Background: There is a dearth of studies exploring the magnitude of mental disorders amongst adolescents and youths in the Arab world. To our knowledge, this phase 2 survey in Oman is the first nationally representative school-based study to determine the prevalence of DSM-IV mental disorders (lifetime and over the preceding 12 months), their age-of-onset distributions and determine their severity over the past 12 months using the World Mental Health-Composite International Diagnostic Interview, the WMH-CIDI, used for international comparison.

One in five Omani adults was identified as sitting for prolonged periods, at levels understood to have deleterious health consequences. Higher-risk groups include older adults and working men. With sitting time identified as a key behavioral risk to be targeted for the prevention of non-communicable diseases, further research is needed to understand the factors associated with domain-specific sitting time in order to guide prevention programs and broader public health approaches.

BackgroundRecent corpus of research suggests that psychiatric disorders amongst adolescents and youths are an emerging global challenge, but there is paucity of studies exploring health services utilization by this age group in Arab region.AimThis study focus on the health services utilization and the barriers among school going adolescents and youths with DSM IV disorders in the country Oman, whose population is predominantly youthful.MethodsRepresentative sample of secondary school Omani adolescents and youths were concurrently interviewed for the (i) presence of DSM IV mental disorders using the face-to-face interview, World Mental Health-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI), (ii) tendency for health care utilization and (iii) predictors of utilization with clinical and demographic background.ResultsThe proportions of lifetime cases having ever made treatment contact are low, being 5.2% for any anxiety disorder and 13.2% for any mood disorder category. None of these anxiety cases made treatment contact in the year of onset of the disorder, and the median delay when they eventually made treatment contact is about 14 years. In any mood disorders category only 3.6% made contact within the 1st year of onset with the median delay in initial treatment contact is two years for the Bipolar disorder (broad), four years for Any Mood disorder and nine years for the Major Depressive Disorder group. Male gender is significantly associated with less likelihood of making treatment contact when suffering from Social phobia (p = 0.000), Major Depressive Disorder (p = 0.000) and Bipolar Disorder (p = 0.000). The younger cohorts of 14-16 years and 17-18 years of Social phobic made significantly less lifetime any treatment contact (p = 0.000). The 14-16 year olds were significantly less likely to make lifetime any treatment contact for Bipolar Mood disorder (p = 0.000), while the 17-18 group were 1.5 times more likely to do so. Over past 12 months only between 6 to 12% of those having some form of mental disorder avail of any treatment facility with utilization pattern nearly equal between the any healthcare and any non healthcare facilities. In the any healthcare services, more of those with anxiety disorders seek help from general medical doctors while those with Major Depressive Disorder and any Mood disorders are comparatively treated more by non allopathic services. Females were 13.5 times more likely to avail treatment(chi sq 7.1) as also those cases with increased severity of illness were 7 times more likely(chi sq 9.6). In the any treatment category for any 12 month disorder in general, the younger cohort of 14-16 years is 2.2 times more likely to receive any treatment over past 12 months (p = 0.042) while the situation shows marked reversal in the 17-18 age groups. Having any mood disorder is a significant predictor for the same (p = 0.040).DiscussionPresent findings confer with other studies from elsewhere suggesting under utilization of health care services for those with mental illness. Since cultur...

BackgroundReference intervals for venous blood parameters differs with age, gender, geographic region, and ethnic groups. Hence local laboratory reference intervals are important to improve the diagnostic accuracy of health assessments and diseases. However, there have been no comprehensive published reference intervals established in Oman, the Gulf Cooperation Council or Middle Eastern countries. Hence, the aim of this study was to establish reference intervals for full blood count in healthy Omani adults.MethodsVenous blood specimens were collected from 2202 healthy individuals aged 18 to 69 years from January 2012 to April 2017, and analysed by Sysmex XS-1000i and Cell-Dyn Sapphire automated haematology analysers. Results were statistically analysed and compared by gender, age, and ABO blood group. The lower and upper reference limits of the haematology reference intervals were established at the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles respectively.ResultsReference intervals were calculated for 17 haematology parameters which included red blood cell, white blood cell, and platelet parameters. Red blood cell (RBC), haemoglobin (HGB), haematocrit (HCT), platelet and platelet haematocrit counts of the healthy donors were significantly different between males and females at all ages (p < 0.05), with males having higher mean values of RBC, HGB and HCT than females. Other complete blood count parameters showed no significant differences between genders, age groups, instruments, or blood groups. Our study showed a lower haemoglobin limit for the normal reference interval in males and females than the currently used in Oman.ConclusionsData from this study established specific reference intervals which could be considered for general use in Oman. The differences in haematology reference intervals highlights the necessity to establish reference intervals for venous blood parameters among the healthy population in each country or at least in each region.

There is an increasing burden of obesity and obesity-related noncommunicable diseases in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Oman. This descriptive, epidemiological study assessed physical activity among 2977 Omani adults using a population-based household survey in 2008. Overall, 54.2% of men and 41.6% of women were physically active; the rate was higher in younger cohorts and varied significantly by region of residence. Physical activity related to the transportation (walking and cycling) domain was higher than in the leisure or work domains. Unmarried men aged 30-39 years were twice as likely to be physically active (OR 2.25) and unmarried women aged 40+ years were half as likely to be active (OR 0.58) than their married counterparts. Young women not working were less active (OR 0.18) than working women. Higher education was significantly associated with leisure activity for men aged 30+ years and women aged 40+ years. Further research to understand regional variations and to identify culturally appropriate strategies to promote physical activity is required. ‫عام‬ ‫يف‬ ‫امن‬