Perceived barriers to facemask adherence in the covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan-A cross-sectional survey.

ObjectiveTo explore perceived barriers associated with facemask adherence to prevent spread of COVID-19 spread in Pakistani population.MethodologyA cross sectional study was conducted from 25-July 2020 to 5-August 2020. Participants of both genders of age >17 years, currently residing in Pakistan, who had access to internet and understood English were included in the survey. The survey was designed on Google form and was distributed digitally across different areas of Pakistan via social media. Survey included questions regarding socio-demographics, facemask adherence and perceived barriers related to facemask adherence such as perceived risks, health concerns, comfort, social influences, religious/cultural norms and social protocols and health recommendations. SPSS version 23 was used to analyze data. Independent t-test/One-way ANOVA was applied to assess significant difference between perceived barriers to wear face mask and socio-demographic factors, p-value ≤0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Post-hoc LSD test was also applied where applicable.ResultsOnly 20% of the participants reported non-adherence to facemask. Amongst these participants, majority agreed that comfort was the main barrier precluding them from wearing a mask, 89.4% subjects saying that it was too hot to wear it and 84.1% saying that a mask was too uncomfortable to wear. Whereas, 82.1% highly agreed that difficulty in breathing is perceived barrier related to facemask usage. Statistically significant difference was found between health concerns with gender (p = 0.031), locality (p = 0.001) and religion (p = 0.03); comfort with locality (p = 0.007); social influences with gender (p = 0.001), ethnicity (p = 0.001) and locality (p = 0.017); cultural/religious norms with religion (p = 0.001) and social protocols and health recommendations with age (p = 0.015).ConclusionDespite of satisfactory facemask adherence, still there are perceived barriers to it. In order to increase utilization of face masks among the general population, strict health policies should be implemented and awareness regarding the importance of face masks should be enhanced by educational interventions

Therapeutic potentials of Quercetin in management of polycystic ovarian syndrome using Letrozole induced rat model: a histological and a biochemical study

Abstract Background PCOS is a leading endocrinopathy of young women instigating androgens elevation, insulin resistance, obesity, cardiometabolic and menstrual complications. The study investigated the effects of quercetin in a letrozole induced rat model of polycystic ovarian syndrome, which displayed both clinical and metabolic features as in PCOS women. Methods Female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were divided into four groups; control group received aqueous solution of carboxymethyl (CMC 0.5%); PCOS group administered with letrozole (1 mg/kg) dissolved in solution (CMC 0.5%); Metformin group given with metformin (20 mg/kg) + letrozole (1 mg/kg); and Quercetin group provided with quercetin (30 mg/kg) + letrozole (1 mg/kg). All doses were given orally via gavage, for 21 consecutive days and colpocytological analysis was carried till end. After 21rst day, blood was taken out, centrifuged and plasma was kept for biochemical analysis (ELISA, anti-oxidant enzymes, lipid profile) and the reproductive organs were dissected out for histopathological evaluation. Results Quercetin as a chief member of flavonoid, showed beneficial effects by decreasing body weight, ovarian diameter, cysts and restoring healthy follicles, follicle’s extra-glandular layers, and corpora lutea in contrast to the positive control. Additionally, lipid profile and anti-oxidant status were also maintained to baseline which was very high in diseased rats (p < 0.001).Quercetin depicted a mark regulation in steroidogenesis by decreasing the levels of testosterone (0.78 ng/ml ± 0.14 in quercetin vs. PCOS positive control 1.69 ng/ml ± 0.17, p < 0.001) and estradiol (8.85 pg/ml ± 0.19 in quercetin vs. PCOS positive 1.61 pg/ml ± 0.29) and increasing progesterone levels (34.47 ng/ml ± 1.65 in quercetin vs. 11.08 ng/ml ± 1.17 in PCOS positive). The effects of quercetin were moderately parallel to the standard drug available in market i.e. metformin. Conclusion The present study has confirmed that quercetin has the potentials to alleviate the hormonal and metabolic disturbances occurring in PCOS