Background Medical students face greater academic stress and devote more time to their studies due to the tough nature of medical education, at the cost of sleep and physical activity. Good sleep quality and physical activity improve the mental ability and academic performance of the students. Objectives and rationale The study aims to assess sleep quality and physical activity levels among fourth-year MBBS students of Rawalpindi Medical University. We compare these levels with gender and boarding status and correlate them with the academic performance of the students. This may provide new target areas to improve the academics of students performing below average. Materials and methods It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in March 2019 on 344 medical students enrolled in the fourth-year MBBS class of Rawalpindi Medical University. Sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), physical activity levels by the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ), and academic performance by the marks attained in the most recent pathology class test. The students who could not prepare for the test in the usual manner were excluded from the study. Two-hundred nineteen (219) students were part of the final study sample. Data analysis was performed using SPSS v.22.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, US). A chi-squared test, independent samples t-test, Pearson’s correlation, and a multiple linear regression model were used to assess the variables. Results Sleep quality and physical activity were significantly correlated with academic performance (p-values of the chi-square and t-test were <0.000). Pearson’s correlation coefficient was -0.69 for PSQI (p<0.000) and 0.62 for GPAQ (p 0.003) with test scores. Gender showed significant association with sleep and physical activity levels (male students had better physical activity level and poorer sleep quality than female students) but no association with test scores. Boarding status was significantly associated with all three variables. Boarders had lower mean test scores and poorer sleep and physical activity indices as compared to non-boarders. The multiple linear regression model was valid (p-value of the F test was <0.000), with beta coefficients of -2.53 ( p=0.002) for sleep quality and 1.37 (p=0.01) for physical activity. The R 2 value was 0.84 (84%). Conclusions Our study indicates an overall poor sleep quality and physical activity level among fourth-year medical students, particularly boarding students, who have lower test scores and worse sleep and physical activity levels. In general, male students have better GPAQ scores and female students have better PSQI scores. Both the PSQI and GPAQ scores are significantly correlated with test scores and provide potential target areas to improve the exam performance of the students.
Obesity is one of the major health public problems and it not only leads to serious and chronic diseases but also causes poor mental health. Although it is affected by number of factors including food, gender, socioeconomic status, and genetics but menopause is important in postmenopausal women. Therefore, this study was set to assess the prevalence of obesity and impact of menopause on it among women. This cross-sectional descriptive study was completed in about 3 months from August 2020 to October 2020 in a rural area of Punjab, Pakistan. 189 women were enrolled in our study according to agreed criteria of exclusion and inclusion. Women whose age was above 28 years and up to 58 years and who either had regular menstrual cycles or had cessation of menses from at least one last year were selected for study while women who either had irregular menstrual cycles or who were not willing to participate were excluded from study. Collection of data was accomplished via one self-structured proforma and WHO Classification of Weight Status which is based on BMI was also applied. Data analysis was carried out by using SPSS version 25. Multiple statistical tests including Chi-square test, Independent Sample t-test, and One-Way ANOVA test were used to assess the study variables. Overall, our current study shows high prevalence (29.6%) of obesity among women, however, mean of BMI value was higher among postmenopausal women (27.53 SD of ±4.28) in comparison with premenopausal women (25.44 with SD of ±4.05) which means that postmenopausal women had higher risk of development of Obesity in comparison with premenopausal women. The association between obesity and menopause was statistically significant (p=0.0001). The difference of BMI mean value between premenopausal women and postmenopausal women was significant statistically (p=0.001). Significance difference was also noted in BMI mean value of across four grades of weight status (p=0.000). In a nutshell, overall prevalence of obesity is high among women and its even higher among postmenopausal women in comparison to premenopausal women which means menopause increases the obesity among women after menopause but process of development is so far vague.
Stress is a common health problem among medical students. Higher stress among students leads to change in food preference. This study was aimed to assess the relationship between perceived stress and food pattern among final-year MBBS student of Rawalpindi Medical University. This cross descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among final-year MBBS students of Rawalpindi Medical University in January 2020.Data was collected through Perceived stress scale and self-structured questionnaire about demographic details and dietary habit details. Students with irregular dietary habits were excluded. Because of non-parametric nature of data, non-parametric statistical tests including Mann–Whitney test, Kruskal–Wallis test and Multinomial logistic regression were applied to assess the variables. Statistically significant differences of perceived stress were observed across gender (p=0.000) and boarding status (p=0.004). Significant differences of perceived stress were also found across intake three frequency levels of sweet foods(p=0.000), snack foods(p=0.001) and ready to eat foods(p=0.012) while differences were non- significant across three intake frequency levels of fast foods(p=0.067) and fruits and vegetables(p=0.175).Multinomial logistic regression proposed increase intake of sweet foods, snack foods, ready to eat foods and fast foods with the increase in perceived stress while decease intake of fruits and vegetables with the increase in perceived stress. Our study shows that perceived stress changes dietary patterns and with the increase in perceived stress consumption of unhealthy foods increases while consumption of healthy foods decreases. So, by applying suitable interventions for alleviation of stress we can improve dietary habits and consequently physical health.
Background: Bed sore (BS) is very common among hospital admitted patients. Bed sore is a localized injury to skin and underlying tissues due to pressure or friction and its incidence is affected by multiple factors. Objective: This study was aimed to determine the incidence of bed sore and its potential risk factors among hospital admitted patients. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 108 hospital admitted patients in a tertiary care hospital of Lahore, Pakistan. Simple convenient sampling was used to enroll patients. After taking the informed consent from all patients, data was collected through a self-structured proforma. Data analysis was done via SPSS version 25. Chi square test was utilized to assess the association between bed sores and potential risk factors. Results: The incidence of bed sore among study population was 14 (12.96%). Bed sores incidence was significantly associated with age group (p=0.002), educational status (p=0.03), socioeconomic status (p=0.002), awareness about bed sores (p=0.001), hospital stay length (p=0.002), limitation in movement (p=0.0001), diabetes mellitus (p=0.03), chronic kidney disease (p=0.04), obesity (p=0.001), history of hypertension (p=0.002), history of stroke (p=0.02), and history of heart disease (p=0.04), whereas, bed sores were not associated with gender significantly (p=0.40). Conclusion: In a nutshell, the incidence of bed sores was significantly high among study population. Predisposing factors to the bed sores were advanced age, lower educational status, lower socioeconomic status, lower awareness about bed sores, longer hospital stay, limitation in movement, diabetes mellitus, obesity, history of hypertension, history of stroke, and history of heart disease. Recommendations: This research recommends that people should make aware about the predisposing factors of bed sores and how to avoid these factors at every level and especially in hospitalized patients. Patients should change their position periodically. Obese patients should reduce weight. All patients, especially diabetic patients, should take care of skin.
The main objective of our study was to determine the prevalence of burnout and to identify various socio-demographic factors which are associated with resident burnout. As a secondary objective, we aimed to assess levels of empathy among the residents. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed among residents working in Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, and District Headquarter Hospital, all of which are situated in district Rawalpindi of Punjab, Pakistan. Data were collected from January 2019 to April 2019 using a convenient sampling technique. The participants were requested to complete Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure burnout and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy to measure empathy from January 2019 to April 2019. For data analysis IBM SPSS © version 25.0 was used. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the quantitative variables. Chi-square test was used to determine the association between burnout and categorical variables. Then, those independent variables with p-value < 0.05 were subjected to binary logistic regression to identify predictors of burnout. A P-value of < 0.05 was used as the criterion for statistical significance and OR with 95% confidence interval was used to indicate the strength of association. Independent sample t-test was used to assess empathy among the groups. The prevalence of burnout in our sample was 78%. The average burnout score of the sample was 81±13.45. Weekly working hours (p-value < 0.05) and the type of specialty (p-value < 0.05) were significantly associated with resident burnout. Residents working more than 80 hours were more prone to develop burnout [AOR 2.700(1.42-5.120)]. Medical residents were found to be at a higher risk of developing burnout as compared to surgical residents [(AOR 2.097(1.16-3.78)]. Residents working less than 80 hours per week had more empathy scores as compared to residents working more than 80 hours and this result was statistically significant (p-value < 0.05). However, no significant difference in empathy was found for age, gender, marital status, and posts. Therefore, weekly working hours should be reduced to diminish burnout and increase empathy, thereby, promoting the quality of care being delivered to the patient. Moreover, efforts should be made to reduce burnout in medicine residents so that we may promote the doctor-patient relationship.
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