Mosul Journal of Nursing

Background: As inactive lifestyles and a tendency for having a more comfortable life rise in the Iraqi population, obesity prevalence has become a major public health concern particularly among children in the Kurdistan Region Iraq. Moreover, obesity can result in an enormous burden to the economy and public health. Conducting educational programs of physical activity and modifying nutrition patterns among primary school children can be a preventive strategy. The present study was aimed at identifying the obesity prevalence rate and its risk factors among primary school children in Erbil, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Patients and methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive study, 400 children who were 6 to 13 years old were selected from primary schools in Erbil and studied from 2017 to 2019. A researcher-designed questionnaire was employed to gather required socioeconomic and sociodemographic data. For this purpose, face-to-face interviews were carried out with the children’s parents. Moreover, the UNICEF calibrated digital scale was used to measure the children’s weight, a portable stadiometer for their height, and their height and weight for their body mass index. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 22) was used to analyze the collected data.
Results: It was seen that 26% of the students were obese. All age groups and grades had an almost equal prevalence of obesity. Obesity was more prevalent among those students who were males, had child ranking of 1^st or 2^nd, whose parents lived together, whose parental education was illiterate or primary, whose mother was retired, and whose father was retired. Having an obese mother or father, eating more than 3 main meals per day, physical inactivity, and low socioeconomic status was found to be effective factors in causing children’s obesity. There was a significant relationship between children’s daily physical activity and nutritional status (p=0.000).
Conclusion: Obesity prevalence was higher among inactive primary school children who had an obese mother or father, ate more than 3 main meals per day and had low socioeconomic status. Daily physical activity of children was directly associated with a decrease in obesity prevalence in children.

Background: Red blood cell transfusions are commonly used in palliative care to treat anemia or symptoms caused by anemia. In patients with advanced disease, there is little evidence of benefit to guide treatment decisions in the face of increased risk of harms. Objectives: To assess the level of knowledge and practices of nurses about blood transfusion for adult patients in Kirkuk city hospitals.
Methods: A purposive study design was conducted in the period from 1st June 2019 to 15th November 2019. the sample includes (80) nurses who were working at (Gynecology and obstetrics, General medicine, General surgery, intensive care unit, Oncology at Azadi teaching hospital, and Kirkuk general hospital.
Results: The number of nurses’ who included in the study was (35%) worked in Gynecology and obstetrics, (25%) worked in General medicine, General surgery, (10%) worked in the intensive care unit, (5%) Oncology, generally nurses had a low level of knowledge but showed best practice level.
Conclusions: The findings showed that the nurses' knowledge of blood transfusion was insufficient which could be detrimental to patient safety, also practice Was optimal in Kirkuk city hospitals
Recommendation: Nurses have the responsibility to update their knowledge and skills in carrying out blood transfusion. The tool developed in this study may be useful for educators and managers to identify gaps in knowledge and inform decisions to address them.
Keywords: Blood transfusion, Knowledge, Practice.

Background and Aim: Complications that may associated thyroidectomy can often be life-threatening. It is important that nurses have the knowledge and skills to manage the patients with thyroidectomy and potential complications. The study aimed to assess nurses' knowledge towards post thyroidectomy management in Nineveh governorate hospitals.
Material and Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in two governmental hospitals are included in the study (Tal Afar General Hospital and Al-Salam Teaching Hospital). The study has been conducted from 7^th of October to 30^th of December 2019. The study sample was randomly selected consisting of (60) nurses from both hospitals. A special questionnaire tool was constructed by the researcher, this questionnaire tool consisted of two parts, nurses' demographic characteristics and questions for knowledge about post thyroidectomy management in the form of multiple-choice questions. The data were analyzed through the application of descriptive statistical analysis that included frequency, percentage.
Result: The study indicated that 43.3% of the study sample age were20-29 years, with high percentages of 55.0% were females, 40.0% of them were at secondary and institution educational level. Concerning their knowledge majority, 43.3% of them were at not acceptable level 25.0% of them were at a fail level which means 68.3% of the nurses have incorrect responses.
Conclusion: The findings of the current study concludes that inadequacy of nurses' knowledge in the medical wards, intensive care units, and recovery room toward post-operative management for the patient with thyroidectomy.
Recommendation: conducting an educational program for nurses about post-operative management for the patient with thyroidectomy to improve nurses' knowledge and skills.
Keywords: thyroidectomy, management, complications

Background: Antenatal care is the routine health program of pregnant women to reduce the risk of stillbirths and pregnancy complications and give women a positive pregnancy experience.
Objectives:  This study aims to assess the utilization ratio of antenatal care services and to identify current barriers to the proper utilization of antenatal care services in Mosul city.
Subjects and methods: A descriptive study was carried out during the period from 26 September 2019 to 1^st April 2020. The study has been conducted among three hospitals in Mosul city namely: Al- Khanssa teaching hospital, Al- Salam teaching hospital and Al-Batool teaching hospital. The target population was pregnant women who attend maternity and child care unit. The study sample consists of 300 pregnant women. The data collection tool was composed of (2) main parts. The first one was for socio-demographic data about pregnant women. The second part was for gynecological, obstetric and antenatal care characteristics. It was constructed through the use of (2) option- type (yes-no). Content validity was determined by presenting the items to a panel of scientific experts.
Results: study results revealed that 84% of studied women were found to have regular antenatal care visits. Regarding obstacles to antenatal care, a far distance from the center was found among 52% of study subjects.
Recommendations: The study recommends establishing several antenatal care clinics in different areas of Mosul city to improve medical and nursing staff caring attitude in addition to increasing people^, s awareness through health education about the importance of conducting antenatal care visits since the beginning of pregnancy.
Keywords: Antenatal care, Obstacles, Utilization, Mosul

Background and Amis: Gallstone disease is one of the most common worldwide biliary tract disease in which the both genetic and environmental factors have roles in its pathogenesis. shortage of knowledge on gallstone disease contributed to poor dealing with cholelithiasis patients. Thus, the main aims of this study to assess the women knowledge regarding the cholelithiasis disease.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 inpatient of gallstone disease in Azadi and emergency teaching hospital in Duhok city, A set of questionnaires were used to collect the data about their socio-demographic, and knowledge around gallstone disease by interviewer with self-administered. A descriptive and inferential statistical analysis used to analyze the data.
Result: The majority of the participants were (66%) their age  42.03 ± 12.63 within 42 years old, while the lowest ratio (13.3 %) was Conclusion: In this study, the results indicated that lack of knowledge was the major contributing factor for causing gallstone because due lack of awareness women were do not know the way of decreasing risk factor of gallstone disease.
Key word: Women’s Knowledge, Cholelithiasis Diseases, Gallstone, Awareness

Background: Depressive symptoms may associate with the daily recommended dose of Isotretinoin for nodulocystic acne. Does reduce the dose will reduce the incidence of depressive symptoms is still not clearly understood.
Study objective: To compare the types and frequency of depressive symptoms among patients with nodulocystic acne receiving three different low doses of isotretinoin (10mg daily, 20mg every other day, and 20mg daily).  
Study design: Open randomized clinical trial.
 Study setting: Dermatology clinic at Ibn Sina teaching hospital
Patients & methods: 169 patients with severe nodulocystic acne were randomly assigned to one of three isotretinoin regimen groups as follows: 10 mg daily (n=46), 20mg alternate day (n=58), and 20 mg daily (n=65). After a month of treatment, the patient assessed for degree of improvement of acne and incidence of depressive symptoms
Results: The frequencies of depressive symptoms irrespective to the group were as follows: crying in 36 (21.3%), anger in 35 (20.7%), sleep disturbance in 32 (18.9%), isolation in 29 (17.1%), and sadness in 20 (11.8%) of patients. The frequency of crying, anger, and sadness was significantly rose with an increased dose of isotretinoin from 10mg to 20mg daily (p-value equal to 0.02, 0.02, and 0.001 respectively). The summated depressive symptoms rose from (0.52 symptoms) in 10 mg daily to (1.19 symptoms) in 20 mg daily dose and the difference was statistically significant.
Conclusion: Depressive symptoms increased gradually with an increased dose of isotretinoin and reducing the dose to the least effective dose is mandatory.
Key Words: isotretinoin, dose regimen, depression, nodulocystic acne.

Background and objectives: Spontaneous abortion (SA), also known as miscarriage, is considered as one of the most frequent problems a woman may face during early pregnancy, is not only related to morbidity or mortality, but also has an obvious social and psychological impact on women. An abortion is the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in \or caused by its death, the loss of a pregnancy occurs within the first 20- 24 weeks of gestation, after which, fetal death is known as a stillbirth. This study was first aimed to assess the frequency of, Cytomegalovirus, Rubella and Herpes simplex virus in embryonic tissues of women with abortion. Next to find out the sociodemographic characteristics of the studied populations.
Methods: This cross-sectional prospective study was carried out from February 2019 through January 2020.This study prospectively deal with tissues from conceptus after abortion which collected from maternity teaching hospital in Erbil city, Iraq for the diagnosis of frequency of CMV, rubella and herpes simplex virus. RT-PCR were used in tissue analysis. SPSS version 25 was used for data entry and analysis. 
Results: Out of 72 cases with spontaneous abortion 8 (11.1%) were due to human Cytomegalovirus,2 (2.8%) were due to Rubella virus and 1case (1.4%) was due to Herpes simplex virus, the age range of participants was 17-45 years with mean ± Sd of (31.29 ± 6.11) years. The highest percentages of participants were in their second and third decades of life (40.5% and 37.5% respectively) and about 86.1% of them were unemployed (housewives) and majority about 57% of them attending primary school, and more than half percentage (63.8%) of them have the intermediate economic state. The histopathological analysis shows that out of 72 cases only 9 samples (16.6%) show histopathological abnormalities. A statistically significant association was found between Rubella infection and histopathological abnormality.
Conclusions: Cytomegalovirus infection was more prevalent among the study samples, followed by Rubella infection then Herpes simplex virus infection by real-time polymerase chain reaction, on other hand 16.6% of samples shown nonspecific histopathological abnormality.
Keywords: Spontaneous abortion, real-time polymerase chain reaction, Human cytomegalovirus, Rubella, Human Herpes simplex virus.

Background and aims: Despite the consideration that the Breast Cancer is a preventable cancer, it's still known as the most common cancer among women worldwide. Early detection of it is performed by a medical and self-screening procedure which is Breast Self-Examination (BSE). It makes women more "breast aware", which in turn may lead to an earlier diagnosis of BC. The aims of the study are to assess the level of women’s knowledge regarding practicing BSE, and identify the main reasons regarding practicing BSE.

Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 200 women attending General Hospitals in Duhok city at the time of data collection 28 January to 10 March 2020. A structured questionnaire was used by researchers to gather the data related to socio-demographic, the knowledge of practicing BSE, the reasons for practicing BSE.

Results: Among all women who were interviewed, about (28.5%) practiced BSE , among those women who had practiced  BSE, (16.5%) of them had irregular BSE, 6.5% of the woman who had practiced it monthly, about (82.5%) of women had a poor knowledge regarding practicing BSE correctly, very little of them had good practicing BSE knowledge (2%). The main reason for doing it was getting information from mass media in (14%).

Conclusions: The majority of women had low knowledge level about practicing BSE. Effective media and providing health education are required to improve the level of awareness toward it. The professional healthcare provider should be contributing to knowledge transfer whenever the opportunity arises.
Keywords: breast self-examination, Breast Cancer, Knowledge, Practice

This investigation involved determination of prevalence range of dental caries and hygiene study among convicts and general population within Erbil, Kurdistan of Iraq. Ages, gender, education level and smoking habit have been taken in consideration for both group of samples (convict and non-convict). The study dealed with a total of 153 person from both group and they were sampled from Erbil Central Prison and Erbil Juvenile Prison, as well as from various location within Erbil district as control group. The results indicated that prisoners have more dental problem than others and it was found that number of smokers are much more within jails and generally they have lower standard of education. However a qualified dental team should be prepared to provide an optimum dental treatment to prisoners. More detail investigation in this respect is needed for dental aspects of the country.
Keywords: Dental health, Caries, Smokers, Convict people, Erbil Prison.