About

Saba Khan, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics (General Pediatrics) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an Attending Physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is a faculty scholar at the CHOP Policy Lab and serves as the Medical Director of Food Pharmacies at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Her expertise encompasses health service research, social determinants of health, obesity medicine, and general pediatrics. Dr. Khan has developed community-centric, behavioral health-supported social services programming within complex health systems and contributes to nutrition policy development for programs such as WIC and SNAP. She has a background in creating stakeholder-guarded initiatives aimed at improving social and health outcomes in pediatric populations, with a focus on vulnerable communities. Her clinical and administrative work emphasizes holistic, patient-centered care, and she has significant experience managing large cost centers with fiscal responsibility.

Research topics

• Economics
• Biology
• International economics
• Econometrics
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Frequency of Myopia and its Associated Risk Factors among Madrassa Students in Pakistan

  Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology · 2025-07-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Purpose: To determine frequency of myopia and its associated risk factors among madrassa students in Pakistan. Study Design: Descriptive observational. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the Pakistan Institute of Community Ophthalmology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, from January 2023 to June 2023. Methods: Using the two-stage sampling technique, this cross-sectional studywas conducted on 1750 students aged 6–18 years. In stage 1, by the probability proportionate to size method, 43 strata were identified. In the second stage, 44 students from each stratum were identified by a simple random sampling method. A detailed eye examination was performed by trained optometrists. Logistic regression was applied to investigate the association of myopia with outdoor activity, the distance between eyes and books, sleep duration, use of electronic gadgets, and study hours. Results: A total of 1750 madrassa students, including 1256 (71.8%) male, were examined. Vision impairment (6/18 > VA < 6/60) was present in 14.2%. Myopia was the most common refractive error, contributing to 11.1%. The prevalence of myopia was high in female (12.8%) but not statistically significant (p = 0.096). Myopia increases with increasing age (p<0.01). The distance between eyes and book (OR=.354; 95%CI.216 to.579), sleep duration (OR=1.957; 95%CI 1.349 to 2.839), continuous use of electronic gadgets (OR=.492; 95%CI.379 to.638), and study hours in the madrassa (OR=.404; 95% CI.290 to.563) were significantly associated with myopia. Conclusion: Myopia is the most common refractive error in Madrassa students. Near working distance, sleep duration, continuous use of electronic gadgets, and study duration were the risk factors for myopia. Keywords: Myopia, Refractive error, Blindness, Cycloplegia, Refraction.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Tackling sustainable development challenges: A fuzzy set examination of textile industry 4.0 and green supply chain barriers

  Sustainable Development · 2024-05-28 · 19 citations

  article

  Abstract Circular supply chains transform linear manufacturing into closed‐loop systems that promote Industry 4.0 and sustainable development. However, the barriers to China's textile sector have not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, this study analyzes the contextual links between identified barriers and their prioritization for effective circular economy and green product development. This study enlisted 75 specialists to evaluate various obstacles utilizing the q‐ ROFS approach for comprehensive quantitative analysis. The results revealed the interdependence of barriers and identified major devising from the market, financial, and organizational sides. The significant impact of market barriers on other challenges is shown by high similarity (90%), showing market problems' profound effects. Financial constraints significantly impact organizational and market barriers, stressing the role of economic factors in adoption challenges. Sociological, financial, and market issues are interconnected with organizational barriers, emphasizing the need for an integrated strategy. Finally, the assessments rank market‐related constraints, followed by economic and organizational barriers. Then there are society, the environment, and technological, supply chain, and government barriers faced by the Chinese textile industry. These results emphasize the need for comprehensive policies to overcome market, financial, and organizational barriers and the role of economics and market dynamics in adoption.

  PublisherDOI

• How Do Policy Uncertainty and Institutional Quality Affect Renewable Energy Use? Exploring the Role of Economic Growth, Technological Innovation and Environmental Pollution

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Competitiveness Analysis of Pakistan’s Cotton Yarn Exports Relative to India and USA: A Demand System Application with Focuses on China’s Market

  Global Business Review · 2023-12-07 · 3 citations

  article1st author

  This study employed the revealed comparative advantage (RCA), revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) and Vollrath’s indices to measure Pakistan’s export competitiveness of cotton yarn in the world. Meanwhile, the country’s export competitiveness is evaluated using the comparative advantage by countries index in China, the world’s largest consumer of cotton yarn and Pakistan’s main export destination. Additionally, linear approximated almost ideal demand systems (LA/AIDS) is employed to anticipate the demand relations for exports of cotton yarn (Pakistan, India and the USA) in the Chinese market over the period 1991–2019. The value of RCA indices greater than one indicates that the country has comparative advantage in exports of cotton yarn in both the global and Chinese market. The findings also revealed that the nation’s comparative advantage position has decreased in global market while improved in the regional market of China. Furthermore, based on the approximation of restricted LA/AIDS model, the results affirmed that the exports of cotton yarn had high own-price sensitivity with negative signs, whereas cross-price sensitivity with positive signs. With regards to Pakistan’s exports, estimates of cross-prices indicate that China’s imports of yarn from Pakistan are substitutable for imports of yarn from India and the USA. In addition, the expenditure elasticity for India and US cotton yarn is greater than one, indicating that China viewed their exports of cotton yarn as quality good. On the other hand, the expenditure elasticity for Pakistan’s is less than one, but close enough to one, which reflects the cut-off point for exports of quality goods. Pakistan, therefore, needs to produce cotton yarn more efficiently by reducing costs and enhancing the reputation of quality to increase exports and market share.

  PublisherDOI

• Estimating the health production function for Pakistan: Do environmental factors matter?

  Review of Development Economics · 2023-09-15 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract It is essential for sustainable economic development to comprehend how environmental factors impact public health. This study analyses this relationship in the context of Pakistan using long‐term data. This study aims to determine how environmental factors influence health production function in Pakistan to enlighten policy decisions that can improve human life and advance the cause of sustainable development. We hypothesize, based on prior research, that urbanization and rainfall will increase life expectancy in Pakistan, while deforestation, temperature, and CO 2 emissions will decrease it. To verify our theory, we use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method to calculate the long‐run association between the variables, as well as the Zivot–Andrews and Lee–Strazicich unit root tests to identify structural breaks. Utilizing the bound and Gregory–Hansen co‐integration tests, co‐integration is confirmed. According to ARDL estimates, there are statistically significant correlations between factors that affect Pakistan's life expectancy, such as deforestation, temperature, and CO 2 emissions, as well as rainfall and urbanization. The findings of this study underscore the importance of addressing environmental degradation and deforestation in Pakistan. For enhancing human life and achieving sustainable development objectives in the nation, it is essential to modernize forest laws and regulations and adopt eco‐friendly technologies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Green innovation and low carbon emission in OECD economies: Sustainable energy technology role in carbon neutrality target

  Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments · 2023-08-21 · 48 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Plantwise Sustainability: Two Years on Follow-up assessments in six countries

  2023-09-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access

  CABI implemented its global Plantwise programme from 2011 to 2020 to address smallholder farmers' plant health challenges with more than 200 partner organizations in around 30 countries.Two years after Plantwise funding ceased, a follow-up sustainability assessment was carried out in six countries: Nepal and Pakistan (Asia); Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi (Africa); and Jamaica (Caribbean).The aim of the assessment was to gain an understanding of Plantwise's legacy, or elements thereof, and how the country context has influenced what happened, positively or negatively, since the programme ended, as well as what the drivers and blockers are to sustainability.Information was gathered through interviews and group discussions with Plantwise partners, and a review of recent programme documents, country policies, selected literature, and Plantwise Online Management System (POMS) data.This was followed by in-depth conversations over Zoom with country study teams to discuss findings and key lessons.The country studies for this assessment show that sustainability is highly contextual: knowledge on national policy, institutional mandates, mode of operation, and available resources, is paramount to ensure that interventions fit with structures and capacities in a particular setting.The country cases also show the different ways in which a particular circumstance, or combination of circumstances, helped or hindered sustainability in one country, while a different set of circumstances was influential in another country.Sudden changes can undermine partnerships and achievements made, which makes it difficult to engineer or promote sustainability.Using a flexible, adaptive approach, in which opportunities are spotted and seized, is vital.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Influence of Industrial Output, Financial Development, and Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy on Environmental Degradation in Newly Industrialized Countries

  Sustainability · 2023-03-07 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  The prime objective of this study is to examine the impact of industrial output and financial development on carbon dioxide emissions for a panel of 10 newly industrialized countries, namely Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. The empirical analysis was conducted between 1982 and 2019 by employing various estimation tests and techniques. The different tests account for cross-sectional dependence in different series of the model. Therefore, the relevant panel unit root was conducted, and we found that all series become stationary after the first difference. The long run parameters were estimated, and we found that there is a significant long-run relationship between the industrial output, the financial development, and the carbon emissions. The carbon emissions are found to be significantly affected by both domestic income and industrial output, while being negatively affected by financial development. Industrial production coefficient estimates are highly elastic when compared to the other estimates. The results also indicate unidirectional short-run causality from the domestic output and trade openness to carbon emissions, urban population to domestic output, and financial development to industrial output. However, there is no evidence of bidirectional causality. The study concludes that sustainable economic growth can be achieved by using contemporary and efficient production techniques, using environmentally friendly inputs in industries, and increasing vigilance of both the public and private sectors. Both the public and private sectors should therefore be pushed to use more modern, eco-friendly, and productive processing techniques. It is recommended that both the public and commercial sectors be encouraged to embrace cutting-edge, environmentally friendly, and productive processing methods.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How is energy intensity affected by industrialisation, trade openness and financial development? A dynamic analysis for the panel of newly industrialized countries

  Energy Strategy Reviews · 2023-08-26 · 29 citations

  articleOpen access

  Exploring the factors that affect energy intensity is a worthy research topic because a decline of energy intensity lowers greenhouse gas emissions and increases energy security. Therefore, using the World Bank data from 2000 to 2020, this study examined how industrialisation, trade openness, financial development, and urbanisation affected energy intensity in 12 Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). We used panel autoregressive distributed lag/pooled mean group (ARDL/PMG), cross-sectional ARDL (CS-ARDL), and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) to determine the long- and short-run effects of explanatory variables on the dependent variable, energy intensity. All variables are found stationary after the unit root test and cointegration test confirms that variables are linked in the long run. Panel ARDL/PMG and CS-ARDL results show that industrialisation increases energy intensity in the long and short runs. These tests also show that financial development increases energy intensity over time but not immediately. Trade openness decreases energy intensity in the long run but not in the short run. Urbanisation has negligible effects. Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) Granger causality test result shows that energy intensity causes trade openness. The test also shows two-way causality between industrialisation, financial development, and energy intensity. Results-driven policy recommendations, such as investment in efficient and environmentally friendly technologies, and facilitation of trade openness, are made following the conclusion.

  PublisherDOI

• Nursing Interns Perception Regarding Their One-Year Clinical Practicum

  Journal of Farkhanda Institute of Nursing And Public Health (JFINPH) · 2023-06-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to measure experiences of nursing interns in their internship period. METHODOLOGY Cross sectional study design was adopted. Total 141 Bachelors of Science in Nursing interns participated in the study from a university hospital. The structured self-administered questionnaire containing items related to organizational commitment, professional commitment, role ambiguity, role overload, workplace support and workplace bullying were used for data collection. SPSS v25.0 was used for analysis.RESULTS The mean score of organizational commitment was 3.14, 42% interns showed week commitment. Perceived ambiguity mean was 3.14, 54% reported it negative. The perception of role overload’ mean was 3.50, 66% perceived adverse effects. The professional commitment mean score was 3.06, 58% showed low commitment. Overall workplace support mean score was 3.12, colleagues 3.47 and nurse manger’s support was 2.31 lowest. Varying frequency of bullying was experienced by 90% interns. Significant difference among gender concerning organizational commitment, workplace support and workplace bullying was found (p-value <0.05). Comparison between three cohorts revealed organizational commitment, role ambiguity, role overload and professional commitment mean score decreased (P-Value < 0.05). While workplace support and bullying score remained consistent. CONCLUSION The unclear role, increased workload, perceived bullying and low support could negatively impact professional and organizational commitment. Internship program requires improvement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Muhammad Azam

  9 shared

• Ranjit S. Dhaliwal

  7 shared

• Muhammad Abdul Kamal

  Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan

  7 shared

• Zahira S. Khan

  Bloomsburg University

  6 shared

• Howard H. Patterson

  Four Directions Development Corporation

  6 shared

• Falak Zeb

  National University of Medical Sciences

  5 shared

• Iftikhar Alam

  Bacha Khan University

  5 shared

• Zulfiqar Khan

  Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan

  4 shared