MEDICAL CLUB

When we started the academic year with blended learning, I did worry if the medical club would be able to continue and build on the success from the last academic year. The next question I asked myself, would pupils still wish to participate in our activities? It fills me with immense joy and pride to say we have fifty nine pupils registered with the club and thirteen groups who have signed up for the medical club super curriculum programme. The Medical club super curriculum programme provides pupils with an opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of medical-related topics that go beyond the science school curriculum. At the start of the year, pupils are provided with several broad medical themes to pick topics from and then asked to present a 10 minute TED-style talk to summarise their research. This year we have had some fantastic presentations, from Dissociative Disorders to Acute Myeloid Leukemia. The time and effort pupils have put into their talks deserves praise. My personal favourite was Metabolic Syndromes by Habiba and Sama Year 10. In addition to this, we had four teams represent the school at Weill Cornell’s medical research conference. We want to congratulate the following pupils for making it through to the competition’s finals to be held in December 2021.

Team 1 - Lolwa Al Kaabi, Hiba Ibrahim, and Haneen Hassan Abdeen Fadlall Satti Team 2 - Habiba Shehata, and Maab Elsheikh Team 3 - Sarah Hamud, AlJori Khalid Al Kuwari, Wissal Elnaas, Moza Al Thani, and Hawraa Aljabir Team 4 - Rodina Elbih, Shahd Al Hajri, and Amr Abu Shehab

The Weill Cornell’s medical research conference is an annual competition in Qatar where pupils present research on one of the five themes below:

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages Ensure access to water and sanitation for all Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

This year 18 different schools took part with 41 different teams. Finally, I would like to congratulate the fantastic efforts of the President of the medical club, Rodina Elbih along with our vice presidents Kashmala Afridi and Hadeel Dossa, with the other members of the executive team. They have played such an essential role in ensuring the smooth running of all our events this academic year. They have played vital roles in taking registers for medical club talks, providing support to groups doing their presentations, making sure certificates were completed and raising the club’s profile.

Link between diabetes and mental illness

Sarah, Wissal, Aljori, Moza and Hawraa Mr. Salim Malik Sherborne Qatar smalik@sherborneqatar.org

Background

Every year the cases of diabetes increase in concerning amounts. With 15.5% of Qatar’s population diagnosed with diabetes, it is the most common disease in Qatar. The most common risk factor is obesity, but genetics and ethnicity play an important role as well. From our survey results, that were based in Doha, Qatar, 40.9% of people were diagnosed with a mental disorder after being diagnosed with diabetes, which is a noticeably high percentage. As the numbers keep increasing, we thought it would be highly beneficial to research the links associated with diabetes and mental illnesses. A chronic illness like diabetes and the recent spread of COVID-19 can adversely affect a person’s well-being. We explored the links associated with mental disorders and high blood sugar levels. The ultimate aim of the survey we carried out (anonymously) was to identify the patterns and relations within the survey replies and to understand from a scientific perspective how diabetes can truly impact the well-being of an individual. We have researched the scientific evidence linking the symptoms and complications to known mental illnesses, the importance of raising awareness to people around Qatar, and we have developed an app that 74% of diabetic patients in Qatar requested according to the ministry of public health (MOPH).

Methods

Our main objective was to identify and discuss the interrelation between diabetes and mental health and the severity and impacts of both illnesses on one another. As part of our research, we conducted a survey that included questions outlining the difficulties of coping with diabetes such as the dietary changes, mental and psychological strains of the illness, workload, and financial burden. We consulted some doctors at Sidra hospital and resources online to curate the most effective questions that will give us most instructive information regarding the disease. This data was based on real experiences of diabetics living in Qatar. Our survey was distributed to some schools and workplaces across Doha, in order to accumulate data that was spread over the two gender groups and a range of ages. Once we gathered 50+ replies we had enough data to move forward with our research. From our survey we gathered that 33% of our participants feel there is not enough emotional support for diabetics and many expressed worries about their illness and COVID-19. Therefore, from this we would like to reinforce the importance of spreading awareness about such a severe and common disease. Furthermore, we had reviewed various articles that discussed the complications and risk factors of certain mental illnesses and their significance to blood sugar and insulin resistance, a major contribution to diabetes. Ultimately, our group decided on creating an instructive App designed specifically for diabetics that will send notification (Medications on time, amount of water, daily exercise etc) based on their custom profiles and elevate their moods based on it They will also be able to log in symptoms and mood if they wish too. With this application we hope to assist them and give them the support they need.

Results

SURVEY RESULTS

These pie charts show the percentage of patients with mental illness before and after being diagnosed with diabetes. We’ve identified an increase of 20% of patients with mental illness after diabetes. Supporting the idea that diabetes increases rate of mental illness.

This graph shows the ranges of mental disorders mentioned in our survey. We can tell from this that the most common disorders are depression and anxiety both of which adversely affect blood sugar levels.

SURVEY RESULTS

The pie chart and bar graph both show the same data. We can see that most people’s lives with diabetes have been changed a lot. These sudden changes in diet, energy levels etc is what could cause mental illness.

As for financial strain in terms of treatment costs, patients who lived outside of Qatar reported financial difficulties. 93% of them report that their financial situation has improved since moving to Qatar.

Conclusions

To summarise, we believe we successfully used the extent of our resources to further reinforce the strong, and harmful link between diabetes and mental illness. Most of our results from all age groups had similar answers that strongly supported our idea that factors like the pandemic and the constant monitoring of food intake associated with diabetes can induce several mental illnesses and vice versa. Again, we need to mention how crucial it is that we ensure as many people as possible around Qatar realise how much this can affect a person. Its also important to note that Mental health can largely influence a person's day to day life so with diabetics its important to try to reduce the factors that contribute to decaying mental health so that their well-being and overall state is well managed.

Our solution, that may help to bring some relief to a diabetic person's life, is this app called blue circle. This prototype that we developed (inspired by the blue colour used in diabetes awareness month) will aid an individual in the day-to-day tracking of many factors that may affect their illness and overall mental health and well-being.

Future Research:

Our biggest weakness was the number of replies in our survey. In hindsight, more responses would mean more accurate results. Although, we did do everything we could with the resources available sending the survey out earlier would have been a huge bonus. We believe interviewing a few diabetics from different age groups would have also given us more insight and helped our precision. In the future, we would like to see the effect of our application and if it has helped improve diabetic’s mental health and well-being. That means we will be contacting our app users and comparing our data from 2021 a few years down the line.

Water sanitation and water wastage

Maab Elsheikh, Habiba Shehata Sherborne Qatar, senior school smalik@sherborneqatar.org

Background

1.We will: present several factors regarding water production in Qatar including water wastage and sanitation

2. We have conducted both secondary and primary research including qualitative and quantitative research to attain insight on how people view water in Qatar 3. We found out that the majority of people agreed that water is vital in a household (evidence shown below) Methods

Results

Primary research Insight on the problems people find around water production

• Attain results by the consensus of the general

public and consider the results as part of research

• The consideration and opinion – along with

our research - of both residents in Qatar and in other developed regions will help us develop a comparison between two countries

• Different ways in which each country prevent

water wastage and how water is preserved

in Qatar:

Conclusions

In conclusion we found out that the main problem surrounding water production in Qatar was to do with water wastage and cost effectivity as most households depend on two sources of water ( tap water and bottled water)

The fact that we are going to be using one source of water will reduce the amount of water waste per day, specialists presume that water can be reduced by 70% if there is one source of water

Comparing our primary research with secondary research

“‘Water accessibility is an issue in water production around the world" - state one other issue in water production in Qatar”.

“State one comparison or difference between water production/supply in the UK and in Qatar”.

“Qatar has one of the highest domestic water consumption rates in the world; Qatari households consume approximately 430 liters of water per day on average.”

https://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/food-and-water-security-in-qatar-part-2waterresources/#:~:text=Qatar%20has%20one%20of%20the,water%20per%20day%20on%2 0average.

Future Research:

For our future research we would like to look more into water sustainability and how we can help amend this issue. We want to make sure people are aware of this matter and clear up the misconceptions regarding tap water

COVID-19 and Teen Mental Health in Qatar

Rodina Elbih, Shahd Al-Hajri, and Amr Abushehab Sherborne Qatar Mr. Salim Malik; smalik@sherboreqatar.org

I n t r o d u c t i o n M e t h o d s

In recent years, mental illness has been increasing rapidly, especially between teens, due to multiple reasons. In this study we will focus on how Covid-19 has potentially catalyzed this problem (Betty Pfefferbaum, 2020), and the impacts that come with it. The effects of mental health is continuously affecting many adolescents in Qatar. We believe that Covid-19 has been a major cause in making mental health issues in those aged 15-19 significantly worse, this study attempts to collect information from teens around Qatar and reflect on how their mental health has interchanged during the pandemic, there are about 197,000 people aged 10-19 in Qatar (statista research department, 2019) furthermore we looked into how schools and the environments which they reside in have also had an effect. Mental illness comes in many forms which cause different emotional and physical reactions in respect to anxiety and depression, which we chose to look into as they are the most common types of mental illnesses present in teens (Betty Pfefferbaum, 2020); making our study fixated in how Covid-19 has impacted teen mental health in Qatar. We are aware that mental illness can manifest at any time in our lives (World health organisation, 2017), although we specifically believe that Covid-19 has been a trigger for multiple individuals, we are looking at how this has impacted teens, regardless of gender, race, and religion; we are looking at the risk factors that may impact teens’s potential to thrive and how this may create a correlation between adolescents’ performance in school and their mental health.

R e s u l t s

To investigate the previous focus of our study - depression and anxiety in teenagers of Qatar - we prepared a questionnaire based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 criteria for depression and anxiety. The questionnaire was released in November - December (two months) 2019 and shared to students in years 10 - 13 in order to gather results. It included a range of questions that inquired into things such as stress levels, sleeping patterns and other factors that affect mental health. A total of 169 responses were collected in the 2019, that were then formatted to come to 130 responses. This initial research was intended to be presented in the Weill Cornell conference in 2020 but didn’t get the chance to due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In preparation for this year's conference, we didn’t want our previous work and results to go to waste, and in light of a global pandemic a new focus to our study was formed: The effect of COVID-19 on the mental health of teenagers in Qatar. Same questionnaire released in 2019 was used for reliability but a few changes were brought forward to accommodate the questionnaire to the new focus of our investigation. The vast majority of the questions from the previous survey were kept for the purpose of reliability, a few were taken out such as “I have problems with friends and or peers in school” because it didn’t aid an enquiry into our new COVID specific aim. We then added a few questions relating to COVID specifically, how it affected familial, social and academic life - all the while being cautious of the length of the questionnaire to ensure it doesn’t bore the respondents and affect their answers. As the previous one, it had open as well as close ended questions. This new and polished version of the survey was once again released to students in years 10-13 for two months (November to December 2020). A total of 176 participants took part in this version of the survey.

After the gathering of these responses, we had to make sure our results were comparable, due to the difference in sample size this had to be sorted. Firstly the data from 2019 was formatted to come to 130 responses, then with a random number generator, 46 responses were randomly taken out of the 2020 sample (176 - 130 = 46) in order for the sample to be compatible. It was essential for the removal to be random rather than by the researchers to remove any possible individual bias.

The 6 Main Questions: 1) “I feel consistent stress due to school and/or exams.” 2) “I do not want to do things that I used to like to do.” 3) “I have gained/ lost some weight.” 4) “My sleeping habits in recent months have begun to change drastically.” 5) “I am constantly tired.” 6) “I have a bad relationship with my parents.” Overall, our results were more mixed than we initially hypothesized. For the six main questions - which were the ones most based on the DSM-5 criteria- we equated each agree to a score of 1, and neutral and disagree to 0, this gave us an overall score out of six for each response, with six meaning the expression of depression was most likely. Post-covid, the number of people who scored 6 increased by 37.5%, and the number of those who scored 0 and 1 increased by 60% and 350% respectively. However, the numbers in between showed slight variation with 2 staying the same, 3 slightly increasing; and 4 and 5 decreasing. From this we can infer that the quarantine period affected individuals differently, some got better whilst others got slightly worse. Further supporting this are the responses we got the to the question “How did the quarantine period, if at all, affect you?” where we got a variety of responses like “negatively, lost motivation for all things including hobbies,” and “I’ve lost weight and started studying more.” However, regardless of this, over half of the respondents felt that their happiness at least slightly decreased ever since the covid-19 outbreak. Additionally, our results also show that after the pandemic, the ability to concentrate for more than 35 minutes decreased, and that the ability to concentrate for less than 5 minutes has increased. 77 out of the 130 respondents claimed that their grades had been negatively affected by the pandemic, which links to the ability to concentrate on tasks. Furthermore, many felt that their attitude towards school was affected negatively, claims such as that it was “harder to focus,” and made them “not care as much” were made by several students. However, others also felt their attitude towards school was positively affected, as they felt they had to “concentrate more,” and even that they “enjoy studying more.” Another positive impact was that majority of those who felt their familial relations were affected, felt that it was in a positive way as they “grew closer,” and “hung out” more.

It’s important that the reliability and accuracy of our investigation is evaluated as there were a few discrepancies within our method. A major flaw within it is that the sample used over the two years was not the same; and this was the price of ensuring the respondents complete anonymity. This means that we can cannot confidently say that any changes in the respondents were due to covid as they could’ve been simply a result of the group of respondents being different. Additionally, regardless of the respondents being different, these changes could’ve been due to a myriad of outside factors - hence why we deem future research necessary. What this study provides is the proof needed to show that there is a problem with the mental health of Qatar’s teens, especially with the rise of the pandemic. Additionally, it is clear through the responses we’ve received that schools need to be doing more to make the students feel supported through these difficult times.

E v a l u a t i o n & C o n c l u s i o n F u t u r e R e s e a r c h

References:

Betty Pfefferbaum, M. (2020). Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic. New England: The New England Journal of Medicine. Statista Research Department. (2019). Population of Qatar by age group 2019 . Doha: Statista. World health organisation. (2017). Mental health of older adults. Geneva: World health organisation.

Acknowledgements:

Special thanks to Mr. Salim Malik for his support throughout this project, and thank you to Weill Cornell for making this opportunity possible.

There are several things that need to be done to ensure that the wellbeing of Qatar’s teens is maintained. This includes an in-depth, longterm study of the mental health of a large sample of teens aged 15-18, from a wide variety of socioeconomic statuses in Qatar. This would tell us not only about what more we can do support the teens that live here, but also what the community of teenagers is like and their overall experience living here. All of which is important considering that that age group makes up approximately 3.22% of the population (statista research department, 2019), and are the nation’s future.