Use Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine Among Asthmatic Patients.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in some developed countries is on the rise as surveys conducted on large scale vouch for. This study was conducted with the aim to determine the frequency of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among asthmatic patients at outpatient department of tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in outpatient department of two tertiary care hospitals. A face to face interview of 423 patients was conducted through a questionnaire. Non-probability consecutive sampling method was used to select the respondents. Stata version 12.1 (StataCorp), College Station, Texas) was used to carry out the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Overall asthmatic patients in the study were 423, in which 232 (54.85%) patients reported as using CAM. There were 177 (41.84%) males and 246 (58.16%) females. The CAM use was significantly more in older age patients, suffering from asthma for more than 5 years, severe persistent type of asthma, married, unemployed, rural and current smokers. CONCLUSIONS: The use of CAM reflects a high CAM use among asthmatic patients in Pakistan. Clinicians should be aware about their patient's use of CAM.

Prevalence of zinc deficiency among rural women during childbearing age in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Zinc deficiency is a commonly reported health problem throughout the world. This cross sectional survey was conducted in rural Peshawar with an aim to estimate the prevalence of zinc deficiency in women of child bearing age and find its association with age, marital, pregnancy status and parity. Data was collected from 353 women age 15-45 years. EPI INFO version 6.04 was used for data analysis. Overall 98 (27.8 %) women were zinc deficient (<80 µg/dL) while 31 (8.8%) had severe zinc deficiency (<50µg/dL.). Mean zinc level was found to increase gradually with the increase in the age up to 40 years and then starts decreasing significantly beyond this age. A significant decrease (p<0.03) in zinc concentration was found in married as compared to unmarried women. Out of 31 female with severe zinc deficiency, 23 (74.2%) were pregnant. Pregnant women in second (OR (CI) 3.36 (1.52-7.44) p<0.0008) and third ((OR (CI) 3.73 (1.91-7.30) p<0.00002) trimester were 3.4 & 3.7 times, respectively more zinc deficient as compared to control women. Mean zinc levels were significantly lower in women having no children versus women with 1-5 numbers of children. This study concludes that severe zinc deficiency especially prevalent in pregnant women needs urgent correction through food supplementation.