ABSTRACT
Increasing awareness of any disease, especially heart disease, is crucial to improve health culture in general. The lack of communication between the different departments of social and health institutions may hinder such increasing awareness due to the lack of enough research that highlights this problem. As health culture education related to heart diseases raises young people's awareness, it improves their lives by developing their knowledge and changing their attitudes, habits, and behaviours towards the risk factors related to such diseases. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the level of health culture related to heart disease among students at Al-Balqa Applied University. The descriptive approach was used in its analytical and survey styles to achieve the research objective, and the research sample consisted of 221 male and female students. The results showed that the total score for the level of health culture related to heart disease among the students was average. In light of the results, the researcher presented several recommendations. The most important are holding health education and awareness seminars and workshops for university students in the field of heart disease and its prevention and activating the role of Al-Balqa Applied University in the continuous guidance and counselling of students in all disciplines and levels to increase the health culture of heart disease.
ABSTRACT
Background Celiac disease is an immune-mediated intestinal disorder with a global prevalence of 1% that results from gluten sensitivity in a genetically susceptible person. It presents with gastrointestinal symptoms, consequences of malabsorption, and/or extraintestinal manifestations that include neuropsychiatric symptoms. Aim The aim of this study was to measure the frequency of anxiety and depressive symptoms in Jordanian patients with celiac disease. Methods This was a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was sent electronically to celiac disease patients who were members of the Friends of Celiac Disease Patients Association through WhatsApp using Google Forms (Google, Mountain View, California). The questionnaire contained demographic and disease-related questions, in addition to questions that assessed anxiety and depressive symptoms using validated Arabic versions of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 score and Patient Health Questionnaire-9, respectively. Results A total of 133 patients answered the questionnaires. Of the respondents, 82.7% were females, and the mean age was 33.9 +/- 11.22 years; 31.6% of patients were non-compliant with a gluten-free diet, and 56.4% were symptomatic at the time of the questionnaire. The prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms were 85% and 82.7%, respectively. There was no correlation between any of the variables and the presence of anxiety or depressive symptoms. Conclusion A significant proportion of celiac disease patients in Jordan have evidence of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Given this high prevalence and the possible impact on the quality of life, physicians need to screen patients for the presence of psychiatric comorbidities and refer those who have symptoms for further evaluation.
