Background:Despite huge efforts to increase the level of breast cancer awareness, breast self-examination (BSE) is still poorly practiced across Jordan. This baseline study aimed to assess the awareness of female Jordanian students about breast cancer and their practice of BSE.Materials and Methods:Using a cross-sectional research design, a self-administered survey was used, via a pre-validated pre-piloted questionnaire was distributed to 900 female students aged between 18 and 37 years recruited from the University of Jordan in Amman. The questionnaire was divided into four domains: Socio-demographic characteristics; the respondent's knowledge of breast cancer and BSE; their attitude towards risk factors for breast cancer; their experience of breast cancer screening and BSE. Statistical analysis was performed using Epi-Info version 6.4 statistical Software.Results:The overall response rate was 93.3%. Approximately half of the respondents 435 (51.8%) were aware of breast cancer. Of these, 99 (22.7%) believed that it was caused by a medical condition, followed by old age (71; 16.4%), lack of breastfeeding (58; 13.3%), heredity (56; 12.8%), late marriage (44; 10.3%), pregnancies in older women (33; 7.5%), the use of brassieres (18; 4.1%), excessive breastfeeding (17; 3.9%), being unmarried (14; 3.2%), and spirituality (11; 2.6%). Overall, 152 participants (34.9%) were aware of BSE, but only 93 (11%) had performed it.Conclusions:The current status of awareness of breast cancer in Jordanian students and their use of BSE are insufficient. Women need to be encouraged to self-monitor in order to detect abnormalities in their breasts. Appropriate educational interventions are urgently required to encourage women to engage in regular BSE.

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Quality is a process of meeting the needs and expectations of the customers. Although quality has many perspectives, each customer has specific needs and expectations and the goal is for these expectations to be fulfilled by the provider organization. One method for the identification of customer needs and expectations is a satisfaction survey. Any system has three components: inputs, processes and outputs. Outputs and outcomes are the results of the processes and the activities of the system. One measure of this component is the rate of satisfaction of the users of the system. In healthcare, the ultimate user of the system is the patient and thus, the patient survey is the method most appropriate to measure satisfaction with outputs and outcomes of the system. The field of patient satisfaction surveying is growing. With most of the accrediting bodies such as JACHO, NCQA, AAAHC and URAC requiring survey results to be reported on a regular basis, mechanisms for addressing them must be implemented and measured. This emphasis on patient satisfaction has created a new type of health care customer, one who is becoming increasingly intolerant of mediocre care and service. Several studies of patient satisfaction in both primary health care and inpatient settings have shown that patient satisfaction is directly correlated to patient's expectation, but not necessarily to clinical outcomes. 1-5 Two studies are worthy of note relating to Saudi Arabia (El-Shabrawy and Mahmoud, 1993 6 and Mansour and Al-Osimy, 1993 7). Both report on surveys conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with patients in primary health care (PHC) settings. Using interview methodology, both studies collected information from a randomly selected sample of patients regarding satisfaction with care and services received at the PHC centers. Both studies reported patients to be satisfied with their care in general, but they were less pleased with the waiting times and the thoroughness of their visits. This letter describes a study performed to assess patient satisfaction in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Our analysis focused on assessing the relationships between patient characteristics and level of satisfaction and previous history with the facility from which they sought care. Patients were selected from public and private primary health care and inpatient care sectors. The objectives were to measure satisfaction by each variable identified in terms of service and care. We also sought to measure the difference in satisfaction between these groups and find out if there were any correlations with the type of the facility and the satisfaction level of the patient. The target population was patients attending two MOH and five private hospitals (the number of private hospitals was increased because they have fewer inpatients) and five MOH PHC centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A sample of patients representative of those attending the facilities were selected using stratified random sampling techniques. Only inpatients with at least a 3-day stay were included. A structured ...

Background: Self-medication with over-the-counter (OTC) remedies is a common practice in both developed and developing countries; however, inappropriate self-medication can have adverse effects and may contribute to the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens. A consultation with pharmacists plays a crucial role in providing efficient professional guidance advice for appropriate use of OTC medicines. Aims: This paper investigated the situations in which patients ask a pharmacist for advice and the factors that affect the patients' decisions for asking advice from a pharmacist in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of 680 patients on a voluntary basis who purchased OTC medicines at various five private pharmacies located in different areas of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Patients were asked to answer a set of closed-ended questionnaire about their practice regarding the purchase of medicines and the factors that influence their decisions to ask for consultation from pharmacists. Nonparametric statistical software (STATISTICA 12.0) was used to analyze the data. Results and Conclusions:The overall response rate was 78.9%. The majority of participants 67.2% were found to visit the pharmacy specifically to purchase OTC medication. Surprisingly, only 12.9% were asked the pharmacist for advice. According to the participants, the reasons that did not encourage them to ask advice from pharmacists were found -58.2% felt shy and reluctant, 32.9% lack of confidentiality, 25.3% the pharmacist is impatient, 22.7% queues inside the pharmacy, and 14.2% did not trust the pharmacists. The current study revealed that the majority of patients tend to self-medicate and did not ask the pharmacist for advice when they purchased OTC medicines. Effort should be made to raise public awareness with regards to the advisory role of pharmacists and discrete facilities should be provided that encourage patients to ask for advice from the pharmacist.

Counterfeit and substandard medicines are recognized as one of serious threats to public health. The product quality of antibacterial medicine will compromise patients’ recovery and increase the chance of antibacterial resistance. The review aims to provide a summary of low quality levofloxacin issues and the risk factors as well as suggesting the aspects of product quality that need to be regulated strictly. Quality of the active ingredient, levofloxacin, has an important role to contribute to successful therapy. The poor quality of raw material, directly and indirectly, causes treatment failure as the presence of insufficient dose, mislabeled content, and poor dissolution characteristics can lead to lower bioavailability. Identifying and reporting these factors can potentially help in improving the quality of drug marketed in various developing countries and may also reduce the incidences of treatment failure. Dissolution test is used for testing the dissolution profiles and the rate of drug release from solid formulation such as oral formulations, thus providing information regarding the in vivo performance of a formulation and its bioequivalence. On the other hand, quality-testing procedures are used for comparing the quality of products.