Controlling hypertension is essential in cardiovascular diseases. Poor medication adherence is associated with poor disease outcomes, waste of healthcare resources, and contributes to reduced blood pressure control. This study evaluates treatment adherence to antihypertensive therapy in Lebanese hypertensive patients by estimating the proportion of adherent hypertensive patients using a validated tool and investigates what factors predict this behavior. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 210 hypertensive outpatients selected from clinics located in tertiary-care hospitals and from private cardiology clinics located in Beirut. Adherence level was measured using a validated 8-item Modified Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMMAS). Among 210 patients, 50.5% showed high adherence, 27.1% medium adherence, and 22.4% low adherence to medication. Mean MMMAS score was 6.59±2.0. In bivariate analyses, having controlled blood pressure (p=0.003) and taking a combination drug (p=0.023) were predictors of high adherence. Forgetfulness (p<0.01), complicated drug regimen (p=0.001), and side effects (p=0.006) were predictors of low adherence after multiple liner regression. Logistic regression results showed that calcium channel blockers (p=0.030) were associated with increased adherence levels. In conclusion, developing multidisciplinary intervention programs to address the factors identified, in addition to educational strategies targeting healthcare providers, are necessary to enhance patient adherence.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients are at high risk of developing a stroke and anticoagulant medications are generally prescribed to prevent stroke in AF population. Objective: This study aims to evaluate stroke risk factors among hospitalized patients with AF and to assess the level of adherence to medications in AF patients and their relation with stroke. Methods: This is a case-control study conducted between June 1st, 2018 and December 31th, 2018 among AF patients admitted to seven tertiary Lebanese hospitals. Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Adherence to medications was assessed using the Lebanese Medication Adherence Scale-14. Odds ratios (OR) expressed the strength of association between the independent variables and the dependent variable and were estimated using unconditional logistic regression adjusted for confounding factors. P<0.05 determined statistical significance. Results: In total, 174 cases of AF patients were included with 87 cases and 87 controls. The risk of stroke among AF significantly increased with the presence of a history of hypertension, aOR 16.04 (95%CI, 2.27-113.37; p=0.005), history of coronary heart disease/myocardial infarction, and history of obesity. Anticoagulant medication significantly decreased the risk of stroke among AF patients, aOR 0.27 (95%CI, 0.07-0.98; P=0.047). High adherence to medications was significantly associated with a reduced risk of stroke, aOR 0.04 (95%CI, 0.01-0.23; p<0.001). Conclusions: Having a history of hypertension is one of the strongest risk factors for stroke among AF patients in Lebanon. While anticoagulant medication use was associated with a reduced risk for stroke, high adherence to medications is critical for stroke prevention. Public health interventions are needed to tackle low-adherence to medication and prevent stroke among AF patients.

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Literary translation is one of the most challenging tasks in the field of translation. This paper focuses on the aporias in literary texts written and/or translated into Arabic, French, Italian, and English. I contend that some terms/phrases are difficult to render in the target text. This argument is bolstered by examples extracted from The Prophet of the Arabo-American author Gibran Kahlil Gibran. I selected this particular oeuvre given its immense success in terms of vast cultural diffusion and translation into various languages. Also, The Prophet, has been translated several times into the same target languages in addition to the large number of languages to which it has been rendered. I will discuss the translator’s dilemma when undertaking the task of faithfully conveying the aesthetics of the original text into the same, or into the closest version of the original. This paper concentrates on the cultural differences between languages by emphasizing on untranslatability and various retranslations. It analyzes how these elements were rendered into the target culture and language. The argument put forth in this paper attempts to shed light on the importance of literary translation, as one of the most critical discourses of translation.

This paper highlights the richness associated with having several dialects within the same Italian language system, and specifically discusses the Sicilian dialect that was highly affected by Arabic. The article will also go back historically to introduce “Siqilliya,” examining the Arabic Sicilian lexicology to demonstrate syntactic constructions typically relevant to the Arabic language, and thus exposing the Sicilian Arabism. My main target is to show, through different examples, the interaction between the Sicilian and Arabic languages at the cultural, syntactic, lexicological and grammatical levels. I will also trace some terms used by Andrea Camilleri through his “Commissario Montalbano,” which have become a “modo di dire” or way of speaking that has become an integral part of the Italian language.

Ameen Fares Rihani rewrote a few of his Arabic poems, such as “I am the East” and “New York” in English, to enable American and Arab readers to understand the poems within their cultural settings, to promote the Eastern culture in the West, and to introduce the West to the Easterners. This paper argues that in his translations of his own poetry, Rihani was a recreator rather than a translator. A comparative analysis of Rihani’s rewritten poems in English and the translations made by other translators of the same poems will prove that the author-translator’s choice of terms along with their cultural backgrounds, deep meanings and etymologies reveal his deep understanding of the source and target cultures, the Eastern and the Western ones. The study further analyzes Rihani’s literary recreations or in other terms transcreations and examines as well the other translators’ rendering of the same works. Comparative study shows how poetry transcends cultural barriers and understands the linguistic and cultural spirit of the target language, thereby attempts to bridge the civilization and cultural gaps between the East and the West.