Aline Hajj

Aline Hajj
Université Laval | ULAVAL

PharmD, PhD

About

150
Publications
36,669
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2,375
Citations

Publications

Publications (150)
Article
Full-text available
Background: The pharmacy education landscape is transforming rapidly, driven by advancements in healthcare delivery, technology, and patient-centred care. This evolution highlights the need for core and specialised frameworks to guide curriculum development, competency assessment, and professional standards and influence the quality of pharmacy pra...
Article
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Objective: This study assesses the association of metabolic drugs (specifically hypoglycemic and hypolipemic agents) with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among the Lebanese population and patients’ subgroups. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional retrospective study was carried out in Lebanon. The survey collected information on sociodemographic char...
Article
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Background Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. Public knowledge of ADHD plays a crucial role in shaping attitudes, reducing stigma, and fostering a supportive environment for individuals with this disease. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and stigma of the general Lebanese popula...
Article
Objectives The first objective is to compare the psychometric properties of two scales, measuring COVID-19-related burnout in a general working population during an economic crisis. The second objective is to compare the relevance through the assessment of statistically significant associations between the independent variables and the validated (s...
Article
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Introduction Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is a severe and recurrent condition that contributes to a global prevalence of disabilities. Accumulating evidence suggests a potential convergence of clinical and genetic factors underlying OUD. Objectives This study explores the clinical and genetic factors associated with OUD in the Lebanese population. M...
Article
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IntroductionAlcohol and sedative substance use disorders are escalating global public health challenges. Lebanon has grappled with multiple crises, including economic, healthcare, and social issues. Objectives This study aimed to assess the correlates of the alcohol and sedative substance use risk scores with sociodemographic and clinical factors,...
Article
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Introduction Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a significant public health concern, and understanding the risk factors associated with OUD is crucial for effective prevention and management strategies. However, limited information is available regarding the role of sex differences in OUD risk factors. Women have often been excluded from clinical studies...
Article
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Introduction Numerous studies have explored the symptoms and course of depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients and identified various clinical, sociodemographic, and genetic factors associated with their evolution. Nevertheless, these studies have been limited in duration and have focused on specific time points during chemotherapy or post...
Article
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Objective: This study aims to identify the association between adherence to healthy eating, using the Lebanese Mediterranean Diet Scale (LMDS), and cardiovascular risk factors in the Lebanese population. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study using a multistage cluster sample was conducted in Lebanon. Sociodemographic characteristics were c...
Article
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Introduction The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly become a worldwide threat to human health and has significantly impacted people’s lives and changed their lifestyles and health behaviors. This study aims to assess lifestyle and health-related behaviors (LHBs) and associated factors among the general population in Lebanon durin...
Article
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Background: While previous research underscores the independent effect of the pharmacist-patient relationship on patient outcomes, it did not delve further into the patient-pharmacist relationship dynamics and their effects on reported outcomes. Therefore, this study aimed to assess whether patient-pharmacist relationship aspects mediate the associ...
Preprint
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Introduction Falls represent a significant public health concern affecting the elderly, yet epidemiological studies within Lebanese institutions are scarce. This study aimed to explore gender differences in falls and mobility patterns and assess causes, potential risks, and protective factors against falls among institutionalized elderly in the Cho...
Article
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Response plans to control the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) overlooked the repercussions of the combined economic and public health crisis among the most vulnerable populations, including women and people who have experienced abuse. This paper primarily aimed to a...
Article
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Background Healthcare is a complex system with overarching challenges that arise from the different hierarchically organized structures and the diversity of people interacting and communicating in the same environment. This complexity can be addressed by strengthening healthcare professional leadership and entrepreneurship competencies. This study...
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Background: After the pharmacy profession has shifted from product-oriented practices to a more patient-centered approach, patient satisfaction has become an essential indicator of overall quality of care. This study aimed to assess the impact of pharmacy services and pharmacist-patient relationships on patient satisfaction in a crisis context, con...
Article
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Background Medication shortage is a public health problem, affecting patients’ outcomes mainly through the difficulty in maintaining adherence, particularly in the context of a severe economic crisis. There is a need for a new scale that assesses the effect of medication shortage on adherence. Aim To develop and validate a scale to evaluate the ha...
Article
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Background The revised Opioid Risk Tool (ORT-OUD) is a brief, self-report scale designed to provide clinicians with a simple, validated method to screen for the risk of developing an Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in patients without a prior history of substance abuse. This study aimed to translate and validate the Arabic version of ORT-OUD in the Leban...
Article
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Background In the absence of a similar study in the Lebanese context, this study aimed to validate the content of the specialized competencies frameworks of academic pharmacists (educators, researchers, and clinical preceptors) and pilot their use for practice assessment in the context of multiple severe crises. Methods A web-based cross-sectional...
Article
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Background Socioeconomic status (SES) is a critical multifactorial determinant of health and plays a significant role in shaping an individual’s health outcomes. While a composite scale has been proposed to measure SES in children, to our knowledge, limited composite scales were developed for adults in different contexts, highlighting the need for...
Article
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Objectives This study aimed to validate a specialized competency framework for industry pharmacists and assess correlates related to the competency domains in a pilot sample. Methods A team of experts assessed the old framework and improved its content validity after a thorough literature review, using the Delphi technique. Domains and their respe...
Article
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Objectives This study aimed to validate the content of the specialized competency frameworks for pharmacists working in hospital settings (hospital and clinical pharmacists) and pilot the frameworks for practice assessment. Methods This online cross-sectional study was carried out between March and October 2022 among a sample of 96 Lebanese pharma...
Article
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Background: In the absence of similar studies in Lebanon, this study aimed at upgrading and validating the Lebanese specialized competencies framework for community pharmacists (SCF-CP) as a tool to transform community practice and support the professional development and career progression of community pharmacists. Methods: Content validity was a...
Article
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Background: Pharmacists in sales and marketing roles need specific skills for managerial positions, and a framework for evaluating and developing these competencies is necessary. Currently, no such framework is known to exist. Objective: This study aimed to develop and validate a specialized competency framework for pharmacists in sales and mark...
Chapter
Anxiety disorders (ADs) are common mental disorders with a global prevalence of 7.3%. Recent conflicts in the Middle East and several developing countries increased the prevalence and burden of ADs. This book chapter reviews the prevalence, risk factors, burden, and challenges of ADs in developing countries and in particular the Middle East. Preval...
Article
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Background: In October 2022, the first case of cholera since 1993 was recorded in Lebanon. This study aimed to develop and validate a tool to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward cholera infection and its prevention among the general population in Lebanon and identify the associated factors related to the KAP assessment to g...
Chapter
Headache is the most common neurological symptom and features an increasing burden in developing countries, with a significant impact on patient’s functioning and overall health-related quality of life. Studies evaluating the prevalence of headache disorders in developing countries are scarce, and epidemiological data yielded considerable regional...
Chapter
Adequate sleep has been proven to be beneficial to one’s mental health and cognitive functions. Sleep disturbances can negatively affect an individual’s ability, function, and overall well-being. Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, may be a symptom or a separate illness, but it is most often seen as a comorbid disease of another medical or me...
Article
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Based on an online cross-sectional survey, this study aimed to evaluate the role of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and economy-related factors in post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) and sleep in a sample of the general Lebanese population using the post-traumatic stress disorder checklist. The online survey was conducted betwee...
Article
Introduction: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is the gold standard for safe, high-quality, and accessible patient-centered care. This study aims to assess IPC core competencies among Lebanese healthcare providers from different professions and explore the influence of several factors, including leadership, work ethics, and specialty, on healt...
Article
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Introduction: Lebanon is facing challenges affecting the whole health sector, including access to medications. Lebanon has only proposed very few short-term national pharmaceutical strategic solutions. Previous reform attempts targeting the pharmaceutical sector, could not protect it from the crises and their detrimental consequences on patient and...
Preprint
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Background: The revised Opioid Risk Tool (ORT-OUD) is a brief, self-report scale designed to provide clinicians with a simple, validated method to screen for the risk of developing an Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in patients without a prior history of substance abuse. This study aimed to translate and validate the Arabic version of ORT-OUD in the Leba...
Article
Full-text available
In 2020, fentanyl and its analogs contributed to ~65% of drug-attributed fatalities in the USA, with a threatening increasing trend during the last ten years. These synthetic opioids used as potent analgesics in human and veterinary medicine have been diverted to recreational aims, illegally produced and sold. Like all opioids, central nervous syst...
Article
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Introduction The complementarity between research and teaching is still debated, although several higher education institutions require instructors to do research. In the absence of a consensus on this matter and given the lack of related studies in Lebanon, this study aimed to describe students’ perception of research integration into teaching, an...
Article
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Pharmacy in Lebanon has been taught for years, and the profession has known the golden ages in previous years. However, with the recent graduation of hundreds of pharmacists, without prior workforce planning, the oversupply of non-specialized pharmacists caused a mismatch with the needs of the market. The context of severe socioeconomic and sanitar...
Article
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Background Medication waste is a public health problem affecting developed and developing countries. In Lebanon, a developing country in the Middle East, efforts are being deployed in hospitals but not in the community. Objective This study aimed to validate a questionnaire to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards the disposa...
Article
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Abstract Background The World Health Organization and the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region recommend the self-assessment of public health core competencies to strengthen the proficiency of the public health workforce and prepare them for future challenges. A framework for these competencies is lacking and highly needed...
Article
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Background: Lebanon has been recognized as a center for high-quality healthcare services in the Middle East because of its prestigious facilities certified by international bodies, competent health workers, and credible pharmaceutical sector. This study assessed the adequacy of the Lebanese pharmaceutical workforce to the job market upon graduation...
Article
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Pharmaceutical research can be structured into clear national strategies that optimize patient health and foster innovation. The objectives of this document are to assess the need for a national pharmaceutical research strategy based on the current situation in Lebanon, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of pharmaceutical research in Lebanon,...
Article
Aim: To validate the French version of the 37-item Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function, including the four items related to multitasking, previously excluded from the scoring algorithm. Materials & methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 261 cancer patients. Validity was confirmed by factor analyses using the p...
Article
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Background: Breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment are at particular risk of experiencing acute cognitive impairment leading to daily challenges in decision-making and reduced quality of life and functional autonomy. The aim was to assess the relationship between clinical and genetic factors and cognitive function in a sample of p...
Article
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(1) Background: The provision of healthcare is transforming, necessitating changes in descriptions and frameworks for ethical leadership. This study aimed to assess the association of the different leadership skills with the work ethical constructs and attitudes among healthcare professionals. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional study design using a sno...
Article
Objective: The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Lebanon is higher than what is reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), leading to the thought that the Lebanese population has some specific risk factors for ASD. Therefore, it is important to conduct more robust studies on this population. We conducted this study to identify...
Article
Objective: This study aimed to examine the outcomes of COVID-19 and a collapsing economy on the mental well-being (MWB) of the general Lebanese population. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted online in May 2020 and enrolled 502 adults. Results: MWB had a mean of 14.80[14.37;15.24]. A lower MWB was associated with female gender (beta=-1.5...
Article
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Background Online surveys have triggered a heated debate regarding their scientific validity. Many authors have adopted weighting methods to enhance the quality of online survey findings, while others did not find an advantage for this method. This work aims to compare weighted and unweighted association measures after adjustment over potential con...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: The World Health Organization and the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region recommend the self-assessment of public health core competencies to strengthen the public health workforce proficiency and prepare them for future challenges. A framework for these competencies is lacking and highly needed in Lebanon. Th...
Article
Full-text available
To date, no comprehensive strategy nor an official national competency framework are available in Lebanon regarding pharmacy education, specialization into pharmaceutical areas, or early career development programs. In 2017, the Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon (OPL, the national pharmacists’ association in Lebanon) attempted to fill that gap by dev...
Article
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Background: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most common and distressing complaints reported by cancer patients during chemotherapy considerably impacting all aspects of a patient’s life (physical, psychosocial, professional, and socioeconomic). The aim of this study was to assess the severity of cancer-related fatigue in a group of breas...
Article
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Background: Despite the progress in assessment and treatment of breast cancer, being diagnosed with it or receiving chemotherapy treatment is still conceived as a traumatic experience. Women develop negative thoughts about life and death with detrimental effects on their daily physical functioning/activities, emotional state and overall quality of...
Article
Objectives: The Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon, the official pharmacists' association in Lebanon, had suggested a core competencies framework based on global and international frameworks and adapted to the local context. The objective of this study was to validate the structure of this comprehensive set of competencies in the Lebanese context of...
Article
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Background: Pharmacists possess a unique and complex body of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to enable them to optimize health outcomes. Pharmacy organizations publish routinely updated versions of professional competencies that help pharmacy schools integrate advances into their curricula. In Lebanon, no national framework fo...
Article
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Background: In 2020, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) published a set of 21 global development goals (DGs) that bring together workforce/education [W], practice [P], and science [S] in a transformative framework, defining an improved and more advanced pharmacy profession for the next decade. This paper aims to benchmark the context...
Article
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Background: Lebanon, a developing Middle Eastern country, was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred amid a severe national economic crisis. Community pharmacists are responsible for dispensing appropriate medications and products in addition to counseling, informing and educating the public, and promoting disease prevention and infection contr...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly become a worldwide threat to human health and has significantly impacted peoples’ lives and changed their lifestyle and health behaviors (LHB). This study aims to assess changes in lifestyle and health-related behaviors such as daily habits, dietary habits, physical activity, slee...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Dentists play an essential role in providing high-quality dental care, taking into consideration the clinical context and concomitant medications taken by the patients. Objective: This study aimed to assess drug-prescribing perception and practices in addition to drug-related educational needs among Lebanese dentists; it also evaluated...
Article
Context Despite being among the most reported concerns in breast cancer patients, sleep disturbances are still poorly assessed and managed in routine clinical practice. Correctly evaluating these symptoms and understanding the underlying clinical and genetic factors would help medical teams develop an adequate treatment strategy for each patient....
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Aim: Explore the possible association between some clinical factors and genetic variants of the dopamine pathways and the negative symptoms. Material & Methods: Negative symptoms were assessed in 206 patients with schizophrenia using the Arabic version of the self-evaluation of negative symptoms scale (SNS) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome S...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Emergency plans to contain the COVID-19 failed to take into consideration the repercussions of the combined economic and sanitary crisis among the most vulnerable populations who might be disproportionately affected, including women and abused people. This study primarily aimed to assess the effects of the COVID-19 and economy-related v...
Article
Full-text available
Background: An effective antimicrobial stewardship program, allowing the study of the evolution of the susceptibility profiles as well as the emergence of resistant strains, is essential at the national level. In Lebanon, a National Registry of the Epidemiology of bacterial pathogens find their susceptibility profiles is lacking. Objectives: Assess...
Article
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected physical and mental health worldwide, particularly vulnerable populations with lower social and economic status. This study explored the independent and combined effects of the COVID-19 and economy-related variables on stress and anxiety among Lebanese adults in a developing country facing a severe socio-economic...
Article
Waterpipe smoking popularity is increasing worldwide and especially in the middle eastern societies. Its specific social and physical features in addition to its harm misperception are making it a trendy smoking tool. Like cigarette, waterpipe exhibit dependence and craving behaviors but studies addressing the inter-individual variability shaping t...
Article
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Background: Pharmacy is a steadily evolving profession that brings about changes in the practice, where the pharmacist should fulfill novel expanded roles. As such, pharmacy education has to adapt to these local and international changes and follow scientific progress to graduate practice-ready pharmacists. Our objective is to suggest a roadmap wit...
Article
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Background: In Lebanon, difficulties in accessing medications owe to two main barriers, mainly: high costs and the lack of medication safety. The objective of this work is to suggest guidelines to implement a unified medical prescription in Lebanon. These guidelines are expected to promote medication safety and decrease pharmaceutical expenditures...
Article
Background: In the absence of a national qualification framework for health professionals, the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL) took the initiative of developing a pharmacy competency framework to standardize pharmacy education in all universities. The objective of this manuscript is to describe the steps that led to the Lebanese Pharmacy Core C...
Article
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The authors wish to state that in the above article, one of the authors (Marwan Akel) was excluded inadvertently during the peer review stage. The corrected author group read as follows. Souheil Hallit1,2,*, Rouba Karen Zeidan2,3, Sylvia Saade4, Aline Hajj5,6, Rabih Hallit1, Marwan Akel2,4, Charbel Yahchouchy3, Nelly Kheir7, Katia Iskandar8, Hala...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function (FACT-Cog) scale is a self-assessment scale validated in routine clinical practice to assess cognitive function in cancer patients. This study aimed to validate the 37-item version of FACT-Cog exploring particularly the psychometric properties of four items related to multit...
Chapter
Introduction: The pharmacy profession in the Middle East is facing several challenges with common features related to the system, education, and practice, as the vast majority of the population live in low-to middle-income countries. Challenges: From an educational point of view, pharmacy suffers from several gaps: the use of classical teaching met...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background This study aimed at examining the combined outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic and a collapsing economy on the quality of life (QOL) of the general Lebanese population. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from 10-18 May 2020, via an online-based questionnaire using the snowball sampling technique. It enrolled 502 adult participan...
Preprint
Full-text available
Objective: To examine the outcomes of COVID-19 and a collapsing economy on mental well-being (MWB) of the general Lebanese population. Design/methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 502 adults in May 2020. Results: MWB had a mean of 14.80. Female gender, university education, fear of COVID-19, fear of poverty, verbal violence at home, and chro...
Article
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Background: Most pharmacists agree that continuing education (CE) programs positively affect their practice and increase their knowledge, with computer-based courses being their preferred type of CE (60.6%). The route to using medical e-services and e-learning is not straightforward. High setup costs and time commitments to sustain quality are issu...