METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used to collect information from 502 Nepalese migrant workers in the arrival section of Tribhuvan International Airport from May to June 2019 using purposive sampling. Workers with a minimum work experience of 6 months and above were included in the study. A structured questionnaire with socio-demographic items was used along with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and WHO (five) wellbeing scale for measuring the subjective psychological wellbeing and screening for depression.
RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 32.97 years. Majority (41.8%) of the respondents had work experience in Qatar and 63.7% had work experience of 1-5 years. The results suggested that 14.4% had mild to severe depression while 4.4% had a moderate level of anxiety. The WHO5 wellbeing index score suggested that 14.1% of the respondents had a score below 13, which is suggestive of poor psychological wellbeing. Further, the country of work (p = 0.043), sleeping hours (p = 0.001), occupation (p = 0.044), working hours (p = 0.000), water intake (p = 0.010) and anxiety level (p = 0.000) were found to be significantly associated with depression score. Similarly, sleeping hours (p = 0.022), occupation (p = 0.016), working hours (p = 0.000), water intake (p = 0.010), and anxiety level (0.000) were significantly associated with the WHO5 wellbeing score.
CONCLUSIONS: Nepalese migrant workers in the Gulf countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain) and Malaysia bear an important burden of psychological morbidities. This highlights the need to prioritize the migrant worker's mental health by Nepal as well as Gulf countries and Malaysia.
METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey-based study was conducted among randomly selected pharmacy students in 12 countries: Egypt, Türkiye, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Jordan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. After pilot testing, the validated 30-item academic resilience scale (ARS) was used for the assessment. The data were collected between November 1, 2022 and April 15, 2023. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed, as appropriate.
RESULTS: A total of 3950 were received from the 12 participating countries. The mean age was 21.68 ± 2.62 years. About two-thirds of the responses were from female participants and those studying for Bachelor of Pharmacy degrees. Overall, the findings show moderate academic resilience, which varied across countries. The median (IQR) of the total ARS-30 was 114 (103-124). Females exhibited lower negative affective and emotional response subscale levels than males. There were significant cross-country variations in the ARS-30 and all subscales. The highest overall levels were reported for Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria and the lowest were reported for Indonesia and Türkiye. Students in private universities tended to have higher overall ARS levels than public university students. Higher academic performance was significantly associated with ARS levels, whereas those with excellent performance exhibited the highest ARS levels. Students with exercise routines had higher ARS levels than those without exercise routines. Finally, students who were engaged in extracurricular activities had higher ARS levels than those who did not participate in these activities.
CONCLUSION: The study offers insights into the factors affecting academic resilience in pharmacy students across several countries. The findings could guide interventions and support activities to improve resilience and academic outcomes.
DESIGN: Quasi-experimental study consisting of a single group before-and-after study design.
SETTING: A public emergency hospital in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
PARTICIPANTS: 660 (preintervention) and then 498 (postintervention) handwritten physician orders, medication administration records (MRAs) and pharmacy dispensing sheets of 482 and 388 patients, respectively, from emergency wards, inpatient settings and the pharmacy department were reviewed.
INTERVENTION: The intervention consisted of a series of interactive lectures delivered by an experienced clinical pharmacist to all hospital staff members and dissemination of educational tools (flash cards, printed list of HRAs, awareness posters) designed in line with the recommendations of the Institute for Safe Medical Practices and the US Food and Drug Administration. The duration of intervention was from April to May 2011.
MAIN OUTCOME: Reduction in the incidence of HRAs use from the preintervention to postintervention study period.
FINDINGS: The five most common abbreviations recorded prior to the interventions were 'IJ for injection' (28.6%), 'SC for subcutaneous' (17.4%), drug name and dose running together (9.7%), 'OD for once daily' (5.8%) and 'D/C for discharge' (4.3%). The incidence of the use of HRAs was highest in discharge prescriptions and dispensing records (72.7%) followed by prescriptions from in-patient wards (47.3%). After the intervention, the overall incidence of HRA was significantly reduced by 52% (ie, 53.6% vs 25.5%; p=0.001). In addition, there was a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of HRAs across all three settings: the pharmacy department (72.7% vs 39.3%), inpatient settings (47.3% vs 23.3%) and emergency wards (40.9% vs 10.7%).
CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacist-led educational interventions can significantly reduce the use of HRAs by healthcare providers. Future research should investigate the long-term effectiveness of such educational interventions through a randomised controlled trial.
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This randomised controlled trial will involve an intervention group receiving BRM and standard labour care, and a control group receiving only standard labour care. Primigravidae of 26-34 weeks of gestation without chronic diseases or pregnancy-related complications will be recruited from antenatal clinics. Eligible and consenting patients will be randomly allocated to the intervention or the control group stratified by intramuscular pethidine use. The BRM intervention will be delivered by a trained massage therapist. The primary outcomes of labour pain and anxiety will be measured during and after uterine contractions at baseline (cervical dilatation 6 cm) and post BRM hourly for 2 hours. The secondary outcomes include maternal stress hormone (adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol and oxytocin) levels, maternal vital signs (V/S), fetal heart rate, labour duration, Apgar scores and maternal satisfaction. The sample size is estimated based on the between-group difference of 0.6 in anxiety scores, 95% power and 5% α error, which yields a required sample size of 154 (77 in each group) accounting for a 20% attrition rate. The between-group and within-group outcome measures will be examined with mixed-effect regression models, time series analyses and paired t-test or equivalent non-parametric tests, respectively.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects of the Ministry of Health in the Saudi Arabia (H-02-K-076-0319-109) on 14 April 2019, and from the Ethics Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects (JKEUPM) Universiti Putra Malaysia on 23 October 2019, reference number: JKEUPM-2019-169. Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants. Results from this trial will be presented at regional, national and international conferences and published in indexed journals.
TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN87414969, registered 3 May 2019.
METHODS: A total of 151 P. falciparum isolates were collected between April 2018 and March 2019 from 12 of the governorates in Jazan region. Genomic DNA was extracted from dried blood spots and amplified using nested PCR. Polymorphisms in the propeller domain of the P. falciparum k13 (pfkelch13) gene and point mutations in the P. falciparum dihydrofolate reductase (pfdhfr) and dihydropteroate synthase (pfdhps) genes were identified by sequencing.
RESULTS: No mutations in the pfkelch13 propeller domain were found in any of the 151 isolates. However, point mutations in the pfdhfr and pfdhps genes were detected in 90.7% (137/151) of the isolates. The pfdhfr double mutations N51I + S108N (i.e. ACICNI haplotype) and triple mutations N51I + C59R + S108N (i.e. ACIRNI haplotype) were detected in 47% and 37.8% of the isolates, respectively. Moreover, the pfdhps single mutation at codon A437G and double mutations A437G + K540E (i.e. SGEAAI haplotype) were observed in 4.6% and 51.7% of the isolates, respectively. Interestingly, 23.8%, 25.1 and 12.6% of the isolates had quintuple, quadruple and triple mutated combined pfdhfr-pfdhps genotypes, respectively. Furthermore, significant associations were found between the prevalence of mutant haplotypes and the age, gender and nationality of the patients (P Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula. Despite the absence of the pfkelch13 mutation in the isolates examined, the pfdhfr and pfdhps mutations undermine the efficacy of SP partner drug, thereby threatening the main falciparum malaria treatment policy in Saudi Arabia, i.e. the use of AS + SP. Therefore, the continuous molecular and in-vivo monitoring of ACT efficacy in Jazan region is highly recommended.
METHODS: A knowledge attitude perception questioner was adopted from a previous study conducted in Greece by Panagakou et al. Raosoft online sample size calculator calculated the sample size by adding the total estimated Makkah population of 5,979,719 with a response rate of 30%, 5% margin of error and 99% confidence interval. Based on the described criteria five hundred & fifty-eight was the required sample size of the study. Incomplete questioners were excluded from the statistical analysis. SPSS version 21 was used to analyse data and to produce descriptive statistics.
RESULTS: Most of the mothers (95%) responded among parents. 67% had no health insurance to cover medications costs. Most of them (74%) were related to medium income level. Seventy per cent of the parents believed physicians as a source of information for judicious antibiotics use. Interestingly, only 8% were agreed that most of the upper respiratory tract infections are caused by viral reasons. Majority of Saudi parents (53%) expect pediatricians to prescribe antimicrobials for their children for symptoms like a cough, nose discharge, sore throat and fever. Moreover, most the parents had the poor knowledge to differentiate commonly used OTC medications for URTI and antibiotics like Augmentin (Co-amoxiclav), Ceclor (cefaclor) and Erythrocin (Erythromycin). While comparing males and female's knowledge level, few males have identified Amoxil (Amoxicillin). Similarly, parents of age 20-30 years have good knowledge about the antibiotics.
CONCLUSIONS: Majority of Saudi parents believe in pediatricians and use antibiotics on physician's advice. Most of them expect antibiotics from their physicians as a primary treatment for upper respiratory tract infections. There is need for more educational activities to parents by the pharmacists to prevent antibiotics overuse among children.
METHODS: A series of searches were conducted of Medline databases published in English between January 2000 and January 2017 with the following keywords: medical ethics, syllabus, Islam, jurisprudence.
RESULTS: Islamic medical jurisprudence is gaining more attention in some medical schools. However, there is still lack of an organised syllabus in many medical colleges.
CONCLUSION: The outlines of a syllabus in Islamic medical jurisprudence including Islamic values and moral principles related to both the practice and research of medicine are explored.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study showed that date seed had great nutritional value due to which it can be used for food applications especially as frying or cooking oil. In addition, date oil has also potential to be used in cosmetic and pharmaceutical practices as well. The extraction of oil from Phoenix dactylifera seed on large scale can create positive socioeconomic benefits especially for rural communities and could also assist to resolve the environmental issues generated by excess date production in large scale date-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia.