Impact of wellness indicators on intellectual dimensions of medical teachers of Karachi: Findings from cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To measure impact of social, spiritual, occupational, physical, financial and emotional wellness on intellectual wellness of medical teachers. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted at 8 medical universities in the Sindh province of Pakistan from January 2012 to December 2014, and comprised faculty members. Using a self-administered questionnaire, teachers' responses on physical, emotional, social, spiritual, intellectual, occupational and financial spokes of the wellness wheel that were graded on a 4-point Likert scale. Generalised linear models were executed to find the best predictive scores for intellectual wellness. RESULTS: Out of 300 subjects approached, 261(87%) returned the questionnaire fully completed. Of them, 86(33%) were males and 175(67%) were females. Occupational wellness followed by spiritual, financial and emotional wellness depicted significantly high correlation with IW (p<0.05). Adjusted analysis revealed significant effects of spiritual, financial and occupational wellness (p<0.05). Findings of Models 1 and 2 suggested that holding the effect of other wellness subscales, intellectual wellness increased up to 0.485 score and 0.245 score due to occupational and spiritual wellness (p<0.05) respectively, while financial wellness was not significant (p>0.05). In the final model, occupational wellness effect increased to 0.504 score and spiritual wellness effect projected to 0.273 score for intellectual wellness (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Amongst all the spokes of the wellness wheel, occupational, financial, social, emotional and spiritual wellness improved mental capabilities of medical teachers to overcome the challenges for acquiring intellectual wellness. However, wellness at workplace played the major role in enhancing intellectual proficiencies.

Pattern of Depression Among Patients of Myocardial Infarction in Karachi, Pakistan: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background Depression is a well-known risk factor that aggravates the chances of having various complications of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) such as cardiovascular collapse, heart failure, arrhythmia, recurrent myocardial infarction, and stroke among patients of ACS. ACS is a broad term which includes unstable angina as well as myocardial infarction (MI). The purpose of this study is to analyze the prevalence of depression among the patients of MI admitted to the tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods and materials A hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in which 375 admitted and diagnosed patients of MI with a mean age of 58 years were interviewed at the cardiology department of the Civil Hospital and National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases (NICVD) Hospital, Karachi, from June to November 2017 using a self-made validated questionnaire, including patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Results Overall, about 12.8% of the cases were screened positive for severe depression, 17.1% for moderately severe depression, 17.6% for moderate depression, and 32% for mild depression (total of 79.5%). Of 146 female subjects, 119 (81.5%) were found to be suffering from some degree of depression while 179 (78.2%) of the 229 males screened positive for some degree of depression. Furthermore, 79 (82.3%) of the 96 smokers were suffering from a range of depression while 219 (78.5%) of the 279 non-smokers suffered the same. In addition, the results of the PHQ-9 were cross-tabbed with age (p=0.34), gender (p=0.66), marital status (p=0.07), living status, smoking (p= 0.72), hypertension (p=0.55), and diabetes (p=0.19). Conclusion This study concludes that many of the patients of MI who were admitted to the tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan, are suffering from major depressive behavioral changes following the cardiovascular event, which is known to aggravate the chances of having complications associated with it.

KNOWLEDGE AWARENESS AND BEHAVIOUR OF NON-MEDICAL STUDENTS ABOUT CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases is the leading cause of death worldwide, yet very little data is available assessing the awareness of the younger population of Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the awareness, knowledge and the preventive measures taken to avoid the health issues related to cardiovascular diseases. METHODS: It was a community based cross sectional descriptive study to assess the awareness and behavior in young non medical students. A questionnaire was developed and survey was conducted on 300 non medical students enrolled in different universities of Pakistan. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-16. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 300 students aged between 16 and 32 years. 6.7% of the participants had history of blood pressure, 0.7% had diabetes, and 68.3% had a family history of cardiovascular diseases. 17.4% students were smokers. In the knowledge section, only 22% respondent scored above 20 out of 28 showing lack of knowledge. 42.7% participants were concerned about developing coronary artery diseases. 43.3% and 6.7% knew their blood pressure and cholesterol level respectively.33.3% and 41.7% regulate their dietary fat and salt intake respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study elucidates that cardiovascular diseases are not perceived as major risk by Non Medical Students. Lack of knowledge, physical inactivity, and high positive family history render the target population prone to cardiovascular diseases. The findings of study indicates the need for heart disease awareness campaigns for young population, to escalate the preventive actions and adoption of healthy lifestyles so as to lower the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Pakistan.

Perceived stress and stressors among house officers.

BACKGROUND: House officers training has always been regarded as a highly stressful environment to doctors. The objectives of our study were to assess perceived stress and sources of stress among house officers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was carried out among house officers working in Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan, during November and December, 2013. Perceived stress was assessed using perceived stress scale. A 15-item questionnaire was used to assess sources of stress and was graded by Likert scale (1 = very low, 5 = very high). To calculate the difference of mean for stressors by gender of house officers, t-test with 95% confidence interval was used. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 81.5% (269 out of 330). One hundred twenty-nine (47.9%) were found to be under stress of whom 32 (24.8%) were males and 97 (75.2%) were females. Top five stressors reported by house officers were night calls, workload, time pressure, working alone, and coping with diagnostic uncertainty. Significant differences for stressors by gender were found for night calls (P < 0.05), unrealistically high expectation by others (P < 0.05), financial issues (P < 0.05), and lack of senior support (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Majority of house officers working in Civil Hospital, Karachi, and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, were under high level of stress. Therefore, immediate steps should be taken for control of stress and its management.