Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common types of cancer that affect females worldwide with hundreds of thousands of women dying annually due to this disease, mainly in developing countries. Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main risk factor for this cancer. There are no public awareness and national immunization programs in most Arab countries. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge and awareness about the HPV vaccine among females in four Arab countries and their acceptance to receive the vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted in several Arab countries: Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iraq. Respondents that fulfilled the desired criteria and were willing to participate in the study were asked to fill out the survey. Knowledge and awareness were assessed using 13 questions. Ethical approvals were given from the four countries. A total of 3658 individuals participated in the study; however, 2804 responses were included in the analysis and more than one third of participants (n = 1007) were aged between 18 and 25 years old. This study revealed poor awareness and knowledge of the participants about HPV and its vaccine among all four countries’ participants with relatively better knowledge among participants from the UAE. Participants who are younger (18–25 years old), have a postgraduate education, have an education or career related to the medical field, or had a Pap smear in the last three years tend to have higher knowledge about the HPV vaccine compared to others. Poor knowledge and awareness findings in this study were expected, considering the lack of public education campaigns regarding the HPV virus coupled with the absence of the HPV vaccination from the national immunization schedule in three participating countries (Jordan, Qatar, and Iraq). It is recommended that there is a need to provide national educational campaigns about the HPV vaccine to the public in all Arab populations.

To assess the knowledge and practices toward diabetes in the Jordanian community. This study was conducted as a public based cross-sectional study in different cities in Jordan. A previously published validated questionnaire about knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward diabetes mellitus (DM) was translated from the Arabic version and used in this study with very minor modification to be suitable for this study of the Jordanian population. A total of 1,702 participants were recruited in the present study. About half of the participants (53.3%) had good knowledge scores. The respondents’ knowledge scores were significantly correlated with attitudes (p < 0.001). The education level (university or higher) and education related to a field were predictors for good knowledge and positive attitudes. About 46.3% of participants had positive attitudes toward the disease. As for practices, 37.7% of participants did not engage in regular exercise while more than half of the study subjects had never checked their blood glucose level on an annual basis. The factors influencing the practice of checking blood glucose level have been investigated. This study has highlighted the need for more educational interventions to address negative attitudes and promote healthy lifestyle practices and regular health checks especially in certain subgroups of patients, such as those not having a degree related to the medical field and not having a first-degree relative with DM.

To evaluate the reliability and discriminant validity of Arabic translation of the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS) and the Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire-specific (BMQ-specific). Having developed Arabic translations of the study instruments, a cross-sectional study was carried out between March and October 2015 in two multidisciplinary governmental hospitals in Jordan. An expert panel monitored the forward and backward translation of the MARS and BMQ. Standard Arabic was used (with no specific dialect inclusion) to allow greater generalisability across Arabic speaking countries. Once the Arabic translations of the questionnaires were developed they were tested for consistency, validity and reliability on a group of children with chronic diseases and their parents. A total of 258 parents and 208 children were included in the study. The median age of participated children and parents was 15 years and 42 years respectively. Principle component analysis of all questionnaires indicated that all had good construct validity as they clearly measured one construct. The questionnaires were deemed reliable based on the results of Cronbach alpha coefficient. Furthermore, reliability of the questionnaires was demonstrated by test-retest intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) which ranged from good to excellent for all scales (ICC>0.706). The Pearson correlation coefficient ranged from 0.546–0.805 for the entire sample which indicated a significant moderate to strong positive correlation between MARS and BMQ items at time 1 and 2. Reported adherence was greater than 59% using MARS-children and MARS-parents scales, and was correlated with beliefs in necessity and independent of the concerns regarding medications. The Arabic translations of both BMQ and MARS for use in children and their parents have good internal consistency and proved to be valid and reliable tools that can be used by researchers in clinical practice to measure adherence and beliefs about medications in Arabic speaking patient populations.

Surgical site infections (SSIs) following caesarean surgeries are common. The present study aimed to evaluate the frequency of SSIs following caesareans at Jordan University Hospital during the 30 postoperative days and to identify factors associated with increased SSIs risk. Data regarding the occurrence of SSIs were collected both prospectively via follow-up phone calls and retrospectively via reviewing wound culture results and clinical notes. SSI cases were subsequently determined utilizing predefined criteria. Data relating to possible risk factors of SSIs were collected from patient interviews and hospital records. Risk factors for SSIs were identified via logistic regression. A high rate of SSIs (14.4%) was detected; implicated factors included body mass index ≥36 kg/m² prior to pregnancy odds ratio (OR) 3.8, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.6–9.4, hospital stay longer than 3.5 days OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.4-3.6, having the operation at a gestational age greater than 40 weeks OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.9. Receiving a higher weight-adjusted dose of the prophylactic antibiotic cefazolin was associated with lower SSIs risk OR 0.967, 95% CI 0.94-0.99.In conclusion, a high rate of SSIs following caesareans was detected, and modifiable risk factors of SSIs should be incorporated into targeted policies aiming to reduce the rate of SSIs.