Anxiety and depression among students of a medical college in Saudi Arabia

To assess prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students in a medical college of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was done on premedical, 1[st], 2[nd] and 3[rd] year students of College of Medicine, Qassim University. The instrument used to assess the anxiety and depression was Self administered questionnaire, The Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale [AKUADS]. AKUADS is a screening tool, and at a cut off point of 19, it has a Specificity of 81%, Sensitivity of 74%, a Positive Predictive Value of 63% and Negative Predictive Value of 88%. Data analysis was done on Epi Info version 6. At the time of the study there were a total of 288 male students and 105 female students enrolled in the college. The overall response rate among the males and females were 68.7% and 99.0% respectively. Overall the prevalence of anxiety and depression in females were 66.6% and males 44.4% [p-value 0.01]. In the 1st year the prevalence in females were 89.7% and males 60% [P-Value = 0.006]. No suicidal ideation was reported by either males or females. Almost similar level of anxiety and depression was found in another study using the same instrument in a similar curriculum model medical college in Pakistan. Our findings are also consistent with the findings from other studies from western medical schools as well as other Asian and African medical schools using different screening tools

Improving vaccination status of children under five through health education

To improve awareness and knowledge of mothers regarding vaccine preventable diseases and the immunization status of children under five through health education messages by medical students, at Gulshan-e-Sikanderabad, a squatter settlement adjacent to Ziauddin Medical University, Karachi. The undergraduate medical students' visit families in the squatter settlement. This study compared the effect of intervention by medical students on vaccination status of children under five in the intervention households versus those without intervention. A baseline study was done in 1998 and a follow-up study was done after four years to assess the differences in knowledge and practices of mothers regarding immunization. A total of 110 houses from block I and 207 houses from block V were selected. An increase of 22% [52% vs 30%] in block-I [p=0.003] and 19% [32% vs 13%] increase in block V was seen in the utilization of PHC Center for vaccination [p=0.001]. Mothers' knowledge regarding the age when first vaccine is administered to the child, increased in the follow-up from 60% to 76.5% [p<0.01] in block I and from 50% to 62% in block V. The immunization status increased significantly in block I from 46.5% to 75% after the intervention [p<0.005], no significant difference could be seen in block V [p=0.16]. In the follow-up survey a significant difference was seen in the vaccination status between the two blocks [p=0.001]. The health education messages significantly increased the vaccination status of children under 5 in the intervention area