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Objective: To establish the impact of smoking on the severity of COVID-19 infection among adults 18 years and above in Qatar during 2020–2021. Design: Analytical cross-sectional study from May 2020 to 2021. Setting: Health Information System (HIS) of Communicable disease and control center of Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar. Participant: We randomly selected participants from all COVID-19 confirmed cases (n = 1036). Participants below 18 years old, people with HIV, and those who could not communicate in English and Arabic were excluded. The remaining patients (n = 576) were then allocated into smoking and nonsmoking groups. Result: The prevalence of tobacco smoking was (20.48%) among patients with COVID-19 infection. Age, nationality, employment, and low-to-moderate income were statistically significantly associated with smoking. In addition, the proportion of smokers who required hospitalization was higher compared to nonsmokers (23.7% vs. 17.9%) and were younger (mean age 44.18 years ±18.431) than nonsmokers (mean age 51.6 years ±18.382). The logistic regression revealed that smokers had significantly higher odds of Vitamin D deficiency than nonsmokers [OR: 2.358; CI: 1.017–5.513]. Conclusion: Even with limited statistical significance between smoking history and COVID-19 disease severity and outcome, clinical risk differences were observed among smokers. However, further studies may be required to evaluate the association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The lethal potential of COVID-19 was often emphasized and repeatedly brought to the attention of pregnant women, leading to a higher level of anxiety, depression, and COVID-19-specific phobia among this population. Furthermore, legislation forced social distancing and isolation to interrupt the infection cycle. Together these factors resulted in higher maternal mental health distress requiring intervention. Nevertheless, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of low-intensity psychosocial telemental interventions on maternal mental health outcomes. Therefore, the objective of this pilot study is to assess the efficacy of video low-intensity psychosocial telemental maternal intervention on COVID-19-specific phobia, antenatal depression, and anxiety among pregnant women. We hypothesized that the intervention arm would be superior to the control arm. A parallel design randomized interventional controlled trial with 1:1 randomization was conducted at the Women Wellness and Research Center. We enrolled fifty-eight pregnant women in their second trimester who spoke English or Arabic. We assessed antenatal anxiety, depression, and Covid-19-specific phobia at baseline (T0), and thirty-three pregnant women completed the follow-up after four weeks (T1). Pregnant women receiving psychotropic medications and follow up in mental health services were excluded. Results: A low-intensity psychosocial telemental maternal session helps reduce antenatal anxiety. We found statistically significant differences in antenatal anxiety scores between the intervention (2.4 ± 2.2) and control (4.2 ± 1.6) groups (p = 0.013) with a large effect size of Hedges' g value (0.96, 0.22–1.74). The absolute risk reduction was 27.27 percent. However, the intervention had no statistically significant effect on reducing antenatal depression or COVID-19-specific phobia. Conclusions: Low-intensity psychosocial telemental maternal sessions effectively reduce antenatal anxiety. While our findings are promising, further RCTs are needed to replicate these findings. Trial registration: 2a- ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04594525.. Registered on 20/October/2020; updated 9/March/ 2022. Available from: Maternal Telemental Health Interventions in Response to Covid-19* – Full Text View – ClinicalTrials.gov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiology behind the increased incidence of infant salmonella cases in Qatar during 2017 and identify the possible risk factors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using the notification reports of laboratory-confirmed infant salmonella cases received by the Ministry of Public Health during the year 2017. Furthermore, complementary phone interviews with the infants' mothers using a validated questionnaire were conducted. Results: The infant salmonella attack rate was calculated at approximately 3.23 cases per 1000 infants. Among the 89 confirmed infant salmonella cases, there were more girls (53%) than boys (47%) with a median age of 8 months. The most common type of salmonella species isolated was group B (50.5%). Among the 59 infant cases whose mothers were interviewed, the majority (94.9%) were symptomatic and diarrhea was the main reported symptom (90%), particularly bloody diarrhoea (62%). Regarding their dietary consumption, the majority (69.5%) of the infected infants were formula-fed. Moreover, the majority reported having no pets at home (91.6%) and were not enrolled in a day care center (93.3%). Conclusion: This study revealed a high incidence of salmonella infection among infants in the State of Qatar, which poses a public health concern. Therefore, targeted interventions and health awareness programs are required for outbreak prevention, detection and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]