Arusyak Harutyunyan

Reducing Children’s Exposure to Secondhand Smoke at Home: A Randomized Trial

OBJECTIVE: To develop and test an intervention to reduce children’s exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) at homes in Yerevan, Armenia. METHODS: A single-blind, randomized trial in 250 households with 2- to 6-year-old children tested an intensive intervention (counseling sessions, distribution of tailored educational brochures, demonstration of home air pollution, and 2 follow-up counseling telephone calls) against minimal intervention (distribution of standard leaflets). At baseline and 4-month follow-up, researchers conducted biomonitoring (children’s hair) and surveys. The study used paired t tests, McNemar’s test, and linear and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: After adjusting for baseline hair nicotine concentration, child’s age and gender, the follow-up geometric mean (GM) of hair nicotine concentration in the intervention group was 17% lower than in the control group (P = .239). The GM of hair nicotine in the intervention group significantly decreased from 0.30 ng/mg to 0.23 ng/mg (P = .024), unlike in the control group. The follow-up survey revealed an increased proportion of households with smoking restrictions and decreased exposure of children to SHS in both groups. The adjusted odds of children’s less-than-daily exposure to SHS at follow-up was 1.87 times higher in the intervention group than in the control group (P = .077). The GM of mothers’ knowledge scores at follow-up was 10% higher in the intervention group than in the control group (P = .006). CONCLUSIONS: Intensive intervention is effective in decreasing children’s exposure to SHS through educating mothers and promoting smoking restrictions at home. However, superiority over minimal intervention to decrease children’s exposure was not statistically significant.

People-centered tuberculosis care versus standard directly observed therapy: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

BackgroundTuberculosis is a major public health concern resulting in high rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Tuberculosis requires a long and intensive course of treatment. Thus, various approaches, including patient empowerment, education and counselling sessions, and involvement of family members and community workers, have been suggested for improving treatment adherence and outcome. The current randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness over usual care of an innovative multicomponent people-centered tuberculosis-care strategy in Armenia.Methods/designInnovative Approach to Tuberculosis care in Armenia is an open-label, stratified cluster randomized controlled trial with two parallel arms. Tuberculosis outpatient centers are the clusters assigned to intervention and control arms. Drug-sensitive tuberculosis patients in the continuation phase of treatment in the intervention arm and their family members participate in a short educational and counselling session to raise their knowledge, decrease tuberculosis-related stigma, and enhance treatment adherence. Patients receive the required medications for one week during the weekly visits to the tuberculosis outpatient centers. Additionally, patients receive daily Short Message Service (SMS) reminders to take their medications and daily phone calls to assure adherence and monitoring of treatment potential side effects. Control-arm patients follow the World Health Organization - recommended directly observed treatment strategy, including daily visits to tuberculosis outpatient centers for drug-intake. The primary outcome is physician-reported treatment outcome. Patients’ knowledge, depression, quality of life, within-family tuberculosis-related stigma, family social support, and self-reported adherence to tuberculosis treatment are secondary outcomes.DiscussionImproved adherence and tuberculosis treatment outcomes can strengthen tuberculosis control and thereby forestall tuberculosis and multidrug resistant tuberculosis epidemics. Positive findings on effectiveness of this innovative tuberculosis treatment people-centered approach will support its adoption in countries with similar healthcare and economic profiles.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT02082340. Date of registration: 4 March 2014.

Interbirth interval and history of previous preeclampsia: a case–control study among multiparous women

BackgroundPreeclampsia is a disorder with a reported incidence of 2%-8% among all pregnancies, accounting for more than 50,000 deaths worldwide each year. In low- and middle- income countries maternal/perinatal morbidity and mortality associated with preeclampsia are high due to the lack of proper prenatal and hospital care and limited access to neonatal intensive care. The objectives of our study were to determine the association of long interbirth interval (IBI) and preeclampsia and to investigate the interactions between long IBI and other risk factors among multiparous women in Yerevan, Armenia.MethodsWe conducted a hospital-based case–control study among 36 multiparous women with preeclampsia (cases) and 148 without preeclampsia (controls) during their last pregnancy, selected from the two largest maternity hospitals in Armenia. The data were collected through telephone-based structured interviews and analyzed using STATA software. The study applied univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.ResultsThe study found a significant interaction between IBI and previous history of preeclampsia. Among women without a history of previous preeclampsia, the odds of having preeclampsia among women with long IBI (greater than or equal to five years) was 6.88 time higher compared to those with short IBI (CI: 1.75-27.05; p = 0.006) after adjusting for confounders; among women with a history of previous preeclampsia the odds ratio was 0.60 (CI: 0.07-4.99; p = 0.638). The final fitted model for preeclampsia among multiparous women who had planned their pregnancies included IBI, time to pregnancy, Body Mass Index, method of contraception and household monthly income.ConclusionsLong IBI appeared to be a strong risk factor for preeclampsia development only among women without a history of previous preeclampsia. This finding may contribute to a new approach in understanding the etiology of preeclampsia and may be useful for developing further recommendations for this particular subgroup of women that are at higher risk for preeclampsia development in subsequent pregnancies.