Introduction:Family physicians are the first point of medical contact for most patients, and they come into contact with a large number of smokers. Also, they are well suited to offer effective counseling to people, because family physicians already have some knowledge of patients and their social environments.Aims:The present study was conducted to assess family physicians’ knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking cessation counseling aiming to improve quality of smoking cessation counseling among family physicians.Materials and Methods:The study was descriptive analytic cross sectional study. It was conducted within family medicine centers. Sample was comprehensive. it included 75 family physicians. They were asked to fill previously validated anonymous questionnaire to collect data about their personal characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking cessation counseling, barriers and recommendations of physicians. Equal or above the mean scores were used as cut off point of the best scores for knowledge, attitude and practice.Statistical Analysis:SPSS version 18 was used for data entry and statistical analysis.Results:The best knowledge, attitude and practice scores among family physicians in the study sample were (45.3 %, 93.3% and 44% respectively). Age (P = 0.039) and qualification of family physicians (P = 0.04) were significant variables regarding knowledge scores while no statistically significance between personal characteristics of family physicians and their attitude or practice scores regarding smoking cessation counseling. More than half of the family physicians recommended training to improve their smoking cessation counseling.Conclusions:Favorable attitude scores of family physicians exceed passing knowledge scores or practice scores. Need for knowledge and training are stimulus to design an educational intervention to improve quality of smoking cessation counseling.

Background Self-medication is defined as taking medications without the physician’s prescription. It is a worldwide public health problem, especially in countries with limited resources. Although self-medication can reduce waiting time and save money, it may carry some potential risks, e.g., antibiotic resistance or inappropriate management with subsequent complication. A limited number of self-medication studies have been conducted in Egypt. Objectives To determine the prevalence of self-medication practices and to identify the factors associated with self-medication Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 160 patients. The sample was randomly selected from those who attended the El-Mahsama family practice center, Ismailia, Egypt, from November 2018 to February 2019. The center is affiliated to the Suez Canal University and provides preventive and curative services to a rural community. The participants were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire including sociodemographic scale and self-medication knowledge and behavior. Data was analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistical methods. Results Frequency of self-medication among the study sample has reached 96%. More than half of the participants (53.6%) reported that the first reason behind using self-medication was cost saving. Meanwhile, the most prevalent conditions that make them use these medications by themselves were headaches (17%), aches and pain (other than headache) (39.2%), and fevers (11.8%). The most frequent self-administered drugs were analgesics (59.5%) and antibiotics (23.5%). Conclusion Prevalence of self-medication is high among all socioeconomic levels of patients attending the El-Mahsama family practice center, which serves a rural community in Ismailia governorate, Egypt.

Background:The completion of a thesis is a significant requirement for both a Master's and a doctorate degree in general practice/family medicine (GP/FM). A postgraduate thesis is a well-planned, time-intensive activity carried out over several years. The quality of the theses can be judged by the proportion of published papers.Objective:This study aimed to describe Master's and doctoral theses in family medicine and their publications between 1982 and 2014.Materials and Methods:GP/FM degree theses were reviewed at the Faculty of Medicine and central Suez Canal libraries. Several characteristics were extracted from each thesis relating to the main researcher, supervisors, themes, and study methods according to predefined criteria. Publications from the theses were described.Results:Over 33 years, 208 theses were completed by 173 GP/FM researchers. The majority of the theses were for Master's degrees (84.1%). Regarding the study design, most of the degree theses were cross-sectional studies (76.9%). The adult population was targeted in 33.7% of research theses. Nonprobability sampling was used in 51%. Rural communities were the setting of research in 43.8%, and primary health center (PHC)-based studies in 59.1%. The “Patient” category exceeded the other categories (28.4%). Publication from theses started in the second decade of research production. Of the degree theses, 21.6% original articles were published. Only 13.3% of articles from theses were published in PubMed-indexed journals. The researcher was first author in 62.2% of published articles.Conclusion:The production of GP/FM theses and their publications are going to increase. Continuous assessment and planning for GP/FM studies are recommended.

Background: Pattern of drug abuse and dependence are different between countries. This should be considered while planning preventive and therapeutic strategies for optimal outcome achievement. Aim: To identify and manage drug abuse phenomenon among adults attending Family Medicine Center of Fanarah Village in Ismailia city, Egypt. Pateints and methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out on 243 adults, 60.9% male and 39.1% female aged between more than 18 to 65 years old. They attending Fanarah primary health care center, Ismailia city, Egypt, in the period from the first of June 2013 to the end of December, 2014. Participants were structured interviewed and asked about the socio-demographic and drug history data. An anonymous, designed questionnaire was fulfilled by the researcher for each participant and the confidentiality has been preserved. Drugs were estimated in the urine samples of all participants using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. Results: The prevalence of illicit drug use was 44.8%. Male gender represented the majority of illicit drug users (32.9%) Vs female users which represented (11.9%) and the majority of drug abusers started taking drugs for the first time at age 15-24 years old. The distribution of the most commonly abused drugs among abusers was as follows: Bango 11.1%, Hashish 8.2% and tramadol 9.8%. Abusing Heroin, Cocaine and Valium, was less prevalent among the studied adults (1.2%, 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively). Conclusions: Illicit drug use among adults in the study population starts in younger ages. Cannabis is still the most widely abused one, although tramadol becomes an increasingly alarming phenomenon.

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