Frequency and Awareness of Risk Factors of Non-Communicable Diseases among University Students in Saudi Arabia

Background and Objective: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. This study has evaluated the frequency of the risk factors of NCDs and its awareness among students in a University in Saudi Arabia.&#x0D; Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 374 female students of Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in Wadi Al Dawaser, Saudi Arabia. The study was carried out for a duration of six months, from August 2019 to January 2020. Standard self-administered questionnaire, anthropometric and biochemical parameters were used for data collection, analysed through SPSS version 20.0.&#x0D; Results: The mean age of the students was 20.6 years. The results showed that 64.7% of students were physically inactive, 52.4% spend more than two hours watching TV. The intake of adequate amount of fruits (14%) and vegetables (6.8%) was very little.  Junk food was consumed &gt;11 times per week by 37.1%. The prevalence of overweight and severe obesity was 25.9% and 5.1% respectively. Blood sugar analysis showed 1.1% had pre-diabetes and 0.8% had diabetes. About 56.2% of students had no knowledge about NCDs and their risk factors.&#x0D; Conclusion: A high prevalence of risk factors for NCDs was found among students. Awareness programs about healthy lifestyle practices; periodic screening of school and college students at regular intervals with appropriate advice are warranted to control the rising epidemic of NCDs.&#x0D; doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.4.2400&#x0D; How to cite this:Rahamathulla MP, Sha MM. Frequency and Awareness of Risk Factors of Non-Communicable Diseases among University Students in Saudi Arabia. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(4):740-745. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.4.2400&#x0D; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</jats:p

The prevalence, pattern, and clinical correlate of Internet gambling disorder in a tertiary care hospital – A cross-sectional observational study

Background: Internet gambling disorder is the fastest-growing mode of gambling addiction. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study. A total of 31 cases were chosen as per the DSM 5. The Online Gambling Symptoms Assessment Scale (OGSAS) was used to assess the severity, and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used for assessing the psychiatric morbidity. Personality profiles were assessed using the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE). Results: The prevalence rate of Internet gambling disorder was 0.16%. The majority were under 35 years of age, married, and unemployed. Sports, followed by cards, and the stock market, were the more common types of Internet gambling addiction. As per DSM 5, 25% had severe, 48% had moderate, and 25% had mild addiction. Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) (7), suicidality (5), and depression (3) were the common psychiatric morbidities found in these 31 cases. A fairly strong correlation was observed with Dissocial (0.9), Impulsive (0.8), Borderline (0.9), and Anxious (0.8) personalities with Internet Gambling Disorder. On Logistic Regression, there was a significant association between Internet Gambling Disorder and Psychiatric illness (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.1591, 4.2867 P = 0.0091). Conclusion: Internet gambling disorder is very common and is being ignored in clinical practice. Internet gambling is significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity. Awareness strategies targeting all levels are very important

EFFECT OF SELF- MOUNTING ON COCOON AND POST - COCOON PARAMETERS IN SILKWORM BOMBYX MORI. L.

In silkworm rearing, self-mounting is rational method of mounting to save labour and time. But in self-mounting, mounting rate is low. To improve the mounting rate various repellents viz. lime, sawdust, kaolin and management practices were tried. Lime and saw dust was found better because of maximum number of larvae climbed and formed the cocoons in the mountage (96.9% &amp; 96.0%), minimum percentage of defective cocoons (5.15% &amp; 5.57%) in lime and saw dust respectively. Further, there was no bad effect on cocoon and post cocoon parameters