Background Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) vaccination has been established as preventing severe and mortal COVID-19. Vaccination is critical strategy in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, to restrict infections and reduce disease severity. Vaccination coverage will be more extensive if we can better identify vaccination barriers in the population, especially among vulnerable groups, of which one is pregnant women. The aim of this study was to determine the level of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination and detect the factors that influence vaccine acceptance among pregnant women in Saudi Arabia. Methods This was a cross-sectional, web-based study conducted in Western, Eastern, North, South, and Central Regions in Saudi Arabia between July and September 2021 among pregnant women, using multi-stage sampling. All pregnant women above 18 years were invited to participate in the study. Pregnant under 18 years of age and those with a contraindication to receiving COVID-19 vaccination were excluded. Binomial logistic regression (univariate and multivariate) was used to identify the influencing factors on vaccination acceptance. Results Among the 5307 pregnant women, the acceptance level of COVID-19 vaccine was 68%. In the multivariate regression model analysis, the most common predictors of acceptance were living in North Region (P = 0.001, OR = 1.9), living in South Region (P = 0.000, OR = 3.06), and living in Central Region (P = 0.035, OR = 1.42) in comparison to living in Western Region. Gestational week (P = 0.018, OR=0.98), income more than 8000 SR (P = 0.000, OR = 0.51), education level (primary, secondary, and university; P = 0.002, 0.008, and 0.010, respectively), having had gestational diabetes mellitus (P = 0.013, OR = 1.86), being vaccinated with influenza vaccine during present pregnancy (P = 0.000, OR = 4.55, OR = 1.81), being vaccinated with tetanus vaccine during present pregnancy (P = 0.039), and believing that the COVİD-19 vaccine could harm their baby (P = 0.000, OR = 0.12). Conclusion Our study reported high acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. The major two reasons for refusal were concerns about a lack of data on COVID-19 vaccination safety and the possibility of harming the fetus. Continued public health efforts, such as educational television programs and awareness campaigns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women, are required to raise awareness. More studies of COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnant women would assist in overcoming these obstacles and encourage pregnant women to be vaccinated.

Objective This study aimed to determine the proportion of family physicians referring patients to psychiatrists and conducting psychotherapy or mental health consultations themselves. Additionally, the factors affecting family physicians’ approaches to dealing with mental health patients were investigated, including referrals to psychiatrists and physicians’ views about better management plans for patients with mental health disorders. Method In this cross-sectional observational study, online surveys were distributed, using Google forms, to family physicians in primary healthcare centers and hospitals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The participants were 175 family physicians. A previously developed survey under the name "collaboration between psychologists and primary health care physicians" was adapted to suit the purposes of the present study, by changing the aim of the survey from psychologists to family physicians. Results Physicians who received inter-professional training in a clinical training program were more likely to agree that their education prepared them well for collaboration with psychiatrists, compared to those who did not receive such an education (p<0.001). The younger and less experienced physicians were more likely to carry out psychotherapy and mental health consultations by themselves more often than were the more experienced physicians (33.1% versus 9.7%; p<0.001), it has also been shown that almost 90% of physicians agreed that collaboration with psychiatrists is necessary for the care of their patients, and only a third responded that psychiatrists were accessible if and when they want to consult with them. Conclusions Family and primary care physicians must collaborate with psychiatric professionals in order to provide effective services. Moreover, family physicians should receive more education about mental health, and effective communication should be encouraged in order to deliver better care to psychiatric patients in primary healthcare settings.

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is the primary cause of death worldwide, accounting for 31.0% of all deaths and more than 18 million deaths annually. The 2008 World Health Report indicated that 144 (35%) of the 413 deaths per 100,000 in 2002 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) were due to CVD. Primary prevention is an important focus of most of the cardiovascular prevention guidelines around the world. In this study, we aimed to describe the prevalence of extrinsic risk factors for CVDs in a high-risk population attending general practice in Jeddah, KSA.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah. Patients started on lipid-lowering and/or antihypertensive and/or antidiabetes treatments without a history of established cardiovascular disease were interviewed. The questionnaire was adopted from the EUROASPIRE III study.ResultsTwo hundred and fifty high-risk individuals (80.0% female) were interviewed. Overall, 72% of the patients had been diagnosed with hypertension, 61.2% of patients had dyslipidemia, and approximately two-thirds of patients had diabetes mellitus. Most of the patients (88%) were non-smokers. The mean waist circumference of patients was 101.6 ± 14.1 cm, which suggests most were clinically obese. About 54.8% of the patients followed an unhealthy diet and 52.0% were physically inactive. There were significant differences between women and men in relation to dyslipidemia (p = 0.007), unhealthy diet (p = 0.034), being overweight (p = 0.018), and high blood cholesterol (p = 0.002). We observed significantly greater prevalence of hypertension (p = 0.073), unhealthy diet (p = 0.015), being overweight (p = 0.018), and high blood cholesterol (p = 0.000) in those patients with dyslipidemia.ConclusionOur study presents novel findings in the KSA. Women were more likely to have high-risk CVD risk factors compared with their male counterparts in this sample. Gender-specific prevention programs in the KSA should be considered to more appropriately target at-risk individuals, to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality associated with CVDs.

Objective: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has become a global health concern and is a reliable predictor of long-term adverse health outcomes. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of MetS and its components in a group of Saudi adults with type 2 diabetes using the World Health Organization (WHO) and Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III definitions, and to examine agreement between both definitions. Methods: This cross-sectional study included adults with type 2 diabetes who were followed up at the family medicine and endocrinology clinics of King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) from January to March 2018. An interview-administered questionnaire was designed to collect demographic data, anthropometric measurements, and medical history. We used the 1999 WHO and 2001 ATP III definitions for diagnosing MetS. Results: The study included 155 diabetes patients. The overall prevalence of MetS components (three of more components) among patients was 80% according to the WHO criteria and 85.8% according to the ATP III criteria. The kappa statistics demonstrated good agreement between both definitions (κ = 0.751, p < 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of diagnosing MetS using the WHO versus ATP III criteria were 92.5% and 95.5%, respectively. There was weak positive association between the number of MetS components and the number of diabetic complications. Conclusions: MetS was highly prevalent among Saudi adults with type 2 diabetes regardless of the diagnostic criteria. It is, therefore, imperative that clinicians identify MetS in this patient population and educate them on the importance of adherence to treatment and therapeutic lifestyle changes. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.4.199 How to cite this:Ghamri RA, Alamri SH. Metabolic syndrome among adults with type 2 diabetes in a Saudi teaching hospital: A comparative prevalence study using WHO and ATP III definitions. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.4.199 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a worldwide global public health threat. Although acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination will be a critical step in combating the pandemic, achieving high uptake will be difficult, and potentially made more difficult by social media misinformation. This study aimed to examine the association between social media use and acceptance of receiving COVID-19 vaccine among the general population in Saudi Arabia. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 17 to June 19, 2021 among 504 participants of the general population in Saudi Arabia. The data were collected using a three-part online questionnaire (sociodemographic characteristics, medical and vaccination history, pattern of social media use). Results Among 504 participants who completed the survey, 477 participants were acceptant of the vaccine and 27 were non-accepting. A total of 335 individuals had already received the vaccine, 142 were willing to receive the vaccine and 27 were unwilling. One hundred and thirty participants denied using social media for COVID-19 news. Four factors were found to be significant in influencing vaccine acceptance in univariate analysis: having a chronic condition (odds ratio (OR) = 0.367, P = 0.019), believing that infertility is a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine (OR = 0.298, P = 0.009), being concerned about a serious side effect from the vaccine (somewhat concerned: OR = 0.294, P = 0.022, very concerned: OR = 0.017, P < 0.0001), and basing the decision to be vaccinated on social media information (OR = 0.260, P = 0.006). Two of these factors fell away on multivariate analysis: basing the decision on social media information (OR = 0.356, P = 0.071), and a belief that vaccination causes infertility (OR = 0.0333, P = 0.054), suggesting that the associations are dependent on other factors. Conclusion ‏In conclusion, there was no significant independent relationship between social media usage and people's willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Further studies to explore the association between social media use and vaccine decisions are required to generalize this observation to the Saudi population.