ABSTRACT
Background: Stuttering is a multifaceted speech disorder that affects the interpersonal communication. It has a significant psychosocial impact on individuals who stutter and on their families. Stuttering is associated with substantial psychosocial morbidity, including social or generalized anxiety, stigmatization or discrimination, impaired self-image, and poor quality of life. Psychosocial morbidity, such as the one reported among stuttering individuals, may provoke suicidal ideation that varies with gender, age, geographic region, and psychosocial reality. The present research aimed to determine the association between stuttering and psychosocial complications in Saudi Arabian individuals. Materials and Methods: This study targeted a total of 107 male patients with stuttering. Only 59 of them fulfilled both inclusion and exclusion criteria. The researchers formulated a valid questionnaire to obtain quantifiable data for analysis. The questionnaire consisted of 76 questions spanning various domains. Following the data collection, a quantitative analysis was carried out. Results: A total of 79.5% of the participants were adolescents or young adults between the ages of 16 and 26. Among them, 17.8% had a later onset of stuttering. The age of onset tended to be higher than 5 years, with over 80% of respondents reporting an age of onset in the last 5 years of their age. Among the participants, 57.6% reported a positive family history of stuttering. Conclusions: The present study reports that patients who stutter (PWS) are at a higher risk of developing negative thoughts leading to suicidal attempts due to social anxiety and depression. Therefore, future studies should be designed to establish the relationship between stuttering and suicidal thoughts in order to establish policies that may improve the quality of life of those who stutter.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking is a major health issue worldwide. In addition to several health problems, smoking can also cause buccal cavity ulcers and buccal cavity cancer in case of chronic smoking. Tobacco smoking may also lead to deranged morphology of red blood cells (RBCs), which results in reduced oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. AIM: (a) To investigate and compare the changes in the RBC morphology of smokers and nonsmokers. (b) To investigate and compare the normal buccal flora of smokers and nonsmokers. METHODOLOGY: A total of 81 men were included in the study. Study population was divided into two groups: group 1; smokers (n = 50) and group 2; nonsmokers, which served as control (n = 31). After informed written consent from the study participants, a 5 mL of venous blood was drawn under sterile conditions for complete blood analysis and RBC morphology. Samples from buccal cavity were collected by cotton swab and cultured in sterile petri dishes to identify the bacterial growth. Data of RBC morphology and buccal microbiota were compared between smokers and nonsmokers. RESULTS: Buccal microflora results showed heavy growth in smokers compared with nonsmokers. Mean values of RBCs, Platelets, WBCs, HGB (hemoglobin), and MCV (mean corpuscular volume) did not differ between smokers and nonsmokers. Mean red cell distribution (RDW) width significantly was lower in smokers than nonsmokers. Macrocytic RBCs was more in smokers (60%) compared with nonsmokers (4%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed an increase in the percentage of macrocytic RBCs and a decrease in the red cell distribution width (RDW) in smokers compared with nonsmokers. Buccal Microflora was significantly higher in smoker group in contrast to nonsmoker group.
