Background: Child vaccinations are one of most cost effective health programs that have weakened a number of child morbidity and mortality rate all over the world. Pakistan is considered one of the major country of the world, where people especially children are bound by many harmful infectious diseases like polio, hepatitis, viral infections etc. The effectiveness of routine childhood immunization programs relies on multiple factors. Socio-economic determinants have the potential to affect immunization programs. The purpose of the present study was to determine the association between socio-economic factors and polio vaccination coverage among children inPakistan. Methods: The study used data from the Pakistandemographic health survey (PDHS 2006-07 N 10023). The study focused on respondents who had births in last five years. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to determine the association between variables. Spss version 20 was used for data analysis. A number of socioeconomic variables were used in chi square & binary logistic regression model to check out their association with polio vaccination coverage. Results: Study shows that most dominant factors associated with polio vaccination coverage were region that is NWFP OR 3.48 (odd ratio) with 95% confidence interval (C-I 2.06 & 3.13) & Punjab OR 2.54 (C-I 2.062 & 3.131), residence urban OR 1.626 (C-I 1.451 & 1.822), sex of child male OR 1.125 (C-I 1.008 & 1.256), age of mother 25 - 34 years OR 1.11 (C-I 0.978 & 1.276), wealth index rich OR 2.98 (C-I 2.55 & 3.48), age of child 4 - 5 years OR 1.17 (C-I 0.899 & 1.538), mother’s education higher OR 2.06 (C-I 1.776 & 2.411), father’s education higher OR 1.399 (C-I 1.221 & 1.203) ,father’s occupation professional OR 1.27 (C-I 0.929 & 1.737). Conclusion: In developing countries like Pakistan most of the children remain unvaccinated because of many socio-economic constraints. Poor marginali...

Background: Current research focuses primarily on women's autonomy in decision making while little attention is paid to their freedom of expression. Socioeconomic & socio-demographic factors affect women's autonomy in decision making. In the developing countries, particularly in Pakistan, although women are making significant financial contributions but they are still under collective decisions of husband and other family members while sometimes they are blindly relying on husband's decision. Objective of study was to find out association of women's autonomy in decision making & socioeconomic factors. Method: Cross sectional survey was conducted in Muzaffarabad Azad Kashmir on married working women (N = 500). The data consist of women's three decisions: birth control decision, financial decision and freedom of expression. A number of socio-demographic variables were used in chi-square analysis to examine the association of these variables with the said decisions. Results: Age, residence, education, professional differences, job nature, monthly income of married women are positively associated with autonomy in decision making. 59% women of above 30 years age exercise independence in birth control decisions (p value 0.02). Urban women (96%) are more likely to be autonomous in birth control decision than women from rural areas (p value 0.00). Educational attainment effects women autonomy as professionally qualified women (87.2%) are more independent in birth control decisions, independent in spending income (86.5%), having freedom of expression (55.4%). Furthermore women living in nuclear families exercise more independence in birth control decisions (77.2), income spending decisions (76) and enjoy more freedom of expression (56.2). Women working in government sector have independence in birth control (71), financial decisions (70.4), and freedom of expression (52.4%) with p value 0.00. Women earning salary of above 20,000 enjoy autonomy in birth control decisions (87.5%), financial decisions (87.2%), freedom of expression (57.4) with p value 0.00.

Background: Epidemic of anemia is considered to be a significant threat to pregnant women or women in child bearing age. Anemia is one of the major nutritional health disorders affecting significant proportion of population not only in developing countries but also in developed countries. This threat is more alarming in developing countries where poverty, illiteracy may contribute to high risk for causes of anemia. Objective: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the main causes of anemia in pregnant women in the State of Azad Kashmir, Muzaffarabad and to investigate the relationship between education and anemia. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted over a sample of 433 pregnant women. The Chisquare test has been used to assess the statistical significance of different risk factors with Hb% (Heamoglobin) of the respondent. The multiple logistic regression model was used to get the most significant risk factors of anemia.

Aims: This study is aimed to determine the prevalence of anemia and to analyze its socio-cultural determinants among under five children to devise targeted delivery plan for pharmaceutical interventions to combat anemia. Study Design: To investigate the socio-cultural risk factors, a cross-sectional field survey was conducted to gather data from 384 women and their last child up to five years of age in Muzaffarabad district of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. Methodology: A pretested interview schedule was constructed to collect socio-cultural characteristics of the women and their children. We use convenience sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique for data collection. Two government hospitals were selected for data and blood samples collection from respondents. We use univariate analysis for descriptive statistics and perform bivariate analysis to find the association of anemia with the socio-cultural risk factors. Binary logistic regression is used to calculate odd ratios and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals. The results were considered statistically significant for p-value <0.05. Results: The overall prevalence of anemia is 47.7%, which is a severe health problem from public health perspective. Among anemic children 74(40.4%) are mildly anemic, 79(43.2%) are suffering from moderate and 30(16.4%) from severe anemia.  Major risk factors of anemia include residential area, parental education, father’s profession, lower family income, maternal knowledge about balanced diet and anemia. Conclusion: It is concluded that anemia among under five children is a multifactorial problem and policymakers should devise targeted pharmaceutical interventions (iron and folic acid supplementation) to combat anemia.