Objectives:To review the evidence of the benefits and harms of infant male circumcision, and the legal and ethical perspectives of infant male circumcision.Methods:We conducted a systematic search of the literature using PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library up to June 2015. We searched the medical law literature using the Westlaw and Lexis Library law literature resources up to June 2015.Results:Male circumcision significantly reduced the risk of urinary tract infections by 87%. It also significantly reduced transmission of human immunodeficiency virus among circumcised men by 70%. Childhood and adolescent circumcision is associated with a 66% reduction in the risk of penile cancer. Circumcision was associated with 43% reduction of human papilloma virus infection, and 58% reduction in the risk of cervical cancer among women with circumcised partners compared with women with uncircumcised partners. Male infant circumcision reduced the risk of foreskin inflammation by 68%.Conclusion:Infant male circumcision should continue to be allowed all over the world, as long as it is approved by both parents, and performed in facilities that can provide appropriate sterilization, wound care, and anesthesia. Under these conditions, the benefits of infant male circumcision outweigh the rare and generally minor potential harms of the procedure.

Background Obesity is a risk factor that leads to many chronic diseases and, unfortunately, its prevalence in Saudi Arabia is on the rise. To successfully manage obesity and its complications, patient must be accurately diagnosed. This study aims to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of body mass index (BMI) when diagnosing obesity within the Saudi population using body fat percentage (BF%) as the gold standard. Materials and Methods This is a cross-sectional study that includes a calculated sample size of 942 subjects. Subjects were recruited from family medicine clinics that were linked to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from January 2005 to March 2016. BF% was estimated using DEXA scan. The diagnostic accuracy of BMI was assessed by using the WHO and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and American College of Endocrinology (AACE/ACE) reference standard for obesity of BF% >25% in men and >35% for women. Results Findings indicate, out of the study population, 29% of men and 53% of women are obese using BMI-defined obesity cut-off point 30 kg/m 2 . The prevalence of obesity was 83.9% and 97.3% in men and women, respectively, using BF%-defined obesity, which corresponds to BMI cut-off of 24 kg/m 2 . Even when considering the highest acceptable BF% based on the mean age of our participants (33% for men and 43% for women), the BMI cut-off to diagnose obesity should not exceed 27 kg/m 2 among men and women in Saudi Arabia. Conclusion The accuracy of BMI 30 kg/m 2 to diagnose obesity among the Saudi population is limited. We have to lower the BMI cut-off point to improve its sensitivity as a screening tool for obesity. Our study suggests that the BMI cut-off point among Saudis and possibly the Arab population should not exceed 27 kg/m 2 for both sexes.

Background: Obesity is a significant risk factor for multiple diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Many healthcare organizations worldwide have identified a high prevalence of obesity among their employees. In this study, we are looking at the prevalence of obesity among the employees of our healthcare organization and its impact on the employees' productivity and if its current prevalence is costly to the employer.Methods: This is a non-interventional cross-sectional study conducted at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data on the current employees were obtained from medical records. We investigated a random sample of employees who worked in the hospital for at least one year between January 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022. We explored the prevalence of obesity among hospital employees at the beginning of their employment and its current prevalence. In addition, we aimed to investigate the effect of having employees suffering from obesity on their productivity and their utilization of healthcare during their employment period.Results: We identified that our hospital has relatively younger healthcare workers and more employees who are suffering from obesity than in different other countries. The percentage of obese male and female employees was comparable. We had a relatively high increase in the prevalence of obesity among our employees during the last few years. We found a higher number of obesity-related medical problems, more office visits, more sick leaves, and more medications prescribed for overweight and employees who are suffering from obesity compared to those with normal weight. Conclusion: Healthcare workers suffering from obesity had lower productivity and they had higher utilization of healthcare. Therefore, employers should investigate the prevalence of obesity in their organization and implement diverse strategies to prevent and manage this issue to help their employees have better health and, at the same time, be more productive and lower their utilization of healthcare.

BACKGROUND : Frequent sick leaves in any healthcare organization is a critical problem that can undermine the patients' care. METHODS : This is a quantitative cross-sectional study looking at the frequency of sick leaves among employees of a large, tertiary healthcare facility in Riyadh. We randomly selected 474 employees, who were seen in family medicine clinics during one-year period. We collected all the data retrospectively from their electronic medical records. Then we reviewed and analyzed all the data using SPSS software. RESULTS : There was no difference in the sick leaves rate between males and females (P-value 0.8618), but we saw a higher rate among younger employees (40 years old or less) compared to those 41 years or older (p-value <0.0001). We also investigated those who took four sick leaves or more during the period of the study, and we found that most of them were mainly nursing staff (31.71%), hospital assistances (24.39%) and housekeepers (14.63%). The commonest cause for taking sick leave in our study was viral upper respiratory tract infection. Therefore, we studied the effect of influenza vaccine on the frequency of sick leaves and we found that those who took the vaccine were less likely to take a leave because of flu (P-value <0.0001, Odd ratio 0.4067 with 95% CI 0.2739-0.608). CONCLUSION : younger employees, nurses, hospital assistants and housekeepers are more likely to take sick leaves. These findings need to be studied further in the future to help us dealing with the problem of absenteeism. Flu is the leading cause for sick leaves and influenza vaccine seemed to reduce its rate. In this study, we also discussed different methods that can be used by any healthcare organization to reduce absence rate.

The COVID-19 pandemic inherently led to the transfer of face-to-face learning to virtual learning on a global level. Virtual learning was never a popular learning method in Saudi Arabia. Due to the preconceived notions about virtual education, our residents' learning outcomes in the early stages were affected negatively. Methods:We compared the knowledge acquisition from different teaching methods, face-to-face, virtual didactic, and virtual interactive lectures, by comparing the residents' exam scores for MCQ tests, which assessed memorization of some information discussed during these different teaching sessions. Results:There was a statistically significant drop in the residents' exam marks when we switched from face-to-face to virtual didactic learning (p-value 0.0469). But we found no difference when we compared their exam marks for tests done after the interactive virtual learning and that after the previous face-to-face learning (p-value 0.0547). Conclusion:Virtual learning is an effective way of learning in medical education, even with those who are new to this teaching method, on the condition we do it using the appropriate andragogical approach. In this paper, we also discussed various ways that can be used to enhance learning acquisition from online teaching sessions.

Background Frequent sick leaves in any healthcare organization is a critical problem that can undermine the patients' care through increasing the workload on other co-workers and costing the organization a lot of money. Methods This is a quantitative cross-sectional study looking at the frequency of sick leaves among employees of a large, tertiary healthcare facility in Riyadh. We randomly selected 474 employees, who were seen in family medicine clinics during a one-year period. We collected all the data retrospectively from their electronic medical records. Then we reviewed and analyzed all the data using SPSS software version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results There was no difference in the sick leaves rate between males and females (p-value = 0.8618), but we saw a higher rate among younger employees (40 years old or less) compared to those 41 years or older (p-value <0.0001). We also investigated those who took four sick leaves or more during the period of the study, and we found that majority of them were nursing staff (31.71%), hospital assistances (24.39%) and housekeepers (14.63%). The commonest cause for taking sick leave in our study was viral upper respiratory tract infection (VURTI). Therefore, we studied the effect of influenza vaccine on the frequency of sick leaves and we found that those who took the vaccine were less likely to take a leave because of flu (p-value <0.0001, odds ratio 0.4067 with 95% CI: 0.2739-0.608). Conclusion Younger employees, nurses, hospital assistants and housekeepers are more likely to take sick leaves. Flu is the leading cause of sick leaves and influenza vaccine seemed to reduce its rate. In this study, we also discussed different methods that can be used by any healthcare organization to reduce the absence rate. Further studies are required to better manage the issue of excessive sick leaves.

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