Socio-Economic Factors of Differences in Public Health-Related Variables among Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study examines the association of living areas (slum and non-slum) with the selected public health-related variables in the presence of socioeconomic variables among married women and also having a child. A total of 150 women aged 18 to 49 are selected of which 50 women from slums and 100 women are from non-slum areas of Multan by applying the cluster and random sampling techniques. The cross-tabulation method is used to find the results. The dependent variable is Body Mass Index (BMI) and it is analyzed with the socio-economic variables such as mass media index, household characteristics and education. The findings exhibit that the BMI of the women living in the slum areas is low due to a low level of education, lack of mass media access, bad household structures, and poor or ignorant area. The women of the slum area have fewer mass media access, poor status of household characteristics and less education as compared to the women living in the non-slum areas. BMI is significantly affected by area, women's education and household characteristics except for physical work, job status, mass media access and husband education. The findings of this study suggest that to provide health facilities or to reduce the gap in public health, education, mass media access and households characteristics might be considered while making any decision related to the slum and non-slum areas.

Spatio-Temporal Variations in Nutritional Contents from Soil Through Forages to Small Ruminants

Minerals and other nutrient play variety of important roles in soil, plants and animals. Many factors affect the availability of these nutrients but fluctuation in nutrients are mostly effected by seasonal changes. Current work was done to assess the possible effect of season and sites on metal transfer and accumulation in soil, forage to animals. Sites were selected with respect to abundance of ruminant herds and climatic conditions. Major area of Pakistan falls in arid and semi-arid environmental category. District Bhakkar was selected as study site (Site-1 & Site-2) and Goat was selected as model animal to assess the metal effects and transfer from soil to forage and to animals. Total 27 plants and 320 goats were studied in 4 seasons. Soil was studied by analyzing metal profile and physico-chemical parameters. Macro, microelements, nutrients, anti-nutrients and proximate composition of plants were examined. Metal and Biochemical profile of goats were studied at four different physiological stages (Does, Bucks, Wether, and Juvenile). Metal profile in urine and feces of goats were also studied. Standard procedures were used for analyzing all studied parameters. Different indices were also calculated to check the metal accumulation in environment. Results revealed that numerous metals in soil, plants and goats were maximum in season 4 (spring) and minimum in season 2 (winter). Proximate, nutrient and anti-nutrient results were mostly highest in season 4 (spring) and lowest in season 2 (winter). On the other hand physico-chemical parameters in soil were showed random results in all seasons. Biochemical profile of goats was mostly at peak in season 2 (winter) and 4 (spring) in Does. Bio-concentration factors (BCF) of all metals were maximum while Pollution load index (PLI) and Enrichment factor (EF) were below the pollution limits. Results depicted that Site-2 rich in nutrients was the most suitable for every parameter and showed higher variation than seasons. Deficiency of many minerals in soil, plants and goats was found but some values of metals were according to standard limit which can be helpful to build metal standards. Toxicity of only three trace elements in forage and blood was shown. So it was concluded from this study that spring season was the most promising for soil, plants and goats and winter was the dullest. This study gives some standards of metal in soil, plants and bloods which is almost parallel to WHO standards and can be helpful to check the standard metals limits in future.