Journal of Health Reports and Technology
Volume:7 Issue: 3, Jul 2021

Context: 

Achieving universal health coverage requires a Health Insurance Scheme that minimizes out-of-pocket expenditure, guarantees the provision of essential health services, and covers majority of the population. This study examines the NHIS, it's success, failures, efforts so far towards achieving UHC and overall, examines if Nigeria is progressing towards the achievement of universal health coverage.

Evidence Acquisition: 

We conducted a narrative review of published articles on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) coverage in Nigeria. Pubmed and Google Scholar were searched with the following keywords: National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Success, Failure, Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

 NHIS has failed in its inclusiveness and covers only about 5% of the general population, mainly from the formal sector while most from the informal sector are excluded. Certain factors such as the inadequate legal framework for a successful scheme, optional enrollment policy, poor funding and lack of political will are responsible for the failure of the NHIS.

 Revising the NHIS to cover all segments of the society including remote areas and ensuring the insured have access to health services at all hospitals and health centers across the country is essential in attaining the third sustainable development goal in Nigeria. Also, there is need for intensify public awareness programs to enlighten the people and relevant groups on the positive values of the scheme. The attributes of the scheme should be well publicized in a way that both the formal and informal sector would understand clearly. This might involve the use of all local languages spoken in different parts of the country.

 Social interactions require social cognition. Social cognition and its shortcomings could be assessed by questionnaires and interviews.

 The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Persian versions of the Observable Social Cognition Rating scale (OSCARS) in students.

 This correlational study was conducted on 250 male and female students at the high schools of Dezfoul, Iran during 2019 - 2020. The participants were selected via multistage random sampling. The reliability, congruent validity, and concurrent validity of the Persian version of the OSCARS were evaluated using the teacher’s form of the OSCARS and the cognitive abilities questionnaire. The validity of the OSCARS was measured by confirmatory factor analysis, and its congruent validity and reliability were measured using the Cronbach’s alpha and split-half method.

 The Cronbach’s alpha value of the entire scale, teacher’s form, and cognitive abilities questionnaire was 0.65, 0.60, and 0.85, respectively. The split-half coefficient for the entire scale was estimated at 0.60, and the correlation between the OSCARS and the teacher’s form was 0.35. Moreover, the correlation between the OSCARS and cognitive abilities questionnaire with the social cognition subscale was 0.15 and 0.13, respectively. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated the excellent fitness of the OSCARS structure (RMSEA = 0.02).

 According to the results, the Persian version of the OSCARS has good reliability and validity.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a devastating pandemic scenario in the world. The mortality rate has increased and new socio-economic challenges are emerging. Millions of gloves, gowns, face masks, and face shields are used daily to prevent airborne transmission and facilitate the treatment of COVID-19. Mismanagement of these wastes can lead to increased concerns due to their contamination potential. A comprehensive plan to improve the management of medical wastes in every country requires awareness of the current status of solid waste. As a result, the study aimed to calculate and estimate the consumption rate of face masks and medical waste generation rate during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. Also, the performance of different departments of medical waste management and future challenges are discussed.

The daily consumption of face masks and medical waste generation were calculated based on the population data, the percentage of the urban population, face mask acceptance rate, the number of face masks needed per person per day, total COVID-19 confirmed cases, and medical waste generation rate (kg/bed/day).

The consumption of face masks in Iran is estimated at 46576000 pieces per day. Also, the three provinces of Tehran (9,560,000 pieces), Khorasan Razavi (3,825,600 pieces), and Isfahan (3,523,200 pieces) have the highest consumption rate of masks, respectively. Increasing the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased the medical waste generation rate. Until April 3, 2021, more than 1,920,394 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Iran, and calculations show that the medical waste generation rate in Iran is about 7,585.56 tons per day.

COVID-19 is a highly infectious and problematic disease. The continuous increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased face mask consumption rate and medical waste generation rate, and as a result, new challenges have emerged in the field of solid waste management. These emerging challenges in managing solid waste during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitate the development of appropriate waste management policies and strategies.

 Various teaching methods could be used to reduce complications in diabetic patients.

 The present study aimed to assess the effect of nutrition training based on the health belief model (HBM) and electronic methods on the awareness of patients with type II diabetes in Kermanshah, Iran in 2012.

 This quasi-experimental study was conducted at a diabetes clinic in Kermanshah City. In total, 60 patients were selected via convenience sampling and divided into three groups of 20, including SMS, blog, and collaborative blog. Data were collected before, immediately after, and three months after the educational intervention using a standard questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using the Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman’s test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the significance level of 0.05.

 The mean score of awareness was considered significant (P < 0.01). In addition, significant differences were observed in the perceived sensitivity and barriers, cue to action, and self-efficacy in the blog group (P < 0.05) before and three months after the intervention. In the collaborative blog group, a significant difference was denoted in the perceived severity and cue to action before and three months after the intervention (P < 0.05). Cue to action also differed significantly in the SMS group, and the self-efficacy score significantly changed only in the blog group after the intervention (P = 0.006).

 According to the results, using blogs, group/collaborative blogs, and SMS could effectively increase the awareness of the diabetic patients. Therefore, virtual training could enhance the structures of the HBM, with the exception of the perceived sensitivity domain.

 Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common endocrine diseases. Studying the plants and effective compounds from plant extracts to prevent diabetes has become recently important.

 The present study aimed to investigate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract on blood glucose level, biochemical parameters, fat profile, and serological parameters in diabetic rats.

 In this study, 42 Wistar outbred rats were studied. The rats were divided into seven groups namely the control group, the control group with 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight of the Descurainia sophia extract, the diabetic rats, the diabetic rats receiving 0.4 mg/kg of glibenclamide, and the diabetic rats treated with 200 and 400 mg/kg of the D. sophia extract. Streptozotocin was used for the diabetic rats through intraperitoneal injection, and extract was used by gavage method. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the research data in SPSS software.

 The results showed that administration of D. sophia extract to diabetic rats reduces the blood glucose, biochemical enzymes level, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol. There was no significant difference in cholesterol levels. In the rats which received the extract, the amount of albumin decreased and the amount of urea and creatinine increased significantly.

 Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that this extract can be useful in preventing diabetes by reducing blood glucose, changing biochemical enzyme level, fat profile, and serological parameters; as D. sophia hydroalcoholic extract contains various compounds.

 Math anxiety (MA) emerges as a state of discomfort and anxiety when a student is faced with a math problem.

 The present study aimed to investigate the association between self-esteem and classroom environment perceptions with math anxiety through the mediating role of mathematics self-concept (MSC) in female high school students.

 This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on all the female high school students in Ahvaz, Iran in the academic year 2020 - 2021. In total, 237 students were selected as the sample population via single-stage cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Math Anxiety questionnaire (MAQ), Self-Esteem questionnaire (SEQ), Dundee Ready Educational Environment measure (DREEM), and Mathematical Self-Concept questionnaire (MSCQ). The proposed research model was evaluated using structural equation modeling.

 With the exception of self-esteem and classroom environment perceptions (CEPs), all the direct paths were significantly correlated with MA (P = 0.001). Moreover, the indirect paths of self-esteem were significantly correlated with MA considering the mediating role of MSC (β = -0.240; P = 0.002). Furthermore, a significant association was observed between CEP and MA, mediated by MSC (β = -0.129; P = 0.001).

 According to the results, the proposed model had a good fit and could be an important step in identifying the influential factors in the MA of students.

 Dehradun, India is going to most exceedingly influencing and breaking down air quality due to the burning of the discarded plastic, where the natural beauty is the prized component. Carelessly threw the disposed of plastic and burning affecting the environment and people’s health drastically. Consequently, various sicknesses and disease are the common phenomenon. Thus, this region urgently required an extensive evaluation by the governmental and non-governmental organization to solve this issue and make a strict control to stop the plastic on every day utilize premise. Their people groups endure much because of their own activity.

 Current study report about the environmental and public health concern due to the discard plastic burning on daily basis which causes severe respiratory disease and health hazards.

 The current study focused on the observation and collection of plastic burning activities done by the people of on daily basis in the last three year from August 2017 to July 2020.

 As regularly as conceivable it can be found in every 20 houses there are cluster plastics burning on daily basis. Burnt Plastic, releasing lethal gases into the environment which include substances like dioxins, furans, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls which is a hazardous compound and conceivably hurting to all kind of life. Dehradun, India is emerging as a hotspot for the broken air quality especially due to burning of discard plastic in this region and introducing smoke into the atmosphere. Due to this, numbers of affected people are increasing an everyday basis. This broken air quality is also responsible for greenhouse gases (GHG) and increasing global warming potential.

 Finally, I might want to focus this area move toward becoming a hotspot to look with crumbled air quality from the last couple of years. Numbers of multiple illnesses affected peoples increasing year by year. The level of dangerous compound increasing in the atmosphere, in this way it is needful to take preparatory measure to make strict regulation and develop treatment facility to save Dehradun. As this region is like a gift by nature.