MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective online questionnaire based survey was carried out among the pharmacy students about knowledge, attitude perception and practice of antibiotics using 5-point "Likert scale" and true/false responses. The responses range from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and always to never were recorded. The data were analysed by using simple descriptive statistics.
RESULTS: Out of 300 students approached 212 responded and the response rate was found to be 71%. In this study, most (95%) of the students were aware of the emerging problem of antibiotic resistance due to inappropriate use of antibiotics. Majority (89%) of the students agreed the inappropriate use of antibiotics can increase the overall cost of treatment. However, over half of the (54%) students were not aware of the antibiotic resistance that may be a nation-wide problem of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The net positive response (NPR) and net other response (NOR) of all items in perception on antibiotics received more or less equal responses.
CONCLUSION: The knowledge of antibiotics usage among the students are considerably good compared with previous studies. However, the attitude, perception and practice on antibiotics usage among the pharmacy students are very poor. It alarms the need of appropriate education to enlighten antibiotic awareness for the better disease prevention and health outcomes for the benefit of patient community.
Methods: A multi-center cross sectional study was conducted for a month in out-patient wards of hospitals in Khobar, Dammam, Makkah, and Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Patients were randomly selected from a registered patient pools at hospitals and the item-subject ratio was kept at 1:20. The tool was assessed for factorial, construct, convergent, known group and predictive validities as well as, reliability and internal consistency of scale were also evaluated. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were also evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS v24 and MedCalc v19.2. The study was approved by concerned ethics committees (IRB-129-25/6/1439) and (IRB-2019-05-002).
Results: A total of 282 responses were received. The values for normed fit index (NFI), comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker Lewis index (TLI) and incremental fit index (IFI) were 0.960, 0.979, 0.954 and 0.980. All values were >0.95. The value for root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was 0.059, i.e., <0.06. Hence, factorial validity was established. The average factor loading of the scale was 0.725, i.e., >0.7, that established convergent validity. Known group validity was established by obtaining significant p-value <0.05, for the associations based on hypotheses. Cronbach's α was 0.865, i.e., >0.7. Predictive validity was established by evaluating odds ratios (OR) of demographic factors with adherence score using logistic regression. Sensitivity was 78.16%, specificity was 76.85% and, accuracy of the tool was 77.66%, i.e., >70%.
Conclusion: The Arabic version of GMAS achieved all required statistical parameters and was validated in Saudi patients with chronic diseases.
METHODS: The validated Grasha-Riechmann teaching style inventory was administered online for data collection and used SPSS version 20.0 for statistical analysis.
RESULTS: Of the 460 invitees, 248 responded (response rate; 54%). Delegator teaching style was most common with a highest median and mean of 2.38 and 2.45, respectively. There was a significant correlation between expert and authority teaching styles, correlation coefficient 0.62. Similarly, we found a significant correlation between authority teaching style and nature of curriculum, correlation coefficient 0.30. Multiple regression analysis showed that only authority teaching style and male gender had significant correlation. Interestingly, 117 (47%) teachers disagreed with the teaching philosophy of delivering course contents by strictly following learning outcomes. Female teachers (114/248) were more willing to negotiate with their students regarding how and what to teach in their course, while male teachers tended to allow more autonomy by allowing students to set their learning agenda.
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the medical teachers preferred delegator teacher style that promotes students' collaboration and peer-to-peer learning. Most teachers are conscious of their teaching styles to motivate students for scientific curiosity. These findings can help medical educators to modify their teaching styles for effective learning.
METHODS: To retrieve documents related to pharmaceutical wastewater, we used the Scopus database on November 21, 2015. All documents with terms related to pharmaceutical wastewater in the title or abstract were analysed. Results obtained from Arab countries were compared with those obtained from Turkey, Iran and Israel.
RESULTS: Globally, a total of 6360 publications were retrieved while those from Arab countries, Iran, Turkey and Israel, were 179, 113, 96 and 54 publications respectively. The highest share of publications belonged to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with a total of 47 (26.2 %) publications, followed by Egypt (38; 21.2 %), Tunisia (17; 9.5 %) and Morocco (16; 8.9 %). The total number of citations was 1635, with a mean of 9.13 and a median (inter quartile range) of 3 (1.0-10.0). The study identified 87 (48.6 %) documents with 32 countries of international collaboration with Arab countries. It was noted that Arab researchers collaborated mainly with authors in Western Europe (54; 30.2 %), followed by authors from the Asiatic region (29; 16.2 %) and Northern America (15; 8.4 %). The most productive institution was King Saud University, KSA (13; 7.3 %), followed by the National Research Centre, Egypt (10; 7.3 %).
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that KSA has the largest share of productivity on pharmaceutical wastewater research. Bibliometric analysis demonstrated that research productivity, mainly from Arab countries in pharmaceutical wastewater research, was relatively lagging behind. More research effort is required for Arab countries to catch up with those of non-Arab Middle Easter countries on pharmaceutical wastewater research.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study included 472 CT scans (236 males and 236 females; age range, 18-72 years). The foramen magnum shapes were classified into 8 types: oval, egg, round, hexagonal, pentagonal, tetragonal, irregular (A) and irregular (B). The intraobserver and interobserver test was done to calculate the reliability of the measurement. Eight dimensions of the FM and occipital condyle were evaluated to determine the sexual dimorphism using an independent t-test. Sex determination was estimated using discriminate function analysis.
RESULTS: The commonest shape of FM was hexagonal and the tetragonal shape was the least common type. Coefficient of reliability (R) was high, ranging between 0.89 and 0.99, which indicates the measurements are reliable and sufficiently precise. All the eight measurements, the FM length and width, FM index, FM area, the width and length of right and left occipital condyles were significantly greater in males than the female. Univariate discriminant function showed an accuracy rate varying from 61% to 66.6% based on FM or occipital condyles measurements. The multivariate analysis of FM and occipital condyle measurements increased the overall accuracy rate of sex determination to 71.6%.
CONCLUSION: The univariate analysis of FM and occipital condyle measurements indicates, that the FM area (66.1%), FML (62.5%), FMW (62.5%) and ROCL (62.1%) could be reliable individual variables in sex determination. The multivariate analysis including all the eight variables of FM and occipital condyle increased the accuracy rate of sex determination to 71.6% in determining the sex as male (73.3%) or female (69.9%). The shape of the FM is not useful in sex estimation. The results obtained showed a low degree of sexual dimorphism in the basicranium, the use of this method in forensic anthropology could be helpful for assessment on highly fragmented skull bases.
METHODS: A month-long cross-sectional study was conducted in health and non-health colleges affiliated to Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Convenient sampling was employed, and the data was gathered through an online survey using the English and Arabic versions of the Dietary Supplement Questionnaire (DSQ). The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 and Medcalc. The study was approved by an ethics committee.
RESULTS: Data from 545 participants was collected. The overall prevalence of dietary supplement use was 32.7% (95% CI: 29.06%- 36.51%). The prevalence was 29.77% (95% CI: 25.29%- 34.56%) among students at all health colleges combined and, it was 37.50% (95% CI: 31.36%- 43.96%) among students at all non-health colleges. Most students used a brand product, spent a monthly cost of SAR 286 (USD 76.3) on supplements and agreed that supplements were good for health (N = 392, 71.9%). Students from non-health- colleges agreed that dietary supplements are good for health in greater numbers as compared to non-health college students (p < 0.001). Students aged ≥ 20 years, studying in a non-health college and up to 3rd year of study, were more 2 times more likely to agree that dietary supplements are good for health.
CONCLUSION: Supplements were commonly used among female students at this university however, it was quite low as compared to students from other local and regional universities. Prevalence was higher in non-health colleges as compared to health colleges and the most commonly used supplements were brand products and, multivitamins, used for general health and well-being. This highlights the inclination of students towards supplement use.
Materials and Methods: An audit at the department of endodontics at dental specialty centre kingdom of Saudi Arabia was carried out. The audit was conducted by developing endodontics treatment and success predictors based on evidence, that can be measured for endodontic care. A total of 12 months' data was examined from the previous dental records. Ten clinical cards were which included root canal treatment were selected. The audit was carried out for a minimum of 50 teeth and a maximum of 200 teeth. The radiographs of record cards were studied and a single dentist completed the audit tool.
Results: The vitality test was performed in 1.98% cases, intra-canal medicament was used and named in 3.96% cases, 3.96% the teeth were extracted due to endodontic failure. Further, in 6.93% of the cases that were identified had certain spaces but overall root canal filling was evaluated as satisfactory.
Conclusion: The vitality test, type of intracanal medicament, and assessment of root canal filling were not done, but there was an overall performance of predictors for endodontic treatment.