There are about 72 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Jamaica. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
This study is a cluster randomized trial carried out in schools of secondary cities of four low- and middle income countries. Baseline surveys in 30 randomly selected schools will assess the health behaviours of 13-17 year old students as well as school policies and practices. The intervention arm (15 schools) will use the baseline information to develop a package of actions in collaboration with students, teachers, and local authorities that will subsequently be implemented an monitored over two years. Follow-up surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented actions will be conducted after two years in all 30 previously selected schools.
PEACH is a pilot project which is being conducted to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a 12-week home-based exercise intervention among Black and African American adults. A secondary aim of the project is to determine whether the exercise intervention improves cognitive and psychological functioning.
This study examined the effects of combined-modality exercise training (resistance, endurance, flexibility and balance) on muscle mass, muscle function and physical activity in community-dwelling elderly living in Jamaica who had been characterised as having sarcopenia.
In early 2020 there were no approved anti-viral treatments for COVID19 Infection. The SOLIDARITY trial is a multicentre adaptive international randomised trial sponsored by Word Health Organization to determine the efficacy of Remdesivir (daily infusion for 10 days), or Acalabrutinib (orally twice daily for 10 days), or Interferon β1a(daily injection for 6 days) compared with local standard of care in patients admitted to hospital for COVID19 infection on all-cause mortality, stratified by severity of disease at the time of randomisation. The major secondary outcomes are duration of hospital stay and time to first receiving ventilation (or intensive care).
Corona virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be a severe respiratory illness caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV2) for which there is no standard treatment in affected persons nor a vaccine to prevent the infection. The investigators propose to test whether the use of Convalescent plasma given to patients with severe COVID-19 disease will decrease risk of death, decrease use of ventilatory support decrease biomarkers of inflammation and improve measures of viral replication compared with controls subjects who were not transfused.Convalescent plasma, will be collected from persons who are more than 21 days post negative viral testing or 28 days post resolution of symptoms.
Dexamethasone is one of many adjuncts tested to prolong the duration of spinal anesthesia and its analgesic effect. The intent of this, a single-site, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial, is to determine if a single intravenous (IV) 8 mg dose of Dexamethasone given after clamping of the umbilical cord at Caesarean section will prolong the duration of analgesia provided by spinal anesthesia when compared to placebo. This has the power to determine if the findings in previous studies hold true in the population of women who undergo C-sections at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital. This method does not require expert skill and equipment, as such, it can be easily implemented, with no major adverse effects in the population described and provide an effective option for multimodal analgesia.
One in 300 Jamaicans have HbSS sickle cell disease, and of these, up to 70% will suffer from sickle cell leg ulcers (SCLUs). Of these, 24% will have a chronic SCLU (one lasting longer than 6 months). SCLUs heal very slowly, and sometimes they never close. SCLU patients would benefit from an economical, less painful, dressing option. In addition, because SCLUs often compromise education and employment opportunities, improving wound care for this population benefits their entire community. This three-armed evaluator-blinded randomized controlled trial will determine if a cut-to-fit food-grade plastic-based improvised dressing decreases pain, improves quality of life, and is safe, effective, and acceptable for managing SCLUs in Jamaica. The negative control will be usual practice, and the positive control will be the advanced wound dressing with the strongest evidence supporting its use in a tropical climate (polymeric membrane dressing). Patients with SCLUs will be actively recruited from three adjacent parishes. The first 120 SCLU patients meeting study criteria presenting to UHWI, Mona, will be randomized immediately after initial cleansing/debriding into group (1) current usual practice, group (2) improvised dressings, or group (3) advanced dressings. Data will be added to each participant's data collection tool weekly. Results will be reported using descriptive statistics and ANCOVA. The expected outcome is both improvised and advanced dressing superiority to usual practice. Because proposed improvised dressing materials are easily obtainable, their use would increase the capacity of wound patients to safely and effectively care for themselves. Signed informed consent will be obtained from patients/parents. Only principal research investigators will have access to participant confidential information. The literature review demonstrates that risks are not higher than usual practice.
Many of the Caribbean island nations have no data on iodine status in their populations. Iodine deficiency in children can reduce IQ but can be easily corrected through a program of salt iodization. The study will be located at 11 islands of the Caribbean region. At each of the 11 study sites, we will measure the iodine status in school-age children by collecting morning spot urine samples for measurement of urinary iodine concentration (UIC). We will also measure height and weight in all children. We will collect a repeat, next-day spot urine sample in 1/3rd of children to adjust for intra-individual variation in spot UIC and calculate the distribution of population intake.
Dietary Protein quality is based on digestion of proteins to amino acids and the bioavailability of the amino acids to maintain good health and body function. Currently, digestibility of proteins, which is measured as the difference between protein intake and faecal loss, is underestimated. This is because, in addition to loss from dietary proteins, faecal loss includes additional protein from gut secretions and bacteria residing in the large intestine. The expert committee on protein quality suggested that a minimally invasive accurate method based on Dual Stable Isotope Tracer approach (non-radioactive) could be developed. This method is based on the concept that if amino acids in proteins become labelled with an isotopic tracer within the food matrix, their appearance in the blood gives a measure of bioavailability. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) are promoting peas and beans to combat poverty, hunger and malnutrition because they are relatively less expensive sources of protein. We hypothesized that digestibility of protein in the common bean and absorption of amino acids is higher than current estimates. The aim of this proposal is to conduct a study in 12 healthy adults, aged 20 to 45 years, to test a novel method to assess protein quality of the common bean using the isotopic approach. The Scientific Research Council will grow the labelled beans by adding a tracer dose of deuterium to the irrigation water. The beans are prepared a typical Jamaican meal for consumption. The meal is mixed with a labelled reference protein (U-13C-spirulina) which is universally (U) labelled with stable isotope 13-Carbon (13C) to estimate digestibility; and the amino acid, phenylalanine, in which the 6 ring carbon atoms are labelled with 13C (ring-13C6- phenylalanine) to provide an index of amino acids absorption. Before and after consumption of the meal, samples of blood, breath and urine will be taken. These samples and a sample of the diet will be analysed for amino acids composition and deuterium enrichment using mass-spectrometry. The appearance of each labelled essential amino acid in blood from the bean protein will be calculated. The data will provide accurate date on amino acids bioavailability from the common bean that will be useful for dietary guideline for good health.
This study is being done to find the effect of Dibenzyl Trisulphide (active ingredient in Guinea Hen Weed in combination in patients with stage four cancer of the breast, prostate, cervix and colon.