Past decades have witnessed a major epidemiologic transition with a considerable increase in the disease burden associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), with low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) experiencing substantial increase in CVDs. As the global population is aging and peripheral artery disease (PAD) is strongly age-related, it is estimated to become increasingly prevalent in the future. PAD shares risk factors with coronary and cerebrovascular risk factors, particularly diabetes mellitus and smoking, and is associated with significant CVD morbidity and mortality. Despite advances in therapeutic modalities, 236 million people were estimated to be suffering from PAD worldwide in 2015, and numbers have been rising since. The prevalence of asymptomatic PAD has remained high; PAD prevalence seems higher among women and is related to ethnicity. Although several epidemiological studies have been published on PAD during the past decades, data from LMICs are scarce. Besides providing up-to-date epidemiological data retrieved from the literature and the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study database, this narrative review also intends to draw attention to the substantial disease burden of PAD manifesting in more Years of Life Lost (YLL), age-adjusted mortality and amputation rates, with a special focus on some European countries and especially Hungary, i.e., the country with the highest amputation rate in Europe.

Health care organizations (HCO) did not consider engaging patients in balanced scorecard (BSC) implementations to evaluate their performance. This paper aims to develop an instrument to engage patients in assessing BSC perspectives (BSC-PATIENT) and customize it for Palestinian hospitals. Two panels of experts participated in the item generation of BSC-PATIENT. Translation was performed based on guidelines. Pretesting was performed for 30 patients at one hospital. Then, 1000 patients were recruited at 14 hospitals between January and October 2021. Construct validity was tested through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Additionally, the composite reliability (CR), interitem correlation (IIC), and corrected item total correlation (CITC) were assessed to find redundant and low correlated items. As a result, the scales had a highly adequate model fit in the EFA and CFA. The final best fit model in CFA comprised ten constructs with 36 items. In conclusion, BSC-PATIENT is the first self-administered questionnaire specifically developed to engage patients in BSC and will allow future researchers to evaluate the impact of patient experience on attitudes toward BSC perspectives, as well as to compare the differences based on patient and hospital characteristics.

Organizations worldwide utilize the balanced scorecard (BSC) for their performance evaluation (PE). This research aims to provide a tool that engages health care workers (HCWs) in BSC implementation (BSC-HCW1). Additionally, it seeks to translate and validate it at Palestinian hospitals. In a cross-sectional study, 454 questionnaires were retrieved from 14 hospitals. The composite reliability (CR), interitem correlation (IIC), and corrected item total correlation (CITC) were evaluated. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used. In both EFA and CFA, the scale demonstrated a good level of model fit. All the items had loadings greater than 0.50. All factors passed the discriminant validity. Although certain factors’ convergent validity was less than 0.50, their CR, IIC, and CITC were adequate. The final best fit model had nine factors and 28 items in CFA. The BSC-HCW1 is the first self-administered questionnaire to engage HCWs in assessing the BSC dimensions following all applicable rules and regulations. The findings revealed that this instrument’s psychometric characteristics were adequate. Therefore, the BSC-HCW1 can be utilized to evaluate BSC perspectives and dimensions. It will help managers highlight which BSC dimension predicts HCW satisfaction and loyalty and examine differences depending on HCWs’ and hospital characteristics.

Összefoglaló. Bevezetés: A perifériás verőérbetegség napjaink egyik világméretű népegészségügyi problémája, több mint 200 millió embert érint világszerte. A Peripheral Artery Disease Quality of Life (PADQOL) kérdőívet azzal a céllal fejlesztették ki, hogy a betegség fizikai tünetein kívül annak szubjektív betegségterhét, pszichoszociális és emocionális hatásait is vizsgálja. Célkitűzés: Az eredeti, angol nyelvű PADQOL betegségspecifikus, önkitöltős kérdőív magyar nyelvű, érvényes változatának kifejlesztése, annak fordítása, kultúrközi adaptációja és magyar nyelvi validálása. Módszerek: Az életminőség-kérdőív lingvisztikai validálása nemzetközi protokoll alapján történt: két szakfordító külön-külön lefordította a kérdőívet angol forrásnyelvről magyarra; egy harmadik szakfordító bevonásával elkészült a két verzió szintézise, majd azt két, angol anyanyelvű fordító visszafordította angol forrásnyelvre, amit konszenzusmegbeszélés követett. A „pre-final” magyar verzió érthetőségét 30, angiológiai járó és fekvő beteg bevonásával, kognitív interjúk lefolytatásával, pilotvizsgálat során teszteltük. A PADQOL kérdőív faktorstruktúrájának feltárásához faktoranalízist végeztünk, az alskálák megbízhatóságát, a tételek belső konzisztenciáját a Cronbach-alfa-együttható kiszámításával vizsgáltuk. Az elemzésekhez IBM SPSS 23.0 programcsomagot használtunk. Eredmények: A PADQOL nyelvi validálása jelentéstani, tapasztalati és idiomatikus ekvivalencia tekintetében nem jelentett nehézséget. A kognitív interjúk során egy kérdés esetén tapasztaltunk értelmezési nehézséget. A kérdőív „pre-final” verziója tartalmilag és nyelvileg könnyen érthető, kitöltése nem okoz nehézséget. Az egyes dimenziók Cronbach-α-értéke 0,624 és 0,887 között volt. A legrosszabb értéket a Félelem és bizonytalanság (score-átlag: 14,07) életminőség-dimenzió mutatta. Következtetés: Létrehoztuk a PADQOL kérdőív végső magyar verzióját, mely mérőeszköz alkalmas a nyelvi és kultúrközi adaptáció következő lépésének elvégzésére, nagyobb betegpopuláción történő pszichometriai és klinikometriai vizsgálat által a perifériás verőérbetegek életminőségének, szubjektív betegségterhének felmérését célzó validálásra. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(51): 2153–2161. Summary. Introduction: Peripheral artery disease is one of the greatest, global public health concerns affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. The Peripheral Artery Disease Quality of Life questionnaire was developed to assess the subjective disease burden of peripheral artery disease, by focusing on psychosocial and emotional effects besides physical symptoms and functional limitations. Objective: To develop the valid Hungarian version of the original PADQOL via the standard linguistic validation and cross-cultural adaptation procedure. Methods: The linguistic validation was conducted according to an international protocol: two independent forward translations, a synthesis of the translations, back translations and consensus team review. The pilot-testing of the ’pre-final’ Hungarian version was conducted via cognitive interviews with 30 in- and outpatients attending the Department of Angiology. Factor analysis was performed, Cronbach-alpha values were calculated to establish the reliability of subscales and to determine the internal consistency if items. IBM SPSS 23.0 was used. Results: The linguistic validation of PADQOL into Hungarian posed no difficulties in terms of semantic, experiential and idiomatic equivalence. One item was found difficult to interpret during cognitive interviewing. The ‘pre-final’ version of the questionnaire was easy to understand and complete. Cronbach-alpha values of factors ranged between 0.624 and 0.887. The lowest value was that of factor 4: Fear and Uncertainty (mean score: 14.07). Conclusion: The linguistic validation of PADQOL into Hungarian was successful, the final Hungarian version is a tool that should reveal valuable insights with regard to subjective disease burden of patients living with peripheral artery disease subsequent to psychometric and clinicometric validation on a larger patient population. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(51): 2153–2161.

Objective: Patient safety and adverse event analysis are of paramount importance in the management of patient medication, given the significant economic burden they place on a country’s healthcare system. Medication errors fall into the category of preventable adverse drug therapy events and are therefore of key importance from a patient safety perspective. Our study aims to identify the types of medication errors associated with the medication dispensing process and to determine whether automated individual medication dispensing with pharmacist intervention significantly reduces medication errors, thereby increasing patient safety, compared to traditional, ward base medication dispensing (by a nurse). Method: A prospective, quantitative, doubleblind point prevalence study was conducted in three inpatient internal medicine wards of Komló Hospital in February 2018 and 2020. We analyzed data from comparisons of prescribed and non-prescribed oral medications in 83 and 90 patients per year aged 18 years or older with different diagnoses treated for internal medicine on the same day and in the same ward. In the 2018 cohort, medication was traditionally dispensed by a ward nurse, while in the 2020 cohort, it used automated individual medication dispensing with pharmacist intervention. Transdermally administered, parenteral and patient-introduced preparations were excluded from our study. Results: We identified the most common types of errors associated with drug dispensing. The overall error rate in the 2020 cohort was significantly lower (0.9%) than in the 2018 cohort (18.1%) (p < 0.05). Medication errors were observed in 51% of patients in the 2018 cohort, i.e. 42 patients, of which 23 had multiple errors simultaneously. In contrast, in the 2020 cohort, a medication error occurred in 2%, i.e. 2 patients (p < 0.05). When evaluating the potential clinical consequences of medication errors, in the 2018 cohort, the proportion of potentially significant errors was 76.2% and potentially serious errors 21.4%, whereas in the 2020 cohort, only three medication errors were identified in the potentially significant category due to pharmacist intervention, which was significantly lower (p < 0.05). Polypharmacy was detected in 42.2% of patients in the first study and in 12.2% (p < 0.05) in the second study. Conclusion: Automated individual medication dispensing with pharmacist intervention is a suitable method to increase the safety of hospital medication, reduce medication errors, and thus improve patient safety. Pharmacy Practice is a free full-text journal with a scope on the practice of pharmacy. Pharmacy Practice covers pharmaceutical care, social pharmacy, pharmacy education, process and outcome research, health promotion and education, health informatics, pharmacoepidemiology

Intermittent claudication is a frequent complaint in lower extremity artery disease, but approximately two thirds of patients are asymptomatic, most of which are diabetic patients. Non-invasive angiological and microrheological tests on diabetic subjects with and without intermittent claudication were performed in the present study. In total, 98 diabetic patients were included and divided into two groups: 20 patients (63.5 ± 8.8 years, 55% men, 45% women) had intermittent claudication, 78 patients (65.5 ± 9.3 years, 61.5% men, 38.5% women) were asymptomatic. Hand-held Doppler ultrasound examination, transcutaneous tissue partial oxygen pressure (tcpO₂) measurement, Rydel–Seiffer tuning fork tests, and 6-min walk tests were performed, and erythrocyte aggregation was investigated. Ankle–brachial index (p < 0.02) and tcpO₂, measured during provocation tests (p < 0.003) and the 6-min walk test (p < 0.0001), significantly deteriorated in the symptomatic group. A higher erythrocyte aggregation index and faster aggregate formation was observed in claudication patients (p < 0.02). Despite the statistically better results of the asymptomatic group, 13% of these patients had severe limb ischemia based on the results of tcpO₂ measurement. Claudication can be associated with worse hemodynamic and hemorheological conditions in diabetic patients; however, severe ischemia can also develop in asymptomatic subjects. Non-invasive vascular tests can detect ischemia, which highlights the importance of early instrumental screening of the lower limbs.