Background: management and prevention of acute respiratory infections (ARI) is a worldwide problem especially in developing countries. Mothers are the caregivers of their children and thus their knowledge could be used as preventive measure for the disease. Objectives: assessing the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Saudi mothers toward ARI in children less than five years old in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: the study included 733 mothers admitted to a random sample of PHC from different districts of KSA. The mothers were interviewed and asked to fill up a predesigned questionnaire during the period from February 2017 to June 2017. The questionnaire comprised of 4 parts including the mothers' demographics and KAP. Results: the mean age of mothers was 41.3 years old and the duration of marriage was from 10-20 years in most of mothers (41.9%). The majority of participants had college degree (53.9%) and 44% of subjects were working mothers. Most of subjects had good knowledge about that ARI is a disease of both upper and lower respiratory infection, pneumonia as a complication of ARI, the overuse of antibiotic and bacterial resistance and cough being the most common symptom of ARI. Poor knowledge was related to the use of antibiotics and consulting a physician if children had ARI. The knowledge score of mothers was good in 46% of subjects and 54% have insufficient knowledge. The attitude and practice of mothers was poor among more than half of the participants.Conclusion: most of Saudi mothers had inadequate, knowledge, attitude and practice toward ARI. The better understanding and sufficient knowledge was significantly correlated with young ages, short duration of marriage and higher education.

Background: Hypertension remains a major health problem, causing high mortality and morbidity all over the world. It is considered a major risk factor for both cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs) and coronary artery disease (CAD). Objectives: To assess the level of knowledge of hypertensive patients in Makkah City. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical questionnaire based study among hypertensive patients of Makkah City. Results: The mean age was 45 years, ranged from 35 to 70 and 63.33% were females and 36.67% were male respondents. The majority of them had college degree and were employed. Most of the respondents had good knowledge about hypertension, risks and treatments. Neither age nor gender showed association with the levels of knowledge in included subjects but education was significantly associated with high levels of knowledge. Conclusion: The general knowledge score was good with high knowledge about risks and treatments. Doctors were not informative to patients about hypertension. Also, education significantly impacts the knowledge of population about hypertension.

Background: Two oral antifungal agents, griseofulvin and terbinafine, have regulatory approval but it is unknown whether one has superior overall efficacy. Genus-specific differences in efficacy are believed to exist for the two agents. It is not clear at what doses and durations of treatment these differences apply. Purpose: The purposes of this meta-analysis were to determine whether a statistically significant difference in efficacy exists between these agents at a given dose and duration of each in tinea capitis infections overall and to determine whether a genus-specific difference in efficacy exists for these two treatments at a given dose and duration of each. We performed a literature search for clinically and methodologically similar randomized controlled trials comparing 8 weeks of griseofulvin (6.25-12.5 mg⁄kg⁄day) to 4 weeks of terbinafine (3.125-6.25 mg⁄kg⁄day) in the treatment of tinea capitis. A meta-analysis was performed using the Mantel-Haenszel method and random effects model; results were expressed as odds ratios with 95%. Results: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials did not show a significant difference in the overall efficacy of the two drugs at the doses specified, but specific efficacy differences were observed based on the infectious species. For tinea capitis caused by Microsporumspp., griseofulvin is superior (p = 0.04), whereas terbinafine is superior for Trichophyton spp. infection (p = 0.04). Conclusion:Our results support species-specific differences in treatment efficacy between griseofulvin and terbinafine and provide a clinical context in which this knowledge may be applied.