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In human population surveys, respondents are not likely to participate or give honest and truthful answers when the stigmatized issues are asked. To reduce the response biases RRT was developed. The proposed technique is an extension of Abul Ela's et al. RRT where the population was divided into three categories. In the proposed technique, the population is divided into five groups in which at least one and not more than four groups are stigmatized to estimate the population proportion of people having stigmatized issues. Unbiased estimates are obtained, and the variances of the proposed estimates are compared with the estimates of Warner and Abul-Ela et al. RRT and are shown to be efficient. The efficiencies are proved theoretically as well as numerically. Data collected through FGD from 90 respondents to prove numerical efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the research that investigates the health expenditures of Malaysians using the time series analysis.

Aim: β-thalassaemia major cases need proper attention and timely blood transfusions. The present study comprising 320 patients was conducted to assess the effects of risk factors and their relationship related directly or indirectly to the disease of β-thalassaemia major at Peshawar, Pakistan. Results: There were 191 male and 129 female patients in the study. Mean age of overall, males and females was 124.68± 54.52, 124.43± 55.20, and 125.05± 53.71 respectively. The mean transfusion age was 97.55± 38.72, 96.25± 38.75, and 99.47± 38.72 for overall, males and females respectively. It is found that 4 (included patient) out of 11 children of a family were affected with the disease (i.e. 36% of the family). The number of transfusions and the age of transfusions were significantly correlated (p < 0.05), to consider both the males and females patients together (overall) or separately. Similar results we obtained for considering the correlation between the height and weight of patients at the start of first and before the last treatments. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test also showed significant difference (p < 0.05) between the paired studied characters. Conclusion: It was found that the disease was common in both the males and females patients. The number of transfusion showed a significant (p < 0.05) positive correlation with the age. Awareness about family planning and the test during pregnancy test plays a pivotal role in controlling the disease. Similarly reduction in the percentage of interfamily marriages and need of education for parents and people about the disease is also necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unemployment, especially among the educated segments in Peshawar Division like other cities of the country, is a major problem creating hopeless and may be some destructive thinking among educated people. This study is aimed to have idea about main causes of unemployment among educated ones using odds ratio statistical analysis. A sample of 442 consists of the individuals from Peshawar Division having least graduation degree or capable of doing job, whether they are employed or unemployed, was taken. Out of 442 individuals, information from 69.6% males and 30.4% females were taken. Among 442 educated class people, 178 (40.6%) educated people view that the most basic reason for unemployment among the educated class is the high growth of population, 127(28.7%) people view that the most basic reason of unemployment among the educated class people is non-coordination between education and job opportunities, 89 (20.1%) people view that the reason is lack of resources, 33 (7.5%) people view that the reason is our education system and 15 people view red ribbons. Some important factors turned out from the analysis are: lack of resources, high growth rate of population, role of attitude, and non-coordination between education and job opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main purposes of statistics is to estimate parameters, and their reliability. Kaplan-Meier survival function is most commonly used technique for reliability. Several functions variance estimators have been proposed for this purpose, where each has its own advantages and disadvantages. To overcome some of the weaknesses of conventional methods, new variance estimators are proposed. The proposed variance estimators along with their alternative variance estimators were applied in Simulation studies. In addition, the estimators are also applied to the real data sets (Heart Transplant data set and Thallassaemia data set). The performances of the proposed variance estimators are remarkable as compared to its alternative variance estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparison of effects of two treatments by log-rank test is a very common phenomenon in medical research. Researchers prefer to use log-rank test with out carrying about the assumptions of test, which sometimes not only destroy the effects of study but also misguides the readers. The idea of this article is to review some aspects of log-rank test and to provide some rules of thumb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption based, value added tax (VAT) has been praised for years for its ability to generate revenues. Organizations and authorities claimed it to be an effective form of taxation. But their claim was based on assessment of mere developed economies and its implementation in developing/underdeveloped economies was overlooked. Consequently, this paper is aimed at analyzing the impact of VAT when enforced in an underdeveloped country such as Pakistan. Using household survey data, the paper tries to grasp the effect this tax would have on social and economic life of the populace. Results suggested that VAT would disturb economic order of the society and hence the concept was inappropriate in current state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of estimation of the population variance for the current occasion based on the samples selected over two successive occasions has been considered. Expressions for the Optimum estimator and its variance have been derived for both the occasions. Also the expression has been derived when no information has been collected on the first occasion. Expression for the Optimum fraction of unmatched observations has been derived. The values of Optimum matched and unmatched fractions have been tabulated. The gain in efficiency of the proposed estimator is compared to the estimator without using the information collected on the first occasion. An empirical study has also been conducted to study the performance of the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification trees are top-down induction of labeled sampling units into recursive order to get end nodes. Each end node representing those labeled units, which are in majority, otherwise considered as misclassified. In the top-down induction process, an evaluation criterion plays an important role to send maximum of the units having same label to the same node. To achieve this goal a "goodness of split" measure is calculated by using evaluation criteria e.g. Gini function, Twoing rule, Entropy function etc. for each distinct value of each variable and finally chooses one, which enhances the purity. Almost all the evaluation criteria provide the same results in terms of misclassified units, deviance and number of end nodes. Here we obtain simulation results on the proposed evaluation criteria (Azam, et al., 2007) to split a node, which fulfil all the required properties of any evaluation criteria (Breiman et al., 1984) and also propose a top-down sequential pruning scheme. We conducted a simulation study to test the performance of the proposed evaluation criterion using the top-down sequential pruning scheme over many real life datasets available under UCI Machine Learning Repository and observed that the proposed strategy provides improved results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study to determine various risk factors for wheat production was carried out in the Department of Statistics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan during the year 2012-13. In this study, modified type of Cobb Douglas function was performed to examine relationship between wheat production and various risk factors i.e. fertilizer, farm yard manure (FYM), land preparation, pesticides/weedicides, irrigation and labor days. Data were collected from three villages namely Regi, Lakaray and Putwar of District Peshawar. A total of 234 respondents were examined from above mentioned three villages. In this research the empirical analysis showed that wheat production was significantly affected by the independent variables including fertilizer, FYM, land preparation, pesticides/weedicides, irrigation and labor days. All factors, which were included in the given model, have a positive relationship with the production of wheat. The parameters coefficients estimates for fertilizers, pesticides/weedicides and irrigation were 0.231, 0.300 and 0.183 respectively, which were highly significant. Coefficients for FYM, land preparation, seed and labor were 0.014, 0.023, 0.095 and 0.227, respectively which were insignificant. Based on the findings, it was concluded that there was a strong relationship between wheat production and three risk factors namely fertilizer, pesticides/weedicides and irrigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Assessing the psychological burden on families affected by Thalassemia may face, controlling for cultural and social setup. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey is done with the help of structured interviews and questionnaires. Self-designed questionnaire is used to determine the demographics of the patients, whereas questionnaire developed by Ratip and Modell (1996) used to gauge the psychological pressure the thalassemia affected family faces. The survey was conducted in different health centers of Peshawar that specialize in providing medical facilities to patients suffering from blood disorders. Logistic Regression and Chi Square test of Association used to arrive at results. Results: The results revealed that the parents of a Thalassemic patient face problems with social interaction. They are anxious about their child's health, and face isolation. However, due to cultural setup their family supports them but the disease of the child does not affect their relationship with other children and spouse. Conclusion: Cultural and social setup affects the magnitude of the psychological burden inflicted on a Thalassemia affected family. Families living in rural areas found more disturbed. The effect of different factors on social life differs for male and female patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diarrhea is a worldwide problem facing both developing countries and developed countries, especially in pediatric population. Because of shortage of health facilities and lack of good food in developing countries, it is known fact that developing countries are facing this death taking problem more. The main purpose of this study was to examine the various factors which affect the recovery time of diarrhea. A multiple linear regression was applied to analyze the data and to select a model. The response variable for the study was the recovery time of diarrhea. The results of the analysis show that the Zinc is the main factor which affect the recovery time in Peshawar.

Background: Standards in the use of statistics in medical research are generally low. A growing body of literature points to persistent statistical errors, flaws and deficiencies in most medical journals., Methods: In this paper we present a comprehensive review of common statistical pitfalls which can occur at different stages in the scientific research process, ranging from planning a study, through conducting statistical data analysis and documenting statistical methods applied, to the presentation of study data and interpretation of study results., Results: 47 potential statistical errors and shortcomings, differentiated for the distinct phases of medical research are presented and discussed., Conclusions: Statisticians should be involved early in study design, as mistakes at this point can have major repercussions, negatively affecting all subsequent stages of medical research. Consideration of issues discussed in this paper, when planning, conducting and preparing medical research manuscripts, should help further enhance statistical quality in medical journals.