Schizophrenia can devastate the lives of people who suffer from it. People with schizophrenia suffer distress, disability, reduced productivity and decreased quality of life (QOL). The concept of quality of life has evolved considerably over the last decades. The interest in studying quality of life of persons with schizophrenia started as concern was increasing about the role played by those patients in the community. A conceptual model has recently been described which suggests that the major determinants of quality of life in schizophrenia are symptom severity, level of psychosocial functioning, and the presence of medication side effects. The aim of this work is to determine the relationship between clinical characteristics and quality of life of schizophrenic patients. The study was carried out at the psychiatric outpatient clinics of EI Maamoura hospital for Psychiatric Medicine and Assiut University Hospital. The study included 150 patients diagnosed according to the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria of schizophrenic disorder. The data were collected by using an interview schedule to elicit information about socio-demographic & clinical characteristics of schizophrenic patients, the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (P ANSS). The study showed that poor quality of life was affected by the time lapse since last hospital discharge, as well as by the period of untreated psychosis, the severity of all psychotic symptoms, and the medications' side effects. Recommendation: Psychosocial rehabilitation programs should be performed in outpatient clinics, immediately after discharge from psychiatric hospital. Such programs can help patients build up social and cognitive skills and making them more able to deal with ongoing stressors in the community.

The period of medical and nursing residency is a bottleneck because of the load of work, training. patient's treatment, relations with senior professions, accommodation and other issues. A two-years residency program similar to that of physicians was introduced recently in 1990 for the graduates of the High Institute of Nursing (HlN) in Assiut University Hospital. 134 resident physician and 71 HIN graduates included nurse residents were studied to focus the light on the work status during residency program as perceived by them. All nurses and 16.4% of resident physicians did administrative work. 97.0 % of resident physicians and 67.6% of nurses did patient care. Only nurses do report and records writing. in addition to 18.3% did requests for maintenance and cleaning. Physicians' were more tired from workload since only J 1.9% got enough sleep, on contrary to nurses (31.0%). Only 4.5% of physicians and 7.0% of nurses did house officers and internship nurses training. Most of resident physicians (70.1%) and 86.0% of nurses believe it is unsatisfactory due to absence of a training program in the department, no enough time, and lack of interest by house-officers and internship nurses. The main difficu lties encountered during residency mentioned by resident physicians were: the huge number of patients and shifts (58.2%) (p

A cross-sectional community-based study was designed to determine the age at marriage and to study the reproductive history of 616 currently married women of reproductive age in Elwan village, Assiut District, Assiut Governorate. A systematic random sample was selected. Data ware collected using a pre·designed questionnaire. The young age at marriage, below the legal age « 16 years) represents 20.5% of the sample, while the age 16-19 years represents (59.50%) and only 20% of them were married at 20 or over. Illiteracy. was high in the youngest age group at marriage (94.4%). The low socio--economic status represents 79.5% among the youngest age at marriage compared to 52.8% in the oldest. The youngest age at marriage women had the highest mean number of pregnancy (6.32 ± 2.78) compared to old ones (5.19 ± 2.88 and 4.47 ± 2.64). Also the youngest age at marriage had the highest of live birth (5.2 ± 2.35). Maternal bleeding and perineal tear (~ %) occurred more in early marriage than the older ages at marriage (1.6 and 0.8%).The current (54.8%) and past (29.4%) family planning users were in significantly higher in early marriage (54.8% and 29.4%) compared to later ages of marriage (43.9 % aod 21 %)

The effect of nutrition education program on morbidity from acute respiratory infection among less than 5 years children was investigated .The study was carried out in primary health care center and the houses in its catchment area in west of Assiut City. It consisted of cross -sectional morbidity and anthropometric survey followed by a longitudinal intervention study for one year.21.2 % of children under five was stunted and 8.8 % were wasted. There was considerable chronic malnutrition among studied children. OveraU, I 1.6 % of children under age of five were underweight for age .The results of multiple logistic regression showed that low socioeconomic level and increased birth order were associated significantly with stunting, underweight and wasting .Incidence of ALRTI was 10.4 %. 26.9 % of children who contracted ALRTI diseased this difference were statistically significant. on the other hand 23 .1 % were wasted versus to 7.1 % of non diseased (P~ 0.017) . 26.9 % of them were stunted as compared to 20.5 % and this difference was statistically insignificant (P~ 0.298). The analysis of the data of anthropometric measurements showed insignificant differences in the prevalence trends of stunting by time. On the other hand, there was significant .in the trends of total prevalence of underweight. As regards wasting, there was significant decrease in the trend of total prevalence of wasting. The study recommended; nutritional interventions through health education that should be integrated with maternal and child health activities