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From
the Editor
In this issue of the journal
various papers from the Region have discussed
topics from diabetes to nutrition to hernia
and educational issues. A paper from Sudan assessed
the nutritional status in relation to clinical
presentations, anthropometrical measurements
& hemoglobin level and to determine the
adequacy of food given in energy in orphan children
under 5 years old at Mygoma orphanage in Sudan.
This Cross- sectional, descriptive, institution
based study includes 123 children living in
Mygoma orphanage during the study time. Although
the energy was adequate in 100% of the population
according to the caloric requirement of each
age group, underweight, < -2 SD was found
in 30 children (24.4%). Severe underweight,
-3 SD was found in 59 children (48%). When assessing
height/length for age, Stunting (chronic malnutrition),
<-2 SD was found in 25 orphans (20.3%), and
severe stunting was found in 31 (25.2%). The
authors concluded that the incidence of malnutrition
is high in Mygoma orphanage. Further studies
are needed to determine the causes of malnutrition
in this section of the community.
A prospective study conducted at Jordanian
Field Hospital in Ein Shams, Cairo explored
the frequency of Palmaris longus tendon absence
among 700 patients in an Egyptian population
and to compare it with other populations. A
total of 700 Patients, aged between 8-84 years
.Overall prevalence of absence of Palmaris longus
was 34.3%. Bilateral absence of Palmaris longus
was present in15.2%, while in 19.1% of Patients
was unilateral which was more common on the
right side (54%) but without statistical significance
(P value=0.6). The authors concluded that the
frequency of Palmaris longus absence in the
Egyptian population was found to be 34.3% with
no statistical significance regarding gender,
body side and hand dominance which is compatible
with other middle east countries studied.
Across-sectional study from Eygpt assessed
the prevalence of depression and Predictors
of glycemic control among type 2 diabetes mellitus
patients at family medicine clinic Suez Canal
university hospital. Patients with type 2 diabetes
mellitus (300 participants) were selected by
systematic random sampling technique and assessed
for depression using Patient Health Questionnaire
9 (PHQ 9). The prevalence of depression among
type 2 diabetic outpatients was 69.0%, three-quarters
of the studied population had poor glycemic
control (74.3%), and the predictors for glycemic
control were depression, the presence of other
comorbidities and diabetic complications. The
authors concluded that the prevalence of depression
among type 2 diabetic was very high and was
a predictor for glycemic control. So screening,
management of depression among diabetic patients
and more effort by multidisciplinary health
care for patients with diabetes is recommended
to achieve good glycemic control are recommended.
A paper from Saudi Arabia investigated the
effectiveness of the problem based teaching
integration in medical schools compared with
traditional teaching on residents EBM performance.
They conducted a questionnaire based, cross-sectional
survey among all residents from various medical
specialties for 6 years from 2008 to 2013. Two
hundred twenty nine first year residents participated
in the study. 75.3% of the participant had evidence
based medicine in their curricula either in
the academic or clinical years or both. Majority
of participants feel that evidence based medicine
helped them on their daily patient care practice.
A paper from Lebanon looked at the effect of
a training on motivational public speaking skills
on fifth graders’ oral skills achievement
in a local private school in Beirut. The quantitative
approach was adopted where the total number
of learners in the study was 48. The sample
was divided into two groups, where the control
group had 25 learners from a fifth grade class,
and the experimental group had 23 learners from
another section. The averages of the oral skills
achievement grades of both groups were recorded
prior to and after the intervention period on
the first and second trimesters respectively.
The intervention covered two training modules
on motivation and public speaking skills from
the “Changing Tomorrow” program (VanTassel-Baska
& Avery, 2013). The training was implemented
for the experimental group over a period of
three months. After that, the results were analyzed
using independent sample T-tests and paired
sample T-tests. The findings showed a statistically
significant increase in the oral skills achievement
scores of the experimental group.
A paper from Iran aimed to determine the relationship
between sexual esteem, sexual conscious and
sexual satisfaction and marital satisfaction.
200 of the married university students were
selected and asked to fill out the Multidimensional
Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ), Larson’s
Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire and ENRICH
Marital Satisfaction Scale. The coefficients
of correlation between sexual esteem and sexual
conscious obtained for marital satisfaction
were 0.37 and 0.32, respectively. The results
of multivariate regression have shown that the
sexual esteem, sexual conscious and sexual satisfaction
variables have been able to explain about 73.7%
of variances of marital satisfaction. Evaluating
sexual issues in couple therapy seems to be
essential and these variables must be seriously
considered in therapeutic interventions.
An update on Hernia from the Melbourne Hernia
Clinic looked at the role of mesh and the role
of day surgery in hernia management. The authors
stressed the role of mesh and local anesthetic
in reducing complications.
Chief Editor:
A. Abyad
MD, MPH, AGSF, AFCHSE
Email: aabyad@cyberia.net.lb
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