Familial Predictors Of Smoking In Adolescents; A Comparison Of Smokers And Non-Smokers

@#Adolescence stage is filled with enormous changes and challenges. At this stage, adolescents are not mentally mature so they failed to adjust to the changes of their life and are at greater risk of developing smoking habit. Many psychosocial factors contribute to adolescents’ smoking, among them family role is prominent. So, the present correlational study aimed to highlight the familial predictors of smoking in adolescents. It was hypothesized that parenting styles, lack of parent-child communication, less parental monitoring, parents and sibling smoking would be related to adolescents smoking. Data was collected from 150 adolescents (smokers: 70, non-smokers: 80) throughconvenient sampling technique. Parental bonding instrument and parental monitoring questionnaire were used. Binary Logistic regression revealed less Parental care and father’s monitoring, lack of mother-child communication and siblings’ smoking as significant predictors of smoking. The study implications are discussed with its application in health, social and counseling psychology.

impact of spouse's educational status on family size in lower middle socioeconomic group of Rawalpindi city

Objective: To establish a relationship between family size and educational status of female and male subjects belonging to lower middle socioeconomic group of Rawalpindi city

Study Design: Cross sectional comparative study

Place and Duration of Study: Rawalpindi city over a period of six months, from September 2015 to February 2016

Material and Methods: The 200 participants of this study were categorized according to their educational status after noting their demographic profiles. Comparison of the number of offsprings in different educational categories was done

Results: The data suggested that both illiterate women and men had the maximum number of offsprings. Sixty percent of illiterate wives and fifty-eight percent of illiterate husbands had five or more offsprings each. Amongst the better-educated respondents of both groups, seventy six percent had three or less offsprings. In this regard, the majority of post Matric qualified husbands had the least number of offsprings. Fisher's Chi-square test was used to establish the relationship between educational status and family size. A highly significant relationship was seen when these variables were co-related statistically [p-value=0.001]

Conclusion: The results emphasise the importance of education of couples, especially in the densely packed lower-middle socioeconomic groups, as data showed that better educated participants had a smaller family size

"Choosing the best modality for undergraduate clinical training" a mixed method approach

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of clinical skills training of undergraduate students who have undergone three different modalities of training consisting of real patients, mannequins/simulations and combination of both by summative assessment

Study Design: Descriptive and comparative study

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Foundation University Medical College Islamabad for eight months

Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on undergraduate medical students during gastrointestinal tract [GIT] and Renal modules in year two. Clinical skills techniques of 100 students were examined during an objective structured clinical examination [OSCE]. The examination was carried out using real patients, simulated/mannequins and combination of both techniques on Group A [batch 2011], Group B [batch 2012] and Group C [batch 2013] respectively. Total number of stations was ten and examiner rated students independently on clinicalskill techniques

Results: Descriptive and comparative statistics for student scores were compiled from the OSCE forms used at the stations. Measures of central tendency, mean and standard deviation were calculated for ten OSCE stations as wellas an overall score. Inter-rater reliability between student scores ranged from 0.84-0.89 for the different modalities. There was a significant difference in the performance of group A [real Patients] and group B [Simulated patients] from group C [mixed technique] at all stations andp value 0.05 was considered significant

Conclusion: Significant improvement was noted in the clinical skill techniques of undergraduate students who were trained through mixed method approach as compared to the individual methods

Impact of faculty development workshop on faculty performance - a problem based learning approach

Objective: To evaluate the impact of faculty development workshop on faculty performance -a problem based learning approach

Study Design: Interventional study

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Foundation University Medical College for a period of 08 months during the year 2013-2014

Materials and Methods: Total number of participants was thirty. The participants were faculty members selected on the basis of their previous experience of mentoring .The intervention was a faculty development workshophaving pre and post tests, interactive sessions and small group discussion. It was followed by 03 and 06 months feedback from the faculty. Approval from ethical committee wasreceived

Results: There was significant difference between pre and post tests results. Discussion forums generated themes and proposals regarding challenges faced in mentoring, improvement in existing mentoring program, design of mentoring program as per institution requirement and evaluation of mentoring program. Feedback regarding the implementation of revised program was very positive

Conclusion: The study has evaluated the impact of intervention on mentoring program and faculty performance.The proposal forwarded by faculty was more successfully implemented as it had the ownership of faculty. Hence itis concluded that blend of faculty training, motivation and ownership on part of faculty can make any program a success

Genetic analysis of four selected exons of brca1 gene in different ethnic groups in Pakistan

Objective: To analyze the BRCA1 gene for mutations in patients with breast and ovarian cancer belonging to different ethnic groups of the Pakistan with the aim to spot out recurrent founder mutations

Study Design: Descriptive study

Place And Duration: This study was conducted over a period of two years at the Centre for Research in Applied and Experimental Medicine, National University of Science and Technology [MUST], Rawalpindi

Methodology: In this study mutational analysis of 4 major exons of BRCA1 gene was performed in 40 diagnosed cases of female breast and ovarian cancer belonging to various ethnic backgrounds. The genomic DMA was isolated from the blood samples. Primers of BRCA1 gene were designed and used for amplification of the region of interest. Results were recorded on BIORAD Gel Documentation System. Sequencing of the gene for variants was done using Automated DMA Sequencer. Interpretation of chromatograms was done using Bioinformatics software

Results: The study group comprised of familial cases of breast and ovarian cancer with diverse ethnic composition that included Punjabis n=40 [40%], Kashmiris n=20 [20%] and Pathans n=20 [20%], Balouchis n=10 [10%] and Muhajirs n=10 [10%]. PCR amplified DMA from the samples revealed bands having both high quality and quantity of DMA. After extensively embarking on all four exons no functional sequence variant was detected in these chosen exons

Conclusion: Our results suggest the involvement of other coding sequences of this gene apart from those assessed in our study group. This emphasizes the need for assessing the complete BRCA1 gene in all ethnic groups located in Pakistani territory

call for mentoring of medical students in the backdrop of integrated curriculum

Integrated Modular Teaching program was introduced at Foundation University Medical College in 2009. The concept of integrated modular teaching was new to the faculty and students. A need was felt by Department of Medical Education for establishing a mentoring system in order to have a better understanding of students' problem, to provide them continuous support and to make them sail smoothly through this new system. This study was conducted for need assessment and to gain students' perspectives regarding establishing a mentoring system. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to third year medical students of academic year 2010-14, who underwent the new integrated curriculum. The questionnaire explored the students' view regarding the need of mentoring platform in the institution as part of formal education. The questionnaire focused on the students' knowledge of mentoring, their experience with informal mentoring, desire for mentoring and environment for mentoring. Data were analysed using SPSS-10. Eighty-six percent of the participants agreed to the statement that there is a need for a personal, confidential support system. Students are aware of benefits of mentoring and seek informal mentoring from faculty and senior colleagues. There is need of formal mentoring program at institutional level

Impact of multiparity on iron content in multiparous women

Background: The effect of multiple pregnancies, a very common pattern in reproductive lifestyle of Pakistani women, needs to be addressed to see if it affects the iron content and hence cause iron deficiency. Recognising this deficiency prior to development of anaemia can prevent disastrous consequences that can complicate the life of the mother and foetus especially in developing countries. The objective of this study was to assess the effect that the stress of multiple pregnancies has on the iron status of the body. Methods: This comparative study was conducted in a focus group of female population. Two hundred subjects were selected by convenient sampling and grouped depending on their parity status. Data regarding diet, and socioeconomic history was collected on pre-designed questionnaire. Serum Ferritin was used to assess iron deficiency using the Electrochemiluminescence Immunoassay [ECLIA]. Data was statistically analysed using SPSS-17. Results: Mean value of serum Ferritin in the nulliparous group was 76.52 +/- 4.92 ?g/mL with 16% of nulliparous subjects showing lower than normal values. Thirty-six percent of uniparous subjects showed low serum Ferritin values, mean value being 45.74 +/- 4.51 Eta g/mL. Seventy-two percent of the multiparous subjects showed iron deficiency with Ferritin levels of <20 Eta g/mL. Mean serum Ferritin in this group was 25.21 +/- 2.75 Eta g/mL. The differences between the Ferritin levels of the study groups were highly significant [p<0.01]. Conclusions: Multiparous women had lower serum Ferritin levels than the control group suggesting that the stress of multiple pregnancies takes its toll on the iron content of the body. Keywords: Multiparous, Ferritin, Iron deficiency, Electrochemiiluminescence Immunoassay

Periodontal status of women during pregnancy

Objectives: Periodontal condition of women is considered to be debilitated during pregnancy. This is suggested to increase the chances of complications during pregnancy. This study aimed at obtaining information regarding periodontal status during pregnancy, which may be necessary for planning periodontal disease preventive programs for pregnant women in our population

Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 322 registered women at department of Gynecology and Obstetric. Periodontal condition was assessed by CPITN Index and recorded in a semi-structured performa. The data was coded and entered in SPSS version 11.0 and percentage frequencies with their mean and standard deviations were calculated. Exact Chi-sqaure test was used to analyze any significant changes observed in the CPITN scores amongst the study population, where level of significance was p < 0.05 with confidence interval 95%

Results: Only 17% of these women were observed to have healthy periodontal status and 83% of women had some signs involving a mean of 3 out of six sextants with different levels of signs of periodontal disease, with only less than half sextant with periodontal pockets. However, a moderate level of periodontal debilitation was observed in this population with a mean of 3 sextants having healthy periodontal status. The present study observed a constant level of periodontal status assessed by CPITN Index (p>0.05) in women during pregnancy

Conclusion: Although CPITN scores remained constant through out pregnancy and no significant change observed in this moderate level of diseased condition. However, shallow and deep periodontal pockets, although not very severe, are observed to be more prevalent. Therefore, special preventive and prophylaxis oral health care programs remain the need for these women during pregnancy

Maternal attitudes and practices towards child dental health of 3[1/2] to 4[1/2] year old in Lahore, Pakistan

The present study is a cross-sectional survey undertaken to assess the dental health attitudes and behaviours of 95 mothers of preschool children, from middle and low socio-economic groups, in urban Lahore, using a questionnaire adapted from the one used in an international collaborative study on child dental health. The results fail to achieve significance for the frequency of sugar consumption, consumption of sweetened milk, Toothache experience, history of dental visits and the choice of professional in case of dental problem, quantity of toothpaste used for the child and dental health beliefs of the mothers