STUDY DESIGN: Observational, cross-sectional study.
PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Orthodontic Department of Baqai Medical University, Karachi, Pakistan, from August to October 2013.
METHODOLOGY: Atotal of 209 pre-treatment lateral cephalometric radiographs of orthodontic patients were selected from departmental records, comprised of 92 males and 117 females. Radiographs were traced for measurements of ANB, Wits appraisal, Beta-angle, W-angle and Yen-angle. Patients were categorized into skeletal classes I, II, and III on the basis of performed measurements, incisor classification, and profile recorded from their records. Descriptive analysis was used to obtain median interquartile range in both the genders and Mann-Whitney U-test was used to observe gender dimorphism.
RESULTS: Skeletal class II was the most prevalent type of malocclusion. There were no difference in the obtained measurements between males and females except the Wits appraisal and Beta-angle in class II patients, which showed significant difference in values (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION: Pakistani population has no significant different difference in the craniofacial morphology of males and females, with the exception of Wits-appraisal and Beta-angle in class II cases.
METHOD: A cross-sectional study among pharmacy students. Data were analyzed with Chi-square to find difference at p value < 0.05.
RESULTS: The majority of students (83.07%) responded showing a difference in gender and race. Students showed low willingness (9.2%) to assist patients and low confidence (36.1%) in their education about HIV/AIDS patients. Students recommended HIV testing for health care professionals (69.4%) and patients (75.9%) before surgical procedures. Students knew little about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (18.5%) or about the time for HIV to develop into AIDS (57.4%). About 40% of students were unaware of the inability of antivirals to treat HIV/AIDS. Students had low awareness for opportunistic infections (18.5%), and low agreement on competency to treat and counsel HIV patients (12.9%).
CONCLUSION: The study highlighted students' misconceptions, negative attitudes, and risk perceptions towards HIV/AIDS.
METHODS: Data were derived from a cross-sectional study of 1082 adolescents in 22 welfare institutions located across Peninsular Malaysia in 2009. Using supervised self-administered questionnaires, adolescents were asked to assess their self-esteem and to complete questions on pubertal onset, substance use, family structure, family connectedness, parental monitoring, and peer pressure. SRB was measured through scoring of five items: sexual initiation, age of sexual debut, number of sexual partners, condom use, and sex with high-risk partners. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the various predictors of sexual risk behaviour.
RESULTS: The study showed that 55.1% (95%CI = 52.0-58.2) of the total sample was observed to practice sexual risk behaviours. Smoking was the strongest predictor of SRB among male adolescents (OR = 10.3, 95%CI = 1.25-83.9). Among females, high family connectedness (OR = 3.13, 95%CI = 1.64-5.95) seemed to predict the behaviour.
CONCLUSION: There were clear gender differences in predicting SRB. Thus, a gender-specific sexual and reproductive health intervention for institutionalised adolescents is recommended.
METHODS: A total of 120 healthy volunteers were enrolled (55 adult males, 32 adult females, and 33 children). The volunteers were interviewed for any bleeding history or drug intake which affects coagulation. Kaolin-activated TEG was performed on citrated whole blood, and parameters including R-time, K-time, angle, MA, LY30, and CI were analyzed.
RESULTS: Derived reference range for total volunteers irrespective of age and sex were as follows: R-time: 3.8-10.6, K-time: 1.2-3.1, angle: 44.9-72.0, MA: 41.2-64.5, LY30: 0-9.9, and CI: -3.7 to 3.4. Statistically significant difference was observed in different age and sex groups for R-time, K-time, and angle. About 40% of the volunteers had at least one abnormal parameter according to the manufacturer's reference range which decreased to 12.5% when the derived reference ranges were considered.
CONCLUSION: Gender- and age-related variances were observed in reference ranges of our population and which was also differed from the other ethnic population. Many of our healthy volunteers were categorized as coagulopathic when manufacturer's reference range was considered. So, it is important to derive the reference range of the target population before using the TEG into clinical practice.