Publications by authors named "Yasmin Altwaijri"

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs), encompassing alcohol (AUDs) and drug use disorders (DUDs), are significant global public health concerns. While SUDs are well-documented worldwide, data on their prevalence and impact in Saudi Arabia remain scarce. This study investigates the epidemiology and burden of SUDs in Saudi Arabia using data from the Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS).

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study highlights that mental disorders disproportionately affect women in Saudi Arabia, with 24.7% experiencing a disorder in the past year and 35.9% at some point in their lives, mainly anxiety and mood disorders.
  • - A range of sociodemographic factors, including region, urban living, chronic health conditions, and gender disadvantage factors such as domestic violence, were found to significantly correlate with these mental health issues.
  • - A striking 86.2% of women with 12-month mental disorders and 73.8% with lifetime disorders did not seek treatment, indicating a significant gap in mental health care access.
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Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the Saudi Arabia, and over 50% of the cases are detected at a late stage. This study aimed to estimate population attributable risk percentage (PAR%) of modifiable lifestyle risk factors for breast cancer in Saudi Arabia.

Patients And Methods: A secondary analysis of previously published papers was performed .

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Health organizations with teaching and research responsibilities face the need to establish a comprehensive system that addresses the processes and challenges associated with research activities; a system that assists local institutes in becoming research-active by identifying gaps and providing actionable recommendations. The involvement of epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and data scientists is paramount in offering technical and scientific support to health researchers. In our organization, research support services, such as technical, statistical, logistical, and scientific assistance, have been provided to researchers for the past 20 years under the name of "Data Clinic Service".

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Aims: There is ongoing debate about the extent to which the epidemiology of OCD is similar across the world, given the lack of nationally representative data from key regions like the Middle East and North Africa. Using the nationally representative dataset from the Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS), we aimed to delineate the epidemiological profile of OCD in the Saudi population.

Methods: A subsample of 1981 participants from the SNMHS was assessed.

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Background: It is known worldwide that stigma towards mental illness exists. Studies on stigma perceived by patients with mental illness have shown decreased quality of life and a negative impact on work, school and social life. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of perceived stigma among respondents who had been diagnosed with a mental illness during the past 12 months, its association with socio-demographic variables and its effect on work and social roles limitations among Saudis.

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Introduction: Comorbidities of mental disorders and chronic physical conditions are a common medical burden reported among Western countries. National estimates of such comorbidities among the general population of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia are unknown. This study examined the prevalence of lifetime chronic physical conditions among the Saudi general population with DSM-IV 12-month mental disorders, and the associations with disability in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

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Objective: To assess prevalence and correlation of factors of family burden associated with mental and physical disorders in the general population of Saudi Arabia.

Setting And Participants: A secondary analysis of data from the Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS).

Outcome Measures: Mental and physical health disorders of first-degree relatives and objective (time, financial) and subjective (distress, embarrassment) family burden.

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Introduction: Social determinants of health (SDH) influence and modify the risk for mental health disorders. To our knowledge, no study has explored SDH in the context of mental health in Saudi Arabia (SA) using population-based data. This study investigated the association between several SDH and anxiety and mood disorders in SA.

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Background: Information on the frequency and timing of mental disorder onsets across the lifespan is of fundamental importance for public health planning. Broad, cross-national estimates of this information from coordinated general population surveys were last updated in 2007. We aimed to provide updated and improved estimates of age-of-onset distributions, lifetime prevalence, and morbid risk.

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Background: Institutional review boards (IRBs) are formally designated to review, approve, and monitor biomedical research. They are responsible for ensuring that researchers comply with the ethical guidelines concerning human research participants. Given that IRBs might face different obstacles that cause delays in their processes or conflicts with investigators, this study aims to report the functions, roles, resources, and review process of IRBs in Saudi Arabia.

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Previous global and regional studies indicate that adolescents and young adults (i.e., youth) are affected by various mental disorders with lifelong consequences.

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Background: While global studies demonstrated that features of urban living are associated with the risk of developing mental disorders, there remains a significant knowledge gap surrounding this topic in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Aims: This study aims to assess the prevalence, severity, correlates, and treatment of mental disorders in Riyadh City by examining certain aspects of urban living such as exposure to traumatic events, early exposure to urbanization, and seeking treatment.

Methods: The Saudi National Mental Health Survey is a community epidemiological survey in a nationally representative sample of citizens aged 15 to 65 in KSA.

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Introduction: Low socioeconomic status (SES) is significantly associated with increased levels of obesity, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity leading to a higher risk of chronic diseases. This study aimed to explore low SES women's barriers and facilitators to engaging in a healthy lifestyle and their accounts in developing future behaviour change interventions.

Methods: Qualitative study using focus group interviews informed by the Capability Opportunity Motivation-Behavior (COM-B) framework.

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Objective: Limited studies have been conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on eating disorders (EDs). This study presents national epidemiological survey data on the prevalence and correlates of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge-eating disorder (BED) and their association with other mental health disorders, impairment in role functioning, and individual help-seeking behaviors in the Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS).

Method: A face-to-face survey was conducted in a nationally representative household sample of Saudi citizens aged 15-65 (n = 4004).

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Introduction: Few studies have considered the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We estimated the prevalence and severity of psychological distress and characterized predisposing risk factors among HCWs in KSA during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of 1,985 HCWs from 6 hospitals across the country designated with caring for COVID-19 patients between April 16 and June 21, 2020.

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Article Synopsis
  • Patient-reported helpfulness of treatment is a key measure of quality in patient-centered mental health care, focusing on experiences with various common disorders.
  • A study of over 10,000 respondents from 30 global surveys found that while only 26.1% found the first treatment helpful, the likelihood of finding helpful treatment increased significantly with each additional professional seen.
  • Despite higher treatment-seeking behavior in high-income countries, the perceived helpfulness of treatments was similar across both high-income and low- to middle-income countries, highlighting the need to encourage persistence in seeking help for mental health issues.
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Purpose: To investigate the prevalence and predictors of perceived helpfulness of treatment in persons with a history of DSM-IV social anxiety disorder (SAD), using a worldwide population-based sample.

Methods: The World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys is a coordinated series of community epidemiological surveys of non-institutionalized adults; 27 surveys in 24 countries (16 in high-income; 11 in low/middle-income countries; N = 117,856) included people with a lifetime history of treated SAD.

Results: In respondents with lifetime SAD, approximately one in five ever obtained treatment.

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Background: A major component of illness burden is role impairment. As part of the recently-completed Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS), we compare the number of days out of role in the Saudi population associated with ten core mental disorders assessed in the survey to those associated with ten commonly occurring chronic physical disorders.

Methods: The SNMHS was a household survey that assessed prevalence of ten common anxiety, mood, disruptive behavior, and eating disorders in a nationally representative sample of n = 1981 citizens of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) ages 15-65.

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Background: Treatment guidelines for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are based on a relatively small number of randomized controlled trials and do not consider patient-centered perceptions of treatment helpfulness. We investigated the prevalence and predictors of patient-reported treatment helpfulness for DSM-5 GAD and its two main treatment pathways: encounter-level treatment helpfulness and persistence in help-seeking after prior unhelpful treatment.

Methods: Data came from community epidemiologic surveys in 23 countries in the WHO World Mental Health surveys.

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Objectives: To examine patterns and predictors of perceived treatment helpfulness for mania/hypomania and associated depression in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews with community samples across 15 countries found n = 2,178 who received lifetime mania/hypomania treatment and n = 624 with lifetime mania/hypomania who received lifetime major depression treatment. These respondents were asked whether treatment was ever helpful and, if so, the number of professionals seen before receiving helpful treatment.

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Objectives: To present background information for the Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS) on the Saudi mental healthcare delivery system and previous epidemiological research on the prevalence and treatment of mental disorders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Methods: Archival information and the results of a literature review are presented.

Results: KSA is the largest sovereign nation in the Middle East and the largest free market economy in the Middle East and North Africa.

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Objectives: The DSM-IV diagnoses generated by the fully structured lay-administered Composite International Diagnostic Interview Version 3.0 (CIDI 3.0) in the Saudi National Mental Health Survey (SNMHS) were compared to diagnoses based on blinded clinical reappraisal interviews.

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