Background: Patient safety is regarded as a global problem by which both developed and developing worlds are affected. It is defined as avoidance and prevention of patient injuries or adverse events, which could result during health care delivery. This study aimed to identify physicians' knowledge, influence, and attitude toward patient's safety in the faculty of medicine, Cairo university. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 187 postgraduate physicians of different specialties working in the faculty of medicine, Cairo University. Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed. The questionnaire is one of a series of tools designed for evaluation of the pilot implementation of the World Health Organization patient safety curriculum for medical schools. Results: Calculated attitude score was relatively higher than influence, then knowledge score (median scores were 4.25, 3.1, and 2.5 respectively). There was no difference in knowledge, attitude, and influence scores by different personal characteristics as gender, specialty, workplace, graduation year except for higher influence score among physician who received inpatient safety training (p = 0.016). There was a weak positive significant correlation between knowledge and influence scores and between influence and attitude scores (r = 0.25, p = 0.002; r = 0.27, p < 0.001 respectively). Conclusion: Higher patient safety positive attitude than influence and knowledge is pinpointed in physicians of different specialties in the faculty of medicine, Cairo University. This raises the attention to the importance of implementation of continuing patient safety education programs.

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Background: Breastfeeding and proper weaning contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In Egypt, by age 4-5 months, only 13% of infants are exclusively breastfed. A survey conducted in Egyptian hospitals concluded that many of the 10 steps to support successful breastfeeding were not executed correctly and other steps were not executed at all. Aims: To explore the patterns of feeding and weaning among infants in Egypt, and identify their determinants, to improve practice and promote children's nutritional status. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study of 333 mother-infant pairs attending two primary healthcare (PHC) centres for vaccination sessions between April 2017 and June 2018. Mothers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Results: Almost all infants were born in hospitals. Exclusive breastfeeding was not widely practiced. Prelacteal feeding was a common malpractice. The majority of mothers initiated artificial feeding during the first month of life. Rural mothers tended to introduce different foods earlier than urban mothers did. Minimum dietary diversity was achieved by 50.9% of urban infants aged ≥ 6 months (≥ 4 food groups), compared with 25.9% of rural infants. Minimum recommended meal frequency for age was fulfilled for 51.9% of urban and 29.6% of rural infants. More than 85% of mothers expressed their need for additional knowledge, and more than half identified the PHC centre as the appropriate source for information. Conclusions: Our study reflects deficiency in maternal practice regarding breastfeeding and weaning, despite being regular visitors to the PHC centre.

Background: The spread of misinformation about different health issues, has become a growing threat nowadays. The process of identifying credible information became a real problem of high urgency. It took a new dimension with the creation of numerous web platforms and the ubiquity of internet coverage. During the current pandemic of COVID-19, misinformation is not the only challenge, the infodemic is another serious consequence of growing digitization. Infodemic is defined as an excessive amount of information about a problem that is typically unreliable, false, or misleading, spreads rapidly, and makes a solution more difficult to achieve. This causes anxiety and mistrust in health authorities, leading to decrease capacities for decision-making and undermining public responses, especially during disease outbreaks or pandemics. Aim: The current study was designed to evaluate the effect of implementing a digital intervention training module, to educate participants about choosing credible online health information, according to the quality standards and protocols. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pre/post-assessment comparisons. It took place between October 2019 and May 2020 with the recruitment of a group of 480 medical students, from the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd academic years, at the Faculty of Medicine. They were assigned to an intervention and a control group. The intervention group attended the digital health module, which was conducted online with both its theoretical and practical components. Participants responded to the pre- and post-online questionnaire through google forms, in addition to a post-intervention assessment. Results: Results showed post-assessment significant improvements in all items related to seeking online health information and the ability to check the credibility of such information, among the intervention group in comparison to the control group with p-value< 0.05. Conclusion: The infodemic caused by COVID- 19 pandemic, with all its associated psychological pressure and panic due to misinformation, made it crucial to disseminate awareness about credible digital information sources. Targeted digital health interventions regarding online health information quality and credibility, are highly promising, due to the safe outreach and accessibility without any physical contact, especially during the pandemic time.

BACKGROUND: In the era of increasingly expanding digital ecosystem, health misinformation became highly risky, especially the information sources which are non-evidence based. This problem is magnified due to the vulnerability of most internet users, especially the adolescents information seekers who lack health literacy. AIM: The aim of this study is to explore the pattern of digital health usage among medical university students and their level of awareness towards choosing online health information (OHI). METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 480 medical students from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd academic years, at the Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, between October 2019 and October 2020. Students took an online structured questionnaire on google forms. RESULTS: Mobile smartphones were the most widely used technological devices by participants. Almost all participants used Internet daily 98.8%, with the highest preference to social media 72.5% and text messaging 74.8%. Seeking health information was a common practice for personal health-related purpose of using Internet 87.1%, despite the lack in checking the reliability of messages and quality of provider. Knowledge about advantages and disadvantages of digital tools was also deficient among participant medical students. CONCLUSION: Despite the high technology adoption among the university medical students, they lack the needed knowledge and skills for proper search, choosing, and evaluation of OHI.