Indian Journal of Community Health
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Achievement of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) below the National Level in Jharkhand
Get PDFAn indicator of the reproductive health of women in an area is the maternal mortality rate. A lot of women in the reproductive age range pass away from difficulties during, during, or related to pregnancy, childbirth, or abortion. No matter the length or location of the pregnancy, the World Health Organization defines maternal death as "the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes".(1
Physical Activity Levels And Junk Food Intake Among School Going Adolescents In A North Indian City
Get PDFIntroduction: Physical activity and diet go hand in hand for the maintenance of good health. This becomes even more important in school-going adolescent students as they are readily exposed to a wide variety of junk food items inside or around their school premises and lead increasingly sedentary lifestyles as they progress through their academics. Aim and Objective: Toassess the junk food intake and physical activity level among school-going adolescents.
Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 800 school-based adolescents aged 12 to 14 years at AMU High Schools, Aligarh. Students were asked about their physical activity and dietary habits by disseminating a self-reported questionnaire. The data were analyzed in SPSS version 20.0.
Results: The majority of the adolescents had a moderate level of physical activity (53%), while 23% of the students had high and 24% had low physical activity levels. On the analysis of the students’ dietary habits, it was found that a staggering 70.75% of students had more than the recommended intake of junk food items. The association between physical activity and junk food intake was found to be significant.
Conclusion: More emphasis should be given to limiting junk food intake, increasing healthy food intake, and motivating the students to be more physically active. This can be done by encouraging the family as well as teachers at the school level and creating more spaces for children to be physically active at the community level
Effect of COVID-19 on Menstruation: An Observational Study
Get PDFIntroduction: COVID-19 patients have been reported to have systemic complications. Analyzing its effect on the endocrine
system is essential to ensure women’s reproductive health.
Aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of COVID-19 disease on menstruation.
Methods: It was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted from October 2021 to April 2022, using a validated questionnaire
to collect the data. The study included females (15 to 49 years) who had confirmed COVID infection.
Results: A total of 132 females participated in the study. For 29 (22%) patients presenting with menstrual cycle changes, most common change was prolonged cycle (14%). An increase in menstrual volume was reported by 12%, where as 35% of patients experienced more pain during menstruation. Menstrual irregularities were significantly higher in severe infection (p-value 0.04).
Conclusion: There were transient changes in menstruation in COVID-19-infected patients, with a higher probability of menstruation abnormalities among severely infected patients
Assessment of Educational Environment of Newly Established Medical College by UG Medical Students: A Mixed Method Study
Get PDFIntroduction: Educational environment always play a crucial role in the development of students as well as faculty of any institution. In India, there is a continuous increase in the number of medical colleges and the number of MBBS seats, but the quality of education with quantity is questionable. To answer this question, the present study was planned to know the educational environment in a new Medical Institution that ejected its alumni in 2018.
Aim: To analyze the educational environment of a newly established Medical College in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional which took six months to complete. This study used the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire, open-ended questions and focus group discussions (FGDs). The study was conducted on MBBS students in Government Medical College, Azamgarh, UP.
Results: The batch-wise Global DREEM scores were 169.08 (alumni), 156.23 (interns), 168.76 (2015), 164.16 (2016), 176.23 (2017), 176.94 (2018). This demonstrates that the educational environment is satisfactory in all domains and comes under the 3rd category of the educational environment index. The FGDs showed a positive response in all batches but with high variability in scores, which indicates lack of standardization in Medical Education. The open-ended questions’ responses revealed many merits and demerits about five domains.
Conclusion: The variability of DREEM score, FGDs and open ended questions denotes the lack of standardization in the Medical Education system and the scores of the Education Environment Index (all domains) must move from category III (satisfactory) to category IV (excellence)
The Elephant’s Tail of VAPP, VDPV in the Polio End Game
Get PDFA lot have been achieved by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since 1988 after World Health Assembly passed the resolution to eradicate polio. Today, we have decreased the global polio incidence by 99.9% since GPEIs started working. We still have to remove polio from the few leftover pockets and get rid of the final 0.1% of polio cases. We have gained in positive terms that an estimated 16 million people today are walking and more than 1.5 million are alive because of the stakeholders’ strong, strategic and cooperative action. The journey to the last mile has some different difficulties and this article tries to provide additional insights into the strategies to achieve our goal of Polio eradication
An Epidemiological study on Depression among Rural & Urban Adolescent of Moradabad District, Uttar Pradesh
Get PDFIntroduction: Adolescence is a stressful period due to physical, psychological, sexual changes, and presence of disorder such as depression is a matter of concern. Objectives: To study the prevalence of depression among adolescents in urban and rural areas and its socio-demographic correlates. Materials and methods: The PSU consisted all villages (n=29) and mohallas (n=23) in field-practice area. The required number of villages and mohallas, i.e., 10 each, were chosen using the basic random procedure, wherein each village and Mohalla has been assigned a unique serial number. Results: Overall, depression was observed in 110 participants (27.5%) with similar distribution in urban and rural areas. Low maternal and paternal education was a significant risk factor. Adolescents from the upper middle socioeconomic class (42.9%) and those from the lower middle socioeconomic class (33.3%) experienced the most depression. Burden was more among adolescents with low physical activity. Conclusion: This community based study of 400 adolescents residing in the urban and rural areas of Moradabad observed significant burden of depression in adolescent with poor maternal education, living in nuclear families, leading poor lifestyle and affected by any chronic illness at the time of the interview. Positive family history of mental illness was also an important risk factor
Coverage and Quality of Maternal and Infant Health Services in Rural Area of District Kanpur Nagar
No full textIntroduction: Most maternal deaths are preventable because there are proven medical procedures to prevent, diagnose, and treat problems. Basic maternal services help reduce and manage pregnancy complications and reduce preventable deaths. Aim and Objective: To assess the quality and extent of maternal and infant health services provided. Material and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted by the Department of Community Medicine, GSVM Medical College Kanpur, using a multistage random sample including women with children less than one year of age and infants (less than one year of age) born to these women in rural blocks of Kanpur Nagar district to assess maternal and infant care services from February 2021 to September 2022. Results: Weight and height were measured in 86.58% of participants, abdominal examination was performed in 81.52% of participants, and blood pressure was checked in 86.84% of participants. Hb test was done in 91.65% participants, urine test for proteinuria was done in 28.35% participants, majority of the study participants received counseling on danger signs (79.49%), dietary counseling (86.58%), newborn care (94.43%), family planning (87.84%). Similar results to NFHS-5 in rural Uttar Pradesh were found in previous published research. Conclusion: The percentage of 4 ANC visits was found to be low in the present study along with low consumption of iron and folic acid
Determinants of Severe Acute Malnutrition in under-five children in Dibrugarh District, Assam
Get PDFBackground: Malnutrition is a major public health problem and leading determinant of morbidity and mortality in under-five children in India. Aim & Objective: To assess determinants of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in under-five children of Dibrugarh district, to assess knowledge and practice of Infant, Young Child Feeding Practices (IYCF) and to assess the knowledge and practice of identification of SAM of Anganwadi workers. Settings and Design: Dibrugarh district, Assam. Mixed method study. Methods and Material: It was a case-control study that interviewed mothers of children between 6-59 months between June 2021 to May 2022. Using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire Interviews of a total of 164 under-five children’s mothers (82 cases and 82 controls)] were done. Qualitative data was also collected by in-depth interviews of Anganwadi workers (AWWs). Statistical analysis used: SPSS version 25.0. Chi-Square test, unadjusted OR for Bivariate analysis and adjusted odds ratio using Multiple logistic regression was calculated. Results: Determinants of severe acute malnutrition were joint family (AOR 3.08, 95% CI 1.02-9.31, p= 0.046); birth weight less than 2.5 kg (AOR 20.6, 95% CI 4.50-94.03, p=<0.0001); mothers with less than 4 antenatal check-ups (AOR 5.13, 95% CI 1.28-29.47, p=0.021); partial immunization (AOR 9.2, 95%CI 1.83-46.59, p=0.007); and irregular utilization of ICDS services (AOR 27.36, 95%CI 5.73-130.66, p=<0.0001). Problems faced by AWWs during service delivery were communication barriers, community resistance during home visits, and increased workload during COVID-19. Conclusions: IYCF practices need to be promoted with screening and growth monitoring for early detection and timely referral of malnutrition along referred back and linkages of services so that home-based and community-based management can be done to prevent severe acute malnutrition
Women’s Literacy a Major Predictor of Population Size: Findings from National Family Health Survey-5
Get PDFBackground: The global population continues to rise at different rates in different parts of the world. While some countries are seeing a fast population increase, others are experiencing population loss. Significant ramifications of such changes in the global population distribution would be felt, as they are critical for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or we might say that rapid population expansion poses obstacles to sustainable development.
Estimating the population size and composition by age, sex, and other demographic parameters is crucial for analyzing the country’s future influence on poverty, sustainability, and development. This study tries to look at these parameters covered by the National Family Health Survey- 5 (NFHS 5) to see how accurate and trustworthy the predictors of district population size are.
Methodology: The study assessed the predictors of the population size of any district. It was conducted using the secondary data of phase 1 of NFHS-5. The outcome variable is the population of each district. Household profiles, literacy among women, their marriage and fertility, contraceptive usage, and unmet need for family planning were considered to assess their potential as a predictor of the district’s population size. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to identify the predictors.
Result: PCA was conducted on 18 variables, resulting in 7 principal components. Cumulatively, these components explained 77.6% of the total variation in data. On multiple linear regression, four principal components were found significant and these were related to women’s literacy, contraceptive usage, early pregnancy, the marriage of fewer than 18 years, and those using health insurance.
Conclusion: Thus, women’s literacy plays a pivotal role in determining a region’s population size
Antibody Response to SARS-COV-2 Vaccination in Healthcare Workers of Uttarakhand: A Prospective Follow-up Study
Get PDFBackground: Countries around the world are now racing to vaccinate people against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Government of India also rolled out its vaccination drive from 16th January ‘2021.
Aims: To estimate the antibody response of the COVID-19 vaccine in the form of SARS-COV-2 IgG antibodies in vaccinated healthcare workers.
Methods: Prospective follow-up was study conducted on healthcare workers (HCWs) of a Medical college in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Healthcare workers who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 were tested for SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies at regular intervals i.e at 4 weeks after the 1st dose and then again at 4 weeks after the 2nd dose. The third sample was taken 6 months after the 2nd dose.
Results: A total of 302 HCWs were enrolled in the study who gave their samples for IgG antibody estimation after the Covishield vaccine. After 4 weeks of completion of both doses, 96% HCWs formed SARS-COV-2 IgG antibodies, whereas 4% didn’t. Then after 6 months of follow-up, 14% HCWs have become negative for antibodies and better immunity is seen in people who also got infected with COVID-19 during this time.
Conclusion: This study concludes that the immunity gained after vaccination is waning off in around 6 months and there is a need for a booster dose, especially for people at high risk. The infection control practices still play a crucial role in the prevention of this deadly disease