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BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to determine whether laypeople and professionals rate the facial appearance of individuals with repaired complete unilateral or bilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP, BCLP) similarly based on viewing full facial images. METHODS: The study followed a cross-sectional analytical design where five young patients aged 10 to 14 years, who had completed all stages of their unilateral or bilateral cleft lip and palate treatment (bilateral: three, unilateral: two), were evaluated by two groups. The assessment was done by laypeople and 97 qualified professionals (33 orthodontists, 32 plastic surgeons, and 32 oral and maxillofacial surgeons). Professionals were not involved in any stage of the patients’ treatment. RESULTS: The facial appearance assessment of the professional groups on different facial aesthetics was significantly lower than that of laypeople, and they had higher perceived need for further treatment. On the other hand, laypeople had higher aesthetic ratings and lower perceived need for further treatment. Differences were also observed between the assessments of the professional groups. Participants who had lower aesthetic assessments of the repair tended to report a higher influence of cleft lip and palate on social activities and professional life. CONCLUSION: Differences in perception exist between healthcare professionals and laypeople. The discrepancies between the professional groups could be attributed to different treatment modalities and protocols.
Subject(s)
Humans , Cleft Lip , Delivery of Health Care , Esthetics , Hand , Orthodontists , Palate , Plastics , SurgeonsABSTRACT
This article discusses the observational analytic study designs, i.e., case-control and cohort studies. These two study designs are useful for testing a hypothesis to determine the association between a risk factor and a disease. The analysis for both the studies is based on the conventional 2 × 2 table with the disease status in columns and the risk factor status in rows. The case-control studies start from the disease status and compare the exposure to the risk factor[s] between the diseased [cases] and the not diseased [controls] groups. The odds ratio is determined to compare the proportion of exposed persons in the two groups. The cohort studies start from the exposure to the risk factor status and compare the incidence of the disease in the exposed and not exposed groups. The relative risk compares the incidence between the two groups. The 95% confidence interval is estimated for both studies to determine an actual association between the risk factor and the disease. The strengths and limitations of the two study designs differ based on the direction of the two designs. The case-control study goes backward from the disease status so is more useful for rare diseases and for evaluating multiple risk factors, but it cannot determine causality, and there are chances of recall bias affecting the results of the study. The cohort studies are generally prospective in design from the exposure status and can determine the causal association between the risk factor and the disease. However, the cohort studies are more expensive and require a longer time as well as a larger sample size; the loss to follow?up and misclassification biases can affect the results of the cohort studies
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The present cross-sectional study was undertaken with the aim of establishing norms for birth weight, crown heel length, and head circumference of the newborns in the population of Karachi. It was conducted in four public and private hospitals of Karachi, covering middle to low-income areas during a period of 2 years. There were 404 mothers and their babies included in this study that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study. Anthropometric measurements including birth weight, crown heel length, and occipitofrontal circumference [OFC] were recorded within 24 hours of birth. Maternal age, parity, gestational age, newborn gender, Apgar score, and delivery mode were also recorded. The data entry and analysis was done on Statistical Packages of Social Sciences [SPSS] version 21. The mean birth weights of the babies were found to be 3.03 +/- 0.39 kg, crown heel length were 49.2 +/- 2.4 cm, and OFC were 34 +/- 1.5 cm. A statistically significant difference was found between the gender of the babies [male=3.07 +/- 0.4 kg versus female=3.0 +/- 0.4 kg] for birth weight [p=0.02]. This study provides the mean values of anthropometric measurements of the newborns in low-income areas of Karachi
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This article describes the importance of selecting the appropriate epidemiological study design for a given study question. It provides an explanation to the different terms used in describing study designs with regards to observational versus interventional and descriptive versus analytical types of study designs. This article focuses on the description of the different types of descriptive study designs, that is, case report, case series, correlational, and cross-sectional study designs. The requirements for selecting these study designs are discussed along with the advantages and disadvantages of each study design. The descriptive studies are similar in the context that they are based on a single sample with no comparative group within the study design. Their basic purpose is to describe the characteristics of the sample with regards to the characteristics that are present and so are useful in generating a hypothesis. The absence of a comparative group is the main limitation of the descriptive studies, and this is the reason they cannot be used to determine an association by testing a hypothesis showing a relationship between a risk factor and disease. The analytical study designs will be discussed in the next article in this series
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To determine any significant correlation between the routine haematological parameters of maternal blood and umbilical cord blood of their respective newborns. Cross sectional study. The study was conducted at four public and private hospitals of Karachi including Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, Sindh Government Hospital, Liaquatabad, Ziauddin University Hospital and Chinniot Maternity and Child Hospital, respectively from July 2006 to April 2008. Three milliliters venous blood was collected in EDTA containing tube for complete blood count of mothers before delivery. Five milliliters cord blood was collected from the umbilical cord of the babies immediately after delivery by clamping and cutting the babies' end of the cord. For haematological parameters a standard coultergram was done including haemoglobin, RBCs count, haematocrit [HCT], mean corpuscular volume [MCV], mean corpuscular haemoglobin [MCH], mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration [MCHC], white blood cell count, differential leukocyte count and platelet count. Pearson's correlation co-efficient was used to determine an association between the maternal and cord blood parameters. A total of 404 maternal and umbilical cord blood samples were analyzed. All the blood parameters including haemoglobin, RBCs count, HCT, MCV, MCH, white blood cell count, differential leukocyte count and platelet count were found to be high in cord blood as compared to the maternal blood, but they showed a very weak to negligible correlation. Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration [MCHC], showed a moderate correlation. Routine haematological parameters of newborns are independent of maternal routine haematological parameters
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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