120 results match your criteria: "Center for Research on Population and Health[Affiliation]"
Confl Health
December 2024
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
PLOS Glob Public Health
November 2024
Faculty of Health Sciences, Center for Research on Population and Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Quality and timely antenatal care is a vital component of pregnancy care for the well-being of mothers and babies. The aim of this study of to assess self-reported obstetricians' adherence to national and international antenatal care guidelines in Lebanon. This cross-sectional study approached all obstetricians registered with the Lebanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Lebanese Order of Physicians to participate in an online and telephone-based survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med Res Methodol
September 2024
Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
BMJ Glob Health
August 2024
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened pre-existing vulnerabilities among older Syrian refugees in Lebanon, potentially impacting their mental health. The study aims to describe the evolution of poor mental health over time and to develop and internally validate a prediction model for poor mental health among older Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Methods: This prognostic study used cross-sectional data from a multiwave telephone survey in Lebanon.
PLoS One
May 2024
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.
Background: Lebanon has a high caesarean section use and consequently, placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) is becoming more common.
Objectives: To compare maternal characteristics, management, and outcomes of women with PAS by planned or urgent delivery at a major public referral hospital in Lebanon.
Design: Secondary data analysis of prospectively collected data.
PLOS Glob Public Health
May 2024
Public Health Policy Evaluation Unit, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
We sought to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of potential new public health and healthcare NCD risk reduction efforts among Palestinians in Gaza. We created a microsimulation model using: (i) a cross-sectional household survey of NCD risk factors among 4,576 Palestinian adults aged ≥40 years old in Gaza; (ii) a modified Delphi process among local public health experts to identify potentially feasible new interventions; and (iii) reviews of intervention cost and effectiveness, modified to the Gazan and refugee contexts. The survey revealed 28.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Nutr
April 2024
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Complex humanitarian emergencies are a main driver of food and nutritional insecurity. Agricultural interventions are key to improving nutrition and food security, and their positive impacts are well-documented in stable developing countries. However, it is unclear if their positive effects on food security hold in complex emergency settings, too.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Psychiatry
April 2024
Clinical Research Institute, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have identified brain changes associated with anxiety disorders (ADs), but the results remain mixed, particularly at a younger age. One key predictor of ADs is behavioral inhibition (BI), a childhood tendency for high avoidance of novel stimuli. This study aimed to evaluate the relationships between candidate brain regions, BI, and ADs among children using baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVaccine
April 2024
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. Electronic address:
Background: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among refugees in the Arab region remains low. This study aimed to examine the prevalence, reasons and predictors of intention to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine among older Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Methods: A nested cross-sectional study within a longitudinal study among older Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
BMJ Open
March 2024
Independent Researcher, Basel, Switzerland.
Introduction: Cohort studies generate and collect longitudinal data for a variety of research purposes. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) increasingly use cohort studies as data infrastructures to help identify and recruit trial participants and assess outcomes.
Objective: To examine the extent, range and nature of research using cohorts for RCTs and describe the varied definitions and conceptual boundaries for RCTs using cohorts.
Int J Popul Data Sci
February 2024
Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
Introduction: By linking datasets, electronic records can be used to build large birth-cohorts, enabling researchers to cost-effectively answer questions relevant to populations over the life-course. Currently, around 5.8 million Palestinian refugees live in five settings: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza Strip.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublic Health Nutr
January 2024
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Objective: Food environments are a major determinant of children's nutritional status. Scarce evidence on food environments exists in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This study aims to fill this gap by documenting the obesogenicity of food environments around schools in Greater Tunis, Tunisia - an LMIC of the Middle East and North Africa region with an ongoing nutrition transition and increasing rates of childhood obesity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLOS Glob Public Health
December 2023
Centre for Global Chronic Conditions, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
Humanitarian health care models increasingly incorporate care for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Current research evidence focuses on burden of disease, service provision and access to care, and less is known about patient's experience of the continuum of care in humanitarian settings. To address this gap, this study explored experiences of displaced Syrian and vulnerable Lebanese patients receiving care for hypertension and/or diabetes at four health facilities supported by humanitarian organisations in Lebanon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMatern Child Health J
March 2024
Faculty of Public Health, Lebanese University, Fanar, Lebanon.
Objectives: Use of acetamoniphen (paracetamol or N-acetyl-para-aminophenol [APAP]) during pregnancy is considered safe; however certain practices have been related to the risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess women's knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards the use APAP during pregnancy and its associated factors.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between May 15 and August 31, 2020, among pregnant Lebanese women and those who had given birth in the last 12 months.
Child Indic Res
June 2023
Center for Research On Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Background And Objectives: This study constitutes the first attempt to describe the overlapping deprivations faced by Lebanese children (Lebanese) and that of the three sub-populations of refugees living in Lebanon: Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees from Syria and Syrian refugees.
Methods: Using data from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Household Survey 2016 ( = 10,555 Lebanese; 7,106 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon; 2,768 Palestinian refugees from Syria and 5,891 Syrian refugee children aged 2 to 17 years old), we report on single and overlapping deprivations (at least two concurrent deprivations) using indicators related to survival (nutrition, health, water, sanitation and overcrowding), development (education) and protection (labor, exposure to violence and early marriage). Maternal education and geographical correlates of deprivation were explored using multivariable logistic regression models clustering for children in the same households.
PLoS One
June 2023
Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Introduction: Lebanon has battled the COVID-19 pandemic in the midst of an economic crisis. The evolution of the pandemic and a fragile health system have meant that public health policy has had to rely heavily on non-pharmaceutical interventions for disease control. However, changes in disease dynamics, an unraveling economy, and pandemic fatigue have meant that disease control policies need to be updated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Dis Child
December 2023
Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Lancet Healthy Longev
May 2023
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. Electronic address:
Background: Vaccination is important to prevent morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 among older Syrian refugees. We aimed to elucidate the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Syrian refugees aged 50 years or older in Lebanon and to understand their main reasons for not receiving the vaccine.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of a five-wave longitudinal study, conducted through telephone interviews between Sept 22, 2020, and March 14, 2022, in Lebanon.
PLOS Digit Health
March 2023
Computer Science Department, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Children's dietary habits are influenced by complex factors within their home, school and neighborhood environments. Identifying such influencers and assessing their effects is traditionally based on self-reported data which can be prone to recall bias. We developed a culturally acceptable machine-learning-based data-collection system to objectively capture school-children's exposure to food (including food items, food advertisements, and food outlets) in two urban Arab centers: Greater Beirut, in Lebanon, and Greater Tunis, in Tunisia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Open
February 2023
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon
Objectives: This study aims to assess whether the characteristics, management and outcomes of women varied between Syrian and Palestinian refugees, migrant women of other nationalities and Lebanese women giving birth at a public tertiary centre in Beirut, Lebanon.
Methods: This was a secondary data analysis of routinely collected data from the public Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH) between January 2011 and July 2018. Data were extracted from medical notes using text mining machine learning methods.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
December 2022
Department of Nutrition and Food Science, College Park, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Grandparents (GP) play influential roles in grandchildren's health, behavior, and life. However, this relationship has not been examined in the Arab region. This study assesses whether the presence of GP in the household is associated with grandchildren's health and wellbeing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Hum Hypertens
October 2023
Center for Research on Population and Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Although hypertension constitutes a substantial burden in conflict-affected areas, little is known about its prevalence, control, and management in Gaza. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and correlates of hypertension, its diagnosis and control among adults in Gaza. We conducted a representative, cross-sectional, anonymous, household survey of 4576 persons older than 40 years in Gaza in mid-2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAMA Netw Open
October 2022
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Importance: Older Syrian refugees have a high burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and economic vulnerability.
Objectives: To develop and internally validate a predictive model to estimate inability to manage NCDs in older Syrian refugees, and to describe barriers to NCD medication adherence.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This nested prognostic cross-sectional study was conducted through telephone surveys between September 2020 and January 2021.
J Migr Health
September 2022
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Introduction: Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Jordan and Lebanon have hosted large refugee populations, with a high pre-conflict burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We aimed to explore NCD service provision to Syrian refugees in these two host countries and to identify lessons learned that may inform the global response to the changing health needs of refugees.
Methods: Between January 2017 and June 2018, we conducted 36 in-depth interviews with stakeholders from Jordan and Lebanon, as well as global stakeholders, to understand the context, the achievements, gaps and priorities in the provision and uptake of NCD prevention, testing and treatment services to Syrian refugees.
PLoS Med
September 2022
Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Background: Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a nonmedical procedure entailing the modification of the external female genitalia. A description of the prevalence and distribution of FGM/C allows the tracking of progress toward ending FGM/C by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG): target 5.3).
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