Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of participants (n = 400).
| Variable | Category | Frequency (n) | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | Mean ± SD | 39.6 ± 12.41 | - |
| Gender | Male | 214 | 53.50 |
| Female | 186 | 46.50 | |
| Education level | Primary | 78 | 19.50 |
| Secondary | 162 | 40.50 | |
| Graduate or higher | 160 | 40.00 | |
| Socioeconomic status | Low | 148 | 37.00 |
| Middle | 184 | 46.00 | |
| High | 68 | 17.00 | |
| Hypertension | Yes | 112 | 28.00 |
| Diabetes mellitus | Yes | 96 | 24.00 |
SD: standard deviation.
The authors would like to acknowledge the faculty and administrative staff of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi, for their support during data collection. The authors also extend their gratitude to all study participants for their valuable time and cooperation.
MH: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. SF: Data curation. Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. KS: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. MAR: Data curation, Investigation, Validation, Supervision, Writing—review & editing. All authors read and approved the submitted version.
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Center for Integrated Health Research and Innovation (CIHRI) (Reference No: MS/ERC/029/2025; Date: 01 March 2025) and conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants prior to enrollment.
Informed consent for the publication of anonymized data was obtained from all participants.
Datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to institutional data protection policies but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
No external funding was received for this study.
© The Author(s) 2026.
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