Amani Abdelrahman

BACKGROUND: The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is highly contagious and can spread a pandemic, so it is related to serious health issues and major public concerns, and is considered by the medical community to be the greatest concern because it is the greatest risk of infection. OBJECTIVE: To identify and assess the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare professionals in Khartoum state hospitals 2021. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Generalized Anxiety Scale (GAD-7), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and Work-Family Balance Measure Scale were used to assess the psychological impact of doctors and nurses working in four big hospitals in Sudan, by an online questionnaire, analyzed by the statistical package for social science (SPSS) during February. RESULTS: Most of the participants had minimal to mild anxiety according to GAD-7 score, 121 (35.2%) and 103 (29.9%), respectively. Using PSS-10, the cutoff point was determined as 19 as the mean for total score was 19.2 ± 6.2, accordingly, more than half had high levels of stress (scored 19 and above) 189 (54.9%). For the Work-Family Balance Scale, 10 was regarded as the cutoff point. There was a significant association between specialty and stress level p-value .032. No significant correlations were found between age and stress level, neither between age and anxiety level (r -.100, p-value .064 and r = -.022, p-value .683, respectively). CONCLUSION: More than half of healthcare professionals (54.9%) showed high levels of stress. Most of the healthcare professionals had poor work-family balance (60.2%).

Abstract Background: The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is highly contagious and can spread a pandemic, so it is related to serious health issues and major public concerns, and is considered by the medical community to be the greatest concern because it is the greatest risk of infection .Objective: To identify and assess the psychological effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on healthcare professionals in Khartoum state hospitals 2021.Materials and Methods: Generalized anxiety scale (GAD-7), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Work-family balance measure scale were used to assess the Psychological impact of Doctors and nurses working in four big hospitals in Sudan ,by an online questionnaire, analyzed by the statistical package for social science (SPSS) during February.Results: Most of the participants had minimal to mild anxiety according to GAD-7 score, 121 (35.2%) and 103 (29.9%) respectively.Using PSS-10 the cutoff point was determined as 19 as the mean for total score was 19.2 ± 6.2, accordingly more than half had high levels of stress (scored 19 and above) 189 (54.9%). For the Work-Family Balance scale, 10 was regarded as the cutoff point. There was a significant association between specialty and stress level p-value 0.032. No significant correlations were found between age and stress level, neither between age and anxiety level (r − .100, p-value .064 and r = − .022, p-value .683 respectively).Conclusion: More than half of healthcare professionals (54.9%) showed high levels of stress.Most of the healthcare professionals had poor work-family balance (60.2%).

Background: Migraine is one of the most common types of headache; it is a chronic neurological disease that affects 15% of the population, however, information about its prevalence in Sudan is scarce. Aim: The aim of this study was to study prevalence of migraine and trigger factors among adult rural Sudanese population in 2018. Setting and Design: This is a cross sectional two-stage door-to-door community-based study conducted in 16 administrative areas in rural Sudan. Materials and Methods: A sample of 8610 adult Sudanese individuals, 18 years and above was selected. A structured pretested questionnaire was used included questions about two or more headaches in the last three months for screening. Participants with at least one positive response were asked to perform the 3-item validated Identification of Migraine (ID Migraine) test. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20 for descriptive statistics and one way chi square test was used for testing the association of triggering factors with migraine at 95% confidence level of significant. Results: Four hundred and sixty eight had migraine with a prevalence rate of 5.4% among 8610 study population. The prevalence of migraine was 40% among those having at least two episodes of headache. Females were significantly affected by migraine more than males, P- value 0.044. Migraine significantly decreases with increase in age showed the highest frequency among the age group 18-29 years (38.0%). Family history of migraine accounted to 83.4% of population with migraine. Population with migraine who experienced aura was 64.5%. Already diagnosed population with migraine was 38.9%.The most important triggering factors among population with migraine were irregular/lack of sleep followed by stress/anxiety, noise and fatigue/physical activity, 91.0%, 88.0%, 85.7% and 84.6% respectively. The females experienced migraine with menstruation accounted to 46.7%. Perceived migraine effect was moderate to severe on work/ daily activities/ leisure of 78.2% of population with migraine. Conclusion: Migraine prevalence was alarming in this study. A gap exists in the diagnosis of migraine that needs efforts to reduce the sufferings of affected population.

International audience

= 142) from Al-Riyadh and Al-Ozozab, and constituted 76% and 83%, respectively. Compulsory national salt specification needs to be established in Sudan, together with monitoring the market availability of iodized salt.