Prevalence of burnout and its impact on self-reported patient care among primary health care physicians at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City in Riyadh region.

Background: Burnout is known worldwide as a work-related syndrome associated with physical illness and mental health problems. It has a significant impact on doctors' health and patient care. Aim: To assess the prevalence of burnout, its associated risk factors, and its impact on self-reported patient care among the doctors of the Family Medicine Department in King Abdul-Aziz Medical City (KAMC), Riyadh. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 physicians. Data were collected using the 22-items Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal achievement as well as questions about demographic factors, work characteristics, and impact of burnout on self-reported patient care. Results: A total of 150 physicians responded to the questionnaire. In terms of high burnout, 32 doctors (21.3%) had emotional exhaustion, 57 doctors (38%) had depersonalization, and 41 doctors (27.3%) scored low for personal achievement. Staff physicians had high emotional exhaustion (27.8%, P = 0.028), family medicine residents, however, reported higher depersonalization and low personal achievement (42.9%, 45.7%, P = 0.675, P = 0.009, respectively). Being a staff physician, military, with long years in practice, working more than 8 hours per day, and covering ER shifts were strongly associated with a high level of burnout. High-level burnout demonstrated a statistically significant impact on patient care with suboptimal performance among the doctors of this study. Conclusion: Burnout seems to be a common problem in family medicine doctors at KAMC. It was associated with personal and workload indicators affecting their self-reported patient care significantly.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health-care workers regarding hand hygiene guidelines in Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia: A multicenter study.

INTRODUCTION: Hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to reduce the prevalence of nosocomial infections, morbidity, mortality, and health-care costs among hospitalized patients worldwide. OBJECTIVES: We addressed this study to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding hand hygiene guidelines among health-care workers. METHODS: A multicenter cross-sectional study conducted from October to December 2015 including three hospitals in Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia. A total of 354 participants completed a self-administered survey on knowledge, attitudes, and practices of hand hygiene. Analysis of variance was used to compare knowledge level across age, gender, profession, and hospitals. All analyses were performed with SPSS, version 21. RESULTS: Overall, the average knowledge score was 63%. There were significant differences in knowledge level across groups. Health-care workers over the age of 30 had higher scores than those younger than 30. Health-care workers at the tertiary hospital had higher scores than those at the secondary hospitals. Nearly, all reported positive attitudes toward hand hygiene as well as adhering to the guidelines regularly. Further, they reported that soap and water were the most common agents for cleaning hands. CONCLUSION: The study findings indicate that there are gaps in the knowledge, which could be addressed with brief and more frequent training sessions, particularly in the secondary hospitals. However, the hand hygiene guidelines are well-known by the staff and well promoted in the hospitals reflected by the positive attitudes. Further improvements in adherence to the hand hygiene guidelines will continue to decrease the likelihood of nosocomial infections.

Glycemic indices, glycemic load and glycemic response for seventeen varieties of dates grown in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Dates are consumed worldwide, and are an important fruit for many individuals in Saudi Arabia. Currently, limited information is available on the glycemic indices of different date varieties. OBJECTIVES: To determine the glycemic index (GI), glycemic load (GL) and glycemic response for 17 common date varieties in Saudi Arabia. DESIGN: Prospective clinical trial on healthy subjects. SETTING: College of Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The available carbohydrate content of Tamer stage dates was determined using standard laboratory methods. Healthy subjects (ten males and nine females) received 50 g of glucose (on three separate occasions) and 50 g equivalent of available carbohydrates from the seventeen varieties of date (each once). The GI and GL were then calculated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): GI, GL, and glycemic response. RESULTS: The mean (SEM) GI of the date samples was 55.2 (7.7) (range, 42.8-74.6). Sellaj and Maktoomi exhibited the highest GI (74.6 [10.1] and 71.0 [11.1]), respectively, whereas Shaqra, Sukkary, and Sag'ai had the lowest GI (42.8 [5.5], 43.4 [4.7] and 44.6 [6]), respectively. The GL of the date samples ranged from 8.5 to 24. Sellaj had a high GL (24), whereas Ajwah and Shaqra had a low GL (8.5 and 9.2). The analyses suggested no significant difference in GI between the date varieties. However, the GL values differed significantly between the 17 date varieties (P < .001). CONCLUSION: The results provide reliable GI and GL values for 17 common date varieties in Saudi Arabia. The identification of date varieties with lower glycemic responses may help lower the GI of the diet of both healthy and diabetic Saudi individuals. LIMITATIONS: We used dates at the Tamer stage, which may not be translatable to all types of dates.