Sports Nutrition Supplement Use: Comparison between a USA and a Palestinian community

This study was undertaken to examine nutritional supplement consumption and to compare results between study participants from fitness centers in Eastern Massachusetts, USA, and in the West Bank, Palestine. Participants (n=355) completed surveys detailing their exercise habits, nutritional supplement use, reasons for use, and any experienced side effects. Whey protein, vitamins and minerals, branched chain amino acids, and creatine were most commonly consumed. Independent samples t-tests revealed significantly higher supplement use in male participants and in those who believed supplement use improved exercise performance.Independent samples t-tests didn’t reveal significant differences in total supplement use by location (West Bank or USA), level of education, or whether they’d taken a nutrition course. There were significant differences between location and frequency of use of whey protein, branched-chain amino acids, multivitamin/minerals and weight loss products. West Bank participants used more whey protein and BCAA than USA participants. Participants from the West Bank were less likely to use multivitamin/mineral supplements and weight loss products than USA participants. Most commonly reported side effects were headaches, palpitations, and diarrhea. Nutritionists, trainers, coaches, and health educators may use this data to educate their clients about risks associated with consumption of supplements that are largely unregulated

The Effects of Electronic Waste Burning on Lead Concentration in Water and Blood in South West Hebron: Descriptive-Comparative Study

Electronic waste (E-waste) is a collective name for all electronic devices which have been expired of their useful life periods like discarded computers, computer peripherals, mobile phones, televisions, and others. E-waste has increased the total waste volume and after dismantling and burning, it releases various toxic and carcinogenic gases and metals which are posing a threat to human health and also contaminate the environment (Kowsar, Khan et al. 2010).Great acknowledge to the European Union for their financial support, this project was totally funded by the European Union commission in Jerusalem, under the theme of PFP projects. Also the authors would like to acknowledge Mohammad Thaineh, Teacher Physiotherapy Department Ahliya University for their contributions and assistance during all over the study stages. Great thanks go to Eng. Safa Sultan for her contribution in editing and final conceptualization of the report. Many thanks also go to the two municipalities of South west Hebron and Halhul for their cooperation. Special thanks to all participants for their voluntary participation and their time. Finally thanks go to the Medical Relief Society for their kindly cooperation

Assessing Nutritional Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices and their Association with Body Mass Index Among a Group of Students at Al-Quds University

Background: Good nutrition is essential for the growth, development and maintenance of health throughout life. Beyond the negative impact, malnutrition has on socio-economic development, lack of sufficient foods and quality food undermines the quality of health and the wellness of the population of all ages. Development in nutrition science has continued to show a linkage between health and nutrition since the 20th-century discovery on the consequences of malnutrition. Objective: The main objective of the study was to assess the nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices and their association with body mass index among a group of students from Al- Quds University. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted through a self-administered questionnaire given to a group of students from Al-Quds University. The questionnaire was designed based on earlier studies to meet the study objectives. The questions were translated into Arabic. The Inclusion criteria in this study included Bachelors's students from different faculties at Al-Quds University. The exclusion criteria included academic staff, pregnant and lactating females, higher studies students and administrative. The data were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Software (SPSS) version 20 using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. Results: Four hundred and nighty out of 500 distributed questionnaires were returned successfully. Over half (50.2%) of them were males. 66.3% of the participants had good nutritional knowledge, 61.8% had a positive attitude regarding healthy eating and 31.2% had good practices regarding healthy eating. The demographic character was not a significant predictor of nutritional attitude. However, there was a significant predictor between demographic character and nutritional knowledge and practices. There was a positive relationship at the level of significance p-value 0.005 or less and the alpha sign between attitude and practices, knowledge and attitude. Most of the students (53.35%) exhibited normal weight. Health professions and medical students had good nutritional knowledge compared to education science and business & economics students. Conclusion: The majority of the sample had good nutritional knowledge and practices. However, most of them shown a negative nutritional attitude regarding healthy eating. The university should develop a nutritional course to be taught as a university requirement course

Machine learning techniques for predicting depression and anxiety in pregnant and postpartum women during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional regional study

Background: Maternal depression and anxiety are significant public health concerns that play an important role in the health and well-being of mothers and children. The COVID-19 pandemic, the consequential lockdowns and related safety restrictions worldwide negatively affected the mental health of pregnant and postpartum women. Methods: This regional study aimed to develop a machine learning (ML) model for the prediction of maternal depression and anxiety. The study used a dataset collected from five Arab countries during the COVID-19 pandemic between July to December 2020. The population sample included 3569 women (1939 pregnant and 1630 postpartum) from five countries (Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain). The performance of seven machine learning algorithms was assessed for the prediction of depression and anxiety symptoms. Results: The Gradient Boosting (GB) and Random Forest (RF) models outperformed other studied ML algorithms with accuracy values of 83.3% and 83.2% for depression, respectively, and values of 82.9% and 81.3% for anxiety, respectively. The Mathew\u27s Correlation Coefficient was evaluated for the ML models; the Naïve Bayes (NB) and GB models presented the highest performance measures (0.63 and 0.59) for depression and (0.74 and 0.73) for anxiety, respectively. The features\u27 importance ranking was evaluated, the results showed that stress during pregnancy, family support, financial issues, income, and social support were the most significant values in predicting anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Overall, the study evidenced the power of ML models in predicting maternal depression and anxiety and proved to be an efficient tool for identifying and predicting the associated risk factors that influence maternal mental health. The deployment of machine learning models for screening and early detection of depression and anxiety among pregnant and postpartum women might facilitate the development of health prevention and intervention programs that will enhance maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries

Call for emergency action to restore dietary diversity and protect global food systems in times of COVID-19 and beyond: Results from a cross-sectional study in 38 countries

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the global food system, sending shockwaves across countries\u27 societies and economy. This has presented formidable challenges to sustaining a healthy and resilient lifestyle. The objective of this study is to examine the food consumption patterns and assess diet diversity indicators, primarily focusing on the food consumption score (FCS), among households in 38 countries both before and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 37 207 participants (mean age: 36.70 ± 14.79, with 77 % women) was conducted in 38 countries through an online survey administered between April and June 2020. The study utilized a pre-tested food frequency questionnaire to explore food consumption patterns both before and during the COVID-19 periods. Additionally, the study computed Food Consumption Score (FCS) as a proxy indicator for assessing the dietary diversity of households. Findings: This quantification of global, regional and national dietary diversity across 38 countries showed an increment in the consumption of all food groups but a drop in the intake of vegetables and in the dietary diversity. The household\u27s food consumption scores indicating dietary diversity varied across regions. It decreased in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, including Lebanon (p \u3c 0.001) and increased in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries including Bahrain (p = 0.003), Egypt (p \u3c 0.001) and United Arab Emirates (p = 0.013). A decline in the household\u27s dietary diversity was observed in Australia (p \u3c 0.001), in South Africa including Uganda (p \u3c 0.001), in Europe including Belgium (p \u3c 0.001), Denmark (p = 0.002), Finland (p \u3c 0.001) and Netherland (p = 0.027) and in South America including Ecuador (p \u3c 0.001), Brazil (p \u3c 0.001), Mexico (p \u3c 0.0001) and Peru (p \u3c 0.001). Middle and older ages [OR = 1.2; 95 % CI = [1.125–1.426] [OR = 2.5; 95 % CI = [1.951–3.064], being a woman [OR = 1.2; 95 % CI = [1.117–1.367], having a high education (p \u3c 0.001), and showing amelioration in food-related behaviors [OR = 1.4; 95 % CI = [1.292–1.709] were all linked to having a higher dietary diversity. Conclusion: The minor to moderate changes in food consumption patterns observed across the 38 countries within relatively short time frames could become lasting, leading to a significant and prolonged reduction in dietary diversity, as demonstrated by our findings

Sex disparities in food consumption patterns, dietary diversity and determinants of self-reported body weight changes before and amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 Arab countries

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic along with its confinement period boosted lifestyle modifications and impacted women and men differently which exacerbated existing gender inequalities. The main objective of this paper is to assess the gender-based differentials in food consumption patterns, dietary diversity and the determinants favoring weight change before and amid the COVID-19 pandemic among Arab men and women from 10 Arab countries. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted based on a convenience sample of 12,447 households' family members (mean age: 33.2 ± 12.9; 50.1% females) and information from participants aged 18 years and above was collected about periods before and during the pandemic. Results: Findings showed that, during the COVID-19 period, the dietary diversity, declined by 1.9% among females compared to males (0.4%) (p < 0.001) and by 1.5% among overweight participants (p < 0.001) compared to their counterparts. Conclusions: To conclude, gender-sensitive strategies and policies to address weight gain and dietary diversity during emergent shocks and pandemics are urgently needed in the region.This research was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (G047518N) and Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HBC.2018.0397). These funding sources had no role in the design of the study, the analysis and interpretation of the data or the writing, nor the decision to publish the manuscript.Scopu

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on smoking (waterpipe and cigarette) and participants' BMI across various sociodemographic groups in Arab countries in the Mediterranean Region

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco smokers are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19. Lockdown was a chosen strategy to deal with the spread of infectious diseases; nonetheless, it influenced people's eating and smoking behaviors. The main objective of this study is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on smoking (waterpipe and cigarette) behavior and its associations with sociodemographic characteristics and body mass index. METHODS: The data were derived from a large-scale retrospective cross-sectional study using a validated online international survey from 38 countries (n=37207) conducted between 17 April and 25 June 2020. The Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO-EMR countries) data related to 10 Arabic countries that participated in this survey have been selected for analysis in this study. A total of 12433 participants were included in the analysis of this study, reporting their smoking behavior and their BMI before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between smoking practices and the participant's country of origin, sociodemographic characteristics, and BMI (kg/m2). RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence rate of smoking decreased significantly during the lockdown from 29.8% to 23.5% (p<0.05). The percentage of females who smoke was higher than males among the studied population. The highest smoking prevalence was found in Lebanon (33.2%), and the lowest was in Oman (7.9%). In Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, the data showed a significant difference in the education level of smokers before and during the lockdown (p<0.05). Smokers in Lebanon had lower education levels than those in other countries, where the majority of smokers had a Bachelor's degree. The findings show that the BMI rates in Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, and Saudi Arabia significantly increased during the lockdown (p<0.05). The highest percentages of obesity among smokers before the lockdown were in Oman (33.3%), followed by Bahrain (28.4%) and Qatar (26.4%), whereas, during the lockdown, the percentage of obese smokers was highest in Bahrain (32.1%) followed by Qatar (31.3%) and Oman (25%). According to the logistic regression model, the odds ratio of smoking increased during the pandemic, whereas the odds ratio of TV watching decreased. This finding was statistically significant by age, gender, education level, country of residence, and work status. CONCLUSIONS: Although the overall rates of smoking among the studied countries decreased during the lockdown period, we cannot attribute this change in smoking behavior to the lockdown. Smoking cessation services need to anticipate that unexpected disruptions, such as pandemic lockdowns, may be associated with changes in daily tobacco consumption. Public health authorities should promote the adoption of healthy lifestyles to reduce the long-term negative effects of the lockdown

Virtual colonoscopy: Technical

The study aims to clarify the ideal technique of virtual colonoscopy and how to avoid pitfalls. Patient and methods: 200 patients were referred for VC screening. Results: 3D VC false positive results were as follows: Pseudopolyps due to fecal residue (17.5%), under-distended colon (2%), segmental spasm (1%), respiratory motion artifacts (3%), prominent colonic haustrations (8.5%), prominent ileocecal valve (4.5%), prominent appendicular stump (0.5%) and false pits due to shine-through (1.5%). 3D false negative results were proved secondary to fecal residue (1.5%), retained fluid (2.5%), colonic under-distention (5%), prominent colonic folds (1%) and sessile polyps (1%). 2D navigation: There were no false positive results. 3.5% false negative results were due to different combinations of fecal residue (3%), fluid (2%), under-distended colon (1%), prominent colonic haustrations (2.5%) and sessile polyps (1%). Finally, true positive results were proven in 40% of 3D and 47.5% of 2D navigations, true negative: 29.5% in 3D and 49% 2D. False positive results were proven in 19.5% of 3D, false negative results: 11% 3D and 3.5% 2D. 3D 78.4%, 2D 93% sensitivity and 3D 60.2% & 2D 100% specificity records. Conclusion: Many overestimating or underestimating VC pitfalls could be avoided, through mastering the technique and being more familiar with different navigation methods and these technical pitfalls