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Background: Diagnosing cancer and undergoing therapeutic measures are accompanied by an intense state of death anxiety. Purpose: This study aimed to investigate death anxiety and its relationship to demographic data for cancer patients at Tishreen University Hospital in Latakia. Methods: The quantitative approach was used in the current study. A descriptive, correlational design was utilized in the current study. The study used a convenience sampling method. The total number of the participants was 100 cancer patients. The patients were selected from Tishreen University Hospital in Lattakia/Syria. Death-anxiety scale was used as a tool for data collection. Results: The results showed a moderate level of death anxiety among participants, and there was a statistically significant relationship between death anxiety and gender. Conclusion: Having cancer affects the level of death anxiety among patients, which appears to be higher among females than among males. Implications for Nursing: Studying the relationships between sociodemographic characteristics and the level of death anxiety in cancer patients will help individualize education about psychological problems associated with cancer. Healthcare professionals must evaluate patients' needs and personal characteristics before starting to perform psychological interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: This study aims to determine the health needs and access to health services among Syrian refugees. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out between March and September 2022 in a public setting that provides humanitarian aid in Istanbul Province. The sample included 150 participants who met the inclusion criteria. The data were collected through 20-30-minute face-toface interviews using the Omaha System Problem Classification Scheme and the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire. All data were transferred to IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Statistics software, version 28.0, for analysis. Descriptive statistics and chi-square significance tests were performed. RESULTS: The result of the analysis revealed that the health problems of Syrian refugees were mostly related to the physiological domain (13/39.3%), followed by the psychosocial domain (9/27.2%), health-related behaviors domain (7/21.2%), and environmental domain (4/12.1%). CONCLUSION: This study highlighted the fact that refugees continue to be vulnerable to social determinants of health. In this context, it is recommended to develop new policies to reduce poverty, increase access to health and other public services, and empower refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Forced displacement and war trauma cause high rates of post-traumatic stress, anxiety disorders and depression in refugee populations. We investigated the impact of forced displacement on mental health status, gender, presentation of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and associated inflammatory markers among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Methods Mental health status was assessed using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25). Additional metabolic and inflammatory markers were analyzed. Results Although symptomatic stress scores were observed in both men and women, women consistently displayed higher symptomatic anxiety/depression scores with the HSCL-25 (2.13 ± 0.58 versus 1.95 ± 0.63). With the HTQ, however, only women aged 35–55 years displayed symptomatic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scores (2.18 ± 0.43). Furthermore, a significantly higher prevalence of obesity, prediabetes and undiagnosed T2D were observed in women participants (23.43, 14.91 and 15.18%, respectively). Significantly high levels of the inflammatory marker serum amyloid A were observed in women (11.90 ± 11.27 versus 9.28 ± 6.93, P  = 0.036). Conclusions Symptomatic PTSD, anxiety/depression coupled with higher levels of inflammatory marker and T2D were found in refugee women aged between 35 and 55 years favoring the strong need for psychosocial therapeutic interventions in moderating stress-related immune dysfunction and development of diabetes in this subset of female Syrian refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. There have been a limited number of studies that have focused on factors which shape the experiences of resettlement and occupational injustice among refugee populations. Purpose. To explore the factors that shape the living difficulties of Syrian refugees who were lawfully admitted into the United States and ways whereby they might interfere with shaping occupational injustice. Method. Mixed methodologies were incorporated. The living difficulty scale for refugees (LDSR) was disseminated. Semistructured interviews were conducted, and fieldnotes were collected as sources of qualitative data. Results. 254 participants (mean age 36.2 ± 9.6 yrs; 159 females and 95 males) completed the survey, and nine of them participated in the semistructured interviews. Age (p < 0.01), region (p < 0.001), and time in the United States (p < 0.05) had significant effects on the experiences of the participants, but not gender (p = 0.308). Occupational injustice is an outcome of an interaction between interpersonal and contextual factors. Practice Implications. Occupational therapists need to assume a vital role in maximizing opportunities of engagement in meaningful occupations for Syrian refugees to counteract occupational injustice and difficulties associated with resettlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The mental health of refugee women is often affected by multiple risk factors in their social ecology. Assessing these risk factors is foundational in determining potential areas for intervention. We used the social ecological model to examine risk factors associated with self-reported mental health symptoms among clinic-attending Syrian refugee women in Jordan. We hypothesize that individual (older age, unmarried, have more children under 18, difficulty reading/writing with ease), interpersonal (intimate partner violence [IPV]), community and societal level risk factors (greater number of postmigration stressors), will be associated with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Methods: We surveyed 507 women using a cross-sectional clinic-based systematic sampling approach between April and November 2018. We used multivariable regressions to examine associations between different risk factors in the social ecology on depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Additional multivariable regressions explored associations between specific postmigration stressors and mental health conditions. Results: We found rates of depression among our sample to be 62.92%; anxiety 57.46%; and PTSD 66.21%. Our hypothesis was partially supported. At the individual level, age was directly associated with anxiety (aOR 1.04, 95% CI [1.02, 1.06]) and PTSD (aOR 1.03, 95% CI [1.01, 1.06]), while marriage decreased odds for depression (aOR 0.41, 95% CI [0.19, 0.92]) and PTSD (aOR 0.36, 95% CI [0.15, 0.87]). IPV was associated with depression (aOR 2.78, 95% CI [1.72, 4.47]); anxiety (aOR 3.30, 95% CI [2.06, 5.27]); and PTSD (aOR 5.49, 95% CI [3.09, 9.76]). Each additional community and societal risk factor (postmigration stressor) increased the odds for depression (aOR 1.32, 95% CI [1.22, 1.42]), anxiety (aOR 1.28, 95% CI [1.19, 1.39]), and PTSD (aOR 1.46, 95% CI [1.33, 1.60]). Conclusion: Understanding social ecological risk factors associated with mental health conditions of Syrian refugee women is vital to addressing their mental health needs. IPV and postmigration stressors are consistently impactful with all mental health conditions. IPV resulted in the largest odds increase for all mental health conditions. Multilevel interventions are needed to address mental health risk factors at multiple levels of the social ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring diets of children aged 6–23 months meet recommended guidance is crucial for growth and development and for the prevention of malnutrition including stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies. Despite some improvement, indicators related to undernutrition and overnutrition fall short of global targets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region that consist of low‐ and middle‐income countries witnessing political and social changes and a nutrition transition. This research aims at reviewing the situation related to the diets of children aged 6–23 months in five selected countries in the MENA region, examining factors affecting complementary feeding and providing recommendations for guiding effective strategies to improve it. The study triangulated data on complementary feeding status and predictors from semistructured interviews with 30 key informants, and multivariable analysis of household surveys in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, State of Palestine and Sudan including data on refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. There remain considerable gaps in complementary feeding differing noticeably among geographic areas. Findings from qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that maternal factors, including maternal education and age, household level factors such as paternal education and wealth, community‐level factors (culture and geographic location), and utilization of health services, were associated with minimum dietary diversity (MDD), minimum meal frequency (MMF) and minimum acceptable diet (MAD) at varied levels in the five countries. Interventions to improve complementary feeding practices should include actions tailored to the needs of the population at multiple levels including at the caregiver's level, household, service use, community and policy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preliminary evidence points to higher morbidity and mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in certain racial and ethnic groups, but population-based studies using microlevel data are lacking so far. We used register-based cohort data including all adults living in Stockholm, Sweden, between January 31, 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of COVID-19) and May 4, 2020 (n  = 1,778,670) to conduct Poisson regression analyses with region/country of birth as the exposure and underlying cause of COVID-19 death as the outcome, estimating relative risks and 95% confidence intervals. Migrants from Middle Eastern countries (relative risk (RR) = 3.2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.6, 3.8), Africa (RR = 3.0, 95% CI: 2.2, 4.3), and non-Sweden Nordic countries (RR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.2, 1.8) had higher mortality from COVID-19 than persons born in Sweden. Especially high mortality risks from COVID-19 were found among persons born in Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Socioeconomic status, number of working-age household members, and neighborhood population density attenuated up to half of the increased COVID-19 mortality risks among the foreign-born. Disadvantaged socioeconomic and living conditions may increase infection rates in migrants and contribute to their higher risk of COVID-19 mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Burnout syndrome is a work-related chronic stress that is described as emotional exhaustion, a decreased sense of personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. it has been considered an important problem especially among workers in the health sector. Objectives: The aim of this research was to study the prevalence of burnout among Syrian residents during the Syrian crisis, which started 9 years ago, and to assess the factors related to burnout syndrome. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the levels of burnout syndrome; data were collected from residents doing their residency in 12 different hospitals spread over 8 governorates in Syria. A web-based Arabic version of Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire was used. The final sample size was 3350 residents from different specialties. SPSS V.22 was used to analyses the data using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: (93.75%) had a high level in at least one of the three domains of the burnout index, and (19.3%) of the residents had a high level of burnout in all three domains. Significant relation was found between gender, age group and affiliated authority variables and the levels of burnout. However no significant relation was found between burnout and the specialties or geographic variables. Males, residents in Ministry of Defense, and emergency medicine residents had the highest levels of burnout. Conclusion: High levels of burnout was found among residents during the Syrian crisis in comparison with other studies, which highlights the role of the current situation in raising workload on the Syrian residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]