Background: Assessment of the students' opinion throughout their teaching course is a crucial part to achieve the intended learning outcome. Objectives: Were to assess and compare the students' attitude and perception towards basic medical sciences during the preclinical and clinical academic years, to recognize their opinion to early integration of both basic and clinical sciences, their preferred basic subjects and related causes. Subjects and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 344 female medical students. They were randomly selected through the academic year 2015-2016, at the Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Data were collected using a valid and reliable (nine items) questionnaire. The first five items measured the perceived importance and relevance of basic medical sciences to clinical medicine, and the last four items measured students' attitudes towards, and perceived effectiveness of their education in basic medical sciences. Necessity of integration from the first year and the preferred basic medical subjects were also asked about. All opinions were rated using a three points Likert scale. Results: A significant difference between the two groups was obtained as regards that "physician can effectively treat most medical patients without knowing the details of the biological processes (72.4% versus 75.9%). While, disagreement perception was significantly higher among clinical group students (62.8%) compared to preclinical students (47.8%) as regards less value of basic medical sciences in clinical practice. Modest agreement attitude was the dominant towards the further statements with no significant difference (p>0.005). How best to integrate both clinical and basic medical sciences was not significant and represented 67.5% and 71.0% among preclinical and clinical students respectively. The top preferred basic medical sciences were; anatomy, physiology and pathology. Understandable curriculum, good professor and clear method of teaching were the main causes for preference. Conclusion and Recommendation: Overall positive attitude and perception towards basic medical sciences are found, mainly among students in clinical years. Refocusing the basic/clinical medical sciences is essential to cross the gap between knowledge and medical practice. Opinion of the students is necessary to be considered to provide the educational planners with valuable guidelines in order to maximize the benefits of medical curricula and prepare medical students efficiently for clinical work. Further studies prior to the application of the integrated program are required.

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Aim:The aim of the study is to find differences and factors associated to musculoskeletal disorders in male and female patients in primary health care units in Egypt. Subjects and Methods: This is an exploratory cross-sectional study of a sample of 396 patients with musculoskeletal disorders-44.7% men and 55.3% women -in primary health care settings in a rural and urban area. Aside from demographic characteristics, the questionnaires included the modified Nordic Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) items, duration of disease, family history, physical activities, effect of MSD on life, other diseases and an abbreviated depression score. Male and female patients were compared in the analysis. Chi-square, t-test, ANOVA were used as significance tests. Results: The primary MSD for men (36%) and women (40%) is back pain. The age of female patients with back pain was 8.4 years younger (p=0.001) than that of male patients. Women with Original Research Articleneck pain were 15.9 years (p=0.001) younger than the men and those with a rheumatic disorder, 18.8 years (p=0.02). Factors related to MSDs in men are accidents, strenuous work and smoking; while factors for women are hormonal medication, family history of MSDs and less physical activities. There was no difference between men and women as regards the depression scores for each MSD. Conclusion: Female patients suffer from musculoskeletal diseases at a significantly younger age than male patients. Both genders have different risk factors associated with MSDs. Depression scores for MSDs are low.