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Digital information adoption among the older generation is becoming interesting, and e-reading consumption is an important phenomenon. The current study explores the e-reading consumption experience among Pakistani generation X readers (Xers) through the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), along with TPB model validation through a larger sample. A mixed-method research design (exploratory sequential) was employed. The study was completed in two phases; the first phase was qualitative based on nine ( n = 9) in-depth face-to-face interviews. In the second phase, a quantitative research design was employed. A survey questionnaire was developed based on the TPB model and outcomes of the first phase, and the data were collected from 250 Xers from Pakistani public libraries. The first phase outlined numerous positive consequences and challenges specific to the behavioural beliefs. The circle of friends, colleagues and supervisors encourage e-reading consumption given the benefits, speed, and saver of time, cost, and effort, to name a few. Notably, e-reading consumption intention leaves no alternative for Xers in the digital information era. The results of second phase show that seven out of nine proposed hypotheses were supported significantly H2 (β = 0.33, p = .00), H3 (β = 0.20, p = .02), H4 (β = 0.27, p = .00), H6 (β = 0.22, p = .01), H7 (β = 0.18, p = .03), H8 (β = .28, p = .00) and H9 (β = −0.15, p = .04), whereas H1 (β = −0.03, p = .66) and H5 (β = −0.02, p = .73) were rejected. The current study extends the theoretical foundations of TPB in the age of digital information consumption by exploring dimensions qualitatively and tested that proposed relationship quantitatively from a developing country context, Pakistani Xers.

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Thirty patients of Retinoblastoma presenting in the Haematology Department of King Edward Medical College, Lahore were included in the study to find out the bone marrow involvement. The patients underwent bone marrow aspiration and peripheral blood examination was also done. The aspirates were screened for the presence of tumor cells. Of the patients studied 21(70%) were males while 9(30%) were females giving a male to female ratio of 2.8:1. Maximum number of patients were in the 2-3years age group. Twenty seven patients had unilateral Retinoblastomas while three patients had bilateral disease at presentation. The bone marrow of three patients showed presence of tumor cells.

Background: The slums are illegal settlements and are always left out in health surveys. However, studies around the world show that substance or drug abuse is higher among slum dwellers and may have different patterns and determinants which need to be studied in order to frame targeted programs and policies. The present study was aimed at estimating the magnitude as well as determinants of substance/drug abuse among slum dwellers in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. Methodology: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among the residents of slums/nomadic settlements of Islamabad. A total of 207 statistically calculated sample size comprised of adults from both genders aged 15 years and above, consenting to participate from the randomly selected 9 clusters in Islamabad was needed for the study. From each cluster, 23 households, and from each household one individual was randomly selected for estimating the prevalence. All those who were abusing substances were counted as cases and others as controls for case-control analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to gather information on demographics, trends, types of substances abused, risk factors for getting engaged in substance abuse, whether they had tried to quit at any stage and what difficulties they faced when trying to quit. Results were entered and analyzed using Epi-info version 7.2. Results: A total of 204 participants were enrolled in this study. Among these 68 (33%) were substance or drug abusers. For the case-control study, substance/drug users were considered as cases 68 and rest as controls. Bivariate analysis of the risk factors indicated that easy of availability of drugs in slum areas (OR: 20.3, p= 0.000); exposure to tobacco smoking (OR: 8.8, p= 0.000); and being a working child (OR: 6.0, p= 0.000) were the strong predictors of high substance abuse. Education (OR: 0.2, p= 0.000) and living with own parents during childhood (OR: 0.7 p= 0.2) had protective effects against substance abuse. Conclusion and Implications for Translation: The study concludes that the following were the determinants of substance/drug abuse among the slum dwellers in the study: easy availability due to unregulated sales of drugs, high rate of tobacco consumption, poverty, low level of literacy, and being a working-child. Specific policies and plans focused on law enforcement for curbing the illegal drug sales and reduction of child labor along with the provision of education should be devised and implemented to help these neglected communities and modify the determinants. Key words: • Substance abuse • Drug abuse • Slum dwellers • Case-control • Islamabad • Pakistan   Copyright © 2019 Faiza et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.