This study investigates the “effects of cable television on the life patterns of women in Lahore, Pakistan” through survey using interviews’ schedule as a tool of data collection. It targeted 432 women aged 18-40 years and viewing cable television for a minimum two years. The study recorded the respondent’s consumption patterns, level of viewing, preferred channels and programs, favorite watching time, control over remote and restrictions on viewing. It crossed checked the above factors with the level of viewing alongwith demographic characteristics of the respondents. The major hypothesis studied was “greater the exposure to cable television greater the impact on the lives of women.” The sub-hypothesis included ‘heavy viewers have greater effect on their activities, family and social interaction patterns, cultural practices, domestic and personal expenditure, and they are more influenced by the television characters especially depicting western and urban Indian women than the moderate and light viewers. The data was analyzed through univariate and bivariate statistical procedures and the results are presented in two categories: i.e. general and major findings of hypothesis testing. The general findings revealed that the majority of respondents were aged 31 to 40 years, belonged to the middle and upper middle class, were graduates but unemployed, and were heavy viewers. Majority respondents had cable connection for the last two years, indicating increasing popularity of cable television in Lahore, also making it the main source of entertainment. There is no link between demographic characteristics and consumption patterns. However, the respondents complained that men had more rights to watch cable television than women. The statistical test chi-square was applied for testing the hypothesis, confirming that ‘greater the exposure to cable television greater the effect on the lives of women’. It confirmed that heavy viewing affected household and other activities of the women like newspaper reading, going to cinema, the meals cooking and serving schedule, their domestic or personal expenditure and interaction with friends or and relatives. They were prone to accepting the role, culture and lifestyle of western and Indian women watched on the cable channels. The study also identified a few areas for future researchers and made recommendations towards their improvement.
The present study was conducted to probe the cleanliness in the tertiary healthcare hospitals in Peshawar-Pakistan. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire from 600 sampled respondents admitted in three tertiary healthcare hospitals in Peshawar i.e. Khyber Teaching hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital through proportional allocation method. The patients were very critical about the healthcare and cleanliness in the above three major hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Bi-variate analysis was made and the results reveal that hospital has clean and hygienic environment (P=0.006), Medical OPD, s were clean and tidy (P=0.000), wards were clean and well maintained (P=0.000), Toilets were clean and well maintained (P=0.000). The study recommended that hospital administration should keep focus on cleanliness in washroom, clean water and clean food to the patients.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on 17q21 are known to be associated with asthma disease in multiple populations. This study was designed to know whether this region is associated with asthma in Lahore region population or not. A total of 200 asthma patients and 100 healthy controls were enrolled from different hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. Twenty five SNPs from chromosomal region 17q21 were selected for analysis in cases and controls by single base extension method and capillary based genetic analyzers. Associations with asthma were analyzed using basic allelic model, genotypic model and results were adjusted for various cofactors by logistic regression analysis using PLINK v1.9. Pair wise Linkage disequilibrium among the SNPs was analyzed and LD map from healthy controls was constructed using Haploview software. Five of the SNPs (rs3816470, rs1011082, rs6503525 rs11078928 and rs1008723) are suggestive of quite significant association with asthma under genotypic model. Five of the remaining SNPs (rs2290400, rs12603332, rs4065275, rs12603332and rs3894194) showed significant associations in the presence of cofactors like gender, smoke exposure in early years and urban or rural environment. Haplotype “TTGTACC” for rs11078928, rs2290400, rs1008723, rs7219923, rs4065275, rs12603332 and rs4795405, appears to be a significant risk factor for predisposition to asthma. The association of genomic region 17q21 with asthma in Lahori population is reported in this study.