Introduction: The emergence of the COVID-19 and its consequences has led to fears, worries, and anxiety among individuals, particularly among healthcare professionals. The present study aimed to assess the fear of COVID-19 among different healthcare professionals in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Methods: A cross-sectional, snowball sampling technique and an online questionnaire were employed among healthcare professionals. A total of 300 participants completed the questionnaire. The validated fear of COVID-19 Scale Arabic version was used. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 22. Results: The sample fear mean score was 17.53 ± 5.78; more than half of the study participants (54.3%) consider it as low levels of fear and 45.7% of the participants consider it as high levels of fear. Statistically significant differences were found between males and females, and different healthcare professional’s disciplines. Females have a higher mean score compared to males. The highest fear mean scores were found among Lab-Technicians (20.19 ± 7.42), followed by X-ray-Technicians (17.95 ± 3.96), Nurses (17.1 ± 5.55), and Physicians (16.25 ± 4.66). Conclusion: The fear of COVID-19 was high among female healthcare professionals compared to males, as well as, among Lab-Technicians compared to Physicians and Nurses. There is a need to establish a strategy to continues measuring the psychological effect of COVID-19 among healthcare professionals especially females.

Objective: This study was employed to assess the effects of Ramadan fasting on anthropometric measures, blood pressure, and lipid profile among hypertensive patients. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among a representative sample, which was selected using a census survey of hypertensive patients (both gender, aged 25–50 years, on regular antihypertensive drugs (atenolol: 50 mg orally once a day)), during Ramadan month that was falling in April to May 2020. The patients were receiving care at Halabja hospital in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. All patients were assessed in two phase’s baseline (a week before Ramadan) and end stage (a week after Ramadan), using anthropometric indices, physical examination, biochemical tests, and a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 120 hypertensive patients were included in the study (50% females and 50% males), with a mean age of 37.5 ± 6.6 years. The major finding of our study was the significant decrease in blood pressure (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference of the participants decreased after Ramadan fasting in a significant approach (P < 0.001 for all). However, for the lipid profile components, the total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol change persisted not statistically significant (P > 0.05), while only triglyceride decreased drastically after Ramadan fasting (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Ramadan fasting could contribute in the improvement of blood pressure and lowers triglyceride levels, body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference of adult hypertensive patients.

Background & aims: Inadequate intake of vitamin D and high parathyroid hormone levels may play important roles in cardiovascular risk, which has been suggested to be associated with metabolic syndrome. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of vitamin D supplementation with or without endurance physical activity on calcium and parathyroid hormone levels in metabolic syndrome patients. Methods: A randomized control study, recruited 120 metabolic syndrome patients, both genders, aged 30 to 50 years. Participants were randomly assigned into four groups: Vitamin D (n ¼ 30), vitamin D plus 30 min/day of physical activity (n ¼ 30), placebo (n ¼ 30), and placebo plus 30 min/day of physical activity (n ¼ 30) group. Fasting blood samples were taken before and after the

Balanced nutrition is vital for peak performance of immune function, especially when a global pandemic is emerging, and there is major lack in approved treatments for it. Many nutrients and their abundance in cells induce immune function. We performed a narrative review to describe existing literature with regard to role of nutrients in supporting the immune system against viral infection including coronavirus (SARS-COV-2). PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were searched for relevant articles. This review represents a picture of the current state of the art. In particular, we classified the nutrients by means of their types, abundance, importance and possible antiviral effects in immune system. The macronutrients such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins are essential for cells to generate energy and participate in immune function as well. However, unbalanced diet with high levels of macromolecules could lead to chronic diseases that impair the body’s immune abilities. The micronutrients including vitamins and minerals participate in immune system on a bigger scale that almost all body’s immune mechanism depends on the expressions of micronutrients. Vitamins improve immune responses. Some vitamins include A, D, K, B, and C enroll in antiviral mechanism of the immune cells. A group of trace elements including zinc, copper, selenium, magnesium, manganese, and iron are heavily contributed in maintaining body’s immunity. The susceptibility toward the infectious diseases is highly elevated in cases of their deficiencies. Besides their antiviral roles, vitamins such as E and C with minerals in the cells adopt antioxidant properties that help immune cells to fight oxidative stress in the cells. Nevertheless, the high levels of minerals such as iron could threat the immune system by growing the oxidative stress. So, maintaining rich and balanced nutrition could improve body’s immune function, and possibly prevent viral infections including COVID-19.

Background: Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 340 million people of all ages suffer from depression. The aim of our study was to determine the association between major dietary patterns and depression among type 2 diabetes patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 480 type 2 diabetes patients attending primary healthcare centers in Gaza Strip, Palestine. The depression, anxiety, stress scales (DASS, 21-items) questionnaire was used to measure the score of depression. The participants' demographic, socioeconomic and medical history data was collected and the 98-items semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was used for evaluating the dietary patterns. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Results: Based on depression scale, 29.0% of type 2 diabetes patients had depression, (58.3% females, and 41.7% males). The prevalence of mild, moderate, severe, and very severe depression was 11.7%, 8.5%, 6.7%, and 2.1%, respectively. Furthermore, two major dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis: The Western, and the grains-vegetables, and fruits patterns. After adjusting for the potential confounders, patients in the lowest tertile (T1) of the grains-vegetables, and fruits dietary pattern had a lower odds for depression (OR 0.763 95% CI (0.667-0.871), P value = 0.001); where as a higher odds for healthy (OR 1.443 95% CI (1.131-1.839), P value = 0.004), compared to those in the highest tertile (T3). Conclusion: The grains-vegetables, and fruits dietary pattern may be associated with a lower prevalence of depression, and has been shown to be the healthiest dietary