Postgraduate medical trainees' understanding of biostatistics: a pre- and post-research methodology workshop experience

Objective: To evaluate understanding of biostatistics among postgraduate medical trainees before and after biostatistics workshop

Study Design: Quasi experimental study

Place and Duration of Study: Regional Centre, Islamabad, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, from March to September 2017

Methodology: Two hundred and seventy postgraduate trainees were enrolled after taking informed consent. Structured questionnaire containing 21 multiple choice questions regarding understanding and application of biostatistics was given to all participants on the first and the last day of workshop and compared pre- and post-workshop by McNemar test of significance. SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis with p-value <0.05 as significant level

Results: The response rate was 100%. Among these participants, males were 81 [30%] and females were 189 [70%], mean age was 28.5 +/- 2.5 years. One hundred and twenty-five [46%] postgraduate trainees were from Islamabad. Most of the doctors were in the first year [37%] and second year [57%] of their training. With total correct answers of 42.9% [preworkshop] and 57% [post-workshop], p-value was <0.001

Conclusion: Understanding regarding application of biostatistics in research among PGTs improved significantly and immediately after teaching biostatistics in research methodology workshop

Contraceptive use and unmet need of family planning among illiterate females of working class in Rawalpindi

Objective: To determine the frequency of contraceptive use among illiterate employed females and to determine the frequency and causes of unmet need of family planning

Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: Rawalpindi city from Jun to Nov 2015

Material and Methods: Three hundred and sixty six illiterate and employed married women in the reproductive age group were approached using non probability purposive sampling. They were interviewed by the researchers through a pretested questionnaire. SPSS version 20 was used for data entry and analysis

Results: Frequency of respondents using contraception was found to be 56%, 48.9% for the modern and 7.1% for traditional methods. Unmet need of contraception was 17.6%. The main causes of unmet need were unwillingness of husband and fear of side effect. Un met need was found to be significantly lower in the couples where spouses mutually discussed the family planning, where females were high earners, or where women were having their own business while no significant association of unmet need was found with family type

Conclusion: Although there is high unmet need of family planning and low contraceptive prevalence rate [CPR] among illiterate working women, having a paid job seems to improve female's control on family planning issues when compared to CPR of illiterate women in general