Background: Chronic disease greatly increases children’s dependency on parents/caregivers (usually mothers) as they face new problems associated with caring for a child with chronic disease. Thus, chronic kidney disease (CKD) presents a burden for children and their families that last throughout life in different aspects. This study aimed to assess family impact and economic burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children on their families. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 250 caregivers of children with CKD attending tertiary care hospital/health insurance clinics in Assiut, Egypt using PedsQL™ family impact module (FIM) for assessing family impact and economic burden between January and May 2018. Results: Seventy six percent of caregivers shared paying for treatment with health insurance while 14% paid the total expenses out of their pockets. Although the majority (87.2%) of caregivers suffered different degrees of financial hardship, more than 60% of them had no coping strategy. The regression module showed that responding caregiver, degree of financial hardship, treatment modality, and socioeconomic class were significant predictors of total FIM (β = 0.38, P < 0.001; β = 0.28, P < 0.001; β = 0.22, P < 0.001; β = 0.13, P = 0.006 respectively). Conclusion: Most caregivers were involved in paying for treatment of their children either totally or sharing with health insurance and suffered different degrees of financial hardship. Mothers, caregivers with great financial hardship, and caregivers of children on dialysis had the lowest scores of PedsQL™ FIM. There is a high need for expansion of health insurance umbrella to reduce financial hardship together with continued multidimensional support to families.

Introduction: In Egypt, many girls are still married before the age of 18, which is a fundamental violation of the girls’ human rights. Early marriage is associated with an alarmingly elevated risk of all types of intimate partner violence that have various negative consequences. The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of exposure to spousal violence among the early married girls in rural Upper Egypt.Methods: A household survey was carried out and covered 23 villages in Assiut and Sohag governorates reaching to a sample of 729 married girls before the age of 20. Listing and enumeration of 4 districts was done to identify the study participants. Data was collected by personal interviews using a structured questionnaire. Bivariate and stepwise regression analyses were performed to identify the predictors of exposure to spousal violence.Results: It was found that 15.2% of the study participants were exposed to physical violence while 17.8% were exposed to sexual violence and 7.3% were exposed to both types. Girls married before the age of 18 were more exposed to spousal violence. Stepwise regression analysis found that girls’ acceptance to get married was a protective factor against exposure to physical (β= − 1.07, OR 0.34) and sexual (β= − 0.68, OR 0.51) violence. The perceived attitude of husbands and mothers-in-law about considering wife beating “a husband's right” was found to be a risk factor of exposure to physical and sexual violence. Longer duration till the first pregnancy was also associated with more exposure to sexual violence (β= 0.04, OR 1.04).Conclusion: Married adolescent girls (MAGs) are highly exposed to physical and sexual violence. This is mainly due to ignoring girls’ preference to postpone their marriage, cultural concepts of accepting violence against women, and low sexual satisfaction. This study shows that most determinants of spousal violence were related to culture issues. Identifying these determinants is required to combat such a crucial public health problem that has serious consequences on adolescent health.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the third leading cause of heart failure in pediatrics. The exact etiology of DCM is unknown in more than half of the cases. Vitamin D receptors are represented in cardiac muscles, endothelium, and smooth muscles of blood vessels suggesting that vitamin D could have a vital cardioprotective function. This study aimed to assess serum level of vitamin D in children with idiopathic DCM and to correlate the serum level of vitamin D with the left ventricular dimensions and function. This study is a descriptive cross-sectional single-center study, includes 44 children of both sexes, diagnosed as idiopathic DCM. Serum level of vitamin D was assessed and correlated with the left ventricular dimensions and function. Mean age of studied children was 6.08 ± 4.4 years. Vitamin D deficiency was found in 90.9% of children with idiopathic DCM with a mean level 13.48 ng/mL. There was a negative correlation between vitamin D level and fraction shortening and left ventricular end-diastolic diameter in children with DCM. Vitamin D level is not only significantly low in children with idiopathic DCM but it is also significantly correlated with the degree of left ventricular dysfunction.

Background: Kidney transplantation is the optimal treatment modality for patients with end-stage kidney disease. We aimed to identify predictors for post-transplantation complications. Methods: A prospective cohort study with 1-year follow-up on 40 recipients (with their donors) were recruited and followed up for 1 year after transplantation. The patients were classified into two groups according to development of complications or not. Results: It was found that renal recipient had significantly lower mean age compared to donors (30.55 ± 10.24 vs. 41.28 ± 9.83 (years); p < 0.001). The reported complications were hypertension (42.5%), proteinuria (17.5%), surgical difficulty (17.5%), chronic rejection (12.5%), DM (7.5%), and other less common complications. Death occurred in six recipients. Significant predictors for complications were history of DM (OR = 3.429; 95% CI = 1.148–5.058; p = 0.044), BUN (OR = 2.501; 95% CI = 1.094–4.007; p = 0.038), creatinine (OR = 1.90; 95% CI = 1.025–2.806; p = 0.015), older age (OR = 1.854; 95% CI = 1.090–3.195; p = 0.033), pre-transplantation leucocytic count (OR = 1.775; 95% CI = 1.057–3.901; p = 0.039), and LDL (OR = 1.051; 95% CI = 1.009–2.441; p = 0.047). Elevated PTH in pre-transplantation showed significantly slight protective effect against development of complications (OR = 0.915; 95% CI = 0.624–0.957; p = 0.031). Conclusion: Complications are common after kidney transplant in our population and are associated with history of DM, pre-transplantation BUN, creatinine, and older age, while elevated pretransplant PTH showed slightly protective effect.

Background and Objectives: Infectious disease outbreaks are a major challenge for public health systems worldwide, especially for healthcare workers (HCWs). Taif city, in Saudi Arabia, has a high population density and is a tourist destination, which puts it at a high risk of infectious disease outbreaks. Despite its geographical importance, no previous study has been conducted that focuses on assessing the preparedness of healthcare workers in Taif city for managing infectious disease outbreaks. Therefore, we aimed to assess the overall level of preparedness among HCWs in healthcare facilities across Taif city and identify the challenges they face when managing infectious disease outbreaks. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from October to December 2024 among 294 healthcare workers, using a structured questionnaire. We assessed the sociodemographic characteristics, infection prevention and control (IPC) training received by HCWs, the level of preparedness for managing infectious disease outbreaks, and their level of knowledge (low, moderate, or high). The association between sociodemographic characteristics and knowledge from having received IPC training and the level of preparedness was assessed using binary logistic regression. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Around 31.7% of the participants were aged 31–40 years, with 59.2% of them being female. Among the HCWs we assessed, 44.6% were nurses and 31.3% of the HCWs were from hospitals with a bed capacity of over 500. Only 16.3% of HCWs felt fully prepared on a personal level and only 20.7% believed their facility was fully prepared for managing an outbreak. A low level of knowledge was reported among 71.8% of the participants. The odds of having received IPC training were significantly higher among HCWs aged 41–50 years (AOR = 15.7; 95% CI = 4.26–58.1), for those working in the inpatient department (AOR = 6.3; 95% CI = 1.46–27.05), and for those with a moderate level of knowledge (AOR = 0.12; 95% CI = 0.03–0.5). The odds of being fully prepared for an infectious disease outbreak were significantly higher for males (AOR = 2.58; 95% CI = 1.18–5.63) and those working in the in-patient department (AOR = 6.87; 95% CI = 1.7–27.8) and significantly lower for those with a low level of knowledge (AOR = 0.19; 95% CI = 0.06–0.61). Conclusion: Even though many HCWs have undergone IPC training, our findings highlight gaps in both knowledge and overall preparedness among healthcare workers in Taif city. Regular refresher courses, improved resource allocation, and implementing scenario-based emergency drills may help in improving the overall knowledge and preparedness of HCWs.