ABSTRACT
Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable risk factor for morbidity and mortality in developed countries where at least one in four adults smoke cigarettes. Healthcare providers who smoke are less likely to advise patients to quit smoking. The aim of this study is to find out the frequency of tobacco smoking among medical professionals in tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, and to identify the common factors responsible for the continuation of smoking among healthcare providers. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at public and private tertiary Care Hospitals/Institutes at Karachi. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 180 subjects. An informed consent was obtained from all the subjects. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Prevalence of smoking was 29%. High prevalence of smoking was among male doctors as compared to female doctors. Sixty-eight per cent of smokers started smoking between 20 to 30 years of age. Age less than 35 years, male and public sectors hospitals were more likely OR 1.23, CI [0.98-2.41], 6.40 CI [4.48-10.52] and 2.61 CI [2.20-3.78] respectively. The Result of the study suggests that while healthcare smoking habits appear to be high, they are not uniformly low when compared from an international perspective. Health promotion programs focused on self-efficacy may be an effective tool for reducing the initiation, frequency, and amount of cigarette smoking among healthcare providers
ABSTRACT
To assess the quality of postgraduate fellowship training and to determine the differences in the quality of postgraduate fellowship training in public and private teaching hospitals of Karachi. It was a cross sectional survey conducted in four public and private sector hospitals of Karachi from January to March 2012. A total of 246 postgraduate fellowship trainees were interviewed. A standardized questionnaire adopted from CPSP guidelines on postgraduate training standards was developed. Postgraduate fellowship trainees [PG's] were selected on the basis of convenient non-probability sampling technique. Fisher's exact test and chi-square test were used to find differences in quality of postgraduate training. The mean duty hours per week was highest in private sector hospitals i.e., 72.1 as compared to government sector hospital which was 58.3 [P-value <0.01]. Of the respondents, 66.0% of PG's in private hospitals agreed that they have a structured study program as compare to 46.5% in public hospitals [P-value <0.001]. Only 38.1% of PG's in public hospitals agreed that they spent appropriate amount of time with their family and friends as compare to 1.8% of PG's in private hospitals [P-value <0.001]. No significant difference was found in quality of supervision in both public sector and private sector hospitals. The attributes of different aspects of training were different in public and private sector hospitals. So significant room exists for improvement in the quality of postgraduate medical training as indicated by the less than desirable proportion of trainees being satisfied with different aspects of training
ABSTRACT
To assess awareness about Tuberclosis in community and compliance for DOTS [directly observed treatment short-course] in patients. It is Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted at two places, i.e., Arafat Town and Sindh Government Hospital, Karachi. A sample of 175 subjects were selected, out of which 75 subjects were selected from Arafat town [community] while 100 subjects [patients] were selected from Sindh Government Hospital, Karachi. The survey was conducted by interview comprising of questions related to personal information regarding Tuberculosis, its symptoms, different mechanisms of its spread, diagnosis and its treatment by DOTS, knowledge of DOTS and satisfaction of patients receiving DOTS. The data collected was analyzed by using SPSS version 11. Out of 75 study subjects from community 43.5% of subjects were uneducated or had only religious knowledge, 65% did not know Tuberculosis, 20% did not have any knowledge regarding the symptoms of Tuberculosis, 22% of subjects were unaware of the preventive measure against TB. In the hospital setup, 99% of patients were satisfied from DOTS and the compliance rates was 88%.Most of the subjects were unaware of Tuberculosis that seems to be due to their illiteracy and those who knew had got the knowledge from media but the majority of the patients who were on DOTS were found to be satisfied