Prevalence Of Anxiety And Depression Among Doctors Working In A Private Hospital In Pakistan

Objectives: Anxiety and depression among doctors may negatively affect quality of patient care, patient safety, and professionalism. Despite the potentially serious personal and professional consequences of depression, there are very limited researches done on depression among Pakistani doctors. Therefore this study was aimed to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression among doctors in a private teaching hospital in Pakistan. Method: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Pakistan. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire for Anxiety and Depression (SRQ 20) Scale was administered to a sample of 300 medical doctors. Chi-square test and multiple regressions were used for data analysis. Results: Anxiety and Depression among doctors was measured to be 27.3 % (95% CI: 22.3, 32.4) in our study. Conclusion: More than one quarter of our doctors are suffering from anxiety and depression but this subject is fairly neglected in Pakistan and more studies should be conducted to collect more validated information on this matter.

Frequency of abnormal pap smear and assessment of risk factors for cervical cancer in an out-patient clinic

To estimate the frequency of abnormal Pap smear and assessment of risk factors for cervical cancer in an out-patient clinic of a tertiary care hospital. All married female patients attending the preventive health check up [family medicine] clinics, The Aga Khan University Hospital. Karachi from December 2004 to April 2005 for general checkups and had Pap smear after informed consent, were included. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to all participants and double entered in EPIDATA and analyzed in SPSS. Frequencies of all variables were generated. Means with standard deviations and ranges were also calculated for quantitative variables. A total of 103 patients were enrolled. The mean age was 45.8 +/- 10.7 years. Half of the study population were menstruating at the time of interview, Mean age at marriage was 21.4 +/- 4.57 years. Mean age at first pregnancy was 22.6 +/- 4.4 years. A minority of husbands [2.9%] were uncircumcised. About one third [30.8%] of patients had at least four full term deliveries while the mean number of deliveries were 3.3 +/- 2.0 years. More than one third [36.9%] were practicing contraception, with 5% using oral contraceptive pills and the rest using barrier methods. About one third of the women complained about vaginal discharge with foul smell, dysuria and dyspareunia in most patients. About two-third [63.1%] had at least one Pap smear in the past. None had any dysplasia or cancer. Reports of Pap smear findings showed that 16.5% patients had atrophic vaginitis, 37.9% had infective bacillary background diagnosed on histopathology and the rest were reported normal. Time most frequent abnormality found in Pap smear study was infective bacillary back ground. None of the patients had any pre-cancerous or active cervical cancer. The study was limited by small sample size and choice of Pap smear by the elite class population with self referral for general health checkup

Awareness about reproductive health and rights among students of a public university in karachi, Pakistan: a cross sectional study

To determine the knowledge, attitude and practices of Karachi University students about reproductive health and rights. Cross sectional study. A survey was conducted from February to May 2005 to determine the understanding and knowledge related to reproductive health and rights among the students of the department of Biochemistry, University of Karachi, Pakistan. A pre-coded questionnaire was developed and pre-tested. The questionnaire was introduced to those students, who agreed to participate in the study. Data collected was double entered and analyzed on SPSS and Epi-info latest version. Fifty five percent [55%] of participants believed the reproductive rights to be as important as other human rights. About 80% of participants thought that proper birth spacing can improve maternal and child health but very few Pakistani women have birth spacing rights. Quality of life of women and men can be improved by knowing their reproductive rights in view of 71% and 63% of respondents respectively. Although one third of participants claimed to be aware of their reproductive rights but majority were unable to identify what exactly comes under the domain of reproductive rights. Majority knew that appropriate use of contraception and birth spacing can have positive impact on maternal and child health. The study recommends that awareness sessions should be conducted at all levels of society and more efforts should be made to improve reproductive health and increase awareness and the implementation of reproductive rights

Syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections; an approach at the primary care level: Part 1

Syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections is now a widely accepted strategy for treatment of infections and prevention of the spread of HIV in the developing world. Although STIs are caused by many different organisms, they cause only a limited number of syndromes. Syndromic management facilitates immediate diagnosis and treatment of many STIs at the same time without the need for expensive and time consuming laboratory tests

Syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections; an approach at the primary care level: Part 2

Syndromic management of transmitted infections is now a widely accepted strategy for treatment of infections and prevention of the spread of HIV in the developing world. Although STIs are caused by many different organisms, they cause only a limited number of syndromes. Syndromic management facilitates immediate diagnosis and treatment of many STIs at the same time without the need for expensive and time consuming laboratory tests