A Survey for Need Assessment to Classify Learning Styles of Students Studying in Master Degree Programs at Universities

Students’ learning is highly subjective owing to their individual differences, environment and background which decide their learning styles. The purpose of this study was to explore learning styles of university students owing to generic role in their learning. There is need to assess whether students of different universities with different backgrounds but with same discipline prefer same or different learning styles. Four general universities were selected; two from each, public sector and privatesector.314 students were involved in the study from selected universities. A questionnaire was developed in the light of literature to explore learning styles of students mainly based on Grasha Reichmann Learning Style Survey (1974). Survey research design was used to collect data. The number of students against every learning style was calculated through statistical distribution. To infer the significance of results, t-test and ANOVA were applied. The findings showed that learning styles were closely linked gender wise. Further, there was no vast difference in learning styles of the students in respect of public and private sector universities. Subject based results are generally aligned but there are variations in couple of subjects like mass communication. The study concludes that students use variety of learning styles in different situations. If teacher used teaching style compatible to preferred students learning style then they would take more interest in the lesson and learn better

NEED OF 7S IN SERVICE OPERATION ENVIRONMENT AS COMPARED TO 5S AND 6S

Manufacturing companies distinguish themselves by their operational efficiency and the quality of their products. The 5S and 6S methodologies are commonly used in service operations to enhance efficiency and productivity. Although there are some similarities between these approaches and the 7S technique, there are also notable differences. The 7S technique can be applied in service operations to improve efficiency and productivity by focusing on the spirit element. This study analyzes the significance of the spirit element in the 7S technique and assesses the effectiveness of 5S, 6S, and 7S in service operations. Furthermore, it aims to identify the necessity of the 7S approach in organizations where 5S and 6S are already being used efficiently. The research employs a quantitative methodology and the results indicate that 60% to 79% of the respondents believe that spirit is a crucial aspect of the 7S technique and has positive outcomes. Encouraging a positive spirit can enhance teamwork, motivate and engage employees, and instill a sense of ownership among them. The 7S technique emphasizes an organization's shared values and culture, which can create a positive work environment, encourage employee engagement, improve communication, to lead to better performance

Measuring functional disability in children with developmental disorders in low-resource settings: validation of Developmental Disorders-Children Disability Assessment Schedule (DD-CDAS) in rural Pakistan (vol 7, E17, 2020)

Background Developmental disorders (DDs) in children are a priority condition and guidelines have been developed for their management within low-resource community settings. However, a key obstacle is lack of open access, reliable and valid tools that lay health workers can use to evaluate the impact of such programmes on child outcomes. We adapted and validated the World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule for children (WHODAS-Child), a lay health worker-administered functioning-related tool, for children with DDs in Pakistan. Methods Lay health workers administered a version of the WHODAS-Child to parents of children with DDs (N = 400) and without DDs (N = 400), aged 2–12 years, after it was adapted using qualitative study. Factor analysis, validity, reliability and sensitivity to change analyses were conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the adapted outcome measure. Results Among 800 children, 58% of children were male [mean (s.d.) age 6.68 (s.d. = 2.89)]. Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed a robust factor structure [χ2/df 2.86, RMSEA 0.068 (90% CI 0.064–0.073); Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI) 0.92; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) 0.93; Incremental Fit Index (IFI) 0.93]. The tool demonstrated high internal consistency (α 0.82–0.94), test–retest [Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) 0.71–0.98] and inter-data collector (ICC 0.97–0.99) reliabilities; good criterion (r −0.71), convergent (r −0.35 to 0.71) and discriminative [M (s.d.) 52.00 (s.d. = 21.97) v. 2.14 (s.d. = 4.00); 95% CI −52.05 to −47.67] validities; and adequate sensitivity to change over time (ES 0.19–0.23). Conclusions The lay health worker administrated version of adapted WHODAS-Child is a reliable, valid and sensitive-to-change measure of functional disability in children aged 2–12 years with DDs in rural community settings of Pakistan

WHO Parents Skills Training (PST) programme for children with developmental disorders and delays delivered by Family Volunteers in rural Pakistan: study protocol for effectiveness implementation hybrid cluster randomized controlled trial

Development disorders and delays are recognised as a public health priority and included in the WHO mental health gap action programme (mhGAP). Parents Skills Training (PST) is recommended as a key intervention for such conditions under the WHO mhGAP intervention guide. However, sustainable and scalable delivery of such evidence based interventions remains a challenge. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and scaled-up implementation of locally adapted WHO PST programme delivered by family volunteers in rural Pakistan. The study is a two arm single-blind effectiveness implementation-hybrid cluster randomised controlled trial. WHO PST programme will be delivered by 'family volunteers' to the caregivers of children with developmental disorders and delays in community-based settings. The intervention consists of the WHO PST along with the WHO mhGAP intervention for developmental disorders adapted for delivery using the android application on a tablet device. A total of 540 parent-child dyads will be recruited from 30 clusters. The primary outcome is child's functioning, measured by WHO Disability Assessment Schedule - child version (WHODAS-Child) at 6 months post intervention. Secondary outcomes include children's social communication and joint engagement with their caregiver, social emotional well-being, parental health related quality of life, family empowerment and stigmatizing experiences. Mixed method will be used to collect data on implementation outcomes. Trial has been retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02792894). This study addresses implementation challenges in the real world by incorporating evidence-based intervention strategies with social, technological and business innovations. If proven effective, the study will contribute to scaled-up implementation of evidence-based packages for public mental health in low resource settings. Registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as Family Networks (FaNs) for Children with Developmental Disorders and Delays. Identifier: NCT02792894 Registered on 6 July 2016

Risk of Relapse Among Opioid‐Dependent Patients Treated With Extended‐Release Naltrexone or Buprenorphine‐Naloxone: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background and Objectives Compare the risk of relapse to heroin and other illicit opioids among opioid-dependent patients receiving treatment with extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) or buprenorphine-naloxone (BP-NLX). Methods Re-analyzed data from a 12-week multicenter, open-label, randomized treatment study with a subsequent 36-week open-label follow-up study. All patients, N = 143, had completed detoxification and received at least one dose of study medication. Results Of 143 patients (72% men), mean age 36 years, 71 received XR-NTX and 72 BP-NLX. The risk of first relapse and the risk of any relapse to heroin and other illicit opioids were both significantly lower in the XR-NTX group compared with the BP-NLX group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.76; P = .002, and HR, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.04-0.29; P < .001, respectively) and (HR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.09-0.27; P < .001 and HR, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.03-0.09; P < .001, respectively). There was a stable low risk of relapse among participants receiving XR-NTX in the follow-up. Discussion and Conclusions Compared to BP-NLX, patients on XR-NTX had a substantially reduced risk of relapse to illicit opioids and showed a stable low risk of relapse over time in longer-term treatment. Scientific Significance Our data support XR-NTX as a first-line treatment option for patients with opioid addiction both in short and longer-term treatment. This is the first European study showing that XR-NTX significantly reduces the risk of first and any relapse to heroin use in opioid-dependent patients compared to BP-NLX. Our data contradict previous data from the X:BOT study, showing no significant difference in relapse risk between the groups in a 6-month randomised controlled trial. (© 2021 Authors. The American Journal on Addictions published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry). (Am J Addict 2021;30:451–458)publishedVersio

Effectiveness of relaxation techniques 'as an active ingredient of psychological interventions' to reduce distress, anxiety and depression in adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BackgroundAdolescent depression and anxiety are among the leading contributors to health burden worldwide. 'Relaxation Techniques (RTs)' are a "set of strategies to improve physiological response to stress" and are frequently cited as an active ingredient of trans-diagnostic, psychosocial interventions for scaling-up care for preventing and treating these conditions in adolescents. However, there is a little evidence on the effectiveness of 'relaxation techniques' for this age group.AimAs a part of the Wellcome Trust's Active Ingredients commission, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of RTs to reduce the symptoms of distress, anxiety and depression in young people, aged 14 to 24 years old, globally.MethodsWe searched 10 academic databases to include 65 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) of relaxation-based interventions for young people with the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Primary outcomes were reduction in symptoms of distress, anxiety and/or depression. We employed the Cochrane risk of bias tool and GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) guidelines to assess certainty of outcomes pertaining to anxiety, depression and distress. Standardized mean difference was estimated using effect size.ResultsThe analysis of 65 RCTs with 8009 young people showed that RTs were highly effective in treating anxiety (pooled effect size of (Standardized Mean Difference-SMD) - 0.54 (95% CI - 0.69 to - 0.40); moderately effective in reducing distress (SMD = - 0.48, 95% CI - 0.71 to - 0.24) and had only a weak effect on improving depression in young people (SMD = - 0.28 (95% CI - 0.40% to - 0.15). Face-to-face delivered relaxation techniques yielded higher effect size (SMD = - 0.47, 95% CI - 0.64 to - 0.30) compared to online delivery (SMD = - 0.22, 95% CI - 0.48 to 0.04) for anxiety.ConclusionMost of the included studies were from High Income Countries (HICs) and had a high risk of bias. Further high-quality studies with low risk of bias, especially from low resource settings are needed to evaluate the evidence for effectiveness of RTs as an active ingredient of psychological interventions to reduce the symptoms of distress, anxiety and depression in young people

Prevalence of psychosocial distress in school going adolescents in rural Pakistan: findings from a cross-sectional epidemiological survey

AIMS: Early interventions are recommended in adolescents to prevent long-term psychiatric morbidity. However, in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), where there are no child and adolescent mental health services, early identification of adolescents at-risk of mental health problems remains a challenge. Pediatric Symptoms Checklist (PSC) is used in preventive child healthcare services in a number of high income countries for early identification of children and adolescents in need of mental health services. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of self-rated, Urdu version of PSC to identify at-risk adolescents studying in the public schools of rural Rawalpindi in Pakistan. METHOD: We did a cross-sectional epidemiological survey with all adolescents aged 13–15 years, studying in 41 public schools of Kallar Syedan sub-district in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. An adapted Urdu version of self-reported PSC was used to assess the psychosocial distress in adolescents in-terms of externalizing, internalizing and attention problems. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used as a gold standard measure. Youth version of PSC and SDQ were administered in classroom settings by trained research teams. RESULT: The data were collected from 5856 adolescents (response rate 97%) between April-May, 2019. The mean age of the participants was 14.37 years (±1.06); 51% participants were female. The internal consistency reliability of Urdu version of PSC was good (Cronbach alpha 0.85). At the standard cut-off score of PSC ≥28, the prevalence rate of psychosocial distress in adolescents was 25.5% (27.4% in boys & 23.6% in girls). Using the SDQ total difficulties score ≥16 as a standard criterion; the area under the ROC curve was 0.85 (95% CI 0.82–0.88), with a sensitivity of 57.64% and specificity of 89.10% of PSC. If the sensitivity and specificity of PSC is optimized to 76% at the cut-off score of PSC ≥ 24, the prevalence rates of psychosocial distress in adolescents is increased to 41%. CONCLUSION: In our study, 1 in 4 adolescents in public schools of rural Rawalpindi in Pakistan have been identified at-risk of poor socio-emotional development. Urdu version of PSC is a reliable and valid tool to identify adolescents in need of psychosocial interventions in public schools of rural Pakistan. While the standard cut-off score yields a better specificity; PSC with relatively lower cutoff score can be used a screening tool to identify at-risk adolescents in public schools of rural Pakistan