Iron deficiency anaemia is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. Pregnant women are at especially high risk of iron deficiency and anaemia because of significantly increased iron requirements during pregnancy. Iron supplementation during pregnancy has been recommended for women in the developing world, since usually no basic changes occur in the composition of the diet. This is a retrospective cohort study carried out in Al-Yamamah Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, comparing the outcome of haemoglobin levels in 308 pregnant women near term with compliance to iron supplementation during the preceding pregnancy stages. Data were collected using an interview-based questionnaire for assessment of supplementation compliance and the women were divided into three categories: strictly compliant; partially compliant; and non-compliant. Haemoglobin levels were extracted from the medical records for the first antenatal visit (before 13 weeks' gestation) and compared with the level at entrance to the study at 36 weeks' gestation. Both Epi-info 2002 version 3.2 and SPSS version 10 were used for data analysis. Our results show that 49.7% used iron supplements continuously during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy; 38.3% reported partial use and 12.0% used no iron supplements. Haemoglobin levels improved significantly only among strictly compliant pregnant women, by 0.3 g/dl; decreased among partially compliant women by, 0.36 g/dl and significantly decreased among non-compliant, by -1.4 g/dl. Factors associated with non-compliance were education with a simple linear protective effect from being non-compliant. The percentage of anaemic women increased from 29.6% in the first trimester to 34% in the third trimester. Anaemia was significantly associated with non-compliance with iron supplementation, the adjusted OR was 6.19 95% CI 2.55-15.02, p < 0.0001. Strategies to improve compliance and effective iron supplementation among pregnant women should be implemented.

Hysteroscopy can be used as the first line diagnostic tool for evaluating the benign endometrial lesions, such as endometrial polyp and submucosal myoma, nonetheless hysteroscopy has poor validity for excluding endometrial hyperplasia and cancer in women presenting with the postmenopausal bleeding and thick endometrium.

Women who are housewives, living in apartments, not exercising regularly and obese are more likely to suffer from severe symptoms of menopause.

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BackgroundLow bone mineral density (BMD) is a public health issue in Saudi Arabia. This study measured the prevalence and factors associated with low BMD in Saudi women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.MethodsA cross sectional study using two stage cluster sampling technique was conducted in Riyadh, 2009. Thirty clusters, each comprising of 300 houses were randomly chosen and from each cluster 38–40 households were selected to identify 1150 women of >40 years. Women were invited to primary health care center for filling of self-administered questionnaire (n = 1069) comprising of sociodemographic, health, diet and physical activity variables. 1008 women underwent screening for low BMD using the quantitative ultrasound technique. 535 (53%) women with positive screening test were referred to King Khalid Hospital for Dual X-ray Energy absorptiometry (DXA).Results362 women underwent DXA and 212 (39.6%) were screened low BMD either at lumbar spine or femur neck. Mean age of women was 55.26(±8.84) years. Multivariate logistic analysis found; being aged 61 to 70 years (OR 2.75, 95% CI: 1.32-1.48), no literacy (OR 2.97, 95% CI:1.44 - 6.12) or primary education (OR 4.12, 95% CI:2.05-8.29), history of fractures (OR 2.20, 95% CI:1.03- 4.69) and not drinking laban(diluted yogurt) (OR 2.81, 95% CI:1.47- 5.37) significantly associated with low BMD.ConclusionsWomen with low level of education, who do not drink laban and had history of fractures were at high risk of low BMD.

DREEM helped pinpoint areas of change in students' perception regarding many aspects of the educational environment. It also helped to identify areas that are still in need of improvement by the college's administration and staff. DREEM inventory can be used to monitor change over time in the educational environment.

Current development of drug microcarriers is mainly based on spherical shapes, which are not biologically favorable geometries for complex interactions with biological systems. Scalable synthesis of drug carriers with nonspherical and anisotropic shapes featuring sustained drug‐releasing performances, biocompatibility, degradability, and sensing capabilities is challenging. These challenges are addressed in this work by employing Nature's optimized designs obtained from low‐cost diatomaceous earth mineral derived from single‐cell algae diatoms. Silica diatoms with unique shapes and 3D microcapsule morphology are converted into silicon diatom replicas with identical structure by a magnesiothermic reduction process. The results reveal that prepared silicon diatoms have a set of unique properties including favorable microcapsule structure with high surface area and micro/mesoporosity providing high drug loading, fast biodegradability, and intrinsic luminescence, which make them highly suitable for low‐cost production of advanced drug microcarriers. Their sustained drug release >30 days combined with self‐reporting function based on silicon luminescence properties using nonluminescent and luminescent drugs for intravitreal drug therapy is successfully demonstrated. These silicon diatoms offer promising potential toward scalable production of low‐cost and advanced microcarriers for broad medical therapies, including theranostics and microrobotic guided drug delivery devices.

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