Serum HCV RNA titers were correlated with AST, ALP and total bilirubin. Levels of ALT, AST, ALP and bilirubin had significant relation with the liver fibrosis stage and the inflammatory grade in genotype 3a. Hence, our study suggests that AST, ALP and ALT may correlate with liver damage.

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In conventional Muslim societies, fertility occurs within the marital union. Therefore, fertility outcomes depend on females’ age at first marriage (AFM). The present study explores the pattern of AFM in Pakistan, analyses of which are scarce in the literature. We aim to identify the factors associated with the AFM among currently married women in Pakistan. Demographic factors like birth cohort, and socioeconomic and cultural factors such as province and place of residence, education level, whether or not a woman had ever worked before marriage, ethnicity, and husband’s education were studied to explore the pattern of female AFM. Data were taken from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys (PDHSs) of 2012–13 and 2017–18, and a comparison was made with the findings from the earlier PDHSs of 1990–91 and 2006–07. The analysis concentrates on women born between 1941 and 1992, aged between 25 and 49 years during the data collection periods. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the difference between the mean AFM for different sub-groups of the population. To identify the covariates that are associated with AFM multiple linear regression models were estimated. We observed a gradually increasing trend in female AFM over time among women born after 1950. The ANOVA results revealed that birth cohort, province, and place of residence, female education level, whether or not a woman had ever worked before marriage, ethnicity, and husband’s education were significantly associated with AFM (p-values < 0.05). In a multiple regression model, we found that the birth cohort significantly affects the AFM (p-value < 0.05). Having worked before marriage is associated with a statistically significant one-year rise in the AFM. Interestingly, all other ethnic groups have lower AFM compared with women whose mother language was Punjabi. Education has a highly significant effect on the AFM: the regression results revealed that uneducated females have a mean AFM 4 to 5 years lower than highly educated women. The results also revealed that educated men marry older women as compared to uneducated men. We conclude that the education of females and even males in Pakistan could lead to a rise in the female AFM.

Purpose of the study: This research aims to investigate the impact of mass media exposure and women's autonomy on the use of contraceptives, along with other potential determinants at the individual level and community level among women in Pakistan. Methodology: Data was extracted from Pakistan Demographic & Health Surveys 2017-18. The sample size included 10,461 non-pregnant and married women from a total of 15,068 ever-married women. The analysis was done using two-level mixed-effects logistic regression for the binary outcome variable, i.e., current contraceptive use (yes/no). Main Findings: Significant factors positively associated with contraceptive use at the individual level were women's education, wealth index, parity, age at first cohabitation, child mortality experience, and mass media exposure. Community attributes like region (Sindh, KPK, Balochistan as compared to Punjab), residence (rural as compared to urban) had an inverse relationship with contraceptive use. At the same time, women's education and an ideal number of children were the significant positive associates. Women's empowerment has though insignificant, but it has a positive impact on the use of contraceptives at both individual and community levels. Applications of this study: Family planning programs can be extended by focusing on women residing in rural settings or in high fertility intentions communities, less educated and unprivileged younger women who had reduced the uptake of contraceptives. An increase in women's access to education, media exposure, employment, and women's empowerment can help attain Pakistan's contraceptive prevalence targets. Novelty/Originality of this study: The current study's effect of individual and community-level factors was investigated using National-level data, mainly focusing on the role of mass media and women's autonomy.