Nutritional knowledge among Kuwaiti college students

Objectives: To assess the level of nutritional knowledge (NK) among male Kuwaiti college students and to correlate NK scores with different nutritional domains. Methods: A random sample of 378 students was asked to answer a questionnaire regarding socio-demographic and health-related factors and answer questions assessing their NK on different domains. Height and weight were measured. Results: NK was low. NK on sodium and carbohydrates was the highest, where those of protein and cholesterol were the lowest. Only older age, healthy dental status, and high academic achievement in high school were associated with high NK. NK scores of different nutritional domains were weekly correlated with each other. While the NK on cholesterol correlated with NK on all other domains. NK on calories/food intake correlated with less than half of the domains. Conclusion: NK was found to be low and interrelated. NK education should aim to improve NK especially in those groups with the lowest scores.

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among male Kuwaiti adolescents aged 10 - 19 years

Background: The prevalence of overweight and obesity are high in Kuwait. Metabolic Syndrome is associated with both. It is expected to find the syndrome higher than in other countries. Objective: To assess the prevalence of MS using two different diagnostic criteria, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the National Cholesterol Education Program—Third Adult Treatment Panel Modified for age (NCEP-ATP III). Study design: A multi-stage random sample study. Methods: The analysis of data for this study was based on a sample of 303 male Kuwaiti adolescents, 10 - 19 years of age selected from intermediate and high schools. Anthropometric measurements and biochemical tests on blood samples were carried out. The IDF criterion requires waist circumference (WC) plus two of the following criteria: triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL), fasting blood sugar (FBS) and blood pressure (PB). The ATP III criterion requires three of the above parameters. The parameters mentioned must show increase in their values except for HDL which must show decrease in either criterion used. Results: Each of the two criterion revealed that the prevalence of MS was 14.8% and 19.5%, using the IDF and the ATP III criteria, respectively. HDL decreased in each of the two diagnostic criteria and the other four parameters increased, satisfying the diagnostic requirements of either criterion. Conclusions: Significant implications may be drawn from these results, especially when it comes to being at risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Epidemiology of children and adolescent eye injuries in British Columbia

AIM To quantify and characterize children and adolescent eye injuries treated in trauma department.METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted of children and adolescent patients(0-19 years of age) with eye injuries using the British Columbia Trauma Registry(BCTR) data. BCTR data was obtained from January 1,2000 to December 31,2008. The BCTR provides the most detailed information on severe injuries throughout the province of BC. There are 12 trauma-receiving facilities in BC from which BCTR collects data.RESULTS A total of 162 patients with eye injuries were registered in BCTR during the data collection period. The highest number of injuries occurred in the 15-19 age group,followed by 10-14 and 5-9 age groups. Seventy-one point six percent of all patients were male. The mean age for all patients was 12.9(SD = 5.8) years. Vehicular crash was by far the most common mechanism of injury among all patients(42.0%) followed by blunt injury(14.2%) and cuts(12.3%). The child and adolescent eyeinjury data set we used for our study indicated that there were in total,50 patients that were tested for alcohol and drug use. The majority of them were 15-19 years of age(n = 38). Among the tested eye injury patients in the 15-19 age group,47%(18/38) tested positive for alcohol. There were approximately 30 cases of physical fighting(assault) and fighting-related injury among adolescents. Some injuries were caused by use of fire arms and knife during the assaults. Out of all patients,62(38%) were seen by an Ophthalmologist on admission,whereas 100(62%) patients were not seen by an eye specialist on admission. The most common injury diagnosis among the patients not consulted by ophthalmologist was conjunctiva injury(53%),whereas almost 9 out of 10 patients with ophthalmological consultation had laceration of cornea injury diagnoses. Using Glasgow Coma Scale(GCS)-based classification of brain injury severity,3.7% of all patients were classified with severe brain injury(GCS ≤ 8),while more than 64% had diagnosed with a mild brain injury(GCS ≥ 13).CONCLUSION This study suggests that most child and adolescent eye injuries in BC occur at street/highway locations followed by incidents at home. Vehicular crash was by far the most common mechanism of injury among all patients(42%). Sixty-four point two percent of child and adolescent eye injury patients also had mild brain injuries. Further,the child and adolescent eye injury data set we used for our study indicated that there were in total,50 patients tested for alcohol and drug use. There is an urgent need for a child and adolescent eye injury prevention plan in our province.