IntroductionSmoking is the leading cause of lung cancer around the world. In a developing country like Pakistan with low levels of literacy and general awareness about adverse effects of smoking, doctors play a pivotal role in educating the masses about its harmful consequences and providing support for smoking cessation. However, their efficacy is affected if they smoke themselves, and oftentimes the habits cultivated during educational recourse are carried into the professional careers. The aim of this study was to document the prevalence of smoking among final year medical students of Lahore, Pakistan, and the factors associated with it.MethodologyStudy approval was obtained from Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore Medical College, Ethics Review Committee. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in four medical colleges and hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. A questionnaire consisting of 14 questions related to basic demographics and smoking was used after being pilot tested on 20 students of CMH. The overall response rate was 74.89%. Data was collected from 337 respondents, of which 38 forms were discarded and 299 forms were analyzed by SPSS V21.ResultsAmong the 299 respondents, there were 128 males (42.81%) and 171 females (57.19%) with 32 (10.70%) smokers. Male students reported smoking (n = 27, 21.09%) more than their female counterparts (n = 5, 0.02%). The mean age of participants was 23.01 years. Students having an active smoker at home had statistically significant positive correlations with current smoking status and the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Students with household smoking contacts were also more likely to smoke if they belonged to the male gender.ConclusionPrevalence of smoking in medical students is lower than in the general population but still considerable in the male students. There is a need to target this particular population with interactive counseling sessions, education campaigns, and anti-smoking rules to decrease smoking among them and through them in the society.
The pilot study in Punjab, Pakistan was one of the five paired demonstration projects sponsored by FIGO in the "Save the Mothers" maternal mortality project. The goal of the project was to bring basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care (EmOC) to a semiurban and rural area some 30 km from Lahore, where effectively there was none. The aim was to achieve this by using the existing facilities within the rural health system without the deployment of extra specialist staff other than as initial facilitators. This report shows trebling of some performance indicators and an improvement in met need. There is coincidentally a similar increase in the uptake of general medical services. Reducing maternal mortality requires building local capacity for EmOC; the essential components being the premises, trained personnel, equipment, and availability of drugs and blood. Availability and provision of EmOC coupled with changes in the attitude of the population resulted in marked improvement of process indicators.
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