Indian Journal of Community Health
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Health Impact Assessment as a tool in India for evaluating how policies, programs influence the health of the population
Get PDFBackground: Health Impact Assessment (HIA) systematically assesses the health impacts of policies, programs on a population, with a focus on the holistic well-being of individuals. This approach employs diverse methods to identify positive and negative health impacts, along with unintended consequences, offering recommendations for effective management. HIA considers economic, social, psychological, environmental, and organizational factors in community health. The process involves key steps like assessing baseline health, identifying impacts, quantifying and valuing them, ranking importance, and proposing management recommendations. HIA can be prospective, retrospective, or concurrent during implementation. Methodology: The systematic process included a detailed protocol for scoping review, comprehensive database search, and inclusion criteria for studies published in English from January 2020 to December 2023. Results: Its importance resides in enhancing decision-making by providing insights into health ramifications, fostering dedication to implementing recommendations, and tackling both immediate and indirect developmental effects on health. HIA engages in promoting democratic processes, fairness, sustainable development, and ethical use of evidence in conducting comprehensive impact evaluations. Despite global recognition, barriers like limited funding, insufficient evidence, and perceived time constraints exist. Solutions, such as creative funding, evidence consolidation, and long-term cost-effectiveness, show potential for overcoming these barriers. Conclusion: HIA serves as a valuable instrument for giving precedence to community health decision-making, nurturing fair and sustainable development
Exploring the pattern of Road Traffic Accidents over the highways: A study from western Uttar Pradesh, India
Get PDFBackground: By the year 2019, road traffic accidents (RTAs) became the leading cause of death among children and young individuals between the ages of 5 and 29 years. Aim & Objective: To explore the pattern and severity of road traffic injuries (RTIs) over the national highways and connecting bypass roads in the district Aligarh of Uttar Pradesh. Methods and Material: The study included all the individuals who met RTA over the selected stretches of roads and availed treatment at the identified hospitals over these roads. Results: The study finally had 1126 patients. The mean age was 31.89+13.81 years. 937 (83.2%) were males and 189 (16.8%) were females. The most common mode of transport used was two-wheelers (74.40%) followed by pedestrians (11.20%). More than half of the patients were driving the vehicles. 682 (60.60%) and 301 (26.70%) RTAs were recorded on NH91 and NH93 respectively. More than 95% of RTAs recorded had moderate to severe injuries. The severity of RTIs varied significantly with the type of transport and road user, the time and place of the crash, the collision type, and the body part primarily injured. Conclusions: Young males driving motorized two-wheelers are most vulnerable to moderate to severe RTIs
Stigma of mental health and attitude towards psychological help-seeking behaviour among students of a health science institute in Karnataka: a cross-sectional study
Get PDFBackground: Mental health illnesses are becoming a prime cause of concern among young adults. Many individuals with mental disorders do not get the necessary health care. Objectives: To assess the attitude towards seeking professional psychological help and stigma of mental illness among the students of a health science institute, to assess the association between stigma and attitude towards seeking psychological help with select socio demographic variables and to determine the correlation between attitude towards seeking professional psychological help and stigma of mental illness. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 215 students in Karnataka. The study tool consisted of questionnaires on socio-demographic profile and two sets of validated scales (Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale and Perceived Devaluation Discrimination Scale). Results: The study showed males had more positive attitude towards seeking professional psychological help than females. Individuals with history of present/past illness were more open towards seeking professional psychological help. Pearson correlation test between ATSPPHS and PDDS showed a negative correlation. Conclusions: Psychological help seeking attitude needs to be improved among the students. Educational institutes need to incorporate mental health awareness and stigma reduction program in their curriculum
Assessment of self-perceived Leadership skills and job satisfaction among the health care provider in a tertiary care hospital, Tamil Nadu, India
Get PDFBackground: The success of an organisation depends upon the employee satisfaction, which in turn is related to the leadership styles. Good medical leadership plays a vital role in building a high-quality healthcare. The objectives of the study are to estimate the self-perceived leadership skills and its impact on the job satisfaction among the health care workers working in a tertiary care hospital, Tamil Nadu. Material and Methods: This study, conducted in a Chennai-based private tertiary care hospital, focused on 109 healthcare workers across specialties. It used a cross-sectional design, employing stratified random sampling and validated questionnaires. Data covered demographic profiles, leadership styles- transformational, transactional and laissez faire, and job satisfaction. Results: Majority of the study participants were females and doctors. 20.2% study participants had high transformational scores and 79.8% had moderate scores. 52.3% and 47.7% had high and moderate transactional scores respectively. 42.2% and 57.8% had high and moderate laissez-faire score respectively. The leadership scores have significant positive correlation with job satisfaction scores with r value of 0.64, 0.43 for transformational, transactional. Conclusion: Leaders with demonstrated transformational skills had a beneficial impact and those who exhibited a laissez-faire attitude had a detrimental impact on job satisfaction among the health professionals
Transformation of Fast Food Culture in Rural Adolescents: Evidence from a study in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
Get PDFSocio cultural context is changing in rural India. This may lead to establishment of fast food culture in rural areas as well. Objectives: To find out extent, pattern and associates of knowledge, opinion and consumption of fast food by rural adolescents. Materials and Methods: This community based cross sectional study was conducted on 213 adolescents selected by multistage sampling procedure from rural Prayagraj. Each subject was interviewed about socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, opinion, and consumption of fast foods with the help of predesigned and pretested proforma. Analysis of data was done through SPSS and for finding out associates chi square test was applied. Results: Majority of subjects were aware about fast food and 84.0% consumed it in the previous month. There existed significant association of opinion of subjects regarding fast food fulfills hunger with type of family, social class of subjects (P<0.01) whereas, opinion of subjects "Feel energetic after eating fast food" was significantly associated with their gender, type of family and social class (P<0.05). Consumption of fast food was significantly more in subjects from nuclear family and higher SES (P<0.01). Conclusion: Socio Economic gradient prevailed in the expression of the opinions “the fast food fulfill hunger” and “Feel energetic after eating fast food” as well as consumption of fast food by subjects
A pharmacoeconomic study on Jan Aushadhi generics versus branded pharmaceutical formulations in India
Get PDFBackground: Healthcare costs are a major burden on the society of developing countries like India. Countries like India try to limit healthcare costs in support of generic medicine. So, the Indian government initiated the Jan Aushadhi scheme in 2008 to provide high-quality generic medication at a low cost. Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the cost difference between Jan Aushadhi generic pharmaceutical formulations and branded medications in Tamil Nadu. Settings and Design: Pharmaco economic - Cost minimization observational study. Methods and Material: Study Duration: Five months, from February 2023 to June 2023. Study Place: 10 Jan Aushadhi outlets from various districts of Tamil Nadu. Sampling technique: Convenience sampling technique Statistical analysis used: Mean median, mode and Percentage. Results: A total of 729 medications were available in 10 Jan Aushadhi outlets. The Jan Aushadhi outlet has the most cardiovascular medications and the fewest antimalarial medications among different categories of drugs. Erythropoietin has the biggest cost difference between the average cost of branded medications and Jan Aushadhi drug costs, while Digoxin has the lowest cost difference. Antitubercular drugs, Oxytocics, Antileprosy drugs, Antiparkinsonism categories of drugs also delisted in Jan Aushadhi outlet. Conclusions: Compared to branded drugs, Jan Aushadhi\u27s generic drugs are 64.65 % less costly on an average as observed in our study. The manufacturer of Jan Aushadhi shops is a WHO and GMO-certified company, and they manufacture branded drugs. So, there will be no quality compromise in Jan Aushadhi’s generic drugs
Continuing Medical Education (CME) on the Family Adoption Program
Get PDFThe Family Adoption Program has been incorporated into the MBBS curriculum starting from the 2021-22 batch. This change in the curriculum aims to align it with competency-based medical education and ensure comprehensive coverage of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning. The objective of the program is to enhance the accessibility of healthcare services to the rural and underserved people. This is necessary because the existing healthcare facilities in our country are primarily located in urban regions, while the rural areas have a higher concentration of population but limited health care facilities as well as poor access to healthcare. [1] A two-hour session was conducted under the banner of pre-conference CME of JHIAPSMCON 2024 on the topic- Family Adoption Program: A roller coaster ride. There were about 30 participants representing nine medical colleges of Jharkhand. The session was chaired by two faculty from an autonomous Government institution of the state. The agenda for discussion were the brief introduction on Family Adoption Program, its implementation, the role of health camp in FAP and ways in which students may be engaged in health camp and lastly the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the program. The intention was to share the experience of FAP implementation at Manipal Tata Medical College and also exchange of ideas and experiences by all other institutions. The perspective of faculties from other institution were also discussed. [2] There were four resource person for the session which continued one after the other with a brief discussion with the participants at the end of each sub-session
Under Nutrition in Less than Six Months Needs More Attention
Get PDFUnder nutrition in infants is a critical public health concern with far-reaching consequences on child growth and development, particularly during the crucial first six months of life(1). This formative period lays the foundation for future health outcomes and any disruption in adequate nutrition can lead to a host of long-term issues, including stunted growth, compromised immune function, and impaired cognitive development(2). According to the Black et al. (2008) study, these factors are responsible for approximately 2.2 million deaths annually and contribute to 21% of disability-adjusted life-years in this age group(3).
The 2011 United Nation Children\u27s Fund (UNICEF) Global Nutrition report indicated that more than 311 million children (32% of all children) were undernourished. Globally, more than four million children died within a year of their birth due to inadequate nutrition.In addition, poor infant nutrition has been shown to be responsible for more than 40% of deaths in children younger than 5 years, particularly during their first month of life(4). The adverse effects of infant undernutrition include physical disabilities, poor school attendance, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease which may affect the subsequent generation(5).Therefore, undernutrition may have negative long-term consequences for a country’s economic growth and development. The impact of undernutrition on child growth and development starts in utero. Maternal undernutrition has been associated with poor foetal growth which may result in low birth weight (LBW, weight at birth less than 2500 g), small for gestational age (SGA, newborns weighing less than the 10th percentile of a sex-specific reference population) and preterm birth (PTB, children born before 37 gestational weeks(6). In 2016, UNICEF reported that 15% (20 million) of newborns worldwide had LBW and 10% (15 million) PTB. In 2010, 32.4 million newborns worldwide were SGA. The prevalence of SGA was 27% in LMICs, with SSA having one of the highest prevalence(7). The first six months of life are characterized by rapid growth and development, as well as a heightened vulnerability to nutrition-related risks(8)
The Pandemic\u27s Shadow: Measles Vaccination Challenges and Trends
No full textMeasles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963, major epidemics occurred approximately every 2-3 years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year (1). Government of India launched Universal Immunization Program in 1985, which provides vaccination against 8 life threatening disease including measles and 65% vaccine coverage was achieved. In order to increase the vaccination coverage, Mission Indradhanush was launched in phased manner which aimed to fully immunize more than 90% of newborn by 2020. India has adopted the National strategic Plan for achieving and sustaining measles and Rubella elimination in India and has vaccinated over 324 million children between 2017 and 2020 through MR vaccination campaign (2). Due to the lag, India had shifted its self-imposed deadline to eliminate measles to 2023 and launched another vaccination campaign in 2021 called the Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0, targeting unvaccinated children
Outbreak investigation of acute diarrhoeal disease in a village of Dibrugarh District, Assam
Get PDFLack of water sanitation and hygiene facilities (WASH) and practices are such that over 700 children under 5 years of age die every day of diarrhoeal diseases.(1) In recent past, despite substantial gains in access to WASH services almost 2.3 billion people worldwide still lack these basic human necessities.(2) Safe drinking water and basic sanitation are crucial interventions in fight against diarrhoeal mortality (WHO). Worldwide, each year, low sustainability in WASH services contributes to nearly two million deaths and 82 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost, which are preventable.(3