3.  El-Jabari, C. The Demographic Characteristics, Self-Reported Symptoms and Health Behaviors of Mid Life Palestinian Women. Jerusalem: Patients' Friends Society, 2001.

The outcomes and results of studies conducted on women in the West are what we generally base our activities around.  Women in the Arab world have not been studied in much detail or been participants in many studies due to many factors.  This may lead to inaccuracies in approaches to care by health professionals.  To perform and offer health care services with the needs of the Palestinian woman in mind, the researchers of this paper felt that it was important that they gather some information and statistics in order to form a basis for their approaches to the Palestinian woman's health care.  This study, albeit with a small sample size, n = 49, examined the demographic characteristics, health behaviors and symptoms of midlife women, aged 40-55 years.  In some instances they found the results similar to studies conducted in North America and Europe.  The researchers were alarmed however to find that certain lifestyles of Arab women are leading to major health problems as noticed in their sample, i.e. hypertension (25%), joint pain (31%), and that large numbers of women do not undergo or follow up with recommended screening examinations such as mammograms, and Pap smears (55%).