Summaryobjective To investigate the epidemiology of sickle cell disease (SCD) and determinants of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards SCD in western Kordofan State, Sudan.methods A community-based, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in three towns. Three hundred and seventy-two households were polled, and blood samples for haemoglobin phenotyping were collected from 1116 individuals. Sociodemographic, socio-economic and KAP data were collected using investigator-administered questionnaires. Descriptive, frequency distribution and multiple regression analyses were performed.results About 50.9% of the study population were Misseriya tribes. Consanguineous marriages were reported by 67.5% of the households. The highest percentage of homozygous SCD was 2.8% among children under 5 years of age. About 24.9% were carriers of HbS allele (HbAS). HbS allele frequency was highest in children aged 5-11 years (18.3%, CI: 13.7-22.9%) and lowest in males >15 years old (12.0%, CI: 6.1-17.9%). The average HbS frequency across all age groups was 14.5% (95% CI: 12.2-16.8%). The most frequent b-globin gene cluster haplotype was the Cameroon (30.8%), followed by the Benin (21.8%), the Senegal (12.8%) and the Bantu (2.2%) haplotypes. About 17.0% of all-cause child deaths were due to SCD. The estimated change in log odds of having the SS genotype per year increase in age was (À) 0.0058 (95% CI À0.0359, 0.0242). This represents a non-statistically significant 2.9% increase in 5-year mortality for individuals with the SS genotype relative to those with AS and AA genotypes. About 46.9% of the households had poor knowledge, 26.1% had satisfactory knowledge, and 26.9% had good knowledge about sickle cell disease. Mothers' and fathers' educational levels were significant predictors of good knowledge about SCD (P < 0.05). About 48.0% had a satisfactory attitude towards sickle cell disease while 30.7% had poor attitude and only 21.3 showed good attitudes. Poor knowledge about SCD and low socioeconomic status were the strongest positive predictors of poor attitude and practices towards SCD (P < 0.01).conclusions Sickle cell disease is a major health problem in West Kordofan, Sudan. Knowledge, attitude and practices towards the disease are not satisfactory. The development of public health programs is highly recommended to control and manage SCD in western parts of Sudan.keywords sickle cell disease, genetic epidemiology, western Sudan, haplotypes, knowledge attitude and practices 642

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Introduction In Sudan, the number of end‐stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) is growing. Patients and their families incur a high out‐of‐pocket expenditure (OOPE), given that HD treatment is expensive. There are limited data about OOP spending on HD in the country. This study aims to explore patients' OOP expense on direct medical and nonmedical goods and services and to which extent they can be predicted from sociodemographic characteristics, health insurance status, comorbidity, and accommodation change. Methods This is descriptive a cross‐sectional study conducted in Ibn Sina Hospital. One hundred and thirty patients undergo regular HD were randomly selected. Findings Among the study participants (130), the median of the overall total OOP (direct medical and direct nonmedical) spending per patients per year was found to be US$ 3859.1 (interquartile range [IQR]: 2298.1–6261.1). As for the medians OOP expenditure on direct medical and nonmedical costs, they were found to be US$ 2327.6 (IQR: 1421.5–3804.8) and US$ 1096 (IQR: 715.2–2345.2), respectively. The direct medical expenditure (355,586 US$) accounted for 60% of the overall total expenses. Discussion Medications and investigations were the primary drivers of direct medical spending. Higher OOPE rates were found among those with one or more of these factors; uninsured patients, patient with comorbidity, female gender, and over 40 years aged. The multivariate analysis showed that the significant predictors of direct medical expenditure were health insurance and comorbid conditions, where as the predictors for direct nonmedical expenditure were accommodation change and gender. This study results in a better understanding of OOP spending on direct medical and nonmedical services and its associated predictors among HD patients within the context of Sudan. Further research is needed in this area.

Aim Students’ performance in TBL compared to LBL needs to be evaluated. This study aimed to compare students’ performance in team-based learning and traditional lectures. Methods A total of 176 class 4 and 202 class 6 medical students from University of Bahri, Khartoum, Sudan, participated in the study during 2018. Experienced staff were selected to conduct the teaching and assessment of the two groups, using the standard team-based learning procedure (iRAT, gRAT and AppT) in the first topic and the lecture-based learning procedure in the second, within the same time limit for the two methods. Results The two classes overall mean score has a significant 5.1 points difference (p<0.001; 95% CI: 3.5, 6.0). Separate analysis showed consistency of superiority of TBL to LBL in either gender. A remarkable difference was observed when we compared the two methods in class 6 separately from class 4. Class 6 mean score was high for both TBL and LBL (77.2 and 70.2, respectively), with a significant mean difference of 7.0 (p<0.001; 95% CI: 5.1, 8.9). In class 4, the score was lower for both methods (mean of 62.8 for TBL and 59.9 for LBL). The mean difference of 2.95 points was still significant (p<0.05; 95% CI: 0.46, 5.43). Separate multivariate linear regression for TBL and LBL showed no significant difference in performance of males and females in either method. Controlling for gender in TBL, class 4 had a mean of −14.26 points, (p<0.001; 95% CI: −12.54, −15.98) less than class 6. Similarly, in LBL, class 4 had a mean of −10.18 points (p<0.001, 95% CI: −7.02, −13.35), less than class 6. Conclusion Students’ performance using team-based learning was superior to lecture-based learning, irrespective of students’ gender, noticeable among senior students.

This study aimed to determine the sociodemographic predictors of willingness of pregnant women in Sudan to accept HIV testing. A random sample of 500 pregnant women attending antenatal care clinics in Omdurman maternity hospital in 2010 were interviewed. Significant predictors of women's tendency to accept HIV testing were: age < 30 years (OR 3.5, 95% CI: 2.2-5.8), primigravida (OR 1.5, 95% CI: 1.0-2.3), better education level (OR 3.4, 95% CI: 1.7-6.7), owning a radio (OR 2.1, 95% CI: 1.3-3.4), in employment (OR 2.5, 95% CI: 1.2-5.0) and ≥ 2 antenatal care visits (OR 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2-2.9). Husband's age ≥ 35 years (OR 3.2, 95% CI: 2.0-5.2) and Christian faith (OR 3.8, 95% CI: 1.4-10.7) were significant variables, although with a wide margin of confidence. These predictors should be considered in strategies to increase the acceptance and use of HIV testing and counselling services. 1Sudan National AIDS Programme, Khartoum, Sudan (Correspondence to A.K.M. Idris: Mutazidris55@gmail.com

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