Volume 2, Issue 1 (2019)

Ali Hajeer, PhD, FRCPath, D(ABHI) - Assistant Dean, College of Medicine - King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

It is my great pleasure to be the guest editor for the BAU Journal of Health and Wellbeing. We in the Middle East live a turbulent region where health priorities vary from country to country. In some countries, the health and wellbeing of the nation are top priority, for others, basic life needs are more important. Wellbeing was found to be associated with longevity, mental and physical illness, productivity and many other factors. Understanding the wellbeing of society through basic research can help policymakers draw policies and guidelines that can support the nation’s mental and physical health.

Wellbeing is multifactorial and multi-dimensional. It involves people, their nutrition, their physical wellness, spiritual beliefs, the environment surrounding them, their job and income, their education, availability of primary healthcare, and accessibility to health care at secondary and tertiary levels.

There are many issues related to the Middle East that need tackling from the research front. We are lacking, simple statistics and epidemiology. We need more research that focuses on the basic parameters in health and wellbeing. For example, what is the prevalence of vaccination in pediatrics and what are the reasons behind the lack of vaccination? What are the common mortality factors in pediatrics and adults? What is the prevalence of cancer and what are the most common cancers in the society? What is the prevalence of maternal mortality? What are the most common genetic disorders? How common is mental illness? What is the prevalence of mental illnesses in pediatrics and adults? These are some examples of basic research questions that need answers.

Hope this issue will add new knowledge to the field of health and wellbeing.