The Association of Breakfast Frequency and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors among Adolescents in Malaysia

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Gender and risk of depression in Saudi Arabia, a systematic review and meta-analysis

Depression is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In the year 2000 depression accounted for 4.4% of the global disability adjusted life years (DALYs). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has a population of 28 million people and is one of the countries experiencing demographic transition in its population structure. Improvements in socioeconomic status have been shown to be associated with increased chronic diseases including chronic mental diseases like depression, but still there is no comprehensive review summarizing the various reports currently existing in the literature. Although individual studies within Saudi Arabia have reported prevalence rates and risks, the quality of such studies need to be subjected to rigorous assessment and their findings pooled to give combined weighted evidence that will provide basis for targeted intervention. Pooled risks have the advantage of adjusting inherent variations within sampled populations and therefore providing more reliable estimates even though there are concerns about possible magnification of smaller individual risks

Brain-drain and health care delivery in developing countries

Migration of health workers ‘Brain drain’ is defined as the movement of health personnel in search of a better standard of living and life quality, higher salaries, access to advanced technology and more stable political conditions in different places worldwide. The debate about migration of health workers from the developing to the developed world has remained pertinent for decades now. Regardless of the push and pull factors, migration of health care workers from developing countries to developed ones, have done more harm than good on the health care deliveries in the developing countries. This article reviews the literature on the effects of cross-border migration of health care professionals

Gender and risk of depression in Saudi Arabia, a systematic review and meta-analysis

Depression is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In the year 2000 depression accounted for 4.4% of the global disability adjusted life years (DALYs). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has a population of 28 million people and is one of the countries experiencing demographic transition in its population structure. Improvements in socioeconomic status have been shown to be associated with increased chronic diseases including chronic mental diseases like depression, but still there is no comprehensive review summarizing the various reports currently existing in the literature. Although individual studies within Saudi Arabia have reported prevalence rates and risks, the quality of such studies need to be subjected to rigorous assessment and their findings pooled to give combined weighted evidence that will provide basis for targeted intervention. Pooled risks have the advantage of adjusting inherent variations within sampled populations and therefore providing more reliable estimates even though there are concerns about possible magnification of smaller individual risks

The relationship between age of smoking initiation and current smoking: an analysis of school surveys in three European countries

Daniel Reidpath - ORCID: 0000-0002-8796-0420 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8796-0420Item is not available in this repository.Introduction: It is held that younger smoking initiates are more likely to become regular smokers. The definitions of smoking initiation (a puff, part of a cigarette, a whole cigarette) are inconsistent and raise questions about the robustness of the view. We sought to re-examine the relationship using adolescent smoking data from 3 European countries. Methods: A stratified secondary, logistic regression analysis of Global Youth Tobacco Survey data was conducted using a design-based analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted of 13- to 15-year olds from Latvia (high smoking prevalence), Slovenia (moderate prevalence), and Montenegro (low prevalence) who had initiated smoking. The outcome was current smoking—smoking everyday for the past 30 days, or smoking 10 or more days in the past 30 days. Smoking initiation was operationalized as a single puff of a cigarette, and age of smoking initiation was a derived continuous measure. Results: In Latvia, there was a significant association between age of smoking initiation and current smoking for males (p < .05) and females (p < .001) when smoking was operationalized as smoking every day. It was only significant in female adolescents (p < .001) for smoking 10 or more days. In Slovenia and Montenegro, there was no significant relationship between age of smoking initiation and current smoking for either males or females. Conclusions: The evidence about the relationship between age of smoking initiation and current smoking is not clear. Explanations for the findings may relate to a lack of power, the specificity of the measure, or problems with the theory.https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/nts17715pubpub