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.
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.
Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted over five months among King Khalid University students, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Results: Among all the study participants, nearly 98.7% were practicing self-medication. Headache (75.9%), cough and cold (52.5%), and fever (35.6%) and body pain (24.6%) were the most reported symptoms. Use of painkillers (91.6%) was significantly predominant among the medical students, whereas non-medical students used antibiotics (35.4%).Time saving (64.2%), mild symptom (51.7%) and quick relief (36.9%) were the reasons behind seeking self-medication in this study.
Conclusion: Self-medications was common in King Khalid University. Educational programs are highly recommended.
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.