Consumer Behavior at Supermarkets during Grocery Shopping in Saudi Arabia: A National Observational Study

BACKGROUND

Use of nutrition facts labels can be associated with healthier eating behaviors; however, consumers currently face difficulty understanding these labels or do not use them often. Thus, improving healthy grocery shopping behaviors among consumers might increase the overall health of the community.

AIM

The study aims to explore consumers' behavior during grocery shopping and measure their basic knowledge regarding food product labels.

METHOD

A national observational study (cross-sectional) was carried out on a convenience sample of Saudi Arabian residents aged 18 years and above. The data were obtained from all 13 administrative regions in Saudi Arabia at three different major supermarkets in each region. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, and binary logistic regression was used to investigate behavior variables.

RESULTS

A total of 12,675 participants were observed; of those, 52.2% did not interact with the product before putting it in their shopping cart. The study found that the production date (66.6%) and expiry date (51%) were the most frequently checked aspects of food labels; they were checked more frequently than nutrition facts (29%). Furthermore, there was a low level of dietary knowledge among consumers and a moderate level of believing food packages and media claims.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that the Saudi community's understanding of food product information is limited and greater awareness and community education campaigns are required to improve the use of nutritional labels and increase nutritional knowledge.

National Cross-Sectional Study of Community-Based Adverse Drug Reactions in Saudi Arabia

Background

An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is a response to a medicine that is not intended and is harmful, and which occurs at normal dose levels for humans. Currently, there are no estimates of the population-based prevalence of ADRs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Objective

The aims of this study were to (1) estimate the population-based prevalence of ADRs in KSA, (2) describe the ADRs experienced by survey respondents, and (3) investigate the level of awareness of the ADR reporting system.

Patients and Methods

This was a cross-sectional survey using stratified, population-based sampling conducted at a chain of community pharmacies.

Results

Analysis was conducted on 5228 surveys; 50.17% of respondents were males, and the mean age was 39 ± 15 years (min = 18, max = 98). The sample prevalence of ADRs was 23.45% (95% CI 22.30–24.60%, P < 0.001). The estimated population prevalence (after weighting) was 28.00% (26.10–30.00%). Gastrointestinal disorders were the most commonly reported ADRs (58.73%), followed by general disorders and administration site conditions (19.74%). The largest drug class that was reported to lead to ADRs was nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (11%). Over 19% of the respondents who experienced an ADR required medical intervention to control the suffering induced by the ADR. Of the respondents who experienced an ADR, 371 (30.26%) were aware of the ADR reporting system but only 53 (14.29%) said that they had filed a report in the system.

Conclusions

Our study estimated that 28% of the population experienced an ADR over a 1-year period in KSA. Risk factors for ADR included certain chronic disease groups and the use of certain classes of medications. Regulatory authorities in KSA intend to conduct more research and deploy educational interventions to reduce ADR rates in KSA. This will hopefully occur in an international context that promotes the standardized measurement of ADRs in the community. A subset of findings from this report was presented in an oral presentation at the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) Annual Conference, September 27, 2018. In addition, a subset of findings from this report were presented on a poster at the International Conference of Pharmacoepidemiology and Therapeutic Risk Management (ICPE), August 27, 2019.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s40801-020-00186-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Waterpipe Tobacco Chemical Content, Microbial Contamination, and Genotoxic Effects: A Systematic Review

The spread of tobacco smoking has increased over time at the global and national levels. One of the widely spread tobacco products is waterpipe. Recent studies showed that waterpipe tobacco smoke contains toxic substances, including carbon monoxide and nicotine. Some of them are genotoxic carcinogen, such as formaldehyde. This study aims to provide comprehensive insight into the types and depth of the scientific literature on waterpipe tobacco smoke chemical content, its genotoxic effects, and waterpipe device microbial contamination. We conducted a systematic comprehensive review of articles published between 1986 and December 2018. Primary research articles focusing on the content of waterpipe smoke, including chemical, genotoxic, and microbial contaminants, were eligible for inclusion. Of the 1,286 studies generated, 22 studies were included. Twenty-three chemical families were extracted from waterpipe smoke. Aldehydes were the most identified chemical family in 6 studies, and next is polycyclic hydrocarbons, found in 5 studies. About 206 chemical compounds were identified. Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, coagulase-negative Staphylococci, and Streptococcus were the most abundant pathogen contaminants. Waterpipe smoke had elevated levels of many DNA damage markers (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine and cytochrome P450 1A1) and inhibited levels of many DNA repair genes ( OGG1 and XRCC1) in waterpipe smokers. Waterpipe smoke is associated with the genotoxic effect, which elevates the levels of many DNA damage markers and inhibits the levels of many DNA repair genes. In addition, waterpipe smoking can expose smokers to a range of pathogenic bacteria.