OBJECTIVE: To explore perception of community pharmacists in Dubai regarding the obstacles to enhanced pharmacy services using a part of the results from a nation-wide quantitative survey.
METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to 281 full-time licensed community pharmacists in Dubai. The questionnaire had 5 inter-linked sections: demographic information, information about the pharmacy, interaction with physicians, pharmacists' current professional role, and barriers to enhanced pharmacy services.
RESULTS: About half of the respondents (45.4%, n=90) agreed that pharmacy clients under-estimate them and 52.5% (n=104) felt the same by physicians. About 47.5% (n=94) of the respondents felt that they are legally unprotected against profession's malpractice. Moreover, 64.7% (n=128) stated that pharmacy practice in Dubai turned to be business-focused. In addition, 76.8% (n=252) found that one of the major barriers to enhanced pharmacy services is the high business running cost. Pharmacists screened tried to prove that they are not one of the barriers to optimized pharmacy services as 62.7% (n=124) disagreed that they lack appropriate knowledge needed to serve community and 67.7% (n=134) gave the same response when asked whether pharmacy staff lack confidence when treating consumers or not.
CONCLUSIONS: Although being well established within the community, pharmacists in Dubai negatively perceived their own professional role. They stated that there are number of barriers which hinder optimized delivery of pharmacy services like under-estimation by pharmacy clients and other healthcare professionals, pressure to make sales, and high running cost.
Materials and Method: Data were collected from 84 field hockey players that participated in the Malaysian Hockey League competition from June 2016 until December 2016. All injuries were recorded by the participating medical team using a structured questionnaire. A descriptive statistical analysis and Chi-Square test were used to explore the prevalence of the injury.
Result: More than half of the players were reported to have lower limb injuries (51.6%). Sprain and strain were the most prevalent injuries (63%) and mostly affected the ankle (29%). Male players sustained more injuries (50.8%) compared to female players (49.2%).
Conclusion: This study suggests that a guideline is needed for injury prevention strategies that will benefit the hockey players in preventing injuries.
Methods: Eighteen male subjects ran on three different surfaces (i.e., concrete, artificial grass, and rubber) in both heeled running shoes (HS) and minimal running shoes (MS). Both these shoes had dissimilar sole profiles. The heeled shoes had a higher sole at the heel, a thick base, and arch support, whereas the minimal shoes had a flat base sole. Indeed, the studied biomechanical parameters responded differently in the different footwear during running. Subjects ran in recreational mode speed while 3D foot kinematics (i.e., joint rotation and peak medial longitudinal arch (MLA) angle) were determined using a motion capture system (Qualysis, Gothenburg, Sweden). Information on stance time and plantar fascia strain (PFS) was also collected.
Results: Running on different surface stiffness was found to significantly affect the peak MLA angles and stance times for both HS and MS conditions. However, the results showed that the joint rotation angles were not sensitive to surface stiffness. Also, PFS showed no relationship with surface stiffness, as the results were varied as the surface stiffness was changed.
Conclusion: The surface stiffness significantly contributed towards the effects of peak MLA angle and stance time. These findings may enhance the understanding of biomechanical responses on various running surfaces stiffness in different shoe conditions.