Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of primary healthcare physicians in Qatar towards hypertension management: An online cross-sectional study.

Primary health care is integral to diagnosing and managing hypertension. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice, priority, and confidence of primary care physicians in Qatar toward hypertension diagnosis and management, and to measure the determinants of good knowledge, desirable attitudes, and desirable practices. We conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey using a modified version of the World Hypertension League Questionnaire during the period from August 30th to October 23rd, 2020. All primary care physicians working in any of Qatar's 27 publicly run primary healthcare centers were invited to participate in the survey. Out of the 450 primary care physicians working at that time, 197 completed the study questionnaire with a response rate of 43.8%. Most respondents stated that they followed local or international treatment guidelines for hypertension management (96.4%). Primary care physicians were highly confident and prioritized hypertension management. The overall desirable practice score was 73.8%, with the highest score (95.4%) for assessing adherence to antihypertensive medications, whereas the lowest desirable practice score was 33.5% for counseling on home blood pressure monitoring. Fifty-one-point eight percentage and 62.4% correctly identified 140 mm Hg and 90 mm Hg as the systolic and diastolic blood pressure threshold for diagnosing hypertension in most patients. The lowest knowledge scores were for hypertension epidemiology in Qatar and recommended dietary modification for hypertensive patients. Respondents had positive attitudes toward task sharing with nonphysician healthcare workers for most items (58.9%-78.2%), except for drug prescriptions (30.5%). Primary care physicians in Qatar had positive attitudes, with high overall confidence and conviction (priority) scores toward hypertension. However, their knowledge scores and certain practices were suboptimal. Healthcare policymakers in Qatar should raise primary care physicians awareness of the current burden of untreated hypertension in the country by organizing targeted educational programs and emphasizing the importance of following national clinical practice guidelines in the diagnosis and management of hypertension.

Perceptions and attitudes toward participation in clinical research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Successful recruitment of participants into clinical research has always been challenging and is affected by many factors. This systematic review aimed to explore the perceptions and attitudes as well as identify the factors affecting the participation in clinical research among the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office countries' population. METHODS: A systematic search of the literature was conducted to explore attitudes or perceptions of the general public or patients towards participation in clinical research. PubMed, Pro-Quest Central, World Health Organizations Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Google Scholar were searched. Studies were considered eligible for inclusion if they presented primary data and were conducted in one of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office countries. A data extraction sheet was used to record the following: year, country, aim, population, sample size, study design, data collection, and setting. The identified factors from the included studies were categorized into motivators and barriers. RESULTS: In total, 23 original research articles were identified that addressed perceptions or attitudes towards clinical research participation. Six main motivators and barriers of research participation among patients, the general public, and patient family members were identified. The most common cited motivators included personal benefits to the individual, altruism and the desire to help others, the research process, the influence of the physician, family encouragement, and religion. Concerns regarding safety, confidentiality, and other factors in addition to the research process, lack of trust in healthcare providers or healthcare system, lack of interest in research and no perceived personal benefit, religious concerns, and family/cultural concerns were the most cited barriers to participation. CONCLUSION: The identified motivators and barriers are essential to tackle during clinical research planning among the population of Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office countries. Further research is needed to assess the attitudes and perceptions of individuals approached to participate in trials.

Epidemiology of iron deficiency among adolescents aged 10-19 years old in Qatar: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the magnitude and the determinants of iron deficiency among adolescents aged 10-19 years in the State of Qatar. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study design was used to conduct the study. SETTING: Primary healthcare centres covering the three main geographical areas. One health centre was selected randomly from each region catchment areas: Northern, Central and Western. PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred and fifty adolescents aged 10-19 years of all nationalities were enrolled in the study. OUTCOME MEASURES: Serum ferritin cut-off level used to diagnose iron deficiency (<15 µg/L), with normal C reactive protein. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 14.00±2.920, and more than half of the participating adolescents were among 10-14 years old age group (56.9%). Fifty-five per cent of the study participants were Non-Qatari, and females consisted of 70.0% of the participants. The prevalence of iron deficiency was 26.4%. Iron deficiency was significantly associated with gender, nationality, attaining menarche and consumption of iron absorption enhancers (citrus fruits and juice). CONCLUSION: Iron deficiency among adolescents is of moderate public health concern in the country, according to the classification of the WHO. The estimated prevalence of iron deficiency was close to what was found in other low-income and middle-income countries; however, it is still behind the developed countries. Gender, attaining menarche and dietary habits are among the important factors that are associated with iron deficiency. Thus, there is a need to coordinate efforts and resources to address this issue by implementing effective strategies at the community and primary healthcare levels.

Prevalence and trends of transfusion transmissible infections among blood donors in the State of Qatar, 2013-2017.

BACKGROUND: Millions of lives around the world are being saved annually through blood transfusion. However, blood transfusion is among the essential vehicles for transmitting infections. The overall prevalence of Transfusion Transmissible Infections among blood donors differs around the world, reflecting the variation in the prevalence of these infections. This study aims to assess the prevalence and trends of Transfusion Transmissible Infections among blood donors in Qatar. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study utilizing donation records of 5 years from January 2013 to December 2017. We included in the study results for all screening and confirmatory tests for Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, Human T-lymphotropic Virus-I/II, Syphilis and Malaria. RESULTS: Among the 190,509 donations received at the donation centre during the study period, about 91% of donations were received from males and 9% from females. The overall positivity rate for all tests was 1.87, 2.23, 1.78, 2.31, 2.67% for the years 2013 through 2017, with an increasing yearly trend by 6% each year. The overall positivity rates for Hepatitis C Virus, Human T-lymphotropic Virus-I/II, Hepatitis B Virus, Syphilis and Malaria (2013-2017) were 0.60, 0.18, 0.30, 0.43 and 0.20%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The overall positivity rate of all tests combined for the Transfusion Transmissible Infections demonstrated a gradually increasing trend from 2013 to 2017. However, the trend for each infection (Hepatitis C Virus, Hepatitis B Virus, Syphilis and Malaria) was fluctuating except for Human T-lymphotropic Virus-I/II, which was increasing. Supporting the development of effective prevention and control strategies requires further comprehensive investigations for better estimation of the burden of these infections.