Knowledge, attitude and practices of women towards breast self-examination in rural area of Lahore, Pakistan

Introduction: A breast self-exam is the routine examination done by females of their own breasts to find any abnormal growth or changes that are alarming and need medical consultation to treat. It is seen that more than 10 percent to20 percent breast cancer is detected by breast self-examination. It is important for females to do BSE regularly to prevent breast cancer

Setting: Study was conducted in a rural area of Lahore, Pakistan

Study design: Cross sectional descriptive study was conducted

Population: Data was collected from 135 women of rural area of Lahore

Sampling: Data was collected from convenient selected sample of 135women of rural area of Lahore

Methodology: The instrument use for the data collection was adopted questioner and convenient sampling technique was used

Results: 19.3 percent of the study participants knew about the Breast self-examination while 28.9 percent have knowledge about breast cancer. Only 24.4 percent knew about the Breast self-examination whereas 35.6 percent know that only doctors can examine the breast. As regard interval of breast self-examination, 34.1 percent of the study participants had knowledge, while 46 percent were not having knowledge. On other question that BSE must be done between days 7 until day 10 after menstrual cycle 20 percent of the study participants had knowledge, while 80 percent were not aware of this. BSE should be done in front of a mirror 40 percent had knowledge and 60 percent had no knowledge. The above table reveals that only 19.3 percent study participants had knowledge regarding Breast self-examination, while 80.7 percent percent were not aware of it. Similarly, need to assess any changes in color, size and shape of Breast only 24.4 percent had knowledge and 75.6 percent had no knowledge about it. The knowledge of breast self-examination was also very low among the participants and only 19.3percenthad knowledge about it

Conclusions: knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards breast self-examination are poor among the women of child bearing age in the rural area of Lahore

Prevalence of hepatitis-c viral antibodies among high school teachers and students in rural areas of Punjab Pakistan

Background: Approximately 80 percent of patients who are suffering from Hepatitis C are uninformed of their infection

Objective: To assess the prevalence of hepatitis C viral antibodies in high school teachers and students in the rural areas of Punjab, Pakistan

Methodology: A total of 1200 apparently healthy high school teachers and students [9[th] and 10[th] class] from rural rural rural communities of Punjab were randomly selected from 1[st] January to 31[st] December 2016. Probability based random sampling method was used. 5ml blood was drawn from each individual. Subsequently serum was separated from the blood sample for testing the antibodies of hepatitis C virus. The data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 22

Results: A maximum prevalence of 16.6% of the antibodies against hepatitis C virus infection was observed in the category of male high school students, followed by 10.6%, 8.3% and 5.3% in the category of male high school teachers, female high school teachers and female high school students in the descending order respectively. The prevalence rate of hepatitis C antibodies in Southern, Central and Northern Punjab was 10%, 14.25% and 6.5% respectively. Our all the prevalence of hepatitis C antibodies was 10.5%

Conclusion: The prevalence of hepatitis C antibodies was high in our study subjects. Male high school students were found mostly infected in the Central Punjab as compared to other categories in the rural communities of Punjab

Rchildhood strokes: epidemiology, clinical features and risk factors

Background: Stroke constitutes a significant health problem in paediatric population. The impact of childhood stroke can easily be realised in terms of economic, social and psychological burden related to disability of the affected children. The objective of study was to outline the epidemiology and clinical features of stroke in a cohort of Pakistani children and also ascertain the causes and potential risk factors in these patients. Methods: The study was conducted at the Department of Paediatrics, Ayub Teaching Hospital from January 2008 to October 2010. It was a cross sectional study. A total of 46 patients were included in the study who presented with cerebrovascular disease and were assessed clinically using general physical and systemic examination. The salient epidemiological, clinical, neuro-imaging and laboratory data was retrieved in designed protocol. Results: Out of a total of 46 patients, 50% were from either gender. Mean age of presentation was 39 months. Limb weakness was the commonest presenting feature being present in 37 [80.43%] patients. Infectious disorders was the most prevalent risk factor present in 31 [67.39%] patients followed by microcytic hypochromic anaemia in 28 [60.86%] patients. Conclusion: A Childhood stroke is a disorder with long term morbidity. Identification of risk factors is important in preventing the disorder by guiding appropriate interventions.Keywords: Childhood stroke, Infectious disorders, risk factors