EXPLORING THE PREVALENCE OF NEUROPATHIC HAND PAIN AMONG YOUNG ADULTS AND ITS IMPACT ON HAND FUNCTION

Background and Aims: To explore the prevalence of neuropathic hand pain in young adults and how it affects hand functionality. Methodology: A convenience sampling was used to conduct a cross-sectional study on 192 medical students aged 18 to 28 years from October 2022 to March 2023. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of neuropathic hand pain in young adults and how it affects hand functionality. Both the Duruoz Hand Index and the Douleur Neuropathique Four Questionnaire were used. Results: This study included 192 participants, the majority of whom were females (84%) and aged 20-24 years. 16.1% of participants reported having had surgery or an injury to their upper limb in the past. Participants described neuropathic pain symptoms such as electric shocks (21.4%), burning pain (18.2%), and painful cold (15.6%). Limitations and Future Implications: A small sample size and a focus on a particular group of medical students may restrict the generalizability of the findings. To improve the generalizability of the findings, future research should replicate these findings using larger sample sizes and diverse populations. Insights into the development and chronicity of neuropathic hand pain in young adults may also come from longitudinal studies. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the prevalence of neuropathic hand pain in young adults and how it affects hand functionality. Female participants were more likely to experience pain and functional hand impairments.

The impact of various entrepreneurial interventions during the business plan competition on the entrepreneur identity aspirations of participants

The purpose of this thesis is to measure how entrepreneurial interventions during a business plan competition workshop impact the aspiration of the participants to become entrepreneurs in the future. INVENT 2013 was a nation-wide business plan competition in which university students from all over Pakistan (around 3000 students) participated. This was a 5 month process which involved a lot of training and mentoring during the various rounds. The interventions to promote entrepreneurship took place in the form of lectures, workshops, case studies, and mentoring sessions. The survey was conducted during the initial workshops in the form of questionnaires from students towards the end of the workshop. In this thesis, we evaluate the results of this survey. To test the model, the constructs of psychological characteristics, intellectual capital, entrepreneurial skills and business program exploration were validated followed by factor analysis and structural equation modelling. We found out that the entrepreneurial interventions carried out in the workshops led to positive relationships between the variables and had a positive impact on the Entrepreneur Identity Aspiration of the participants