Background: University students in Iraq face rising obesity risk linked to physical inactivity, prolonged sedentary behavior, insufficient sleep, and academic stress. Longitudinal evidence examining the combined influence of these behaviors on weight status in Iraqi universities remains limited. Objective: This study examined six-month longitudinal associations of physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep duration, and perceived stress with body mass index and percentage body fat among Iraqi university students. Methods: A prospective multi-behavioral study was conducted at six public universities in Iraq. Six hundred undergraduate students aged 18–25 years were followed monthly during one academic semester. Validated questionnaires and smartphone-based applications assessed health behaviors, while standardized procedures measured body mass index and body fat. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, regression models, and repeated-measures analysis. Results: Overweight and obesity prevalence reached 63.7%. Most students met minimum physical activity recommendations, yet sedentary time was high and sleep duration was suboptimal. Sleep duration showed a small inverse association with body mass index and body fat and was the only behavior differing significantly across body mass index categories. Males exhibited higher body mass index, whereas females had higher body fat percentage. Conclusions: Integrated context-sensitive health strategies addressing sleep habits, sedentary behavior, and academic lifestyle factors may support obesity prevention.
Background: The global threat of COVID-19 outbreak and on the 11 March 2020, WHO acknowledged that the virus would likely spread to all countries across the globe and declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic which is the fifth pandemic since 20 century and this has brought human lives to a sudden and complete lockdown and the confirmed cases of this disease and deaths continue to rise in spite of people around the world are taking important actions to mitigate and decrease transmission and save lives. Objectives: To assess the effect of exercise and physical activity on the immunity against COVID-19. Methods: Collected electronic databases including (Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, PubMed and Web of Science) were searched with
... Show MoreNanofertilizers offer a promising solution to increase crop yields amid increasing population pressure. Yet there have been safety concerns about their use, particularly in challenging conditions. This work was designed to assess the toxicological effects of a chelated multi-micronutrient nanofertilizer on albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) as non-target organisms, focusing on the liver, which has important metabolic functions. Thirty-five animals were weighed and randomly divided into 5 groups (n=7). A negative control group was included, and four experimental groups (C1-C4) were given the test item. The dosing regimen for the experimental groups was 15 oral doses of nanofertilizer every other day for 29 days. All the groups were
... Show MoreThe current study aims to assess the ethical behavior among female students who are using a social media network in addition to describe the variables of interest (social media use and ethical behavior) among participants, in which to find out the effects of social media on the ethical behavior of high school female students. A quantitative approach was adopted to collect the relevant data for the study, six schools included in this study from the six directorates of education in Baghdad city. Subsequently, SPSS software was applied to analyze the relevant data of the study. To achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire was composed of three sections: Part I: deals with the student's demographic information. Part II: deals with inf
... Show MoreBackground: Depression, a state of low mood and aversion to activity, can affect people's thoughts, behavior, tendencies, feelings, and sense of well-being. It can either be short-term or long-term, depending on the severity of the person's condition. Risk factors include personal or family history of depression, major life changes, trauma, stress, certain physical illnesses, and medications.
Objective: This study investigates the prevalence of depression among medical students at the University of Baghdad, college of medicine in Iraq, and the association between some variables and depression.
Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study design with a convenience sampling method was conducted.
... Show MoreBackground: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disease with an autoimmune inflammatory pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of OLP, using CD34 stain to highlight the blood vessels for measuring the microvessel density (MVD) as well as to evaluate the relation of this marker with the degree of inflammation Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining technique was used to evaluate angiogenesis using CD34 in 46 paraffin blocks 10 of them obtained from normal mucosa and 36 from cases diagnosed as lichen planus , 20 of them diagnosed as Reticular type while 16 as erosive type. Severity of inflammation was divided into mild, moderate and severe accordi
... Show MoreIntroduction to Medical and Biological Statistics for Pharmacy Students and Medical Groups (Undergraduate & Postgraduate) - ISBNiraq.org
A representative sample of a thousand volunteer university students was screened for evidence of thalassemia minor.Complete blood counts using automated blood cell analysers and blood smears were examined. Patients having anemia, abnormal red cell indices or morphological features of thalassemia minor like hypochromia, microcytosis, target cells erythrocytosis and family history of thalassemia were then investigated for determination of HbA2 & HbF levels. Estimation of hemoglobin A2 was performed by micro-column chromatography while HbF was done using alkali denaturation. Seventy seven out of the thousand samples tested positive for thalassemia minor. They all showed a hemoglobin A
Background: Tooth decay is still one of most common diseases of childhood, child’s primary teeth are important even though they aretemporary. This study was conducted to assess the physiochemical characteristic of saliva among caries experience preschool children and compared them with caries free matching in age and gender. Then an evaluation was done about these salivary characteristics to dental caries and evaluated the relation of body mass index to dental caries and to salivary variables. Materials and method: After examination 360 children aged 4-5 years of both gender. Caries-experiences was recorded according to dmfs index by (World Health Organization criteria 1987) during pilot study children with caries experience was di
... Show More