BackgroundThe proportion of incompletely immunized children in Pakistan varies from 37-58%, and this has recently resulted in outbreaks of measles and polio. The aim of this paper is to determine the factors associated with incomplete immunization among children aged 12-23 months in Pakistan.MethodsSecondary analysis was conducted on nationally representative cross-sectional survey data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2006-07. The analysis was limited to ever-married mothers who had delivered their last child during the 23 months immediately preceding the survey (n = 2,435). ‘Complete immunization’ was defined as the child having received twelve doses of five vaccines, and ‘incomplete immunization’ was defined if he/she had missed at least one of these twelve doses. The association between child immunization status and determinants of non-utilization of vaccines was assessed by calculating unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals using a multivariable binary logistic regression.ResultsThe findings of this research showed that nearly 66% of children were incompletely immunized against seven preventable childhood diseases. The likelihood of incomplete immunization was significantly associated with the father’s occupation as a manual worker (AOR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.10-1.97), lack of access to information (AOR = 1.35; 95% CI: 1.09-1.66), non-use of antenatal care (AOR = 1.33; 95% CI: 1.07-1.66), children born in Baluchistan region (AOR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.12-2.70) and delivery at home (AOR = 1.39; 95% CI: 1.14-1.69).ConclusionsDespite governmental efforts to increase rates of immunization against childhood diseases, the proportion of incompletely immunized children in Pakistan is still high. Targeted interventions are needed to increase the immunization rates in Pakistan. These interventions need to concentrate on people with low socioeconomic and educational status in order to improve their knowledge of this topic.

This study attempts to examine the challenges in the adoption of digital health technology among educated youth in Pakistan. Using qualitative research methods, opinions of male and female students of public and private sector universities in Islamabad were gathered through eight Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The study themes included: Complexity of language and medical terminology on the internet, lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, less reliability of different websites, and threat to privacy. The study found that several factors such as poor facilitations conditions, institutional negligence, problematic medical jargon, online frauds, and privacy insensitivity are hampering the access to eHealth services among students of universities in Islamabad. As the global health systems are moving towards eHealth services, the lack of technological knowledge of the patients may harm their access to health services. Thus, there is a need to minimize the barriers to digital health education at the institutional level.

No abstract

This paper examines the relationship between memory, place and identity through nostalgic construction of mystic practices at a sufi dergah in New York. In doing so we are interested in examining the way nostalgia is implicated in modern and multicultural religious communities in the West. The findings of this study are derived from an ethnographic field observation and in-depth interviews conducted between January 2012 to April 2012 in New York, USA. Participants of this study included religious practitioners that attended and participated in the events at the Sufi dergah regularly while recognizing themselves as disciples of the Sufi order. In total, 15 participants were interviewed. Findings of this paper suggest modern nostalgics are not simply passive consumers of hegemonic narratives of memory and place. Rather they are active participants in the creation of common places that represent conjunction of multiple histories (Massey, 1995) and therefore, are both multilocal as well as multivocal (Sheldrake, 2001). Keywords: Memory, place, identity, nostalgia, sufism

The study assumes that students belonging to diverse educational levels were dissimilar in the level of practicing and competence in online health literacy. The survey method used a questionnaire to measure the responses of students of 16 universities in Lahore, Pakistan. A sample of 1512 students was selected by using a 4-stage stratified cluster sampling strategy. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis H test, Dunn test, and Mann-Whitney Utest (non-parametric). The findings show that educational level does have a significant association with practicing level in online health literacy (P.Value.0041). Moreover, education level also has a significant association with competence level in online health literacy (P. Value.045). The study recommends that online health literacy should be encouraged among the students, and the universities should be well-equipped with adequate hardware and human resources to facilitate the students.