Perceived stress score among doctors serving at various government and private hospitals in Faisalabad.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the prevalence of stress among doctors serving at various public and private hospitals. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted at four public and private hospitals in Faisalabad, Pakistan, from July to December 2019, and comprised doctors with at least one year of professional service. Data was collected using the Perceived Stress Scale Questionnaire and was analysed using SPSS 20. RESULTS: Of the 162 respondents, 87(53.7%) were males and 75(46.3%) were females. The females had significantly higher (p<0.05) perceived stress scores compared to the males. Age, number of years in job, and number of children had negative correlation with stress scores (p<0.05). Stress was significantly low in doctors who managed to usually get time-out for relaxation (p<0.01) and in those doing private practice (p<0.05). The effect of doctor's marital status, type of specialty and residence was not significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Younger doctors, particularly females, in their early career were found to have higher perceived stress scores compared to their senior colleagues with more children and well-established private practice.

Implementation of a telemedicine service during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan.

AIM: In this feasibility study, we aimed to implement a pilot telemedicine service at our healthcare facility in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and describe our experience. METHODS: Telemedicine service was established by Faisalabad Medical University at two of its affiliated locations: (i) a 24-hour COVID-19 Telephone Helpline was established at the Director Emergency Office, Allied Hospital, and District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital. (ii) A Telemedicine Clinic comprising consultants and postgraduate residents from different specialties was established at Chief Office, Allied Hospital. The data related to the number and categories of calls and advice provided were collected from 27th March 2020 to 31st July 2020. RESULTS: A total of 4582 calls were received, at both locations, during the study period, out of which 2325 callers (51%) were male, and 2257 (49%) were females. At Allied Hospital, 172 patients were advised accordingly for their complaints, whereas, at DHQ Hospital, 320 patients were advised accordingly for their complaints. At the Telemedicine Clinic only, a total of 2436 calls were received during the study period, 1474 (60%) callers were male, and 962 (40%) were female. The majority of the calls were received by medicine (43%), dermatology (21%), and paediatrics (11%) specialties, respectively. CONCLUSION: Despite some limitations, the benefits of telemedicine in this COVID-19 era are enormous and it is feasible to implement telemedicine services in developing countries. The developing countries must invest in the internet and technology access to facilitate telemedicine and other e-health services for not only curbing this pandemic but also to promote a more efficient healthcare system after the pandemic.

Effect of different levels of hydrolysable tannin intake on the reproductive hormones and serum biochemical indices in healthy female rats.

The present work aimed to find out the effect of different levels of hydrolysable tannin (HT) on serum hormonal profile, biochemical indices, lipid profile, apparent digestibility of nutrients and body weight gain in healthy female rats. Forty five adult healthy female rats of 8 weeks old were randomly divided into five equal groups. Different doses of HT 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% were administered daily to each rats group on the body weight basis for 6 weeks. The results had shown the reduction trend (p < 0.05) in the blood glucose, serum cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, testosterone, prolactin, ghrelin, total oxidative stress and serum iron levels; while an improvement (p < 0.05) was seen in serum follicle stimulating hormone, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, high density lipoprotein, IgM and total antioxidant capacity. However, no effect (p > 0.05) was noticed in serum IgG, protein, estrogen and calcium levels. A significant reduction (p < 0.05) was seen in the apparent nutrient digestibility and body weight gain. The results had shown improvement in the feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05) but non-significant decrease (p > 0.05) in the feed intake. The findings showed that HT had healthy effects on the serum biochemical indices and reproductive hormonal profile but had a negative impact on the nutrient digestibility. Thus, the study concluded that HT could be used as an herbal medicine for the treatment of leading metabolic and infertility diseases like obesity and polycystic ovarian syndrome in females.