ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To find out the association of weight, height and age with spirometry variables and to generate a regression equation by taking weight as an independent variable beside age and height among children and adolescents of Karachi. METHODS: A modified form of ISSAC questionnaire was used. The spirometry variables recorded were Forced vital capacity (FVC), Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC, Peak expiratory flow rate (PEF), Forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% expired volume (FEF25-75). A person's correlation coefficient among boys and girls were calculated for all spirometry variable considering age, height and weight as independent variables. The linear regression models were calculated. RESULTS: The results reported a linear correlation of lung function variables with all three independent variables (i.e. p-value = 0.000), in which age and height manifested a strong positive correlation while weight reported a moderately significant correlation. All spirometry variables such as FVC, FEV1, PEF and FEF25-75 reported a significant coefficient of dependency and coefficient of correlation individually with age, height and weight. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that beside age, height and weight both also have significant correlation with lung volumes so these should be taken into account when using spirometry as a diagnostic test.
ABSTRACT
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. INTRODUCTION: Depression is a mood disorder characterized by loss of interest in daily activity, feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, decreased appetite, anger and irritability. The risk factors which leads to depression include academic demands, daily habits, sleeping hours, sedentary lifestyle, inability to cope, helplessness, increased psychological pressure, mental tension and increased work load etc. The objective of current study is to find out the prevalence of depression among students of different medical colleges of Karachi and its association with life style, habits and coping mechanisms. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 6 months i.e. April 2018 to September 2018, using a self-designed, self-explanatory questionnaire which also included Public Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for identification of depression. The coefficient of reliability including Cronbach alpha was 0.839 for the questionnaire. The data was analyzed by using mean with standard deviation and frequency with percentages while association was calculated by using Chi-square test. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 21.43 ±1.803. About 2/3 of the participants were female with marital status of 3/4th of participants being single. 92% of the medical students were found to be depressed while 26% of them have suicidal thoughts. Symptoms of depression were compared with depression score, which showed strong positive correlation. Depression scores were also compared with lifestyle habits of participants, including sleeping hours, exercise, recent trauma and multiple coping mechanisms, presented significant association with depression scores (p-value ≤ 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that depression is highly prevalent amongst medical student populations while the lifestyle habits, sleeping hours, physical activities, recent trauma and coping mechanism showed significant positive association with depression.
