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Abstract Background and Aim COVID-19 has shown how crucial awareness of the need to protect public health is to global security. Antibiotic resistance due to antibiotic misuse is seen as a worldwide health issue. Antibiotic use was significant during the COVID-19 epidemic, according to several nations. This research aims to investigate public attitudes on COVID-19, antibiotic resistance, and preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East. Methods An online quantitative cross-sectional study in 17 Arabic nations was carried out between January 3 and March 4, 2022, using a structured questionnaire to evaluate participants’ knowledge of COVID-19, their attitudes toward the new standard during the pandemic, and their use of antibiotics, and their resistance to them. The research was available to all Arabic people over 18 nations in the middle east. A convenient snowball sampling technique was used. SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data. To analyze the results, binominal logistic regression was utilized. Statistical significance was defined as a p value of 0.05. Results Of the 6145 responders, 24.1% believed COVID-19 might spread to asymptomatic people, whereas 13.6% thought using antibiotics would accelerate recovery from any illness. Moreover, half of the respondents said antibiotics only work against bacteria (64.6%). 70.8% of participants adopted the necessary safety measures. More than a third of respondents strongly supported placing foreign immigrants in quarantine (33%). However, more than 50% of those surveyed (52.5%) firmly supported using face masks in all public settings. Individuals with a medical education background had 2.6 times more appropriate understanding of antibiotic resistance than others. Furthermore, participants in the 30–49 age range had a better handle on the use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance than other respondents by 1.1 times. Conclusion Arab Health authorities should reconsider this health issue as soon about the inadequate level of awareness toward antibiotic use, resistance, and preventative practices during COVID-19. Many suggested strategies, especially solving the irregular antibiotic prescriptions during a COVID19 pandemic, should be implemented to increase public awareness of COVID19.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273483.].

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a prevalent condition and a significant cause of mental disability and poor quality of life. People with GAD have chronic worrying, restlessness, and discrimination from the general public; Little is known about the stigmatizing attitudes toward people with GAD among Syrian students. The questionnaires contained demographic data about age, gender, social status, personal stigma toward GAD scale, perceived stigma toward GAD scale, social distance with those with GAD, the participants' usual source of their knowledge about GAD, helpful interventions, and supporting information. A total of 1,370 replies were collected, but only 1,358 were used for analysis as 12 participants declined to complete the survey. About 44.1% of participants agreed that people with GAD could snap out of the problem, most of them being females (32.4% of the total population). Compared to medical students, more non-medical students (7.1% of the total population) believed that anxiety is a sign of personal weakness. This study demonstrated that Syrian college students showed a high level of stigmatizing and socially distancing attitudes toward people with GAD, particularly female and non-medical students.

After the widespread of COVID-19 virus worldwide, vaccination targeted reducing spread of cases and mortality rates. However, vaccination hesitancy was observed among the communities worldwide. Vaccination hesitancy involved parents regarding the decision of vaccinating their children- After obtaining ethical approval, an online cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 March to 22 April 2021 to evaluate the parents' acceptance of vaccinating their children against the COVID-19 virus in Syria. Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analysis in IBM, SPSS V. 28.0 package program (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Among 283 participants, 105 participants agreed to vaccinate their children, and 178 were not. A significant correlation between age and vaccine willingness was found (P-value < 0.0001*), especially in the age group between 18 and 30 years old (45.2%). Parents who accepted vaccinating themselves were more willing to vaccinate their children (34.6%). According to our results, there is a greater need to enhance awareness and knowledge programs about the vaccine's effectiveness and encourage parents to accept giving the vaccine to their children.

Bullying is defined as unpleasant behavior that causes someone to feel disturbed or embarrassed, affecting their self-esteem. Based on this premise, we set out to investigate bullying among Syrian graduate medical education residents and fellows, estimate its prevalence among specific subgroups, and give recommendations to help validate the findings and enhance the graduate medical education training experience. A sample of 278 residents and fellows in Syrian graduate medical school were recruited for the study in a national cross-sectional survey, with 276 participants completing a Bullying survey in 2021 and two people refusing to participate. Participants in the survey were asked to provide basic demographic and programming information and three general Bullying and 20 specific bullying behavior items. Differences across groups were compared for demographic and programmatic stratifications. About 51% of participants had experienced one or more bullying behaviors, 69% said they had been bullied, and 87% said they had witnessed Bullying. Residents and supervisor-attendings were the most common sources of perceived Bullying (~67 and 62%, respectively), followed by patients (58%), nurses (46%), and pharmacists (46%) (33%). More specific bullying behaviors have been recorded by female Arabic Syrians who are shorter than 5'8, have a body mass index (BMI) of 25, and are 30 years old or younger who were -compared to males- more likely to report attempts to minimize and devalue work (55 vs. 34%, P ≤ 0.01) and criticism and work monitoring (56 vs. 33%, P ≤ 0.01). In addition, general medical graduates and PGY-2-PGY-6 respondents reported more specific bullying behaviors than private medical graduates and post-graduate participants in the first year (PGY 1), respectively. For example, a significant difference is noticed when reporting unreasonable pressure to perform work (83 vs. 6%, P ≤ 0.01). Except for physical violence, which does not differ statistically between groups, most bullying behaviors were reported by participants with statistically significant differences between study groups—many residents and fellows in Syria's graduate medical school system report being bullied. Anti-bullying rules and a multidisciplinary strategy including all players in the medical system are essential to eradicating these pervasive practices in healthcare.

Background Depression is a prominent cause of mental disability globally, having a severe impact on mental and physical health. Depression rehabilitation and treatment, whether through psychiatric management or counseling therapy, is hampered by stigmatizing attitudes regarding psychiatric illness patients impacted by societal and cultural factors. However, little is known about the stigma toward people with depression among the students in Syria. Methodology A total of 1,056 students in Syria completed a questionnaire that included a case narrative illustrating depression. A total of 1,056 students in Syria completed a questionnaire that included a case narrative illustrating depression. The survey looked at attitudes toward depression, the desire to keep a safe distance from depressed people, stigma attitudes toward people with depression among college students, perceived beliefs about depressive people, gender (male and female), and the major section (medical and medical and non-medical) differences. Results Four questionnaires have refused to finish the survey, out of 1259 issued. Around 47.80% of respondents, most of whom were females, felt that sad people might snap out of it. 14.60 percent believe depression isn’t even an actual medical condition. Surprisingly, 2% of respondents with a medical background thought the same thing. Regarding more extreme stigmatization, 16.80% of respondents thought depressed persons were harmful. People with depression will be avoided by 19.50 percent of respondents, and people with medical backgrounds will be avoided by 5.20 percent of respondents. Nearly one-fifth of those polled said they would not tell anyone if they were depressed. Only a tiny percentage of respondents (6.90 percent) said they would not hire or vote for a politician who suffers from depression (8.40 percent). Conclusion According to the study, Syrian college students had a significant level of stigma and social distance toward mentally ill patients. Female students and non-medical students had a higher stigma in most subscale items for people with depression.

Background After the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression have reached high levels, especially after the last wave, Omicron. Healthcare workers in contact with COVID-19 patients or those who come in contact with them may exhibit high levels of anxiety and depression. Therefore, we aimed to assess anxiety and depression symptoms among ICU companions of COVID-19 patients. Methods From 30 November 2021 to 1 March 2022, sixth-year medical students at Aleppo University Hospital conducted interviews with the companions of COVID-19 patients who they brought their patient to the ICU centre as part of a cross-sectional quantitative study using the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 tools to gauge their level of anxiety and depression among companions of COVID-19 patients. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program. In addition, logistic regression models were used to study possible factors of anxiety and depression symptoms during COVID-19. Results The total number was 997 participants in contact with COVID-19 patients. The mean score of the depression assessment tool (PHQ-9) in our questionnaire was 9.5 with a range of 0 to 27. At the same time, the anxiety assessment tool (GAD-7) had a mean score of 9.1, ranging from 0 to 21. A binary logistic regression was used to predict the relationship between depression and anxiety and various factors. We found that the companions with medical specialties were substantially less likely to develop anxiety than other companions [AOR = 0.459; 95%CI (0.23–0.9)], in addition females were substantially higher likely to develop depression than males [AOR = 1.322; 95%CI (0.992–1.762)]. 45.4% of companions had moderate to severe anxiety, in additon 50.8% of companions had moderate to severe depression. Conclusion Our research reveals that moderate to severe anxiety and sadness are present in roughly half of the COVID19 patients’ companions. Females, people with children, and hard workers were more inclined to feel anxious than others, and those who are not in the medical field were more likely to suffer from depression than others, thus it is critical to assist these groups during the present outbreaks (Omicron and Monkeybox).