ABSTRACT
Two hundred sixty-two randomly sampled general physicians of Lahore were interviewed to study the current practices and factors affecting the management of acute watery diarrhoea [AWD] in children below 5 years of age. Among the physicians, 19% prescribed ORS alone, 61% ORS with some drug, 15% drugs alone and 5% increased fluid intake only. Physicians in government sector, recent graduates and those trained in a paediatrics unit prescribed more on the WHO guidelines [p<0.05]. Attending a diarrhoea training unit [DTU] course, reading WHO guidelines for management of diarrhoea and total number of patients seen daily had no significant effect on prescribing practices. Two hundred fifty-five [97%] physicians thought that majority of other physicians prescribed drugs for the management of acute watery diarrhoea to satisfy the mothers of the children, their belief in the effectiveness of drugs and competition in practice
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Acute Disease/therapy , Practice Patterns, Physicians' , Rehydration Solutions , Antidiarrheals , Drug Prescriptions , Economics, PharmaceuticalABSTRACT
A project was organized by Maternal and Child Welfare Association of Pakistan to demonstrate family planning acceptance through comprehensive MCH services. It was seen that amongst 6162 preconceptional Married Women in the Reproductive Age [MWRA], there were 1513 family planning acceptors with contraceptive acceptance rate of 24.6%. Contraception acceptance was directly related with the number of living children. [4 children have strong association with contraceptive acceptance]. Use of contraception was directly related with the number of living sons. Three sons had stronger association than 0,1 and 2. Family planning acceptance rate was higher in Christians than in Muslims. This may probably be due to greater access to family services for the former group because mostly they work outside home. Income per capita per month had shown indirect relationship for accepting family planning programme indicating the effect of strong MCH and FP programme,. Educational status of MWRA upto metric [including under metric], while education of husbands upto post metric have shown highest rate of FP acceptance This indicates that women required less education / schooling as compared to males who required [post metric education] higher level of education to accept family spacing programmes. No relationship has been found with the occupation of women working outside home and family planning acceptance, due to very small number of [only 3%] working mothers in the area
Subject(s)
Community Health ServicesABSTRACT
Two hundred and sixty two randomly sampled general physicians of Lahore were interviewed to study the current practices and factors affecting the management of acute watery diarrhea in children below 5 years of age in comparison with the World Health Organization [WHO] guidelines. Among the physicians, 19.1% said they would prescribe ORS alone 60.7% ORS with some drug, 14.9% drugs alone, and 5.3% increased fluids only. Physicians in government sector as compared to private sector, physicians trained in a paediatrics unit as compared to not trained in a paediatrics unit, and recent graduates as compared to older graduates reported they prescribe more in accordance with the WHO guidelines [p< 0.05]. No statistically significant relationship was found between reported prescribing according to WHO guidelines and attending a diarrhea training unit [DTU] course, reading WHO guidelines for management of diarrhea and total number of parents seen daily. Physicians were more likely to report that they prescribed according to WHO guidelines if they believed that mothers were satisfied with ORS. Two hundred fifty five [97.3%] physicians thought that the majority of other physicians prescribed drugs for the management of acute watery diarrhea. The most commonly cited reasons were because they want to satisfy the mother of the children and physician's belief in the effectiveness of drugs and competition in practice