The impact of a cartoon character’s gender on Egyptian Girls’ knowledge of and intentions toward pneumonia prevention

Pneumonia kills 11% of children under the age of five in Egypt yearly. Studies suggest that health educational cartoons are effective ways to educate children about healthy practices to prevent diseases. The literature suggests that children tend to learn better from and imitate same-gender models more than opposite-gender models. Healthy Egyptians, a non-governmental organization, developed a health educational cartoon to educate young children on the preventative practices of pneumonia through a boy called Montasser as the main character. It was hypothesized that having a female character as the main character in this cartoon would increase the girls’ knowledge of and intentions towards pneumonia prevention. To test this hypothesis, an alternative version of the coloring book was developed using a female character called Farah. Sixty girls ages four to seven, enrolled in three private schools in Cairo were exposed to either Montasser’s story or Farah’s story. The girls were interviewed both immediately after hearing the story and one week later in order to assess their enjoyment of the activity, knowledge of the material in the story, identification with the characters and their intentions towards pneumonia prevention. It was found that although there was insignificant difference in enjoyment of the story between the groups, across both groups the girls identified more with the Farah character. It was also found that the Farah group gained more knowledge and had higher intentions towards pneumonia prevention than the Montasser group, but this difference was insignificant. These results support studies that show that children tend to identify with same-gender models more than opposite-gender models. On the other hand, this insignificant difference might be due to small sample size of the study. The results support studies that found that health educational cartoons are effective in transmitting health information to children. The implications of this study for the health education of girls in Egypt are discussed

The battle in heavy metal

This is an audio documentary that introduces the world of Heavy Metal, its subculture, the nature of the songs and the on going battle they face with both the society and the government. Heavy Metal is perceived in Egypt as well as many different countries as a dangerous genre. Most of my interviewees talked about their experience with Heavy Metal and how it was a challenge for them to perform their songs in Egypt

Story corp Project

Story corp Projec

In vitro, propagation of Egyptian date palm (Phoenix Dactylifera L.) cultivars Zaghloul and Samani

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN027872 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Blindness and Visual Impairment among Egyptian Glaucoma Patients

Purpose. Glaucoma is the second commonest cause of blindness worldwide. Visual fields and intraocular pressures are optimum outcomes to be assessed in developed countries. Visual acuity as an outcome is the key player when assessing blindness in developing countries. The aim of this study is to assess visual impairment and blindness in glaucoma patients and to identify the bulk they represent in comparison to nonglaucoma patients in the same practice setting. Methods. Patients attending outpatient clinics of Cairo University Hospitals were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Clinical data collected for these patients included their demographic data, best obtained visual acuity, and whether or not they have had an established diagnosis of glaucoma. Results were compared at 95% confidence intervals. Results. 988 eyes of 494 patients were included for this study. Their mean visual acuity was 6/24 (±3 Snellen lines). Legal blindness was found in 5% and 4% of glaucoma and nonglaucoma groups, respectively. There were high odds for finding eyes with total blindness due to glaucoma. That was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions. A large proportion of glaucoma patients suffered from blindness in at least one eye. Interventional strategies are recommended regarding visual disability among Egyptian glaucoma patients