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Objective: Child maltreatment is a problem that has longer recognition in the northern hemisphere and in high-income countries. Recent work has highlighted the nearly universal nature of the problem in other countries but demonstrated the lack of comparability of studies because of the variations in definitions and measures used. The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect has developed instrumentation that may be used with cross-cultural and cross-national benchmarking by local investigators. Design and sampling: The instrument design began with a team of expert in Brisbane in 2004. A large bank of questions were subjected to two rounds of Delphi review to develop the fielded version of the instrument. Convenience samples included approximately 120 parent respondents with children under the age of 18 in each of six countries (697 total). Results: This paper presents an instrument that measures parental behaviors directed at children and reports data from pilot work in 6 countries and 7 languages. Patterns of response revealed few missing values and distributions of responses that generally were similar in the six countries. Subscales performed well in terms of internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha in very good range (0.77-0.88) with the exception of the neglect and sex abuse subscales. Results varied by child age and gender in expected directions but with large variations among the samples. About 15% of children were shaken, 24% hit on the buttocks with an object, and 37% were spanked. Reports of choking and smothering were made by 2% of parents. Conclusion: These pilot data demonstrate that the instrument is well tolerated and captures variations in, and potentially harmful forms of child discipline. Practice implications: The ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool--Parent Version (ICAST-P) has been developed as a survey instrument to be administered to parents for the assessment of child maltreatment in a multi-national and multi-cultural context. It was developed with broad input from international experts and subjected to Dephi review, translation, and pilot testing in six countries. The results of the Delphi study and pilot testing are presented. This study demonstrates that a single instrument can be used in a broad range of cultures and languages with low rates of missing data and moderate to high internal consistency. (Contains 3 tables.)

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Almost all areas where P. falciparum parasite prevalence is >50% in the general population are located in Africa [...]

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine the rate of mobile phones use while driving by the students of King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, their perception of the risks, and contribution to collisions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2014 targeting 986 male students of King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was used to obtain data on possessing a driving license, years of driving experience, driving hours, and collision or near misses in the 6 months preceding the study. Eight statements were used to assess the behavior and perceptions related to the use of mobile phones while driving. Data were analyzed using the Chi-square statistic, odds ratio, and the 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: Almost half of the participants (45.3%) had driving experience of 4-6 years and 18.3% of them did not possess a driving license. Collision in the preceding 6 months was reported by 44.6% of participants, and 37.9% of them attributed these collisions to mobile phones. Variable proportions reported that they always texted (53.3%) or talked on a handheld (66.2%) or hands-free (26.1%) phones while driving. A higher proportion conceded that there were hazards in texting (77.0%) and speaking on handheld mobile phones (83.9%) rather than hands-free (35.9%) while driving. The risk increased significantly from 2.052 among participants who reported that they drove daily for 1-2 h to 3.165 of those who reported that they drove for more than 6 h. No significant risk was observed in relation to participants' perceptions, age, driving experience, and possession of a driving license. CONCLUSIONS: There was a risk of collision with the use of handheld and hands-free mobile phones. As hands-free mobile phones are no safer, national legislation should consider restricting their use by drivers and implementing legislations to reinforce safety on the roads. An objective assessment of the contribution of mobile phones to road traffic injuries is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The quality of life (QoL) of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has not been addressed in Saudi Arabia despite the considerable attention it has on account of its prevalence, duration of illness, and sociopsychological effects. The aim of this study was to report on the QoL of children with ADHD and test the concord between children's and parents' reports., Materials and Methods: Using the generic PedsQL™ (version 4.0) from both children's and parents' perspectives, a cross-sectional study of 112 children was conducted on children aged 5-18 years with an established diagnosis of ADHD attending child psychiatry clinics of three referral hospitals in Riyadh between December 2015 and May 2016., Results: A total of 112 children with an established diagnosis of ADHD were recruited from the Child Psychiatry Clinic of Al Amal Mental Health Complex (41.1%), Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC), (33%), and King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), (25.9%). The majority were boys (74.1%) and Saudi nationals (93.8%). The mean age of children with ADHD was 10.45 ± 3.06 years (Range 5 - 18 years). One-fourth of the mothers of children with ADHD had completed high school and 41.1% had a diploma, university, or postgraduate degree. One-third of the fathers of these children had completed high school (34%) and 38.4% had a diploma, university, or postgraduate degree. The intra-class correlation coefficients between the scores of children and parents were good for physical functioning, fair for social functioning, but moderate for school, emotional, and psychosocial functioning. Children rated themselves significantly better than their parents for emotional, social, school, and psychosocial functioning. The standardized response means indicated a small difference for social functioning and medium differences for the other three domains. The only significant discrepancy was observed in social functioning in relation to the child's age., Conclusion: Parents mirrored adequately the observable physical component of the QoL of their children. The QoL report of children with ADHD with respect to communications and intellectual abilities should be taken into account whenever possible and their parents' report also should be sought to provide a more comprehensive view of the child's status., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Aim: This study was conducted to reveal the determinants of obstetric interventions in El Shatby maternity hospital, the only obstetric care facility providing tertiary care in Alexandria, Methods: Parturient admitted to the delivery room during the morning and afternoon shifts between April and February 2002 were enrolled in the study. Data were obtained by interview questionnaire complemented by thorough obstetric examination and close monitoring of the labor progress. Data were analyzed using the univariate and multivariate regression analyses., Results: out of the 3201 parturient who attended the hospital, 1302 were included in the study. Nearly three-fifths (61.7%) of parturient had a vaginal delivery. For the remaining proportion, delivery was accomplished by an elective (20.3%) or emergency (17.1%) cesarean section while few (0.9%) had an instrumental vaginal delivery. Operative obstetric intervention was determined by both maternal and fetal factors. For both primiparae and multiparae, the risk of elective cesarean delivery was independently predicted by abnormal fetal presentation, signs of fetal distress, toxemia of pregnancy and frequent antenatal visits of more than four. In addition, it is independently predicted by post date for primiparae and prolonged rupture of the membranes, history of still birth as well as previous obstetric intervention for multiparae. As for emergency cesarean delivery, it is independently predicted by prolonged rupture of the membrane, signs of fetal distress, ante-partum hemorrhage in both primiparae and multiparae. In addition, for primiparae, it is independently predicted by abnormal fetal presentation and a birth weight of more than 3500 grams while for multiparae, it is predicted by previous obstetric intervention as well as the non use of contraception following the delivery of the previous child., Conclusion: Both elective and emergency cesarean deliveries are independently predicted by fetal as well as maternal factors, though a proportion may not be medically justified considering models' predictive value. The extent of obstetric interventions reflects only that of specialized tertiary facility. There is a need for an extensive study including different level of health facilities in order to illustrate the whole scope of obstetric intervention and to develop a better understanding of its determinants.