Contact lens use and its compliance for care among healthcare workers in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Poor care and hygiene of contact lens (CL) results in eye problems and infections. Healthcare workers have an important role in advocating correct lens care. OBJECTIVES: To determine the practices of CL care and the adverse consequences of poor CL care among healthcare workers. SETTING AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional study in one public and three private sector hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2009-2010. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We questioned 500 healthcare workers of all ages and both sexes, who wore CL, about compliance with advice on care and any complications due to improper hygiene practices. Ethical approval was obtained. Chi-square tests were used to determine significance and p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of the total CL users, 385 (77%) were females. Most (75%) respondents wore CL to correct myopia, whereas 54% wore CL only occasionally. Surprisingly, only 24% knew the CL cleaning protocol. Lens solution was changed daily by 33% of users and after more than 2 weeks by 42%. Although 412 (82%) participants practised reasonable hand hygiene before inserting CL, 88 (18%) did not. Infection and eye dryness were statistically significantly (P < 0.01) associated with sex, hand-washing, and frequency of CL use. CONCLUSION: Noncompliance with the CL protocol was common among healthcare workers in our society. This behavior calls for targeted health education and awareness programs for healthcare workers.

Exploring teaching style in an undergraduate medical college following traditional curriculum in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVES: To find out the teaching style and its differences among teachers in a medical college setup. METHODS: The observational cross-sectional study was carried out from June to August 2011 at a private medical and dental college in Karachi, using traditional curriculum and comprising 77 faculty members. Self-assessment Staffordshire Evaluation of Teaching Styles questionnaire was used for data collection. SPSS version 15.0 was used for analysis of categorical variables and t-test and analysis of variance were used to compare data variables. RESULTS: Of the total, 28 (36.4%) teachers preferred all round flexible and adaptable style; 19 (24.7%) preferred student-centred, sensitive; 4 (5.2%) official curriculum; 5 (6.5%) straight facts no nonsense; 6 (7.8%) big conference; 1 (1.3%) one-off; and 14 (18.2%) mixed. Percentage of 'all round flexible and adaptable' was higher among females, senior faculty and clinical sciences when compared to males, junior faculty and basic sciences. However, females, junior faculty, and basic science teachers attained significantly higher in official curriculum scores compared to males, senior faculty, and clinical sciences respectively. Similarly, basic sciences teachers attained significantly higher in big conference teaching style score compared to clinical sciences teachers (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Traditional curriculum does not support all round flexible and adaptable teaching style. Gender, curriculum, teaching strategies and faculty rank of the teacher influence the teaching style. To train teachers, effective faculty development should be done in medical colleges.

Smoking among future doctors in a "no-smoking" university campus in Karachi, Pakistan: issues of tobacco control.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of tobacco-related attitudes and practices among medical students who study in a designated 'No-Smoking University' in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. It further highlighted some challenges for tobacco control at the university. METHODS: The study design adopted mixed methods. It commenced with an initial qualitative phase using in-depth interviews with medical students and university staff to refine and expand areas of enquiry for the development of a structured cross-sectional survey among second and fifth (final) year students. Thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data, while descriptive statistics and various statistical tests were applied to investigate differences along a number of parameters in the survey data. RESULTS: Overall smoking prevalence across both years was 14.5%; however, there was a sharp disparity along sex lines, with 32% of males and just 1% of females self-identifying as current or occasional smokers. Importantly, the majority of smokers initiated smoking after starting their medical education. Despite students' expressed expectations that they can and should be future non-smoking role models and advocates, their actual knowledge and practices - for males at least - were disappointing. Significantly fewer second year than final year students knew that Hamdard had been designated a 'No-Smoking University', and about half of the participants believed the university had 'effectively' controlled tobacco use on campus. A large majority supported stronger tobacco control measures at the university and in the wider society. CONCLUSION: This study highlights weaknesses in the measures taken for tobacco control on the university campus through the picture it provides of the presence of tobacco use, the on-campus initiation of smoking and the increase in smoking rates among final year students by comparison to those in the initial years of medical studies.

Perceptions of a literate community regarding causation, presentation and treatment practices of intestinal worms among children.

OBJECTIVE: To find out the perceived common causes of intestinal worms, their presentations and treatment options taken by the respondents, among children. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study Place and Duration of Study: Urban suburbs of Karachi during April and June 2004. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 2000 families responded to a self-administered questionnaire that was designed to obtain the study objectives. A single adult individual from each family was asked to respond to the questionnaire. Families having health care workers or health professionals were excluded. Medical students were properly trained to ensure competence in collecting a reliable data. RESULTS: The majority of the total respondents were females (66.3%) and were between 15-25 years of age (mean age = 25.4 years) with 100% literacy rate. A noticeable number of respondents (31%) revealed that overeating of sugar causes intestinal worms and that they mainly presented as altered eating habits / appetite (51.8%), abdominal pain (40.8%) and generalized weakness (26.3%). Regarding perceptions of drug treatment, nearly 2/3 of the respondents felt that the de-worming agent should be given to suspected child only (p<0.001), whereas 65% of the participants expected to observe worms after de-worming treatment (p<0.001). Contrary to the common use of self-medication in most other illnesses, self-treatment of worms on suspicion was declared by only 21.5% of the respondents (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study confirms that misconceptions about intestinal worms in children were prevalent within the community. In addition to the issue of environmental sanitation, removal of the mistaken beliefs is a prerequisite for an effective and long-lasting parasitic control among children.