Prevalence of Upper Cross Syndrome In Medical Students of Women Medical College, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Upper Cross Syndrome is a common muscular imbalance involving head, neck and shoulder region. It exhibits a common postural disruption linked with tonal abnormalities of the pectoral girdle musculature and cervicothoracic part of the body. This syndrome is characterized by neck pain and its restricted range of motion, forward head posture and rounded shoulders. It is usually seen in persons who work for longer period of time in misaligned body position. This study was intended to check the prevalence of Upper crossed syndrome in medical students of Women Medical College, Abbottabad. For this purpose, a descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 305 students of age group 18-25 years were recruited. Data was sought in two phases. In the first phase, participants were asked to fill a self-designed questionnaire containing demographics and other symptomology of Upper Cross Syndrome which included pain in neck region, duration of study hours, frequently used electronic gadget for study, total study hours, stiffness around neck and chest, area and type of pain while studying and presence of headache. In the second phase, restricted neck range of motion was assessed using a goniometer, forward head posture was checked using the wall and ruler and posture analysis was done to check for rounded shoulders by a physiotherapist. The study employed convenient sampling technique for data collection. The data was first entered and then analyzed by SPSS version 22 software which fetched percentages for each variable. In order to find whether any correlation between the two variables exist or not, a chi-square test was conducted using SPSS version 22 and values were interpreted (p-value <0.05). As a result, among the 305 subjects, 72.13% felt tightness around the neck while 36.07% students reported pain in neck after prolong usage of either mobile phone or laptop. Subsequent restriction in range of motion of the neck was reported by 32.13% participants. About 47.86% subjects who filled the questionnaire were diagnosed with rounded shoulders after a detailed posture analysis by a physiotherapist. Among those 47.86% subjects, moderate pectoral muscle stiffness was reported by 67.45% students while 19.6% had severe pectoral stiffness. Forward head posture was observed by the physiotherapist utilizing wall and ruler method in 84.5% of all the participating subjects. Among the recruits who experienced any sort of neck or shoulder girdle pain, 20% reported using pain killers for relief, 7.21% have had physiotherapy treatment protocol while 72.79% took no treatment at all. Thus it was concluded that a significant number of medical students in Women Medical College, Abbottabad were suffering with Upper cross syndrome either due to excessive smart phone usage or poor study posture. Keywords Upper Cross Syndrome (UCS), Cervical, Shoulder, Musculoskeletal (MSK), Forward Head Posture (FHP).

Empathy of dental students and educators in French hospitals: A cross‐sectional study

“…This study highlighted that empathy was significantly associated not only with age, but also with gender: females had a higher mean empathy score than males. Regarding gender, this result is in line with numerous other studies among dental students (Aggarwal et al, 2016; Carvajal et al, 2019; Díaz‐Narváez et al, 2018; Javed, 2019; Michael et al, 2019; Sherman & Cramer, 2005). Several explanations have been given for gender differences in empathy, including social learning, genetic predisposition, evolutionary underpinnings, higher capability of females to identify emotional signals and to better understand relationship situations (Brekalo Prso et al, 2020; Hojat et al, 2018; Michael et al, 2019).…”

“…In this study, the empathy score of dental students seemed to decline from the fourth to the sixth year of study, but not significantly. This tendency of the empathy scores appears inconsistent in the literature: Some studies showed an erosion of empathy with the clinical experience of dental students (Aggarwal et al, 2016; Datta et al, 2016), while others showed a nonsignificant increase of empathy during this study period (Ameh et al, 2019; Brekalo Prso et al, 2020; Javed, 2019). The decline during clinical training may be attributed to a greater priority on students' needs to acquire technical skills for dental care procedures.…”

“…These results are in line with previous studies carried out among students in fourth year of study in four other French dental faculties (mean empathy score between 103.7 and 110.7; Rosenzweig et al, 2016), and among dental students in the United States of America (mean empathy score: 117.71; Sherman & Cramer, 2005), Chile (mean empathy score between 109.33 and 114.95; Carvajal et al, 2019; Díaz‐Narváez et al, 2018), Central America and the Caribbean region (mean empathy score between 100.37 and 108.84; Díaz et al, 2021). The mean empathy score among French dental students is higher than dental students in India (mean empathy score between 69.36 and 91.96; Datta et al, 2016; Kalyan et al, 2017; Prabhu et al, 2014; Saha et al, 2021), Malaysia (mean empathy score: 84.11; Babar et al, 2013), and Poland (mean empathy score between 86.65 and 91.42; Mocny‐Pachońska et al, 2020), and seems slightly higher than those in Nigeria (mean empathy score: 104.01; Ameh et al, 2019) and Pakistan (mean empathy score: 101.15; Javed, 2019). These differences can be explained by the existence of cultural, ethnic, and educational differences, as well as differences in the study curriculum and the type of university (Babar et al, 2013; Brekalo Prso et al, 2020).…”

“…Carvajal et al found similar results in a Chilean dental faculty where educators had higher empathy scores than their students (Carvajal et al, 2019). Some studies showed a small increase of mean empathy score for the final year students, possibly in conjunction with delivered courses on communication skills during the final year (Javed, 2019). This was not the case in this study, nor in the study of Mocny‐Pachońska et al (2020).…”

The Discourses Analysis of the Arab Conquest of Sindh

“…Most of the literature produced on topic was biased which supported one or other discourse, however, a more balanced view is also provided in some of the recent literature on the topic. Among those authors who supported the Pakistani state discourse portraying Mohammad Bin Qasim as a hero are (Ahmed, 1958;Qureshi, 1962;Siddiqi, 1969;Anver, 1979;Quddus, 1992;Haroon, 2004;Kazimi, 2007;Javed, 2010) are only a few to name here.…”