A Systematic Review of Chronic Diseases and Their Prevalence Among the Population of Northern Borders Province (NBP) in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Ebtihag O Alenzi,1– 3 Waseem Fatima,3,4 Abdelbasset Amara,3,5 Mohd Imran,3,6 Syed Sajid Hussain Shah,3,7 Amal Ahmed Elbilgahy,3,8,9 Manal S Fawzy,3,10,11 Lobna M Abu-Negm,3,12,13 Md Ali Mujtaba,3,14 Ingrid Jacinto-Caspillo,3,15 Awdah M Al-Hazimi3,16 1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 2Clinical Sciences Department, College of Medicine, Princess Nourah bint Abdul Rahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 3Health & Medical Research Unit, Deanship of Scientific Research, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 5Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 6Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Northern Border University, Rafha, Saudi Arabia; 7Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 8Maternal and Child Health Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 9Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt; 10Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 11Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt; 12Emergency Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 13Medical Surgical Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 14Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Northern Border University, Rafha, Saudi Arabia; 15Medical and Surgical Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia; 16Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Manal S Fawzy; Awdah M Al-Hazimi, Tel [phone], Fax [phone], Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Estimation of the prevalence of chronic conditions is pivotal to effective healthcare planning and management. Therefore, our objective was to systemically review previous literature about the prevalence of chronic diseases among residents of Northern Borders Province (NBP) in Saudi Arabia. The electronic search has been done using scientific databases (PubMed, Ebsco, SciFinder, and Web of Science) and search engines up to September 2021. The following main key terms: chronic disease OR chronic conditions AND prevalence AND Northern Borders Province OR Northern Borders AND Saudi Arabia were applied. Other related terms with a more specific search were done with names of the main cities in the province and the most common diseases in Saudi Arabia. Duplicates were removed electronically by Endnote and manually. Extracted data were tabulated in the literature matrix. The risk of bias and quality of included studies were assessed using the “Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology” (STROBE) checklist. Out of 63 observational studies that were assessed for eligibility, 21 observational studies were included to synthesize the evidence. These studies were conducted on Arar (n=16), Turaif (n=2), and Rafha (n=1), while the remaining were national studies in which NBP was one of the included regions (n=2). The most frequently studied diseases were diabetes (4 records), psychological diseases (4 records), and obesity (3 records). The most prevalent disease was gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), with an estimated prevalence of 61% among adults in Arar city. In conclusion, although some research is conducted about chronic diseases somewhere in NBP, further studies are needed to study chronic diseases using a representative sample of the whole NBP population.Keywords: chronic diseases, medical healthcare, northern borders province, systematic review

Keywords

• chronic diseases
• medical healthcare
• northern borders province
• systematic review