Misconceptions and facts

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to (1) investigate the expectations and preferences of PharmD students and practitioners regarding their role in the health care system, and (2) to contrast those expectations and preferences of PharmD practitioners with real-life practice in Jordan. METHODS: Two cross-sectional descriptive questionnaires were used to collect data from PharmD students and PharmD practitioners in Jordan. A total number of 330 students and 280 practitioners were interviewed...

In this article, we describe a study conducted online with 953 participants of varying levels of education and, when applicable, science/physics teaching experience. These participants were asked to solve a cognitive task in which many different pairs of objects were presented and to identify which, if any, would touch the ground first when dropped (in atmospheric or non-atmospheric environments). Recorded accuracies and response times allowed us to conduct an analysis based on the conceptual prevalence framework, which posits that the coexistence of conceptual and/or misconceptual resources can produce interference in response production...

BACKGROUND: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a relatively common genetic disorder in Saudi Arabia characterized by the predominance of sickle hemoglobin (HbS). Although multiple supportive care options exist for patients with SCD, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only cure available and has become highly successful, with an almost 91% overall survival rate. However, pursuing this procedure is still restrained as a curative treatment option. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the perception of parents' caregivers at the National Guard Hospital pediatric hematology clinic regarding using HSCT as a curative approach for their children with SCD...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In Africa, natal and neonatal teeth is a culture-bound phenomenon which is associated with several sociocultural connotations which might affect child survival. Different empirical studies have been conducted in Africa on natal and neonatal teeth; however, no known scoping review has been conducted to map the empirical evidence. This systematic scoping review (SSR) aims to document the available empirical evidence, research gaps, and hotspots on neonatal and natal teeth in Africa...

BACKGROUND: Genetic counseling and testing (GCT) informs risk reduction and management strategies in women at risk for carrying a pathogenic variation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) genes. African American (hereinafter referred to as Black) women are less likely to receive GCT services for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). The objective of this work was to examine existing literature regarding successful culturally tailored GCT interventions for Black women and to describe the rationale and protocol for a randomized feasibility trial to test the efficacy of a culturally tailored GCT intervention...

BACKGROUND: Depression literacy has received extensive attention within mental health research. It has been studied by different social groups and professions in Western and non-Western cultures. The importance of this topic stems from the fact that depression literacy is strongly related to attitudes toward people who are diagnosed with depression, the tendency to stigmatize this mental disorder, and to the propensity to undertake help-seeking behaviors. Therefore, understanding and promoting depression literacy is crucial in contemporary mental health prevention and promotion...

There are substantial public health consequences when hazardous heavy metal contaminants and antimicrobial drug residues are present in broiler edible tissues. This study aimed to assess the concentration of antimicrobial drugs and heavy metals residues in broiler meat, bones and edible composites (combinations of liver, kidney and gizzard). Samples were collected from different types of broiler farms, broiler wet meat markets and supermarkets, covering all five divisions of Bangladesh. The antimicrobial drug and heavy metal residues were analyzed by uHPLC and ICP-MS, respectively...

OBJECTIVES: This study explored women's experiences of using contraceptive methods in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. SETTING: In October 2021, we conducted a qualitative study at Umlazi Township in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, through face-to-face in-depth interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Women from four primary healthcare facilities were recruited through a criterion-based sampling strategy. Using NVivo V.11, two skilled researchers independently conducted thematic data analysis, as a mechanism for quality assurance, before the results were collated and reconciled...

Every individual has an idiosyncratic way of feeling, thinking and behaving, which is relatively stable across time and situations. Usually known as Personality, today this phenomenon is recognized in many species, including arthropods, fish, avian or mammals. From an evolutionary perspective, research has shown that personality differences are manifest in distinctive forms of dealing with selective pressures, with consequences for fitness. Despite these facts, the study of personality in animals other than humans is relatively new...

Individuals often continue to rely on misinformation in their reasoning and decision making even after it has been corrected. This is known as the continued influence effect, and one of its presumed drivers is misinformation familiarity. As continued influence can promote misguided or unsafe behaviours, it is important to find ways to minimize the effect by designing more effective corrections. It has been argued that correction effectiveness is reduced if the correction repeats the to-be-debunked misinformation, thereby boosting its familiarity...

Recruiting and retaining sufficient participants is one of the biggest challenges researchers face while conducting clinical trials (CTs). This is due to the fact of misconceptions and insufficient knowledge concerning CTs among the public. The present cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2021 to May 2022. We evaluated knowledge and attitude among 480 participants using a pretested Arabic questionnaire. The correlation between knowledge and attitude score was tested through Spearman's correlation test, and the logistic regression test evaluated the associated factors for knowledge and attitude...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The monkeypox (mpox) virus was endemic to some African countries that have recently spread worldwide creating multicountry outbreaks outside of Africa. This most current mpox outbreak is caused by a variety of factors. However, there are some conflicting ideas and pejorative claims about this. Therefore, we conducted this narrative review to highlight the associations of mpox infection with sexual orientations and encounters and to break the misconception about mpox...

Divalent ions have a negative effect on the obtained power and efficiency of the reverse electrodialysis (RED) process when using natural waters. These effects can largely be attributed to the interaction between the various ions and the membranes, resulting in a decreased membrane voltage, an increased membrane resistance, and uphill transport of divalent ions. The aim of this study was to investigate the causes of these differences and, if possible, to find underlying causes. The approach mainly followed that in literature articles that specifically focused on the effect of divalent ions on RED...

A lot of medical misinformation circulates on the Internet - especially social media. During the corona crisis, this became an acute and prominent problem. Countering medical misinformation can be done with debunking (refuting misinformation with fact checks) and prebunking (warning people about misinformation and teaching them to recognize it). Research shows that debunking helps correct misconceptions created by misinformation, although the effect is limited. Although this is sometimes suggested, it is not true that corrections or factchecks actually cause misconceptions to be reinforced...

There are various multiple comparison procedures used in confirmatory clinical studies and exploratory research for multiplicity adjustment. Among them are the Hochberg and Benjamini-Hochberg procedures. A common misconception is that these procedures control the type I error rate properly if the test statistics are independent or positively correlated. In fact, a much stronger positive dependence assumption needs to be satisfied to guarantee the type I error rate control. We give a comprehensive review of the dependence conditions used in multiple testing procedures...

UNLABELLED: Prerequisite. Since the advent of nuclear energy, industry and weapons, a possibility of radiation events i.e. incidents and accidents had emerged. Given the presence of radioactive iodine as part of environmental contamination, the response of authorities and medical services consists, in particular, in carrying out the emergency iodine prophylaxis among specialists and general population. And along with the fact that emergency iodine prophylaxis is a generally accepted measure in radiation events accompanied by the release of radioactive iodine, some methods of its implementation were and remain in certain sources and instructions/recommendations contradictory and even false...

This study analyzes the origin of enzyme catalysis by focusing on the reaction of orotidine 5'-phosphate decarboxylase (ODCase). This reaction involves an enormous catalytic effect of 23 kcal/mol that has been attributed to reactant state destabilization associated with the use of binding energy through the so-called Circe effect. However, our early studies and subsequent key experiments have shown that the presumed effect of the binding energy (namely, the strain exerted by a bond to a phosphate group) does not contribute to the catalysis...

Smoking cessation seems to be a weak link in the struggle against tobacco epidemic in Pakistan. Awareness regarding nicotine is lacking not only in the general population but also among public health practitioners. This lack of knowledge is one of the key barriers to bringing down the prevalence of smoking. Using primary survey data and nonparametric econometric techniques, this study assesses the knowledge of nicotine and harm reduction among public health practitioners in Pakistan. Results indicate physicians have misconceptions about nicotine...

The central or peripheral nervous systems may be involved in up to 15% of patients with untreated infection with B burgdorferi sensu lato, characteristic involvement including meningitis, cranial neuritis, and radiculoneuritis. Diagnosis, based on a logical combination of clinical context and antibody-based testing, is usually straightforward, as is treatment. Misconceptions about what does and does not constitute neurologic disease, and about laboratory testing in this infection, have resulted in widespread anxiety that a broad range of other disorders may be attributable to nervous system Lyme disease...