Background and objective: Moderate and Heavy/binge alcohol drinking among medical college students have become a major public health problem. There is consistent evidence suggesting that young adults in college are drinking more than their non–college-attending peers, but it is still not clear whether they are more likely to suffer from clinically significant alcohol use disorders. This article reports the first national assessment of patterns of drinking habit among Medical Colleges. The aim of this study was to monitor the use of alcohol and to search for intervention and prevention strategies in Medical college communities. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Young adults students (n = 342) in four Medical College in Hawler Medical University were studied from the period between 20th Feb 2007- 20th April 2007 regarding use of alcohol, they were between 17-29 years old, 36% female, 64% male. A semi structured Questionnaires were distributed to students living in the four Medical colleges. The questionnaires asked for information on age, residency (how long they had lived in the college) and what substances they had used in the 6 months prior to the study (cigarettes, alcohol). The students also asked about academic and social activities. The data were expressed as descriptive frequencies and percentages. Results: 19.3% of college students (18, 4% of men, 0.9% of women) has occasional alcohol drink in the in the past 6 month, 4.4% has moderate to binge drinking which was completely among male students, students from College of Medicine form the higher rate of alcohol users (12.8%), while College of Nursing form the lowest rate (0.6%). Bars and restaurant form the major drinking context for the students (44.5%). Conclusion: The problem of alcohol use is increasing among students from medical college / Hawler University. College-based interventions seem desirable, especially in boys.

Background and objectivesMental distress among medical students is often reported. Social phobia is a highly prevalent yet often overlooked psychiatric disorder that can cause severe disability but fortunately has shown responsiveness to specific pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The aim of this work was to study the prevalence of social phobia problem and potential risk factors that may be associated with social anxiety among medical students.MethodsThe present study was designed to identify the manifestations and correlates of social phobia among medical college students. The sample for this investigation consists of 321 (170 female and 151 male) students aged 19-26 years. For detection of social phobia among the studied sample, we used Social phobia inventory which is a self rating scale that capture the spectrum of fear, avoidance and physiological symptoms. It demonstrates good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity.ResultsThe sample consisted of participants from all medical stages (this was a proportionate representative sample from each classes), 56% were from higher income groups, nearly 45% had their residence in hostel, 21.5% of the students had a SPIN score of 19 and more, mean social phobia was present in almost 22% of the population. There was no statistically significant difference in prevalence of social phobia with respect to gender, family income or type of residence.ConclusionSocial phobia has a high prevalence and marked impact on life, early identification and adequate treatment by college counseling centers will successfully help in reducing the burden of this common condition.

Background  Self-Care activities of hemodialysis patients are very important on a daily base, which improve their health and prevent them from complications and illness. This practice was the best practice that used since Orem’s nursing theory until now to improve all sides of patients. Objectives  This study aims to assess the level of Self-Care activities and determines the association factors affecting their activity among hemodialysis patients. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional study involved 242 patients that maintain on the hemodialysis treatment in Erbil City from November 2019 to April 2020, by using interview questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS Program version 23 involved descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, and chi-square tests. Results More than half of the participants (55.4%) were in the older adult age group, male (52.5%), illiterate (53.7%), and live in the urban area (54.5%). The majority of them were married (72.3%) and poor income (76%). Highly percentage were non- smokers (94.6%), 88.8% were with chronic diseases and hypertension (72.7%). 50.4% of them time duration of hemodialysis treatment was between 1 year to 4 years. Most of the participants (70.2%) sometimes they were done self-care activities. Dependency of self-care activities was significantly higher associated with all the variables of socioeconomic (P <0.001) except with sex, however, there was no significant association with all the variables of clinical data except with associated disease of Chronic Renal Failure, the existence of heart disease and with a duration of hemodialysis treatment.  Conclusion In general, hemodialysis patients sometimes can perform self-care activities. Dependency of self-care activities was highly significantly associated with the majority of socioeconomic variables and with the few parts of the clinical variable. Hemodialysis patients need their self-care activities for improving their health and well-being continually.

Background:Job satisfaction greatly determines the productivity and efficiency of human resources for health. Job satisfaction is said to be linked with employee's work environment, job responsibilities, powers; and time pressure among various health professionals. Objective of this study is to find out level of nurse job satisfaction and its association with different demographical variables.Subjects and method:Across section study was conducted in major eight hospitals in Erbil city which is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan Region, from 1st of January 2012 to 1st January of 2013. Convenient type sample was choosed and involved 127 College graduated nurses from all (200) nurses in the service. Two types of questionnaires were used, 1st one closed ended questionnaire that include demographical criteria. 2nd type was Job Satisfaction Scale, a five-point Likert type scale with 15 items. SPSS was used for entering data and analyzing the results.Results:Out of all 127 nurses 63.8% were neither satisfied nor unsatisfied, 22% were satisfied while only 14.2 were not satisfied with their job. There was one only significant relation between job satisfaction and gender with p value≤ 0.05, while there were no significant association observed between job satisfaction and other demographic variables.Conclusion:Our findings state a low level of overall satisfaction among nurses in major governmental hospitals in Erbil city. This ambiguous response may be due to poor environment of work, unclear future promotion, missing their real work position, attention and respect.

Methods: This case control study included 93 schizophrenic patients seeking medical advice at Hawler Psychiatric Hospital and private clinics with 93 non psychiatric control were screened for the presence of anti-toxoplasma IgG, IgM (by ELISA test) and C-reactive protein using qualitative methods. A questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and behavioral data among the respondents. Results: In chronic cases anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG antibodies were seropositive in 30/93 (32.3%) of the schizophrenic patients and 4/93(4.3%) of control (P <0.001). The seropositive rate of IgM antibodies was 9.7% and 1.1% among schizophrenic patients and control, respectively (P = 0.006). The result of C-reactive protein positivity among patients and control was 23.6% and 3.22%, respectively (P <0.001). Conclusion: Our results delineate that association might exist between Toxoplasma gondii infection and schizophrenia etiology.

Background and objectives: Hemodialysis procedure is one of the important replacement therapies for patients with renal failure. Maintenance hemodialysis is associated with many complications that play a significant role in the activities of daily living. The present study aimed to find out the factors affecting activities of daily living among patients with maintenance hemodialysis in Erbil City in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 268 patients undergoing mainte-nance hemodialysis for more than two months, and at least two times per a week at two dialysis centres in Erbil City from December 2019 to April 2020. The activities of daily living and complications from the hemodialysis procedure questionnaire to collect research da-ta. The data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistical approach including fre-quency, percentages, and inferential statistical analysis consisting chi-square test. Results: According to the findings of the study, the majority of participants were above 51 years of age, able to read and write, with middle income, and from an urban area. Almost half of the study sample were males, and most were on hemodialysis between one and three years. The majority of them had hypertension and complications associated with he-modialysis such as headache and hypotension, and more than half had back pain. A highly significant association was found between dependency in activities of daily living and some socio-economic and clinical variables. Furthermore, a significant association was found be-tween dependency in activities of daily living and some hemodialysis complications with P<0.001. Conclusion: According to the result of the study, the researchers concluded that partici-pants suffered from chronic diseases, hemodialysis complications and low level of activities of daily living. The complications of hemodialysis treatment were significantly affecting the activities of daily living. Haemodialysis patients need more education and nursing care to reduce treatment complications and to increase their activities.

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