Machine learning techniques for predicting depression and anxiety in pregnant and postpartum women during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional regional study.

Background: Maternal depression and anxiety are significant public health concerns that play an important role in the health and well-being of mothers and children. The COVID-19 pandemic, the consequential lockdowns and related safety restrictions worldwide negatively affected the mental health of pregnant and postpartum women. Methods: This regional study aimed to develop a machine learning (ML) model for the prediction of maternal depression and anxiety. The study used a dataset collected from five Arab countries during the COVID-19 pandemic between July to December 2020. The population sample included 3569 women (1939 pregnant and 1630 postpartum) from five countries (Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain). The performance of seven machine learning algorithms was assessed for the prediction of depression and anxiety symptoms. Results: The Gradient Boosting (GB) and Random Forest (RF) models outperformed other studied ML algorithms with accuracy values of 83.3% and 83.2% for depression, respectively, and values of 82.9% and 81.3% for anxiety, respectively. The Mathew's Correlation Coefficient was evaluated for the ML models; the Naïve Bayes (NB) and GB models presented the highest performance measures (0.63 and 0.59) for depression and (0.74 and 0.73) for anxiety, respectively. The features' importance ranking was evaluated, the results showed that stress during pregnancy, family support, financial issues, income, and social support were the most significant values in predicting anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Overall, the study evidenced the power of ML models in predicting maternal depression and anxiety and proved to be an efficient tool for identifying and predicting the associated risk factors that influence maternal mental health. The deployment of machine learning models for screening and early detection of depression and anxiety among pregnant and postpartum women might facilitate the development of health prevention and intervention programs that will enhance maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries.

COVID-19 Routes of Transmission, Protection Aids, and Immunity Enhancement: Community-Based Online Knowledge Survey Among Palestinians.

AIM: Coronavirus disease in 2019 has been defined as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge toward the coronavirus disease 2019 among the Palestinian population. METHOD: A cross-sectional online survey among 554 Palestinians was designed. A structured self-administered online questionnaire was distributed among 190 participants from West Bank and 364 from Gaza Strip during the outbreak through social media. The survey was conducted between 10th and 24th of October, 2020. RESULTS: Of the total enrolled participants, 401 were males and 153 were females; the mean age was 28.4 years with a standard deviation of 10.97. Results showed that the means of knowledge about coronavirus disease 2019 were: 76.7% (standard deviation = 12.8), 72.2 (standard deviation = 10.3), 77.7% (standard deviation = 11.0) for general knowledge, the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019, and immunity and protection aids, respectively. Univariate regression revealed significant associations among the level of knowledge and gender, governorates, education levels, and employment status. However, only gender remained a significant explanatory variable in multivariable analysis, as females were nearly four times more knowledgeable than males (OR = 3.94; 95% CI =1.71, 9.07; p = .001). CONCLUSION: In general, Palestinians had good knowledge about coronavirus disease 2019, modes of transmission, and immunity knowledge. Knowledge was less among males than females. This may need more effort by using different tools of communication to reach more to the male gender.

Cultural and interpersonal risk factors for suicide ideation and suicide attempts among Muslim college students from 11 nations.

BACKGROUND: Research on suicidality in low to middle-income countries is scarce. We addressed this issue by investigating suicidality in a cross-national college student samples from 11 predominantly low to middle-income majority Muslim countries. METHODS: The sample consisted of 7427 college students (56% female) who reported to be affiliated with Islam. Data on self-construal, social support, negative life-events, acceptability of suicide, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts were collected with self-administered questionnaires. RESULTS: Acceptability of suicide and the experience of negative life-events were positively, and perceived social support was negatively associated with suicidal ideation. Interdependent self-construal was negatively related to the acceptability of suicide and positively associated with perceived social support, implying a negative indirect effect on suicidal ideation although its direct effect was positive. The number of negative life-events was the strongest positive predictor of ever attempting suicide. The interdependent self-construal moderated the association of negative life-events with suicide attempts. LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional and self-report nature of the study were its major limitations. Participants may have suppressed their responses about suicide because of religious and legal reasons. CONCLUSION: Remarkable similarities across 11 country samples emerged in the linkages between cultural and interpersonal factors with suicidality. Our findings highlight the value of a nuanced approach to suicidality, that can recognize the differences in the processes associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as the need to consider the interplay of a broad range of personal, interpersonal, and cultural influences.

Associations of religiosity, attitudes towards suicide and religious coping with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in 11 muslim countries.

OBJECTIVE: The study investigated the associations of religiosity, religious coping and suicide acceptance to suicide ideation and attempts in 7427 young adults affiliating with Islam from 11 Muslim countries. METHOD: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. We used F and χ2 tests and correlation analyses to report descriptive statistics. Multi-group path models with (i) a zero-inflated Poisson distribution and, (ii) a Binomial distribution were used to model the number of occurrences of suicidal ideation, and occurrence of a suicide attempt, respectively. RESULTS: Religiosity was negatively associated with acceptability of suicide, but it was positively related to punishment after death across the 11 countries. Religiosity was negatively associated with ever experiencing suicidal ideation, both directly and indirectly through its association with attitudes towards suicide, especially the belief in acceptability of suicide. Neither positive nor negative religious coping were related to suicidal ideation. However, religiosity was negatively related to suicide attempts among those who experienced suicidal ideation at least once. This association was mediated through the belief in acceptability of suicide and religious coping. Negative religious coping was positively associated with suicide attempts probably because it weakened the protective effects of religiosity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study suggest that the effects of religiosity in the suicidal process operate through attitudes towards suicide. We therefore conclude that clinical assessment as well as research in suicidology may benefit from paying due attention to attitudes towards suicide.

The Association Between Political Violence and the Connection Between Bullying and Suicidality Among Palestinian Youth.

We examined the association between protracted political violence and the connection between bullying and suicidality among Palestinian adolescents. Data were collected from a representative sample of Palestinian students (N = 5,713) from 100 schools in the West Bank and East Jerusalem who completed an in-class survey. Students who were victims of bullying or bully victims who were exposed to political violence were at higher risk for suicide attempts compared to students who were victims of bullying or bully victims but not exposed to political violence. Political violence moderated the association between bullying and suicide attempts after controlling for socio demographic and other mental health variables.

Urinary organophosphate metabolite levels in Palestinian pregnant women: results of the Middle East Regional Cooperation Project.

The purpose of the study was to measure urinary organophosphate (OP) metabolites in Palestinian pregnant women, and to compare levels with those in pregnant women in Jerusalem and women from the general population in Israel. We measured six dialkyl phosphates in urine samples collected from 148 pregnant women from the West Bank area. Median total dimethyl phosphate (DM(total)) levels were significantly lower in Palestinian women compared to Jerusalem pregnant women and women in Israel (p = 0.041). In Palestinian women reporting that their place of residence was near an agricultural field, DM(total) levels were significantly higher (p = 0.037). Lower urinary excretion of dimethyl phosphate pesticide metabolites in Palestinian women compared to Israeli women may result from lower consumption of fruits and vegetables in the Palestinian population. Our findings highlight differences in OP pesticide exposure in populations with close geographical proximity but with differences in culture, diet, lifestyle, and regulatory oversight of pesticides.