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Perceived Barriers And Facilitators To Access Mental Health Services Among Pakistani Adolescents
Full text linkIntroduction: Mental health problems have a high rate of prevalence among adolescents in Pakistan, however, the tendency to access mental health professionals for the treatment has been low due to some barriers. The current review focuses on those barriers and identifies the relevant facilitators in reducing the barriers to enhance the well-being of adolescents. Methodology: By considering the objective of the study, the adolescents whose age ranged between 10-19 years were included, the research work done during 2012-2018 was accessed through Pub Med, Science Direct, Google Scholar and SAGE articles. The key terms mental health services, adolescents, barriers, facilitators were used to locate the articles. Result: Most prevailing barriers were found as stigmatizing belief, lack of awareness, preference for other sources and scarcity of mental health services. Social support from significant others, finding an expression for the problems, customized mental health advertisements, increased awareness about mental health and providing online services for mental health problems can facilitate for reducing reluctance in adolescents for accessing mental health help services. Discussion: Mental health awareness programs can facilitate in reducing the above-mentioned barriers. This review can make it easier to lower down the perceived barriers among adolescents which consequently encourage them to seek help they require. Recommendations for future research are further discussed
Impact Of Eating Habits And Physical Activity On The Fertility Of Females
Full text linkIntroduction: This study aimed to compare the eating habits and the level of activity in fertile and infertile female subjects. Methods: This cross-sectional study was designed to compare the eating habits and level of activity in fertile and infertile female subjects from February 2016 till October 2017. Fertile females (n= 207) and diagnosed infertile (infertile, n=135) between 18 – 40 years were enrolled. Guidelines for the diagnosis of the infertile cohort were the failure to conceive after 12 months of regular and non-contraception intercourse, with normal uterine structure. Questionnaire was used to collect information regarding nutrition and physical activity. Statistical analysis was carried out employing IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The categorical variables were presented as frequency and percentages, Chi-square test was performed for comparison, p value < 0.05 considered significant. Results: With mean age of 31 ± 6 years and mean BMI of 24.6 ± 3.46 kg/m2, infertile females had a significantly high BMI compared with the fertile females. Physical activity of subjects demonstrated that 30.4% were inactive, while 27.2% were physically active. Infertile females (6.5%) did regular exercise however, 44.9% of the fertile females had healthy lifestyle. Females (51%) took meals 3 times a day. Healthy food consumption was once a week while 35% had consumption of fast food was approximately twice a week. Conclusion: Optimal physical activity and BMI in normal range is positively associated with fertility. Dietary habits such as more intake of fish, fruits and vegetables impacts fertility positively
Association of COVID19-affected Mental Health with Menstrual Abnormalities among University Students: A cross sectional study from Pakistan
Full text linkIntroduction: Mental health is crucial for wellbeing. COVID-19 pandemic has caused mental health problems. In this study it was hypothesized that COVID19 related mental health disturbances may have impacted the menstrual health. Objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 affected mental health on the menstrual health of university students. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at University of Sindh, Jamshoro between July to August 2021 during fourth wave. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to collect the data. Healthy unmarried female students were included in the study. Mental health parameters were assessed using DAS Scale. Results: For a total 400 study participants the mean age was 20.82±1.69. The prevalence of mild to severe depression, mild to severe anxiety, and mild to moderate stress was 46.3%, 62% and 29.3% respectively. In moderately depressed females there was an increased prevalence of oligomenorrhea [ꭓ2=34.5 p<0.0001], heavy menstrual blood flow [ꭓ2=21.8 p<0.001], increased duration of menstrual bleeding [ꭓ2=21.56 p<0.001], and heavy menstrual dysmenorrhea [ꭓ2=18.78 p<0.002]. In moderately anxious females there was an increased prevalence of oligomenorrhea [ꭓ2=15.5 p<0.07], heavy menstrual blood flow [ꭓ2=12.4 p<0.03], and increased duration of menstrual bleeding [ꭓ2=21.56 p<0.001]. In moderately stressed females there was increased prevalence of polymenorrhagia [ꭓ2=22.3 p<0.001], increased duration of menstrual bleeding [ꭓ2=24.23 p<0.0001], heavy menstrual dysmenorrhea [ꭓ2=21.28 p<0.01] and secondary amenorrhea [ꭓ2=4.28 p<0.01]. Conclusion: COVID19-affected Mental Health affected menstrual health. Healthcare system of Pakistan should address this issue while planning to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on human health
Racial Differences On Post Exercise Heart Rate Recovery In Healthy Sedentary Adult Males-- A Meta-Analysis Study
Full text linkIntroduction: Post-exercise heart rate recovery (PEHRR) is the measure of parasympathetic function of heart which decreases the heart rate as the person stops exercising. The post exercise heart rate recovery is easily measurable index of heart parasympathetic activity. The post – exercise heart rate recovery is computed as peak heart rate minus the heart rate measured after 1 min of termination of exercise. The risk of cardiovascular disease in individual with African background is greater as compared to Caucasians and Asian population. The aim of this study was to analyze the difference in post exercise heart rate recovery in individuals from different ethnic backgrounds.
Methods: A thorough literature search was carried out on PubMed, Google Scholar and PakMediNet with articles published between 2007 till 2021. The articles with post – exercise heart rate recovery in male adults with different ethnic backgrounds were included. A total of 8 studies were included after meeting the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The studies that measured heart rate recovery after 1 minute of termination of exercise were included.
Results: Out of 174 subjects 51 individuals were Africans, 104 were Asians and 19 were Caucasians. The post exercise heart raterecovery was not found to be statistically significant between the individuals from different ethnic groups (p value-0.258). Conclusion: The post – exercise heart rate recovery is not influenced by the racial differences. Further research on larger scale assessing the impact of parasympathetic activity in terms of heart rate recovery in individual from different ethnic background is required as very limited data is available till date
Infodemic as subsequent defiance to manage pandemic: Assessing the reasons behind COVID-19 vaccine refusal.
Full text linkIntroduction: COVID-19 is a pandemic, which originated in 2019 and is continuing to spread with new variants. It is believed that the use of vaccines can help bring better outcomes, however, the people of Karachi have serious reservations about the vaccines because of the widespread myths.
Methodology: The data has been collected in a sample size of 550 participants to find out the correlation between the acceptances of the COVID-19 vaccine. It shows the association between exposure to the virus, administration of a vaccine, reasons behind acceptance and rejection of vaccine, and feared outcomes from May 2020 to June 2021. Results: The results show that 401 people were vaccinated while people received vaccination for better protection, and to retain their salary and travel nationally or internationally. For those who refused to get vaccinated, the majority feared that the rumor about infertility may be true while some did not consider it important. The types of rumors included planting chips, death in two years, infertility, and side effects. Some people feared side effects such as body pain, infections, and infertility. Discussion: As compared to previous researches, the strong anti-vaccine sentiments in the people of Pakistan may be reducing as more people continue to get vaccinated every day. However, there is still a need to educate the mass population about the benefits of vaccines to combat the myths and increase the ratio of the overall vaccinated populatio
Oxidative Stress: A Double Edged Sword
Full text linkOxidative stress (OS) in simple words is defined as a state of imbalance between antioxidant and pro-oxidants defenses. The purpose of this article is to find out the connection of oxidative stress and free radical species with different aspects of human health. Owing to its harmful effects on proteins and nucleic acids, oxidative stress causes chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and cancer. It highlights the impacts of antioxidants and pro-oxidants particularly on fertility and infertility. It also focuses on the adverse effects caused by the long-term exposure to pro-oxidant factors leading to structural defects of mitochondrial DNA. As modern life style consists of more reliance on the processed foods and lack of physical activity, a nutrition deficiency, which is common in the present lifestyle, is also one of the reasons for oxidative stress to cause inflammation. However, this review also focuses on how diet affects and triggers inflammation. Redox mechanism with potential threats to health of mankind is discussed, how mere stress can provoke biological stress responses leading to development of disease or metabolic errors. Methods for reduction of oxidative stress are discussed in this review. It also highlights mitochondria as an aging factor as many ROS, particularly mitochondria ROS contribute directly to aging in human body. We will be discussing the recent findings in the oxidative stress field and its negative and positive impacts on human health
Screening to Determine Prevalence of β-Thalassemia and Iron Deficiency Anemia Among Medical Students
Full text linkAccording to the Thalassemia Federation of Pakistan, the mostly inherited disorder in Pakistan is β-thalassemia, which is characterized by a deficient, abnormal, or lack of β-globin chain synthesis and has a prevalence of 6%. The only method of controlling and preventing β-thalassemia is to increase awareness among students. This was an observational study using a random sampling technique. The Dow-Thalassemia awareness program recruited 915 medical students from the Dow Medical College (DMC) and Sindh Medical College (SMC) to voluntarily donate blood samples, which were analyzed by the naked eye single tube red cell osmotic fragility test (NESTROFT) and complete blood count and results were confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography and analyzed using the NESTROFT. The samples were collected in 2012-2013. A total of 915 samples, out of these 390 samples, 390/915 (42.6%) samples were positive and complete blood count found 282 (72.3%) were positive for iron deficiency anemia. The remaining 108/390 (27.6%) were confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Only 2.4 % subjects were positive for the β-thalassemia trait. Of 915 students, 57.4% of students were healthy, 39.2% had iron deficiency anemia, and 2.4% were carriers of the β-thalassemia trait. The overall prevalence of β-thalassemia was 38/915 (4.1%), which was lower than observed in previous studies. This study also demonstrated the NESTROFT can be used as a primary method of screening out healthy individuals, where approximately 50% require further screening for β-thalassemi
Development of Muscle Disuse Model in Rat: Effect of Denervation and Tenotomization on the Skeletal Muscle Mechanics
Full text linkDenervation refers to the condition that represents loss of nerve connection with the muscle. The term tenotomization or tenotomy refers to the condition where the tendon of the skeletal muscle is damaged. Both these conditions lead towards muscle disuse and then deterioration. It may be caused by some diseases, chemical toxicity, physical injury or intentional surgical interruption. To observe the effects of denervation and tenotomy, it is important to develop an animal model with such pathological conditions for a better understanding and investigation of a possible cure. Current study was designed to develop an animal model in rat for denervation and tenotomy. The objectives were to optimize the anaesthetic dose for rats, to develop muscle disuse models in rats including denervation and tenotomization and to determine the mechanical and physiological properties of the gastrocnemius muscle of the animal model for muscle disuse. Gastrocnemius muscle of the rat was targeted for study. Models were developed by surgical procedures. We succeeded in developing the rat model for both conditions and it was verified by observing the changes in the physiological properties of muscles