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Objective: To assess the risk of COVID-19 to healthcare workers (HCWs) in Tertiary care hospitals and its association with demographic factors. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Tertiary Care Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from May to Dec 2020. Methodology: Healthcare workers working in a designated COVID-19 Tertiary care hospital were included in the study. A modified "Risk assessment and management of exposure of HCWs in the context of COVID-19 tool" was distributed. HCWs were categorized as "high risk" and "low risk" of COVID-19 infection. Frequency and percentages were computed for demographic variables. Results: A total of 182 healthcare workers were included, and 167(91.7%) returned the study questionnaire. Most of them were nurses (n=65, 40.1%) working in the medical unit (n=99, 61.1%). Low risk HCWs were 73.5%( n=119) and only 26.5%( n=43)were high risk. Gender (p-value: .02) and type of HCWs (p-value: .01) were significantly associated with the risk of COVID-19. Conclusion: One-fourth of HCWs were at high risk of COVID-19 virus infection. Female gender and nurses were more likely to acquire COVID-19 infection.

Objective: To find out the psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers dealing with the outbreak compared to those who did not deal with COVID-19 positive cases directly. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Online survey conducted in tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan from May 2020 to Jun 2020. Methodology: Total 171 participants enrolled in the online survey using Google Forms and self administered proforma comprising of perceived stress score 10 and impact of event scale revised. Data was imported using Microsoft excel and analysed by SPSS v 23 software. Results: Out of 171 participants, 105 (73 [69.3%] males, 32 (30.4%) females were dealing with COVID-19 patients. Moderate to high stress were documented in 51 (78.5%) and 4 non-COVID fighters respectively and in 66 (62.9%) and 6 (8.6%) COVID fighters. Moreover, front line Health Care Workers exhibiting a higher incidence of Post traumatic stress disorder i.e. 25 (23.8%) with Partial PTSD and 22 (21%) matching a clinical cut-off score for diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and 58 (55.2%) having Severe post traumatic stress disorder. Conclusion: Our study concluded that stress and post traumatic stress disorder incidence was seen to be significantly higher in Health Care Workers who were directly dealing with COVID-19 patients as compared to those who were not dealing directly. Moreover, Health Care Workers working in setups which provided psychosocial support reported significantly lesser incidence of perceived stress and post traumatic stress disorder.

Objective: To determine the frequency and types of different injuries among adolescent goods transport workers, to assess the awareness and work related factors associated with occupational injuries. Study Design: Analytical cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in Goods Transport Areas in District Rawalpindi, from Jan 2017 to Dec 2017. Material and Methods: Study was conducted among Goods Transport Workers in District Rawalpindi. A sample size of 350 using W.H.O. sample size calculator was taken and non – probability purposive sampling was done. After taking informed consent the data was collected for assessment of occupational injuries. Data were analysed using SPSS version 22. Confidence interval was set to be 95% with 5% margin of error. Results: Total 350 adolescent workers were included in study. Mean age was 16.5 ± 1.7 years and 311 (88.9%) workers worked for more than 8 hours/day. The frequency of occupational injury among goods transport workers was found to be 249 (71.1%). In a proportion of workers 131 (37.4%), hand was the most affected part and laceration was the common type of injury in 126 (36%) workers. Almost half of the sample, 178 (50.9%) workers had awareness about occupational injuries. The majority 324 (92.6%) of the adolescent workers did not use personal protective equipment. Significant associations were found between job satisfaction (p=0.006), working extra hours (p=0.001), job stress (p=0.00) and injury frequency. Conclusion: Injury prevalence among goods transport workers was high. The study revealed that the adolescent workers had high perception of hazards but they were also exposed to hazardous situations more frequently. Many factors related to higher injury frequency including working for extra – hours, irregular shifts, stress at work.

Background: Evidence indicates that mental health issues like depression, epilepsy, and substance misuse can be detected with reasonable accuracy in resource-poor settings. The Community Informant Detection Tool (CIDT) is one such approach used for detecting mental health problems, including depression. We adapted this community informant approach for detecting maternal depression in Pakistan.Methods: Adaptation of Community Informant Detection Tool for Maternal Depression (CIDT-MD) involved five steps. First, a scoping review of the literature was conducted to select an appropriate tool for adaptation. Second, in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the idioms of depression and distress, perceived causes, and the effects of maternal depression among currently depressed and recovered mothers (n = 11), mothers in law (n = 6), and Primary Care Providers (Primary Care Physicians and Lady Health Supervisors) (n = 6). Third, case vignettes and illustrations were created with input from a panel of mental health experts, incorporating the idioms of depression and distress used, causes, and effects for each symptom described. Fourth, to assess the comprehensibility of the illustrations and level of understanding, Focus Group Discussions (n = 4) were done with purposely selected community health workers (Lady Health Workers and Lay Peers, n = 28) trained in delivering maternal depression intervention. The final step was reflection and inputs by a panel of mental health experts on all steps to finalize the content of the tool.Results: Context-specific cultural adaptation in the presentation and format of CIDT-MD was conducted successfully. Lady Health Workers (LHW) and Lay Peers (LP) were found to be the most appropriate persons to use the tool and function as the informants. The adapted tool with all its vignettes and illustrations was found to be easily understandable, comprehensible, and culturally appropriate, meaningful, and contextually relevant by the community health workers and peers working in the relevant settings. They easily relate to and identify potentially depressed such women lining up with the tool. Lastly, the coding of the tool was found easy to follow as well.Conclusion: The Community Informant Detection Tool for Maternal Depression (CIDT-MD) is a culturally acceptable, easy to use, and comprehensible tool for detecting maternal depression in community settings of Pakistan. The community informants found the content and approach highly relevant to the local needs.

Objective: To determine the effect of short term health education program on health locus of control in females (18-22 years of age), enrolled in Bachelor’s program in Fatima Jinnah University. Study Design: Quasi-experimental. Place and Duration of Study: Fatima Jinnah University Rawalpindi Pakistan from Jan 2016 to Dec 2016. Material and Methods: A sample of 281 young females was taken. Pre-intervention questionnaires were filled prior to the intervention. Intervention, in the form of a workshop was done comprising of oral lecture, video clip and flash cards. Post intervention questionnaires were filled by the same participants after 2 weeks. Questionnaires consisted of Sociodemographic profile and Multidimensional health locus of control form A. Results: Out of 281 participants 13.7% were 18 years old and below, 20.1% were 19, 23.7% were 20, 22.3% were 21 and 20.1% were 22 years and above. No association was found between age groups and difference in mean of internal and external health locus of control scores. The mean of pre-intervention scores of internal health locus of control was 23.78 ± 6.10 and that of post-intervention score was 25.58 ± 5.98. A p-value=0.001 (significant p-value

Participation in the first ever course in Medical Editing conducted at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) in Lahore was highly inspirational, informative and historic. The course content covered a broad range of tremendously exciting learning developments in Medical editing that stimulated the learning process. The endeavors of the organiser of the course; Shaukat Ali Jawaid, Chief Editor, Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences (PJMS) organized and facilitated this very first course in Medical Editing. It provided an opportunity of networking with many stalwarts in medical journalism in Pakistan as well as to learn from their experience that led to many ses-sions of enlightened peer to peer interaction.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of frontline Healthcare Workers (HCWs) towards managing COVID-19 in Tertiary care hospital in Pakistan., Method: This qualitative exploratory study was conducted from January to May 2021 at a Tertiary care hospital designated for COVID-19 patients in Rawalpindi Pakistan. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted from twenty six HCWs. To acquire a sample that was diverse in terms of professional capacity, degree of experience and exposure, purposive sampling technique was used. After thematic analysis, themes were generated by identifying patterns among codes., Results: Five themes emerged. All HCWs experienced significant amount of negative emotions including fear, uncertainty, imposing social distancing and workload. There were also positive experiences such as rewarding, call of duty and professional growth. HCWs experiences related to personal protective equipment (PPE) were communication issues, physical and dermatological issues, reuse and working confidently while wearing PPE. HCWs were buoyed by cooperation and facilitation, trainings and health education from administration. Coping mechanisms were used such as seeking team support, adjusting cognition to deal with reality and resorting to religion., Conclusion: Negative emotions predominated in the beginning and positive emotions emerged gradually. PPE and administrative support played significant role. HCWs' mental health was maintained in part by their self-coping styles. The findings of this study can be employed to inform and enhance future pandemic response initiatives., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: None., (Copyright: © Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences.)