BACKGROUND: Prevention is the best way to manage a pandemic like COVID-19. The World Health Organization has issued public advice to create awareness by providing people knowledge to prevent/protect them from COVID-19. Hence, the present study was planned to assess knowledge of prevention and its practical use amongst samples from the Saudi Arabian population. It can be used to bring awareness among the masses not only in expanding their knowledge about COVID-19 but also on how to enforce a practicing behavior in relation to the prevention of COVID-19. The study is among the pioneer studies on the issue related to knowledge and practice of the prevention of COVID-19 among Saudis and foreign nationals residing in Saudi Arabia. OBJECTIVE: The prime objective of this study is to examine the existence of knowledge among the Saudi and non-Saudi nationals about COVID-19 and its impact on their behavior to practice the protocols to prevent the disastrous infection of COVID-19. This study has also examined how the residents in Saudi Arabia react to the methods and protection measures adopted by the government for their dominions to eradicate the spread of COVID-19. METHODS: The study used a survey-based methodology and data was collected from Saudi nationals as well as expatriates living and working in five different regions of Saudi Arabia. Non-probability snowball sampling was used to reach and select the population of the current study. A self-designed, structured, and validated questionnaire was electronically distributed among the respondents. SPSS version 21 was used to analyze the data of the current study. RESULTS: Out of the 443 respondents, 356 respondents (84%) knew they had to wash their hands for 20 seconds and did this as well, 303 respondents (75%) knew that sneezing or coughing into the arm/elbow can prevent the spread of COVID-19 and were doing this as well, 357 respondents (82%) knew that COVID-19 can be transferred by shaking hands and avoided this, 333 respondents (79%) knew that they had to maintain a safe distance of at least one meter and kept this distance, 315 respondents (76%) knew that touching one’s face can transfer the virus and avoid this, and 414 respondents (95%) knew that staying at home can decrease the chances of getting infected. The relationship between different regions and most of the knowledge-based and practice-based questions was significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Results reveal that there is a significant relationship between knowledge and practice, but the strength of association is weak. It was found that knowledge and practice of COVID-19 was followed differently in the five regions of Saudi Arabia and the level of education of the respondents influenced their choice of practice to protect themselves from the effects of COVID-19. The study has contributed in the body of literature by examining the inter-relationship between knowledge and practice and their use in prevention of COVID-19 among the Saudi population.

Background: This study is an original contribution to the gender-based perspective of measuring knowledge and practice towards COVID-19 among Saudi population. Objective: This study investigates the existing knowledge of COVID-19 among both genders and its likely use in practice to combat COVID-19. Design and Setting: Cross sectional study with an online survey and data collected from all the five regions of Saudi Arabia. Participants and Method: A structured, self-reported validated questionnaire was developed based on the World Health Organization (WHO) general public advice towards COVID-19 prevention. This study has employed snow-ball sampling technique. Sample Size: 627 participants (Male n=343, 54.7%) and (Females n=284, 45.3%) Results: This study has found that women not only carry better knowledge, but their practicing behavior is far better than the male respondents. Females practiced their knowledge of hands hygiene more in comparison to males (86% vs 80 %, p >0.05). Female respondents were also practicing more about sneezing/coughing into their elbows as compared to males(79 % vs 71%, p < 0.05). Likewise, the practice of knowledge of staying at home to prevent infection (females 98.2 % vs males 95.5%, p > 0.05), and (females 83.2 % vs males 81.5%, p > 0.05) respectively. Conclusion: This study shows that women were more compliant to the WHO public health covid-19 prevention advice than men which can decrease the chances of covid-19 infection.

Background Optimum oral health is impossible to achieve without managing dental caries. The first step to manage dental caries at a community level is to know its prevalence and trend. Unfortunately, the prevalence of dental caries at the national/regional level is not known in many developing countries. Pakistan is no exception. The present meta-analysis was planned to document the prevalence of dental caries at the national, as well as regional level. This paper will serve as a baseline for making future health policies, and health promotion activities in the country. Methods Literature was searched through various databases, such as PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of science using: "Prevalence", "Dental Caries", "Dental Decay" and "Severity" as keywords. Any study that reported the prevalence of dental caries, and was conducted in the Pakistani population was included. Thirty studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Quality assessment of all the included studies was performed using Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist for prevalence studies. MedCalc software was used to analyze the data. Results In total 27,878 subjects were included in a meta-analysis from 30 studies. The prevalence estimate of dental caries at the national level was 56.62% (95% CI: 49.54 to 63.57). The I2 value was 99.07% (95% CI: 98.94 to 99.18), (I2 > 75%) indicating heterogeneity, hence pooled proportion was reported using a random-effect model. The prevalence estimate of dental caries in Sindh was 58.946% (95% CI: 43.796 to 73.274), and in Punjab, it was 55.445% (95% CI: 44.174 to 66.44), whilst in Baluchistan and KPK combined was 51.168% (95% CI: 22.930 to 79.004). Conclusion Based on the existing data nearly 60% of the Pakistani population have dental caries. The proportion is almost the same in all provinces. Most of the included studies were found to be of high risk.

Lioresal is a muscle relaxer and an antispasmodic agent, known as Lioresal. The active ingredient is β-(Aminomethyl)-p-chlorohydrocinnamic acid, a racemic mixture of the R,(-) and S, (+) isomers. It affects directly the spinal cord with adverse effects including drowsiness, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, headache, trouble sleeping, nausea and vomiting, urinary retention, or constipation. Therefore, the accumulation of expired or unused Lioresal in our home is so dangerous and harmful for our children. The present work introduces an idea for using expired Lioresal as a corrosion inhibitor for steel in 1.0 M H2SO4. The effect of both concentration and temperature were studied. The inhibition efficiency was found to increase with concentration and decreased with rising temperature. Chemical, electrochemical, and analytical techniques, namely, gravimetric, thermometric, gasometric, acidimetric, AAS, and potentiodynamic polarization were used to evaluate the inhibition action of the expired Lioresal drugs. The inhibition performance is due to the adsorption and adhesion of drugs constituent molecules on the steel surface. The adsorption was found to obey Langmuir isotherm. The surface area available for the anodic dissolution of iron and cathodic hydrogen evolution process diminishes without changing the reaction mechanism. The values of Ecorr. readings slowly decrease to negative values, showing that these inhibitors are mixed-type inhibitors mainly cathodic inhibitors. The data obtained from different techniques are in good agreement with each other. Electrochemical and analytical Techniques are efficient and accurate in the determination of the corrosion rate and inhibition performance of expired drugs in an aqueous medium.

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