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Objective: To investigate smartphone addiction among medical students and to determine factors associated with smartphone addiction among sixth-year medical students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 203 sixth-year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during July 2017. Data analysis was done using SPSS20. Results: The number of completed questionnaires received was181 out of 203, making a response rate of 89%. There were 87 male respondents (48.1%) and 94 female respondents (51.9%). The overall prevalence of smartphone addiction was 66 (36.5%). There is a statistically significant relationship between daily hours of smartphone usage and smartphone addiction (p<0.02). Out of 66 addicted students, 24 (55.8%) students reported using their smartphone more than five hours daily, 17(34.7%) students were using it 4 to 5 hours daily, 13 (27.7%) students were using it 2 to 3 hours daily and 12(28.6%) students were using it less than two hours daily. The study showed no statistically significant relationship between smartphone addiction and smoking statusor degree of obesity. There was a significant association between the total score on the smartphone addiction scale and daily usage hours (pvalue<0.005). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of smartphone addiction was high among our study participants. The smartphone addiction was associated with daily hours of smartphone usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical students have high levels of stress that could be due to the daily life stressors and the extra stress of academic burden. The present study investigated the perceived stress level as well as the reasons and sources of stress among medical students at a comparatively newly established medical college affiliated with King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (SA). Methods: The present study was carried out at Rabigh Medical College (RMC), KAU, Jeddah, and completed in 2015. The data was collected by an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that has three components: a list of 33 items of probable stressors, perceived stress scale, and demographic information and academics. Results: The response rate in our study was 86% (152/176), the mean age was 20.35 ± 1.09, 77 (51%) were from preclinical years and 75 (49%) from clinical years. The mean PSS score among our participants was 28.5 ± 3.8 with a median of 28.0 (IQR 26.0-31.0) and 59.2% of participants were stressed. The mean PSS score 30.6 ± 4.4 for students with sibling > 5 was significantly higher as compared to the mean PSS score (27.9 ± 3.3) for students with sibling =5. Similarly, the mean PSS score (32.0 ± 3.4) of students with often/always occurrence of psychosocial stressors was higher as compared to the mean PSS score (28.3 ± 3.7) of those students with less than a frequent occurrence of stressors. Moreover, those students that were more stressed had lower marks in the last exam (< 80%) as compared to students with less stress who had higher marks (≥80%) (P < .05). Performance in practicals, examinations frequency, disappointment with the class lectures, lack of personal interest in medicine, lengthy academic curriculum/syllabus, worries about the future and periodic examinations performance were rated as severe. The logistic regression analysis showed that stress cases were linked with last exam marks [OR 1.26, 95% CI 0.64-2.48], number of siblings [OR 2.27, 95% CI 0.97-5.27], and academic stressor [OR 2.02, 95% CI 0.61-6.66] but no significant relationship was found. Conclusion: There were high-stress levels among the participants of this study, and the main stressors were academicrelated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Medical ethics is the branch of ethics that deals with moral issues in medical practice. Many postgraduate training programs have developed educational interventions in ethics to meet accreditation standards and prepare learners for certification examinations and clinical practice. The aim of this study was to assess the attitude of residents in King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) toward the need for ethics education and identify the most effective methods of teaching ethical issues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of residents in different specialties at KAUH was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of four parts: demographic data, assessment of the educational need for ethics education, assessment of the impact of various learning methods, and assessment of the need for ethically important practices and behavior. SPSS version 16.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Descriptive analysis included frequency distribution, percentages, mean, and standard deviation (SD); Chi-square test and t-test were employed to determine statistical significance. RESULTS: Eighty-eight of the 102 residents invited to participate in the study returned completed questionnaires, providing a response rate of 86.3%. Their ages ranged between 24 and 38 years with a mean of 27.7 (standard deviation 2.8) years. Approximately two-thirds of the residents (65.9%) agreed that medical ethics can be taught and learned while only 19.3% of them disagreed. The most effective methods of ethical education according to the residents were discussion groups of peers led by a knowledgeable clinician (78.4%), clinical rounds (72.7%), and an incorporation of ethical issues into lectures and teaching rounds (69.3%). CONCLUSION: This study documents the importance residents placed on ethics education directed at practical, real-world dilemmas and ethically important professional developmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health care is a basic human right, and Saudi Arabia affirms these rights for all its citizens. Objectives: To assess the knowledge of medical students regarding health rights in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) from September 2015 through November 2015. A questionnaire written in English collected demographic data and included questions about reproductive health care and health rights of women and patients with cancer, senility, or special needs. Results: Of the 267 participants, 184 (68.9%) were female, and 252 (94.4%) were Saudi. Regarding consent, 87 (32.6%) and 113 (42.3%) participants believed a female patient required the consent of a male guardian to receive medical treatment or surgery, respectively, in Saudi Arabia, and only 106 (39.7%) knew that a female patient could provide consent for a caesarean section. Sixty-six (24.7%) believed that abortion is never allowed in Islam. Only 93 (34.8%) were aware that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients had health rights, about half (144, 53.9%) knew that cancer patients have a right to full information, and most (181, 67.8%) believed that a patient had the right to withhold health information from his/her family. Approximately half were aware that cancer patients have the right to free medical treatment (138, 51.7%) or that health rights applied to special needs patients (137, 51.3%) and senile patients (122, 45.7%). Conclusions: The knowledge of KAU medical students regarding health rights of certain patient populations highlights the importance of health rights education in medical school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis with a high prevalence throughout the world. Toxoplasma gondii infection is frequently asymptomatic. Primary school children are particularly vulnerable to toxoplasmosis due to their habits of playing in water, soil, eating various raw foods, or contact with pets, including dogs, cats, and birds and hence they are an ideal target group to investigate T. gondii prevalence. Data collected from this age group can thus be used to assess whether T. gondii threatens the health of school-aged children, and also as a reference for evaluating the need for community interventions. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence rate of antitoxoplasmosis IgG and IgM in Primary School children and to detect agents that increase prevalence of the disease. Materials and methods: 328 primary children (219 females and 109 males) were screened for T. gondii antibodies with ELISA along with a questionnaire conducted to all children and parents/guardians to obtain data for relevant eating and social habits. Among the risk factors tested, including contact with cats and soil, consumption of raw meat and vegetables, and drinking unboiled milk. Results: the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma IgG & IgM was found to be 12 % (40 out of 328) and 2.4 % (8 out of 328), respectively while combined anti Toxoplasma IgG & IgM antibodies were found in 1.5 % of the children (5 out of 328). Infection acquisition rate was directly proportional to age and it was of interest that the most significant risk factor was not the petting of cats but the ingestion of raw meat. The seroprevalence of T. gondii IgG & IgM by ELISA among primary children in this region of Saudi Arabia is considerable with few identifiable significant risk factors reported. Conclusion: effective measures should be taken to prevent and control T. gondii infection in primary school children, the results of this study showed that in order to increase awareness of the disease in the community especially for girls and their parents on common root causes such as raw meat and vegetable is necessary. Policy makers also need to initiate prevention and control programs to not only primary children but also pregnant women and immunocompromised patients in particular because they are more severely affected by T. gondii infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]