Background: An important function of research is to identify community needs in certain fields. As mental health is a vital issue to us, identifying and prioritizing mental health needs is important to policy makers to help them in setting goals for different programs that meet the needs of a specific community in a certain health area. Purpose: To identify the health research needs in the fiel...

Background The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is raising worldwide; however, the role of diet in the origin of metabolic syndrome is not understood well. This study identifies major dietary patterns among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with and without metabolic syndrome; and its association with metabolic syndrome components in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Methods This cross sectional study w...

The Disengagement Plan is the name assigned to the plan enacted in the summer of 2005 to evict all Israelis and military bases from Gaza Strip and four isolated settlements in northern Samaria and to withdraw unilaterally. The plan was controversial, yet it won the support of the majority of the cabinet and the Knesset members, as well as the support in Israel and the world. The eviction proces...

Burns are considered one of the most common and shocking forms of trauma. Patients with serious thermal or electrical injury necessitate immediate specialized care to minimize morbidity and mortality. Electrical burns and burn injuries caused by fire, hot liquids, and contact with hot surfaces, have been recognized as a significant and major public health problem in most developing countries. B...

TIIECOURSE OF fertility change in Palestine and Israel over the second half of the twentieth century might seem of negligible interest for the history of the demographic transition, since their combined 8.9 million inhabitants represent only one-sixth of one percent of the world population. Yet the exceptional political history of these populations, in which demography played a major role for b...

BACKGROUND The genetic polymorphism of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) is well characterized in most populations. Four common polymorphic alleles are associated with impaired activity of the enzyme. These are TPMT*2 (238G>C), TPMT*3B (c.460G>A), TPMT*3A (c.460G>A and c.719A>G) and TPMT*3C (c.719A>G). The aim of the present study was to determine the frequency of TPMT polymorphisms and their...