ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Despite Pakistan's stringent tobacco control policy, its effective implementation has always been a challenge, leading to rising tobacco consumption. The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of tobacco consumption and associated risk factors in the adult population of deprived urban areas. METHODS: A community-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted from February to July 2019, comprising 607 adults residing in the urban squatter settlement of Lahore using a standardized questionnaire, the WHO STEPwise approach. The outcome was current use of tobacco and/or smokeless tobacco daily. Multivariable logistic regression was applied to determine factors associated with smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption. RESULTS: Among 607 participants, about 64% were females, 49.3% were illiterate, 64.9% were currently unemployed, and 47.1% belonged to the low-income group. The prevalence of tobacco smoke was 10.5% (95% CI: 8.07-12.93), and smokeless tobacco consumption was 8.6% (95% CI: 6.38-10.82). Multivariable logistic regression found that smokeless tobacco was more likely among the aged 50-59 years (AOR=4.1; 95% CI: 1.1-13.8) and unemployed (AOR=3.6; 95% CI: 1.1-12.2). Whereas tobacco smoking was more likely among the aged 30-39 years (AOR=5.5; 95% CI: 1.8-16.7), Urdu ethnicity (AOR=2.9; 95% CI: 1.2-7.3), unemployed (AOR=6.6; 95% CI: 2.9-14.9), and never exposed to any media (AOR=3.2; 95% CI: 1.8-17.4). Participants exposed to health warnings were less likely to smoke (AOR=0.02; 95% CI: 0.01-0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study reports a high prevalence of tobacco consumption among adults and calls for effective policy implementation using a multi-pronged approach, including health professionals and media, to spread awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco and endorsement of health warnings on tobacco packaging.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Pregnancy and depression affect each other. The main objective of our study was to find out frequency of antenatal depression during last trimester and associated risk factors among pregnant female visiting a tertiary care private institution of Lahore, Pakistan. METHODS: This study was conducted at Shalamar Hospital a private tertiary care institution of Lahore during May 2017 to June 2018. Assuming 18% prevalence with design effect 1.5 and 97% confidence interval the calculated sample size was 417. To avoid dropouts the questionnaire was administered to 450 pregnant females in their last trimester that is with gestational age above 28 weeks. In this study we used a modified version of Goldberg's depression scale in Urdu language for data collection. Wherever needed the data collection team read out aloud the questionnaire to the participants who did not know how to read and write. Informed consent in a written form (in Urdu language) was taken from every study participant after explaining the participants about the research. If the participant did not know how to read and write, the interviewers narrated out aloud the script of informed consent for them and got it signed later by the participants. The confidentiality, anonymity and privacy of the study participants were preserved. Ethical approval of this study was obtained from Institutional Review Board of Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences. Data entry and analysis was finalized by using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression among women seeking antenatal care during their last trimester according to Goldberg Depression Scale was 40.89% (n=184).Whereas, 30.4% (n=137), 8.67% (n=39) and 1.78% (n=8) suffered from mild, moderate and severe depression respectively. The associations between passive smoking (p < 0.01), family history of preeclampsia (p < 0.05) and depression among family members (p < 0.05) with antenatal depression during last trimester were significant. CONCLUSION: According to Goldberg Depression Scale, 40.89% (n=184) of pregnant women seeking antenatal care in private tertiary care institution of Lahore suffered from depression.
