Comment on the paper "Epidemiology of worldwide spinal cord injury: a literature review"

Mohamed H Elshahidi Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, EgyptI read with interest the article by Kang et al,1 in which they reviewed the literature to summarize current evidence about spinal cord injury worldwide. Although the topic is interesting and important, some considerations of their review design are discussed. First, the authors have searched Embase, PubMed, Medline, and Web of Science. Although these databases index many of the published research, there are also other databases that should be considered. For example, Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR) and African Index Medicus contain articles published in journals that are not indexed in some of these main databases. This affects the review’s ability to screen all available evidence in order to end up with a more accurate and sound summary of the literature. Also, this may lead to some limitations (database bias).2View the original paper by Kang and colleagues.&nbsp

Arabic websites relevant to patient information about spinal cord injury: Characteristics and quality assessment using the DISCERN tool

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) requires special healthcare and rehabilitation. Objective: The article describes and qualitatively assesses Arabic websites relevant to patient information about SCI. Materials and Methods: In March 2018, Google was searched using the Arabic translation of SCI. The first 100 results were assessed against inclusion and exclusion criteria. The following data were collected: Website name, URL, its category, SCI topic, and whether Health on the Net (HON) code was included in this study. In addition, the quality of them was assessed using the DISCERN tool. Results: A total of 13 websites were included in this study. Only two websites included HON code. Majority of them (>10) included information about the definition of SCI, its causes and its complications. Eight of them mentioned available treatment options. Most of them were blogs. Two of them were from hospital that is advertising for their SCI healthcare. According to the quality level assessment, 30.8% were of poor quality, 23.7% were of fair quality, 23.7% were of good quality, and 23.7% were of excellent quality. Conclusion: This study shows that the current available Arabic websites with SCI are insufficient. Moreover, their quality needs to be improved. In addition, there is no available governmental or institutional website with patient information about the topic. Governments, universities, and associations are encouraged to fill this gap to prevent probable patient risks that may arise from it. Some recommendations regarding quality improvement are provided

Prevalence of dementia in Egypt: supplementary materials

Those materials are supplementary to the systematic review protocol

Prevalence of dementia in Egypt: a systematic review

Mohamed H Elshahidi,1 Muhammad A Elhadidi,2 Ahmed A Sharaqi,1 Ahmed Mostafa,3 Mohamed A Elzhery1 1Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 2Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, 3Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt Background: With the growing prevalence of dementia worldwide, two-third of the people with dementia are projected to be from the developing countries by 2050. Aim: This study reviews the literature regarding dementia prevalence in Egypt. Methods: Six databases were systematically searched from their dates of inception till July 2016. Studies published in English and reporting dementia prevalence among nonhospitalized individuals after clinical examinations were considered eligible. References were screened independently by two reviewers in two steps: 1) abstract screening and 2) full-text reviewing. In addition, quality of the included studies was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. Results: Of the 1,630 references retrieved, six studies (n=28,029 participants) met our inclusion criteria. In all studies, dementia was ascertained using a three-phase survey (Phase I: screening, Phase II: clinical diagnosis, Phase III: laboratory investigations). The dementia prevalence ranged from 2.01% to 5.07%. Dementia increased with age, with the rapid increase among those aging ≥80. Also, its prevalence was higher among illiterate groups than among educated groups. Included studies were of low risk of bias. Conclusion: Dementia prevalence in Egypt demands including people with dementia in the health care system and promoting the awareness of dementia among the public. Also, more epidemiological studies in this field are needed. Keywords: aging, epidemiology, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia&nbsp