Background Vaccines remain one of the most effective methods to control infectious diseases; however, COVID-19 vaccines are challenging and novel. Vaccine support is still substantial in general, although vaccination fear has increased dramatically in recent decades. This is the first study aimed to determine the fear of the COVID-19 vaccination and the role of factors and reasons associated with fear in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Results A total of 1188 participants responded to the questionnaire about their fears of the COVID-19 vaccine. The majority of participants had a medium level of fear (56.7%). Fear was significantly (p < 0.001) associated with major demographic characteristics, social media use (51.8%), and losing family members, while other variables (previous seasonal influenza vaccine, previous infection, chronic medical diseases) show no relationship. Fear of side effects such as blood clotting was reported by the majority (45.03%) and indicated positive relation (p < 0.016). On the other hand, a high proportion, 39.9% and 34.01%, were afraid of AstraZeneca and Pfizer (p < 0.001), respectively; however, only about 4.63% had fear of Sinopharm. Conclusions The fear of COVID-19 vaccination was widespread in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. In this way, fear was related to significant variables. To reduce the fear of vaccines and increase public acceptance, authorities and the Ministry of Health should initiate a public awareness campaign. As a result, the public health crisis will significantly improve.

Background and Aim: Smartphones become a part of today’s life. In spite of the convenience, it contributes to our daily lives and activities, one of the most important problems is smartphone addiction. As known, smartphone addiction is a type of technological addiction or non-substance addiction. The present study is to investigate the association between smartphone addiction and physical activity, sleeping hours among medical science students in Duhok City.Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study design carried out with 295 students in medical science colleges in the Duhok City of both gender. Self-reported data collected from December 15, 2019, to January 22, 2020. Structured questionnaire has been used to gather data related to sociodemographic, physical activity, sleeping hours, and smartphone addiction.Results: The study found most students, 78.3% have smartphone addiction, 78% of medical science students are at low physical activity range, and only 2% of students are at normal physical activity range, also revealed 20% of students were inactive. According to daily sleeping hours, more than half of them, 61.7% were in a healthy range of sleeping; however, no statistically significant association found between smartphone addiction with physical activity, sleeping hours while finding a highly statistically significant association between smartphone addiction with gender.Conclusion: The current study figure out smartphone addiction prevalence was very high among medical science college students. Smartphone addiction showed an effect in increasing sedentary health behavior like low physical activity and poor sleeping quality with no statistically significant association.

No abstract

Background: Physical activity (PA) is a significant element in people’s daily life and leads to long-term health benefits. However, inadequate physical activity, obesity, and being overweight are the main risk factors that contribute to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study aimed to examine the association between physical activity and body mass index (BMI) among public school teachers in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Methods: The cross-sectional study design was applied from September 15th, 2021, to April 1st, 2022. Stratified-simple random sampling was employed to select 500 school teachers aged from 18 to 64. The current study used a questionnaire and was composed of two parts: the first part included sociodemographic characteristics and BMI, and the second part consisted of measuring physical activity assessments using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Long (IPAQ-L). Results: The majority of teachers (38.6%) were between the ages of 30 and 39, and 64.8% were female. The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was 71.4%. The vast majority of school teachers (65.8%) had a low level of physical activity, which was significantly linked with gender (P < 0.001), marital status (P < 0.001), educational level (P = 0.008), and monthly income (P = 0.006). There was a significant relationship between physical activity and body mass index, which was inversely related to body mass index (P < 0.001). In addition, teachers with a healthy BMI were more physically active than those with a high BMI. Conclusion: The vast majority of teachers failed to meet international recommendations on PA. Moreover, it was shown that there is a significant association between physical activity and body weight. When physical activity increases, BMI will decrease.

Background: Communities around the world have expressed concern about the safety and side effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The adverse effects of the Covid-19 vaccines played a critical role in public trust in the vaccines. The current study aimed to provide evidence on the side effects of the BNT163b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech®); ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AstraZeneca®); BBIBP-CorVvaccine (Sinopharm®) COVID-19 vaccines.  Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study design was performed from April 26th, 2021, to June 3rd, 2021. Convenience sampling was used to select respondents; face validity was performed to the mandatory multiple-choice items questionnaire to cover the respondent’s demographic characteristics, coronavirus-19 related anamneses, and the side effect duration of coronavirus-19 vaccines, the data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Results: The 588 participants enrolled in the current study. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine received 49.7%, followed by BNT163b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and BBIBP-CorV (39.5% and 10.9%). The most common complaint was headache (61.2%), followed by vaccine injection site discomfort (58.8%), fatigue (49.7%), fever (48.3%), muscle discomfort (42.9%), and approximately (10.5% and 10.2%) had injection site swelling and nausea, respectively. Most of those surveyed had post-vaccine symptoms for one to two days (25.2%), (41%), and only a small percentage (3.7%) experienced them for over one month. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine handled 53% of the side effects, followed by BNT163b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (42%) and BBIBP-CorV vaccines (5%). Conclusion: Prevalence of various local and systemic vaccines side effects, such as headache, fever, and pain at the injection site, was observed. Almost all participants had mild symptoms and were well-tolerated .AstraZeneca® vaccine has the most side effects, followed by the Pfizer® vaccine, and the Sinopharm® vaccine has the least. More independent studies on vaccination safety and public awareness are critical to improving public trust in vaccines. Keywords: COVID-19; Vaccines; Side effects; Prevalence; Cross-sectional design.