Perception of community regarding common diseases prevailing in the a squatter settlement of Karachi, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the perceptions of the community about prevalence of different diseases in Gulshan-e-Sikandarabad, an urban squatter settlement in Karachi and compare them with the data about disease pattern available at Primary Health Care Center in the same community. METHODS: A stratified random sample of ten percent of houses of the community was selected and both male and female heads of household were interviewed. Open ended questionnaire was used to record perceptions of responders. A total of 336 persons were interviewed out of which 196 (58%) were females and 140 (42%) were males. RESULTS: Age, education, nationality and ethnicity (Sikandarabad has inhabitants from Afghanistan as well. In our study 12 were Afghan nationals. Among Pakistani responders majority were Pathans, some were Punjabi, Saraiki etc.) had no statistically significant difference in responses. Gender had the most significant difference in responses. The perceived nine top most common diseases were similar to the top nine common diseases according to data of the health center of Ziauddin University located in Gulshan-e-Sikandarabad. CONCLUSION: The perceptions of community members about most of the common diseases prevalent in their community was similar to the disease pattern maintained at Primary Health Care center in the same locality. Anaemia and helminth infestation although common according to the health center record were not perceived as common by the community members.

Students' feedback of objectively structured clinical examination: a private medical college experience.

The aim of the study was to evaluate undergraduate students' perceptions regarding Objectively Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to be used as a feedback to improve the assessment technique. At the end of OSCE, students were provided with a feedback questionnaire related to OSCE to obtain their views and comments. The feedback was obtained from two consecutive batches of third year medical students and was utilized to incorporate the improvements in the process, wherever possible. A great majority of students (93% from group 'A' and 95% from group 'B') regarded OSCE as a practical and useful assessment tool in early years of medical education. In this study, students appreciated OSCE and offered constructive feedback on structure and organization of the process. However, at some stations they felt that instructions were ambiguous and time allocation was inadequate for the assigned tasks. The overall feedback was very useful and facilitated a critical review of the process.