Search

Background: Commonly heard statements such as "Christmas comes around more quickly each year" suggest that the passage of time between annual events can become distorted, leading to the sensation of time passing more quickly than normal. At present however, it is unclear how prevalent such beliefs are and, what factors are predictive of it. Aim: To explore the prevalence of beliefs that annual events such as Christmas (Study 1 UK sample) and Ramadan (Study 2 Iraqi sample) feel like they come around more quickly each year. To establish the association between distortions to the passage of time between annual events and emotional wellbeing, event specific enjoyment, memory function and self-reported attention to time. Methods: Participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their subjective experience of time in relation to Christmas and Ramadan. In addition, measures of attention to time, memory function, quality of life and event specific emotion were also taken. Findings: There was widespread agreement that Christmas and Ramadan appeared to come around more quickly each year. In both countries, this belief was associated with greater prospective memory errors, greater attention to time and greater enjoyment of the event. Furthermore, in the UK greater belief that Christmas comes around more quickly was associated with lower social quality of life and in Iraq, greater belief that Ramadan comes around more quickly each year was associated with lower age and female gender. Conclusions: Distortions to the passage of time for annual events are widespread, occur across multiple cultures and are consistently predicted by prospective function, event enjoyment and attention to time. The absence of an association between older age (above 55 years) and a faster passage of time suggests that caution should be taken when concluding that time passes more quickly with increasing age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vaccine hesitancy poses a significant risk to global recovery from COVID-19. To date however, there is little research exploring the psychological factors associated with vaccine acceptability and hesitancy in Iraq. Aim: To explore attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in Iraq. To establish the predictors of vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy in an Iraqi population. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 7,778 participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their vaccination status, likelihood of infection, perceived severity infection, benefits of vaccine, barriers to vaccine, anticipated regret, subjective norms, and trust in government. Findings: Vaccination rates increased with age and were greater in males, those who were married, divorced or widowed, those with children and those with underlying conditions. Vaccine hesitancy was widespread with 61.40% of unvaccinated individuals reported an unwillingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In unvaccinated groups, vaccine hesitancy was associated with lower trust in the government, more negative social norms, greater perceived barriers to vaccination and reduced perceived benefits. Conclusions: There is significant COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Iraq. Public health institutions should be aware of the influence of demographic factors, as well as personal beliefs and social norms, on individuals' decisions to vaccinate. Public health messaging should therefore aim to be tailored to address the concerns of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The covid-19 global pandemic has influenced the day-to-day lives of people across the world. One consequence of this has been significant distortion to the subjective speed at which people feel like time is passing. To date, temporal distortions during covid-19 have mainly been studied in Europe. The current study therefore sought to explore experiences of the passage of time in Iraq. An online questionnaire was used to explore the passage of time during the day, week and the 11 months since the first period of covid-19 restrictions were imposed in Iraq. The questionnaire also measured affective and demographic factors, and task-load. The results showed that distortions to the passage of time were widespread in Iraq. Participants consistently reported a slowing of the passage of time for the day and the week during the pandemic in comparison to normal (i.e. before the pandemic). Participants also reported that it felt like longer than 11-months since the first lockdown began. The passage of time during the day and week were not predicted by any demographic, affective or task-load measures taken in the study. The perceived length of time since the first lockdown was however predicted by stress and change of life due to covid, with greater stress and greater change of life being associated with greater subjective lengthening of the pandemic. The findings indicate that whilst distortions to the passage of time during covid-19 appear to be a global phenomenon, the factors which predict temporal experience during the pandemic differ between countries and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background One of frequent forms of hair loss in humans is alopecia areata; the disease is autoimmune in nature with a clinical course that is often variable with relapse and remission and in some severe cases it may be persistent. A number of skin diseases have been shown to be associated with insulin resistance and the first report that linked alopecia areata with insulin resistance has been described recently by some authors. Objective Due to the lack of sufficient data in our country about the possible link between alopecia areata and insulin resistance and the high rate of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in our society, the planning and conduction of the current study was justified to explore such an association. Methods The current case control study included 50 patients with alopecia areata randomly selected from the pool of patients visiting dermatology unit at Al-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital, Al-Diwaniyah province, Iraq. In addition, the study included 40 apparently healthy control subjects with comparable age and gender distribution. Results There was no significant difference in mean serum triglyceride (p = 0.180) but serum HDL was significantly higher in patients group in comparison with control group (p=0.006). Mean fasting blood sugar (FBS) was higher in patients than in control patients in a significant manner (p=0.032); mean insulin level was also significantly higher in patients than in control group (p=0.019); mean HOMA-IR was additionally higher in patients than in control subjects with a borderline significant value (p=0.054) and the rate of insulin resistance was significantly higher in patients than in control group, 50% versus 25%, respectively. Conclusion There is significant association between insulin resistance and alopecia areata but the link of this skin disorder to other elements of metabolic syndrome such as obesity and hypertension need further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]