The Impact of Recurrent Epistaxis on the Quality of Life of Children and the Functioning of Their Families.

Introduction Epistaxis, or nosebleeds, is a common pediatric emergency, impacting their quality of life (QoL). Existing research on epistaxis has predominantly focused on clinical aspects, overlooking its broader impact on the quality of life of affected children and the functioning of their families. This study seeks to fill that gap by assessing the impact of recurrent epistaxis on children's QoL, family dynamics, and parental stress in Saudi Arabia's Eastern region. Methods A survey was conducted involving 168 parents of children with recurrent epistaxis, using the Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM (PedsQL 4.0TM) Short Form (SF) for QoL assessment across different age groups, the PedsQL 2.0 Family Impact Module to evaluate the effect of the child's health on family dynamics, and a custom questionnaire for gathering sociodemographic and health-related information. Better QoL and family functioning were indicated by higher scores. Results Recurrent epistaxis was more frequent (>4 times per year) in 58.9% of cases, with unknown causes in 72%. A total of 116 (69%) of the children never needed medical intervention for epistaxis and 52 (31%) visited ER 1-2 times. The lowest scores for both children and parents were in the emotional functioning domains (77.9 and 78.2, respectively). In the study, both parents and children who had no history of ER visits exhibited significantly higher quality of life (QoL) scores compared to those who did, with parents reporting 83.7% versus 77.2% (P=.022), and children showing 84.6% versus 79.9% (P=.049), respectively. Parents of older children, ages 13-18 years, reported a higher Quality of Life (QoL) at 83.9%, compared to those with younger children, ages 2-4 years, who reported a QoL of 57.3% (P=.003). Conclusion The overall QoL scores of families of children with recurrent epistaxis were relatively high, indicating a variable and limited general impact. Significantly higher QoL was observed in families of older children and those without ER visits.

Factors That Influence Undergraduate Medical Students to Choose General Surgery as a Future Career in Saudi Arabia.

Objective The objective of this cross-sectional study conducted in Saudi Arabia was to determine the factors that influence Saudi medical students to choose general surgery as their future specialty and pursue it as a career. Study design The study was conducted over a six-month period from December 2022 to May 2023 and employed a cross-sectional design. Patients and methods Undergraduate medical students from various universities in Saudi Arabia were included as study participants. Only those who met the study's criteria completed a questionnaire, and the data collected was analyzed using IBM Corp. Released 2019. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. Results Out of the 283 medical students included in the study, 53% were females, and 55.1% were junior students. The results revealed that the most common influential factors towards selecting a general surgical specialty were "Opportunity to be involved in patient care" (86.9%), "Opportunities for higher studies or further specialization" (85.9%), and "Compatible with personality" (84.8%). Conclusion This study concluded that several factors moderately influenced medical students considering general surgery as their future career. Notably, female students were found to be more likely to be influenced by research opportunities, less stressful working conditions, shorter working hours, and having family members in the same specialty.

The Impact of Androgenic Alopecia on the Quality of Life of Male Individuals: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background Hair plays a significant role in physical appearance and hair loss can profoundly affect self-esteem and mental health. Studies show that people with clinically obvious and undetectable hair loss may have dramatically decreased quality of life (QoL). This study investigated the impact of androgenic alopecia on the quality of life of male individuals in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and their willingness to seek treatment. Methods In the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, a cross-sectional study was carried out among men identified with androgenic alopecia (AGA). A self-administered survey was disseminated among the patients through social media sites. The questionnaire includes fundamental demographic factors including age, place of residence, level of education, the severity of androgenic alopecia, treatment method, and Skindex-29 to assess the patient's quality of life. Results Four hundred-two male patients out of 717 participants were selected, and 158 (39.3%) were aged between 20 to 29 years old. Satisfaction with treatment medication was reported by 24 (19.5%) out of those who underwent treatment (n=123). Less effectiveness was the most common reason for treatment dissatisfaction (81, 81.8%). The overall mean Skindex-29 score was 23.2 (SD 19.6) out of 100 points. Younger age, suffering hair loss for a shorter duration, undergoing alopecia treatment, being diagnosed with alopecia by a medical doctor, and having a moderate level of AGA were the factors that greatly affected the patient's QoL. Conclusion Consistent with the literature, this study showed that AGA significantly impaired patients' QoL. Among QoL domains, the symptoms domain had a greater effect on patients than the emotions or functional domains. Younger males who were suffering recently from hair loss and were diagnosed with AGA by the medical doctor demonstrated greater QoL impairment than the rest of the patients. A multicenter study may result in a better representation of the impact of QoL in patients with AGA.

Prediction of the 10-Year Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases Among Patients in Primary Health Care Centers in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), primarily coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke, stand as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Our objective was to predict the 10-year risk of CVD in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in eight randomly selected primary healthcare centers using cluster sampling based on geographical location in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, specifically the Al-Ahsa region. The study aimed to assess the risk of developing CVD in the next 10 years among patients with at least one cardiovascular risk factor. Patients visiting the healthcare centers for checkups filled out the Framingham Cardiovascular Disease (10-year risk) score questionnaire. Results Of the 665 patients enrolled, 54.4% were female. The average age of the patients was 54.2 (SD 8.48) years. The overall average Framingham Risk Score (FRS) percentage was 19.2% (SD 15.4%). In terms of 10-year CVD risk, 34.6% of the patients were at high risk, 31.6% were at moderate risk, and 33.8% were considered low-risk individuals. Factors associated with a higher risk of CVD included older age, male gender, lower educational attainment, smoking, normal BMI, stage 2 hypertension, and diagnoses of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Conclusion Utilizing the FRS, it was determined that older men with lower educational levels had a higher 10-year risk of developing CVD. Furthermore, CVD risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and smoking were associated with individuals' CVD risk. Considering the ease of use and applicability of the FRS in daily clinical practice, as well as its potential to identify high-risk individuals, a more systematic implementation in general practice appears to be warranted.

Effect of knowledge differentiation and state space partitioning on subjective probability estimation.

A common technique for eliciting subjective probabilities is to provide a set of exclusive and exhaustive events and ask the assessor to estimate the probabilities of such events. However, such subjective probabilities estimations are usually subjected to a bias known as the partition dependence bias. This study aims to investigate the effect of state space partitioning and the level of knowledge on subjective probability estimations. The state space is partitioned into full, collapsed, and pruned trees, while the knowledge is manipulated into low and high levels. A scenario called "Best Bank Award" was developed and a 2 × 3 experimental design was employed to explore the effect of the level of knowledge and the partitioning of the state space on the subjective probability. A total of 627 professionals participated in the study and 543 valid responses were used for analysis. The results of two-way ANOVA with the Tukey HSD test for post hoc analysis indicate a mean probability of 24.2% for the full tree, which is significantly lower than those of the collapsed (35.7%) as well as pruned (36.3%) trees. Moreover, there is significant difference in the mean probabilities between the low (38.1%) and high (24.9%) knowledge levels. The results support the hypotheses that the partitioning of the state space as well as the level of knowledge affects subjective probability estimation. The study demonstrates that regardless of the level of knowledge, the partition dependence bias is robust. However, the subjective probability accuracy improves with more knowledge.

Exploring Determinants of Early Retirement Among Saudi Medical Staff.

The aim of this research was to explore the relationship between the push, pull, anti-push, and anti-pull factors vs. early retirement intention among Saudi medical staff, and to investigate whether there are gender differences in the early retirement intention. To this end, we designed a correlational and cross-sectional study, for which data were collected through an online survey. A total of 680 responses were gathered, of which 221 valid responses constituted the final sample for the analysis. Logistics regression was used to test the hypotheses of the study. The results showed that approximately 58% of the respondents indicated early retirement intention. The significant factors in predicting this intention were the pull, anti-push, and anti-pull factors, whereas the push factors were found to be insignificant. Moreover, female medical staff tend to retire earlier than males. Strategies recommended to delay retirement are providing flexible work hours, working shorter shifts or on a part-time basis, offering programs for professional development, and according more recognition.

Survey and analysis of the quantitative methods used in electricity research on GCC countries: 1983-2018.

This study provides a systematic analysis of research on the electricity sector in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the period 1983-2018. GCC countries have experienced tremendous economic growth in the past few decades. This was accompanied by a corresponding increase in electricity consumption. Therefore, a thorough review is needed to understand the research conducted on the electricity sector in GCC countries. This study reviewed articles published in five well-known energy journals: Applied Energy, Energy, Energy Economics, Energy Policy, and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. The articles were classified into seven categories based on the analysis tools implemented in the papers: 1. Simulation tools, 2. Scenarios tools, 3. Equilibrium tools, 4. Top-down tools, 5. Bottom-up tools, 6. Operations optimization tools, and 7. Investment optimization tools. This study also provides an overview of the research, including the increase in publications over time, an authorship analysis, a keywords analysis, and an analysis of the length of the publications.

Cognitive biases resulting from the representativeness heuristic in operations management: an experimental investigation.

PURPOSE: Operations managers are subjected to various cognitive biases, which may lead them to make less optimal decisions as suggested by the normative models. In their seminal work, Tversky and Kahneman introduced three heuristics based on which people make decisions: representativeness, availability, and anchoring. This paper aims to investigate the six cognitive biases resulting from the use of the representativeness heuristic, namely, insensitivity to prior probability of outcomes, insensitivity to sample size, misconception of chance, insensitivity to predictability, the illusion of validity, and misconception of regression. Specifically, the paper examines how cognitive reflection and training affect these six cognitive biases in the operations management context. METHODS: For each cognitive bias, a scenario related to operations management was developed. The participants of the experimental study are asked to select among three responses, where one response is correct and the other two are biased. A total of 315 students from the University of North Texas participated in this study and 302 valid responses were used in the analysis. RESULTS: The results show that in all six scenarios, >50% of the respondents make biased decisions. However, using simple training, the bias is significantly reduced. Regarding the relationship between cognitive biases and cognitive reflection, the results partially support the hypothesis that people with high cognitive reflection ability tend to make less biased decisions. Regarding the effect of training on making biased decisions, the results show that making people aware of the existence of cognitive biases helps them partially to avoid making biased decisions. CONCLUSION: Overall, our study demonstrates the value of training in helping operations managers make less biased decisions. Our discussion section offers some related guidelines for creating a professional environment where the effect of the representativeness heuristic is minimized.