Risk factors.

ABSTRACTTo investigate the knowledge of breast cancer among medical, paramedical and general population of women participants. A prospective observational questionnaire survey was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital in northern Karnataka for a period of six months with220 participants. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used. Data obtained was analysed using descriptive statistics. Out of 220 women, 31.36% were medical, 20.92% paramedical and 47.72% general. Almost, 94.20% of medical participants believed breast cancer as inherited. Notably, general group considered trauma(74.28%) and diet (73.33%) as major risk factors. Majority of medical and paramedical women thought lump in the breast as the initial sign of Breast Cancer. Awareness regarding mammography and biopsy in general population was 64.76% and 52.38% respectively. Moreover, 95.5% of medical women and all of the paramedical women thought that chemical / radiotherapy was the best treatment. Breast cancer knowledge and awareness was less among the general women. There is a need of developing effective interventional programs to educate women about breast cancer.Keywords: Awareness, Breast Cancer, Knowledge, Risk factors.

A descriptive cross sectional survey was done in tertiary care hospital of Islamabad. The objective of the survey was to assess patients’ knowledge regarding diabetes mellitus (DM), its risk factors, complications, and of management among age range of 18 to 40 years. Our Research was done on relatively younger patients of diabetes. This study was completed on 145 patients (83 males and 63 females), by employing convenience sampling in the outpatient department of Pakistan institute of medical science hospital (PIMS). The structured questionnaire was used to complete the data collection process. Out of 145 participants, (57.2%) were males and (42.8%) were females. Average age of the participants was (34.65) with SD +4.971. Most of the patients were having income less than 10000 PKR (40.6%) per month. The majority of the participants (69%) were not aware about the type of diabetes they have. More than half of the patients identified lifestyle & diet modifications (64.8%) along with glucose level control (65.5%) as most important risk factors for developing complications. The knowledge of diabetes was significantly associated with the educational level and parental history of DM with p-value (0.002) and (0.017) respectively. The other factors gender, age, and income were not statistically associated with knowledge regarding management of diabetes. The patients in Pakistan having diabetes mellitus (DM) had satisfactory level of knowledge in some aspects of the disease. But, overall knowledge related to all aspects of diabetes mellitus (DM) was not up to the mark. The patients need education related to their disease and management.