Croatia has closed all educational institutions after 32 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were confirmed and switched to exclusive e-learning. Health sciences university students may have been ...particularly affected with this change due to a lack of practical education. It is not known how health sciences students and schools have adjusted to exclusive e-learning. This study aimed to explore attitudes and concerns of health sciences students in Croatia regarding the complete switch to e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eligible participants were students from 9 institutions offering university-level health sciences education in Croatia enrolled in the academic year 2019/2010, and participating in e-learning. Data were collected with a questionnaire distributed via email during April/May 2020.
A total of 2520 students (aged 25.7 ± 7.7 years) responded to the questionnaire (70.3% response rate). General satisfaction with exclusive e-learning was rated with average grade of 3.7 out of 5. Compared with previous education, exclusive e-learning was rated with average grade of 3.2 out of 5. Compared to classroom learning, equal or higher motivation to attend exclusive e-learning was reported by 64.4% of participants. With a longer duration of exclusive e-learning, equal or higher motivation was reported by 65.5% of participants. Less than half of the students indicated they felt deprived or concerned due to the lack of practical lessons. Most participants indicated that in the future, they would prefer to combine classic classroom and e-learning (N = 1403; 55.7%).
Most health sciences students were satisfied with the exclusive e-learning, as well as their personal and institutional adjustment to it. Students' feedback can help institutions to improve the exclusive e-learning experience for students in the time of the pandemic.
We investigated and compared practices and attitudes about childhood vaccination between young parents and their parents and identified influences and sources of information in the County of Zadar, ...Croatia.
This research was conducted in six general practice and paediatric medical clinics. It included 300 volunteers, including 150 younger parents and 150 older grandparents. Information was collected with a survey questionnaire. The survey data were statistically processed.
The 300 participants were divided into 2 groups. Most of the respondents were married, employed, had a high school education, and had a good economic status, often with two children and living in the city. Generally, the attitude towards vaccination was positive. Healthcare workers made the most important influence on the decision for vaccination. The younger age group was significantly affected by social networks and the internet and wanted more information. They were afraid of the adjuvants in vaccines. The older respondents held that vaccination must be legally regulated and did not believe the anti-vaccine media headlines.
Our respondents had positive attitudes towards childhood vaccination, noticed the benefits of vaccinating children, and held that untreated children represent a risk for the community. They were well informed and satisfied with the collaboration with medical professionals, although the media and social networks had some impact on attitudes.
Lack of knowledge of systematic reviews (SRs) could prevent individual health care professionals from using SRs as a source of information in their clinical practice or discourage them from ...participating in such research. In this randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the effect of a short web-based educational intervention on short-term knowledge of SRs. Eligible participants were 871 Master’s students of university health sciences studies in Croatia; 589 (67.6%) students who agreed to participate in the trial were randomized using a computer program into 2 groups. Intervention group A (294/589, 49.9%) received a short web-based educational intervention about SR methodology, and intervention group B (295/589, 50.1%) was presented with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) checklist. The participants’ knowledge of SRs was assessed before and after the intervention. The participants could not be blinded because of the nature of the intervention. The primary outcome was the difference in the percentage of correct answers about SR methodology per participant between the groups after the intervention, expressed as relative risk and 95% CI. A short web-based educational intervention about SRs is an effective tool for short-term improvement of knowledge of SRs among health care studies students, most of whom were also employed as health care professionals. Further studies are needed to explore the long-term effects of the tested education.
Previous studies have shown that symptoms of depression and anxiety were highly prevalent among health sciences students. This may lead to other professional and personal difficulties and a decrease ...in individuals' well-being. This study aimed to analyze levels of depression, anxiety and subjective happiness among health sciences students in Croatia.
We conducted a cross-sectional study in 10 higher education institutions in Croatia during March 2023. Eligible participants were health sciences students. Participants filled out an online survey consisting of sociodemographic questions and validated scales for determining the levels of depression (9-question Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-9), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale, GAD-7), and happiness (Subjective Happiness Scale, SHS).
Of 7460 invited students, 2137 students participated in the study (29% response rate). There were 41.4% of students that exhibited at least mild depressive symptoms, with 8% of students exhibiting moderately severe symptoms and 1.8% severe depressive symptoms. Mild anxiety was found in 36.8%, moderate anxiety in 23.9% and severe anxiety in 15.8% of students. The median SHS score was 19 (15.25-22). Women students had significantly higher levels of depression (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p < 0.001) than their men peers. Students in earlier study years showed higher levels of depression, anxiety and lower levels of subjective happiness compared to those in later study years. Students with lower self-assessed financial status had higher levels of depression (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p < 0.001). Students that failed an academic year had higher levels of depression (p < 0.001), but lower levels of anxiety (p = 0.005).
In this study, we have shown that health sciences students exhibit high levels of depression and anxiety, at rates exceeding those in the general population reported in other studies. Our results may help educational institutions to put greater effort into the battle against mental health stigma, foster acceptance of mental health issues and encourage students to seek help when needed. Adequate mental health services are needed at universities to promote timely diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems.
To the Editor,
Intussusception is a true pediatric emergency requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Clinical suspicion should lead directly toward an abdominal ultrasound or a contrast enema. As a ...part of modern point-of-care management, ultrasound has emerged as a readily available diagnostic modality even in rural hospitals. After establishing a diagnosis, the pediatric or general surgeon should decide upon further treatment, preferably enema reduction (1). The drawbacks of conservative treatment are reduction failure in 20% of the cases, risk of perforation, radiation load, higher rate of recurrence than that with operative treatment, and oversight of the potential leading point.
Summary Vascular diseases are a major threat to human health nowadays. Hypertension, cardiovascular disease and varicose vain disease including hemorrhoids, are now increasingly recognized as ...inflammatory diseases. The role of inflammation cytokines in the pathogenesis of these diseases is very important. The lamina propria in the nasal mucosa is rich in blood vessels and humoral mediators. Recurrent epistaxis from Kiesselbach’s area syndrome (REKAS) was first mentioned as early as 1985. It has been found that 90% of patients suffering from recurrent epistaxis from Kiesselbach area syndrome simultaneously suffered from hemorrhoids. Clinical observations suggest a possible mutual pathophysiologic relationship between Kiesselbach’s and anorectal venous plexus. This relationship is also suggested in the reverse direction: significantly more than two thirds of primarily hemorrhoidal patients (83.01%) showed simultaneous vascular dilatations within their Kiesselbach plexuses, but none of these patients had ever have recurrent nose bleeds. There is one more thing they did not have (contrary to REKAS group) - anterior septal deformity. Furthermore, REKAS and hemorrhoidal disease, despite being different clinical entities, frequently appear in the primarily REKAS patients or their closest relatives (more than 90% out of all!). At the same time, all of REKAS patients did have a certain degree of the anterior septal deformity, which primarily hemorrhoidal patients did not have at all. Therefore we presume that Kiesselbach’s vascular plexus in the Little’s area of the nasal septum belongs to the same group as anorectal venous plexus does (others of this group are brain, esophagus, and lower leg venous system). We also presume that the anterior septal deformity is a crucial factor for the onset of the inflammation of the nasal vestibule skin (vestibulitis nasi), while vestibulitis nasi precipitates the onset of typical recurrent nose bleeds from the Kiesselbach’s plexus.
Summary Surveillance studies have shown that cleft lip and palate is one of the commonest craniofacial anomalies, occurring in approximately 1 in 500 live births. Previous studies on craniofacial ...form in unilateral cleft lip/palate subjects have been carried out, but most attention has been focused on the deformity of the bony septum whereas the deformities of the nasal spine and cartilaginous component of the septum had received little attention. Our recent study was based on monitoring a very specific type of nasal septal deformity, type 6, and its relation to the unilateral cleft lip/palate disease. This type is very anteriorly located and refers to the cartilaginous part of the nasal septum and the inter-maxillary bone itself. Rhinoscopic view shows a typical, almost horizontal, unilateral groove at the nasal septum located very anteriorly. At the opposite septal side, but corresponding location, there is so called basal crest. The results of our study showed that the incidence of type 6 septal deformity was very high not only in unilateral cleft lip/palate children (80.6%) but also in their parents (58% in at least one of them). In contrast, in our previous study this type of septal deformity was seen in only 3.7% of non-unilateral cleft lip/palate children before puberty, rising to 7.4% in students and 9.4% in adults. In other words, perhaps we can expect the onset of unilateral cleft lip/palate in the offspring of parents who both have a type 6 septal deformity. Perhaps there is a gene responsible for the onset of both type 6 septal deformity and the cleft. If these clinical entities belong to the same gene, the cleft per se could perhaps disappear from the Earth in a near future owing to the gene therapy which will be able to eliminate it before the baby is born or even conceived.
Časopis Medica Jadertina medicinski je znanstveno - stručni časopis Opće bolnice Zadar, čiji je prvi broj otisnut 1969. godine, prije 55 godina. Jedan je od najstarijih medicinskih časopisa u ...Republici Hrvatskoj. Potkraj šezdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća javila se ideja da tadašnji razvoj bolnice slijedi i unaprjeđenje znanstveno – stručne misli. Od 1987. godine časopis je dvojezičan, te se u njemu objavljuju članci na hrvatskom i engleskom jeziku, ovisno o izboru autora. Time je postignuta bolja vidljivost časopisa i u međunarodnoj znanstvenoj zajednici. Također, časopis je, uz hrvatske, postao otvoren i za strane autore. Tijekom Domovinskog rata časopis nije prestao izlaziti unatoč brutalnom razaranju grada i okolice, te ratnim stradanjima. Medica Jadertina je više puta mijenjala format i naslovnu stranicu, te cjelokupan grafički izgled. Od 2002. godine časopis počinje izlaziti u formatu A4 i s novim dizajnom naslovnice. Time je grafičko oblikovanje i uređivanje usklađeno s međunarodnim pravilima. Od 2002. godine svi radovi objavljeni u časopisu Medica Jadertina citirani su u cijelosti u bazi Scopus u kojoj je časopis indeksiran i danas. Od 2006.godine Medica Jadertina u cijelosti je vidljiva na Portalu hrvatskih znanstvenih i stručnih časopisa HRČAK. Tako je časopis među čitaocima dobio bolju vidljivost i dostupnost, kako u tiskanom, tako i u elektroničkom obliku.
Medica Jadertina is a medical, scientific, and professional journal of Zadar General Hospital. Its firstissue was pressed in 1969, 55 years ago, making it one of the oldest medical journals in Croatia.At the end of the sixties of the last century, there was an idea that the improvement of scientific andprofessional thought should accompany the development of the hospital. Since 1987, the journal has beenbilingual, with articles published in Croatian or English. This has also improved the journal's visibility inthe international scientific community. The journal has also become open to Croatian and foreign authors.During the Croatian War of Independence, the journal did not cease publishing despite the brutal destructionof the city and its surroundings and the war atrocities.Medica Jadertina has repeatedly changed its format, cover page, and overall graphic appearance. Since2002, the magazine has been published in A4 format with a new cover design. Thus, the journal's graphicdesign and editing were harmonized with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors'Recommendations. Since 2002, all manuscripts published in Medica Jadertina are cited entirely in theScopus database.Since 2006, Medica Jadertina has provided open access through the Portal of Croatian scientific andprofessional journals (HRČAK). Thus, the magazine has increased its visibility among readers in paperand electronic forms.
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