Objectives: To determine risk factors of cervical cancer and role of healthcare providers regarding awareness and counseling of PAP-smear. Methods: It was case-control study conducted from Jan-2021 till may-2021 at two tertiary care hospitals of Karachi South. The intended sample size was 255 subjects as 105 cases and 150 controls. The inclusion criteria were diagnosed cases of CA Cervix and under the age of 50 years. Controls were recruited from the general population. All the data were entered into SPSS version 23. The odds ratio was calculated to compare the risks of occurring CA cervix among cases and controls. The relationship of risk factors was assessed by binary logistic regression. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Generally, highly significant p-value (<0.000) was observed; depicted a positive association for a level of education, age at first intercourse, and number of parity in cases of CA cervix and controls (OR=4.3). The correct predicted rate was 68.8% for having CA cervix among controls due to family history, the knowledge of PAP smear screening, ever counseled for a PAP smear, ever tested for a PAP smear, never been tested for PAP smear due to cost. Conclusion: Educational level, age at first intercourse, number of parity was the risk factors of CA cervix. Family history of CA Cervix, knowledge of cervical cancer screening, ever counseled for PAP smear, ever tested for PAP smear, never been tested for PAP smear due to cost were significantly predicted for CA cervix among controls. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.4.4969 How to cite this:Sadia H, Shahwani IM, BANA KFM. Risk factors of cervical cancer and role of primary healthcare providers regarding PAP smears counseling: Case control study. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.4.4969 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

COVID-19 is indeed the crisis of the century. Previously unidentified coronavirus, (SARS-Severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2002-2003 and in the form of (MERS- CoV- 2 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2) in 2011 1 now named as COVID-19 emerged from Wuhan, China in late December 2019.

Objective: To assess the anxiety and depression among the dentists of Karachi by using AKUADS. Study Design and Setting: It was a cross sectional study design conducted in Karachi. Methodology: The calculated sample size was 293.The data was collected over a period of 3 months with the help of validated Questionnaire of Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKUADS). Informed consent was taken and rationale was explained to all the participants before commencement of this study. Results: Our study focused on sample of 234. The response rate was 79.8%. The anxiety and depression was prevalent in 67.9% of dentists from Karachi. Males and unmarried/single dentists were more depressed than females and married dentists. The 24-30 years of dentists having more than five years of professional experience and were working more than 40 hours per week were found to be more depressed n=82 (72.56%) than the dentists who worked less than forty hours per week; n=77 (63.6%) and calculated P value was 0.093. When analyzing the association between anxiety and depression and working sector; dentists who worked in private sector (n=81) 71.05% were found to be more depressed than the dentists worked in Public sector and the calculated P-value was 0.197. Conclusion: The study rendered substantial data about unexpectedly high prevalence of anxiety and depression among the sample of dentists from Karachi. It was inferred from the study that experience in professional field, age of dentists, more than 40 hours working per week and working in private sector have been associated with anxiety and depression among the dentists of Karachi.

Background: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of TMDs among the sample of Karachi and to observe the most frequent TMJ sound in this population. Methodology: It was a cross sectional study conducted from Sep 2017 to Nov 2017. Three hundred patients were selected through cluster sample technique from the public/private dental institutes and private dental clinics of Karachi. The data was collected with the help of questionnaire and intraoral examination was performed by the researchers. All those patients with complain of TMDs and between 20-75 years were included in this study. The frequency and association between gender and TMDs were assessed through the application of Chi square. Results: There were more males (n=162, 54%) and (n=138, 46%) females in this study. Majority of participants fall under the age group of 20-30 years of age. Most common TMDs symptom among male was pain during mastication (n=104, 64%) and most common symptoms among female was pain on neck/cervical area which was (n=92, 66%). Headache and earache was the least common symptom among both genders and p-value was 0.003 and 0.024 respectively. Clicking was the most common TMJ sound found among both genders, in male it was (n=58, 35.8%) and in female it was (n=48, 34.7%) followed by crepitation. Regarding parafunctional habits; majority of females (n=95, 68.8%) were in habit of clenching than male (n=60, 37%) and p-value was 0.0001 followed by tooth grinding which was also found mostly in female (n=64, 46.3%) then male (n=10, 6.1%) and p-value was 0.0001. Regarding the risk factors of TMDs; while examination majority of females were found with disturbed articulation,(n= 37,26.8%) and in male it was (n=10, 6.1%), significance difference was found between both genders and p-value was 0.0001. Stress was found to be most common risk factor and aggravating factor of TMDs among both genders. Missing teeth were found in both gender; (n=100, 61.7%) male and (n=71, 51.4%) female and calculated p-value was 0.047. Conclusion: It was inferred from this study that greater prevalence of TMDs was mostly found in female gender. The statistically significant difference was found among stress as an aggravating factor of TMDs and gender. Clicking was the most prevalent TMJ sound and clenching was the most frequently observed parafunctional habit among both gender, followed by tooth grinding and statistically significant difference found among both gender.

There is a dire need to incorporate quality improvement measures in medical education of our country as now worldwide the paradigm is shifted from the students’ outcome to the continuous quality improvement (CQI) measures. The ultimate goal of CQI is to provide optimal patient care. This is the responsibility of the accreditation council (PMDC) to ensure the true application of quality improvement indicators in medical institutes. The quality document introduced by the PMDC is the true reflection of the world accreditation bodies WFME, WHO. By ensuring the true application of this quality document, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council will be able to compete with the International standards of medical education through competent future physicians.