippines from 1985 to 2021 using the different econometric tests which are: (1) Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test, (2) Jarque-Bera Normality Test, (3) Variance Inflation Factor, (4) Breusch-Pagan Heteroskedasticity test, (5) Breusch-Pagan-Godfrey Autocorrelation test, (6) RAMSEY Reset test, (7) Correlation Matrix, (9) OLS Multiple Regression, (10) Johansen Cointegration and (11) Granger Causality. The findings in the various tests revealed that FDI, Inflation, Labor Force Participation, and Population have cointegrating relationships with Self-Rated Poverty Rate within the time series. Moreover, the OLS regression model has shown that Labor Force Participation and Inflation have significant relationships with living standards while the country's FDI and Population are insignificant. Granger Causality also revealed that Inflation, Labor Force, and Population Granger caused living standards in the Philippines and only FDI not. With all of the results of the tests, it is evident that the dependent variables affect the living standards in the Philippines, it just varies on how little or extensive it is. This study supports the loosened restrictions to foreign ownership as the results affirmed the significant effects of most of the dependent variables on the Self-Rated Poverty Incidence; however, must still take precautionary measures as some variables exhibit insignificance in the long run. The paper recommends implementing policies that are moderately reliant on Foreign Direct Investment, Population, Inflation, and Labor Force Participation rate because all of the variables are proven to be related to the Self-Rated Poverty Incidence, which is the variable used to measure the living standards in the Philippines. However, the Philippine government should focus and be meticulous on policy clauses that would benefit not just the corporate but also its employees to help attain prosperity for the country and its countrymen and to help alleviate poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]