Relationship of BMI with Junk Food, sleep pattern, exam performance and awareness about its ill health effects in healthy teenagers.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship of body mass index of healthy teenagers with junk food, sleep pattern, exam performance and awareness about its ill effects. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2017 at University Medical and Dental College, University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan, and comprised subjects aged 13-19. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews, getting the examnation results from respective educational insititutions and calculating the body mass index, Data was analysed using SPSS 22. RESULTS: Of the 226 subjects, 96(42.5%) were boys with a mean age of 15.68 ±1.83 years, and 130(57.5%) were girls with a mean age of 17.00±1.74 years. Based on body mass index, 35(15.5%) subjects were underweight, 88(39%) were normal, 28(12.4%) overweight, 56(24.7%) pre-obese and 19(8.4%) were obese. The independent predictors of body mass index were higher consumption of soft drinks in males and higher consumption of soft drinks and salt in females (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Teenagers were found to be well aware of the ill effects of junk food, but they were found to be happy with their dietary habits and unwilling to change it.

Perceived stress, severity and sources of stress among female medical students in a private medical college in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate apparent stress, severity and sources of stress among female medical undergraduate students. METHODS: The cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted at the University Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad, Pakistan, from August to December, 2016, and comprised female medical students from first year to final year. The students were divided into pre-clinical, para-clinical and clinical groups. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. RESULTS: Of the 514 students, 271(52.7%) were in the pre-clinical group with a mean age of 19±1 years, 111(21.6%) were in the para-clinical group with mean age 20.59±0.77 years, and 132(25.7%) were in the clinical group with mean age 21.83±1.03 years. The marks of the students were negatively related with stress scores in all groups, but they were highly significant in pre-clinical year only (p0.001). Severe stressors stated by respondents were, 'raised parental expectations', 'frequent examinations', 'sleeping difficulties', 'anxiety about the future', 'quality of food in the mess', and 'accommodation away from home'. CONCLUSIONS: The subjects showed high levels of stress. Major stressors were academic and psychosocial.

Knowledge and attitude of blood donation among female medical students in Faisalabad.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, practices and attitude of medical students towards blood donation. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan, from April to August 2016, and comprised female medical students. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed. A structured questionnaire was included as data-collection tool. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 20. RESULTS: Of the 500 students, 469(93.8%) responded to the questionnaire. Of them, 419(89.3%) females had never donated blood and only 2(0.4%) were regular voluntary donors. The best source from which the participants heard about blood donation was friends 259(55.2%). When coming to reasons for not donating blood, there was significant association of many factors like fear (p <0.001), the collection facility being far from the place (p <0.001), not having enough time to donate (p <0.001). Of the 50(10.7%) respondents who had ever donated blood, 48(96%) said the main motivator was saving lives of the people. CONCLUSIONS: Female medical students were aware of the basic knowledge about blood donation.