Pregnant women with COVID-19 require special attention and care, since the infection does not only affect the mother, but also her neonate and adversely affects pregnancy outcomes. The main goal of this retrospective cohort study is to investigate association between the maternal COVID-19 severity and risk of developing adverse neonatal outcomes. Patients were stratified into asymptomatic/mild and moderate to severe COVID-19. The following neonatal outcomes were assessed: gestational age at the time of delivery, birth weight, neonatal infection, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission. The average age of patients was 28.5 ± 1.4 years old and majority were multigravida (74.0%, n = 148). Of total 200 pregnant women with COVID-19, 26.5% (n = 53) had moderate/severe disease and presented with higher incidence of preterm delivery and low birth weight (88.7%, n = 47; p < 0.001). In addition, more than half of the newborns delivered by mothers with severe disease were infected by SARS-COV-2 (58.5%, n = 31) and majority were admitted to the NICU (95.0%, n = 52). Based on the multivariate logistic regression analysis, pregnant women with moderate to severe COVID-19 were at much higher risk of preterm delivery, lower birth weight, neonatal infection, as well as neonatal ICU admission (p < 0.001). In addition, multigravida women were at higher risk for preterm delivery and lower birth weight (p = 0.017 and p = 0.02; respectively). Appropriate protective measures and early detection of suspected COVID-19 should be addressed for more favorable obstetric outcomes.

Objectives: Internationally, pharmacists have shown a pivotal role in alleviating the unprecedented spread of the COVID-19 as they are the first touchpoint to patients. The aim of this study to evaluate the UAE pharmacists’ knowledge about and practice in the global COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted during a period from August 2020 to January 2021. A well-designed standardized English-based questionnaire was developed based on current literature and employed for this study. Findings: The results showed that 45.7% of the participated pharmacists expected to have a good level of knowledge about COVID-19 transmission, symptoms and treatment. Among the participated community pharmacists, around 25.7% educated their patients and 17.0% counseled the public about the current available therapeutic options for managing COVID-19 symptom. Most practiced activities hospital pharmacists (17.4%) was exploring new drug therapies or uses, while few hospital pharmacists (13.0%) participated in the antimicrobial stewardship programs and monitored antibiotic uses for COVID-19 cases and co-infections. Pharmacists at age ≥40 years old and have an experience of ≥10 years in the pharmacy field were more knowledgeable about COVID-19 with higher scores (p <0.001 and p= 0.001; respectively). Conclusions: The study revealed an appropriate average knowledge and practice toward COVID-19 among community and hospital pharmacists.

Background The relationship between COVID-19 patient’s clinical characteristics and disease manifestation remains incompletely understood. The impact of ethnicity on mortality of patients with COVID-19 infection is poorly addressed in the literature. Emerging evidence suggests that many risk factors are related to symptoms severity and mortality risk, emphasizing the necessity of fulfilling this knowledge gap that may help reducing mortality from COVID-19 infections through tackling the risk factors. Aims To explore epidemiological and demographic characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients from different ethnic origins living in the UAE, compare them to findings reported across the globe and determine the impact of these characteristics and ethnicity on mortality during hospitalization. Methods A single center, retrospective chart review study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was conducted in a large COVID-19 referral hospital in UAE. The following outcomes were assessed: patients’ clinical characteristics, disease symptoms and severity, and association of ethnicity and other risk factors on 30-day in hospital mortality. Results A total of 3296 patients were recruited in this study with an average age of 44.3±13.4 years old. Preliminary data analysis indicated that 78.3% (n = 2582) of cases were considered mild. Average duration of hospital stay was 6.0±7.3 days and 4.3% (n = 143) were admitted to ICU. The most frequently reported symptoms were cough (32.6%, n = 1075) and fever (22.2%, n = 731). The 30-day mortality rate during hospitalization was 2.7% (n = 90). Many risk factors were associated with mortality during hospitalization including: age, respiratory rate (RR), creatinine, and C-reactive protein, oxygen saturation (SaO2), hemoglobin, hematocrit, ferritin, creatinine, C-reactive protein, anemia, COPD, Chronic kidney disease, dyslipidemia, Vitamin-D Deficiency, and ethnic origin (p <0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that higher mortality rates during hospitalization was associated with anemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney disease, and Middle Eastern origin (p<0.05). Conclusion The results indicated that most COVID-19 cases were mild and morality rate was low compared to worldwide reported mortality. Mortality rate during hospitalization was higher in patients from Middle East origin with preexisting comorbidities especially anemia, COPD, and chronic kidney disease. Due to the relatively small number of mortality cases, other identified risk factors from univariate analysis such as age, respiratory rate, and Vitamin-D (VitD) deficiency should also be taken into consideration. It is crucial to stratify patients on admission based on these risk factors to help decide intensity and type of treatment which, possibly, will reduce the risk of death.

Objectives The study aims to examine the extent to which the updated ACC/AHA management of blood cholesterol guideline (2018) is implemented in practice and to assess the value of the clinical pharmacist interventions in improving physicians’ adherence the guidelines recommendations. Methods We utilized in this study an interventional before-after design. The study was conducted on 272 adult patients who visited the study site internal medicine clinics and were candidates for statin therapy based on the 2018 ACC/AHA guidelines for cholesterol management. Adherence to guideline recommendations was measured before and after clinical pharmacists’ interventions by calculating the percentage of patients receiving statin therapy as per guideline recommendation, the type and intensity (moderate or high intensity) of statin therapy used, and the need for additional non-statin therapy. Results Adherence with guideline recommendations was significantly improved from 60.3% to 92.6% (X2 = 79.1, p = 0.0001) after clinical pharmacist interventions. Among patients who were on statin therapy, the percentage of those who were on proper statin intensity increased significantly from 47.6% to 94.4% (X2 = 72.5, p = 0.0001). The combination of statins with non-statin therapies such as ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitors increased from 8.5% to 30.6% (X2 = 95, p<0.0001) and from 0.0% to 1.6% (X2 = 6, p = 0.014), respectively. The use of other lipid-lowering agents was diminished from 14.6% to 3.2% (X2 = 19.2, p<0.0001). Conclusion Collaboration between physicians and clinical pharmacists is a crucial strategy to improve patients’ treatment and hence, achieve better health outcomes among patients suffering from dyslipidemia.

Objectives To explore physicians’ attitudes toward expanding the role of community pharmacists to include traditional and advanced pharmaceutical care activities. In addition, the study assessed factors influencing physicians’ attitudes. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in 2019. Participants were randomly selected and were practicing physicians in Al Ain. A questionnaire was hand-delivered and consisted of four sections: demographic information, general attitudes, attitudes towards traditional and attitudes towards advanced pharmaceutical care activities. Key findings Two hundred twenty-nine (response rate ~92.0%) practicing physicians agreed to participate in this study. The majority (95.1%, n = 218) agreed with expanding pharmacists’ activities beyond their traditional role and facilitating pharmacists’ access to patients’ medical records (85.4%, n = 196). Physicians’ overall attitudes toward traditional pharmaceutical care were positive (~80%, n = 183), particularly regarding improving patient adherence, providing drug information, patient counselling, and identifying, monitoring, and resolving drug-related problems. On the other hand, physicians were partially accepting of pharmacists’ involvement in advanced pharmaceutical care services (~46%, n = 108). The majority of them considered pharmacists competent in generic substitution (75.6%, n = 173) and in adjusting drug therapy based on agreed protocols (56.1%, n = 128). However, they considered them less competent for therapeutic substitution (41.5%, n = 95), treating certain minor illnesses (41.5%, n = 95), and refilling repeat prescriptions independently (22%, n = 50). Overall, physicians’ attitudes were positive toward 9 out of 12 expanded activities for community pharmacists. Conclusions This study has shown that UAE physicians have agreed that the pharmacist’s role should extend beyond dispensing medications. Physicians have also positive attitudes toward expanding community pharmacists’ activities to include all of the traditional pharmaceutical care activities. On the other hand, physicians had a negative attitude toward most of the advanced activities.