Abstract

Samina Rafique1 * and Waseem Sarwar2

Epidemiological studies are of significant concern in the field of public health. Though an ample account of such studies is available from teaching and non teaching medical institutions (basic health units, rural health centers and hospitals established at district level by local government), no such data is available from any public/private sector university. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify temporal variations in health problems of female students from a public sector university. In this cross sectional study, the data for more than 4000 female students of age 20 to 25 years coming to medical centre of the university during the year 2010 was recorded. The records indicated that the maximum number of patients was encountered during the month of March. Among the females, upper respiratory tract infections were of higher prevalence followed by allergic rhinitis/spasm particularly during winter (December, January and February) and early spring (March). The prevalence of various ailments and temporal variations were found to be highly significant (P< 0.001 for both). The study clearly signified that occurrence of most of the aliments for instance scabies can be attributed to overcrowding and bad personal hygiene. It also became evident that certain ailments were related to mental tensions such as acid peptic disease while others (anemia and gastrointestinal disorders) were due to nutritional imbalance poor hygienic conditions and low quality diet. The findings suggested that living conditions of the community should be improved and awareness among masses regarding personal health and hygiene should be created by involving professionals to conduct lectures and seminars. Moreover, the centre should be well equipped with proper diagnostic facilities for efficient working. Furthermore, an overall increase in health budget is pivotal to raise health care standards of the institution.