Health and Immune Boosting Techniques of General Adult Pakistani Population: A KAP Study.

OBJECTIVE: To discover Pakistani adult population's perception about their general health, immune status and knowledge regarding immunity, and to highlight their efforts to improve it. METHODS: The knowledge-attitude-practice study was conducted from January to May 2021, after approval ethics review committee of the Islamic International Medical College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and comprised individuals of either gender from the community aged 18 years or more and not suffering from any physical disability or mental illness. Data was collected using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire that was disseminated through online platforms. The collected data was analysed using SPSS 25. RESULTS: All the 455(100%) individuals approached responded to the questionnaire. The mean age of the subjects was 22.6±7.579 years. There were 256(56.3%) female respondents, 283(62.2%) were aged 20-21 years, and 359(78.9%) hailed from the Sindh province. Most participants perceived their general health as 'good' 197(43.3%). The immune system function was reported 'good' by 200(44%), and the perception of general knowledge of immunity was reported 'good' by 189(41.5%) subjects. Inverse relationships were identified between stress levels and self-perceived health, and between receiving effective homeopathic treatment and 'very good' self-perceived immune status (p<0.05). People willing to take non-obligatory vaccines had a positive opinion about their self-perceived knowledge on immunity that produced a direct relationship (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide a framework of practices that should be promoted to improve health status of adult population in Pakistan.

Clinical presentation and organ-based outcomes of Multifocal fibrosclerosis: A systematic review.

Objectives: Multifocal fibrosclerosis is a rare disorder causing progressive fibrosis of multiple organ systems. Existing data on the disease show that there are multiple manifestations of the disease, with different outcomes. However, quantitative data are scarce, prompting the need for our investigation. Method: A comprehensive systematic review was performed from inception to November 16, 2022, with the restriction of English language, not including review articles. Article screening and extraction was performed independently, and shortlisted articles were assessed for bias. Analysis was performed using SPSS Version 25 (IBM® SPSS® Statistics; Chicago, IL, USA). Data were presented as frequencies and percentages, with a confidence interval of 95%. Result: This review included 134 patients, with 78 (58.2%) males. Mean age was 53.6 years and included two pediatric patients. The most common comorbidity was diabetes (9.7%). Prevalent presenting symptoms included pain (47.8%) and swelling (35.1%). A mean of 2.51 organs or anatomical sites was affected, retroperitoneum (64.2%) being most affected. The pancreas (30.0%) and digestive system (47.0%) were the organs/organ systems most affected. Patients had favorable outcomes in 79.1% of cases, 87.3% had no relapse, and 91.8% of patients survived the condition. Conclusion: The findings in this study provide a quantitative measurement of the demographics, presentations, organ manifestations, and outcomes of multifocal fibrosclerosis. We found the disease to be prevalent in males in Japan or the United States, with the abdomen and its organs being commonly involved.