Introduction:Epilepsy is one of the most stigmatizing disorders. Stigmas and negative attitudes associating epilepsy are due to poor public awareness and knowledge. This study evaluated Saudi public Knowledge, awareness, and attitude towards epilepsy.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study conducted during the period from September 16, 2014 to January 1st 2015. A 20-item questionnaire adapted from the literature was validated and distributed to 422 adults living in Al-Kharj governorate, and 22 participants were excluded as they have never heard or read about epilepsy.Results:About 94.79% of participants have heard or read about epilepsy, 63% of them knew someone with epilepsy, and 49.75% have witnessed a seizure attack. Seventy per cent of subjects thought that epilepsy is a neurological disease and 59% believed it is a brain disease. Almost 46.5% selected possession by demons or evil spirits and 51.25% cited envy or evil eye. More than half of subjects selected the medical treatment and follow-up as the most effective treatment of epilepsy. Rather, 41% believed in the faith healing. Most of respondents (81.5%) believed that epileptic children could be successful in normal classes. The vast majority agreed with that epileptic woman can get married and have children. Moreover, 65.25% would allow their offspring to play with epileptic persons and surprisingly, 59% would let their offspring marrying a person with epilepsy. As much as 82.75% agreed to work with epileptic persons and 85.5% would easily become a close friend of them. The equal job opportunity for epileptic and normal persons should be practiced to about 53.75% of subjects. The predictors of good knowledge, limited misconception, and positive attitudes were female gender, being a relative of an epileptic person, and having high educational level.Conclusion:The public knowledge, awareness of and attitudes toward epilepsy were acceptable with regard to this study. However, the negative attitudes and misconceptions still exist.
This paper is trying to analyze the determinants of housing prices in an oil-based economy, where the price of oil plays a major role in such economies. It is also common to find that government spending represents the most important component of aggregate spending and that governments usually play a central role in the provision of public services to citizens at substantial subsidies, housing is on top of them. The paper is trying to identify the role played by oil price in the housing market in Kuwait. The model is composed of four major determinants of house prices including the price of oil, government expenditures, inflation rate and interest rate. Results confirm the role played by the four factors in determining the price of houses. Variance decomposition indicates that up to 10 quarters, 94.3% of the forecast error variance in housing prices is explained by house price itself, whereas, only 2.3%, 1.6%, 1.5% and 0.8% are explained by Interest rates, inflation rates, government expenditures, and price of oil respectively. The oil price does not seem to play an important impact on price changes in Kuwait. One important recommendation is for the government to relax its monopoly on land and invite the private sector to come up with housing solutions to increase the supply of houses in the private housing market and reduce the upward pressures on house prices.
Investors all over the world strive to a heaven for their investments. Strong economies tend to be the most desirable place for investments of all types. As one indicator of stable economies is the economic diversification, this study analyses and highlights improvements in economies of GCC as they strive to move beyond oil and petroleum sectors; grabbing attention of acute investors and global businesses and almost being in noticeable par with the seven largest emerging economies (the E7) that has monopolized the limelight.Economic diversification of GCC Economies is analyzed by indirect approaches of measuring dependence of economic activity, budget and external accounts of productions and revenues generated by hydrocarbon sector and non-hydrocarbon sectors.
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