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KNOWLEDGE OF ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER AMONG PAEDIATRICIANS

Background: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most common problems among children predominantly males referred to mental health facilities. It affects different aspects of the child’s life i.e. educational status and academic input, parent-child relationship, social functioning and pragmatic capabilities. Speech and language disorders are often present making timely diagnosis and treatment essential to cope up with communication difficulties. In-spite of practice guidelines, patient diagnosis and therapy is still a far cry with pediatrician having a key role. Dearth of local literature and a high local prevalence of 11% prompted us to conduct this study to determine the level of Knowledge about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder among pediatricians Method: This Cross-sectional study was conducted using purposive sampling on a sample of N= 50 pediatricians from government and private hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, over a period of 6 months. The sample population was subjected to a 21 itemed self-structured questionnaire regarding knowledge of communication difficulties, behavioral problems, diagnosis and therapeutic management of ADHD. The SPSS version 21 was used for statistical analysis. Result: The study population comprised of 80 % males and 20 % females with majority (74%) having experience of 1-5 years. Majority of pediatricians exhibited good knowledge of ADHD regarding diagnostic evaluation, communicational difficulties, behavioral issues and management with total mean score and standard deviation of 54.68 + 5.69 compared to maximum score of 63. Also there was no significant difference between mean scores achieved by pediatricians as regards different age groups, gender, experience and setting with p-value of 0.365, 0.454, 0.428 and 0.493 respectively. Conclusion: The study concludes that Pediatricians in Rawalpindi and Islamabad possess good knowledge regarding Diagnostic Evaluation, Communication difficulties, Behavioral problems and Management of ADHD.