We examined the effectiveness of combining Vitamin D supplementation with calcium on maternal and neonatal outcomes, as opposed to using Vitamin D supplements alone.
Pregnant women in their third ...trimester were divided into two groups. The control group received a daily dose of 1000 IU of Vitamin D, but, the experimental group received a combined daily dosage of 1000 IU of Vitamin D and 500 mg of calcium, until delivery.
The women in the Vitamin D + calcium group were less likely to develop gestational diabetes (2.78%; vs. 19.51%;
= 0.0318), preeclampsia (2.78% vs. 26.83%;
= 0.004), newly onset gestational hypertension (11.11% vs. 46.34%;
= 0.001), proteinuria (5.56% vs. 39.02%;
= 0.0004), and impaired glucose tolerance (2.78% vs. 21.95%;
= 0.0163) and had lower blood pressure at 20
and 39
weeks of gestation. The newborns in the Vitamin D + calcium group were less likely to experience low birth weight (5.71% vs. 31.58%;
= 0.0066), low birth length (5.71% vs. 44.74%;
= 0.0007), were less likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (14.29% vs. 42.11%;
= 0.0105), have a larger head circumference (35.00 vs. 33.63;
< 0.0001), longer gestational age at birth (40.0 vs. 37.56 weeks;
< 0.0001), and higher APGAR scores (9.58 vs. 6.31;
< 0.0001.) compared to Vitamin D group, respectively.
Taking Vitamin D and calcium by pregnant women in the third trimester is an effective treatment to decrease maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes.
On March 1, 2020, the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) announced 4 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We aimed to explore the response of the public toward the prevention principles ...against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.
The investigators invited individuals from different geographic areas of Duhok Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan in March 2020.
The mean age of the participants was 25.74 (16-95 years). The mean score and prevalence of fear toward SARS-CoV-2 infection was 4.40 of 10 and 81.9%, respectively. A small percentage of participants did not minimize their exposures by reducing close contacts and transmission of respiratory droplets (14.5%) and visited public areas during the epidemic (28.7%). The study revealed that 30.8% of the participants do not use face masks or tissues when they sneeze in public areas. Most of the participants wash their hands when they suspect a possible transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen (94.6%) and clean or disinfect pathogen contamination-suspected areas at home (84.6%). The study also revealed that some participants (11.2%), due to a lower education, did not visit a medical clinic when they experienced possible symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Participants agreed with the health policies of KRG against the COVID-19 outbreak (90.8%).
Some individuals do not adhere to preventive measures against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Stress is an inevitable part of nursing life. Nurses need to respond to their stressful environment contents to reduce negative consequences. We examined the role of dimensions of emotional ...intelligence in predicting coping reactions to stress in 201 college nursing practitioners in this cross-sectional study between November 2017 and January 2018. The nurses appraised their own emotions, but they were not sure that appraised others’ emotions, regulated their and others’ emotions. They could cope with new ideas and faced obstacles. Most of the nurses were moderately stressed. Those nurses were not able to regulate their own emotions were determined to have a higher level of perceived stress. Active coping, positive reframing and acceptance were the most prevalent coping mechanisms. The investigation showed that others’ emotion appraisal was a predictor for self-blame reaction, and emotion utilization was the predictor for positive reframing and self-blame.
Findings are conflicting regarding the effect of zinc supplementation on disease severity in children with acute gastroenteritis.
To examine the effects of probiotics and zinc on the clinical ...outcomes of infants and children with acute infectious diarrhea.
In this randomized controlled trial, children with mild or moderate to severe acute gastroenteritis in the Kurdistan Region from November 2021 to June 2022 were diagnosed clinically and randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. The experimental group (n=50) received probiotics and zinc, whereas the control group (n=51) received probiotics alone for 1 week. The product contained live Bifidobacterium infantis, Lactobacillus paracasei, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (10×106 colony-forming units/day for 7 days). Zinc syrup was administered to the probiotic plus zinc group. Each 5 mL of syrup contained 15 mg of zinc sulfate. Dehydration and disease severity in both groups were measured using the Clinical Dehydration Scale and the Modified Vesikari Scale, respectively. An illness episode was defined as an episode of gastroenteritis with a total score of ≥9 on the Modified Vesikari Scale (range, 0-20).
The probiotic and probiotic plus zinc groups were similar in age (1.79 years vs. 1.69 years, respectively; P= 0.645), sex (male/female ratio: 1.43 and 1.0, respectively; P=0.373), and medical characteristics. The groups had similar mean dehydration and disease severity scores and a similar incidence of dehydration recovery (some dehydration, 3.92% and 4.00%, respectively; P=1.000), and recovery from mild gastroenteritis (0.0% and 2.0%, respectively; P=0.495) at 2 weeks. Significant decreases in mean dehydration severity and disease severity score (1.80 to 0 and 6.66 to 0, respectively; P<0.001) and the development of dehydration (some dehydration, from 94.0% to 4.0%; P<0.001) from baseline to 2 weeks were noted in the probiotics plus zinc group. The probiotics group responded similarly. The development of mild gastroenteritis was significantly reduced from baseline to 2 weeks (90.2% to 0% and 78.0% to 2.0% in the probiotics and probiotics plus zinc groups, respectively; P<0.0001). The probiotics plus zinc group had a shorter mean recovery time (1.34 days vs. 2.00 days, respectively; P<0.001).
Taking probiotics plus zinc did not significantly affect disease severity in children with gastroenteritis at 2 weeks. However, the probiotics plus zinc group recovered more quickly than the probiotics group.
•Yezidi females suffer from mental disorders following an ISIS attack.•Art-based intervention courses are effective and non-invasive.•Psychological well-being was improved following an art-based ...intervention course.•Psychological Well-being of Yezidi Females Following a Group Art-Based Intervention: An Interventional Study.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked Sinjar, a majority Yezidi region, on 3 August 2014. ISIS fighters systematically and deliberately targeted the Yezidi Kurdish population. Several of the region’s women and girls were abducted, raped, sold and gifted to other ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria. Amnesty International claims that the women and girls who survived ISIS captivity, or who succeeded in escaping the attack, suffer from severe psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety. This paper discusses the effectiveness of a two-month art-based intervention course on the general health status and psychological well- being of Yezidi females.
A total of 14 females, ranging in age from 10 to 27, who survived the ISIS captivity/invasion, were invited to participate in a two-month art-based intervention treatment course. Their general health status and socio-psychological well-being were assessed pre- and post-intervention through self-report assessments, the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) and the Flourishing Scale (FS), respectively.
The study showed that overall general health status and socio-psychological well- being improved, substantially, from 18.21 to 3.57 for general health status (P < 0.0001) and from
41.36–51.21 for socio-psychological well-being (P < 0.0001). However, the participants were still unable to completely overcome their life difficulties (P = 0.302).
Art-based intervention sessions can be effective for improving the psychological well-being of women who develop severe psychiatric disorders following the survival of war- related conflict.
Background: Consensus on the effectiveness of art therapy in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is lacking in the literature.Purpose: Here, we examined the effectiveness of a short and ...intensive art-based intervention on autistic symptomatology and social skills among children with ASD levels 2 and 3.Methods: This pre- and postexperimental investigation included 13 children previously diagnosed with ASD levels 2 and 3 in Kurdistan Region in 2019. They completed the art-based intervention 2 hours/day for 3 days/week for 1 month. The activities included cutting and pasting squares and triangles, coloring black-and-white images, and recognizing and coloring shapes. Children used wooden and aquatic pens and scissors under guidance. Symptom severity was measured using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2), a validated tool for measuring the severity of autistic traits and symptoms that features subscales of social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation, and autistic mannerisms. Children with ASD level 2 require significant support and experience notable difficulties in verbal and social communication, while those with ASD level 3 require extensive support and have the most severe form of autism. The outcome was measured one day before the course commenced and one week after completion.Results: The mean patient age (n=13) was 8.15 years (standard deviation, 1.95; range, 5–11 years). Most patients were male (n=11, 84.62%). The mean SRS-2 score did not change significantly pre- to postexperiment (159 vs. 157, P=0.601). Similarly, we found no significant changes in social awareness (19 vs. 19, P=0.779); social cognition (28 vs. 27, P=0.199); social communication (56 vs. 54, P=0.600); social motivation (26 vs. 24, P=0.684); and autistic mannerisms (33 vs. 32; P= 0.780), respectively.Conclusion: The art-based intervention did not improve autism symptoms or social interactions among children with ASD levels 2 and 3.
Abstract Objectives The nursing profession is considered to be at a high risk of workplace stress, workload, and burnout due to the high job demands. The nurses require the appropriate and prompt ...coping mechanisms to relieve the effects of stress. The nurses have to be emotionally intelligent to overcome the work-related stress to meet the clinical-based duties. But there is a paucity of the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) on the clinical performance of nurses in the literature. Therefore, the role of dimensions of EI in the improvement of clinical performance of nurses was explored in this study. Methods A total of 194 nurses with different education levels and experiences were included from various clinical departments and shifts of public hospitals in Iraqi Kurdistan. Results The mean age of the nurses was 29.44 years, with ages ranging from 23 years to 36 years. The nurses were men (56.70%), married (53.10%), non-smokers (86.10%), physically active (55.70%), and irregular physically active (63.90%). Nurses were able to appraise their own emotions but not the emotions of other nurses. They regulated their own emotions but were weak in regulating the emotions of other nurses. They did not utilize emotions in coming up with new ideas and facing obstacles in clinical settings. Generally, the nurses reported that a little clinical performance is required in medical settings. The levels of interpersonal communication and problem solving were improved with an increasing appraisal and regulating own emotions. The level of problem solving was improved with appraising own emotions and utilizing emotions in facing obstacles. Conclusions Nurses need to know how to regulate others’ emotions and utilize these emotions in coming up with new ideas and facing the obstacles positively in medical settings.
Background and Objective The role of insomnia in the well-being of school children has not been sufficiently examined in the literature. We aimed to explore the prevalence of clinical insomnia and ...its relationship to the health-related quality of life among female high-school students.Methods In a cross-sectional study in 2018, 300 students from five female high-schools in the Kurdistan Region were randomly included, regardless of age and other socio-demographic characteristics. The Personal Wellbeing Index, General Health Questionnaire–12, and Insomnia Severity Index were used to measure the personal and general well-being, and insomnia of school children, respectively.Results The students were categorized into short sleepers (2.0%), normal sleepers (51.0%), and long sleepers (47.0%), and age range is 14–19 years (mean: 16.22 years). The mean value of general well-being and insomnia severity was 6.89 and 11.42, respectively. We found that 25.0% of the students had no clinically significant insomnia, 47.7% had subthreshold insomnia, 24.0% had clinically moderate insomnia, and 3.3% had clinically severe insomnia. The mean value of the personal well-being of students was 7.91 out of 10. The mean value of personal well-being was significantly lower among students with more severe insomnia. The mean values of personal well-being were 8.61 (no clinically significant insomnia), 7.87 (subthreshold insomnia), 7.49 (clinically moderate insomnia), and 6.91 (clinically severe insomnia). The worse sleep situations and smoking were the main independent controlling factors for lower personal well-being.Conclusions The study documented that female students are at risk of being clinical insomniacs, and are at risk of the development of lower well-being.
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