211 research outputs found
Burden of Infectious Disease in a State of India: A Comparative Analysis
No full textThe present study aims to analyze data from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (ISDP) to estimate the rates of selected infectious diseases in the state of Maharashtra in comparison to the rest of India
Self-reported practices and attitudes of community health workers (accredited social health activist) in tobacco control - Findings from two states in India
No full textBackground: The 1978 declaration (Alma-Ata declaration) made at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, meeting in Alma-Ata highlighted the critical role played by Community Health Workers (CHWs) to link communities to the health system. The flagship program of Government of India proposed introduction of CHWs namely Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA). As a link between community and health system ASHA is in a unique position to generate awareness on tobacco-related issues. However, there is limited evidence on practices of ASHAs in tobacco control in India. The present study explores whether CHWs such as ASHAs can be utilized as a resource for informing and educating community on tobacco and its harmful effects. The study captured perceptions and practices of ASHAs regarding tobacco control.
Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study conducted among 512 ASHAs in six intervention districts each in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The study settings (i.e., health facilities and villages) were selected through systematic random sampling. The study participants were selected through simple random sampling. Responses were captured through self-administered questionnaire. Logistic regression model was applied to measure associations between variables such as knowledge level of ASHAs and information provided on different tobacco-related diseases by them in both the states, with statistical significance based on the Chi-square test.
Results: Our findings indicate that ASHAs linked tobacco usage to diseases such as respiratory problems, lung cancer, tuberculosis, and oral disease. Only one-third of ASHAs reported informing all patients about the harmful health effects of tobacco, whereas more than half of them reported providing information only to patients suffering from specific illness. ASHAs who reported having received training in tobacco control were about Two times more likely to give information on effects of tobacco on respiratory diseases (odds ratio [OR]-1.5; confidence interval [CI]: 1.1-2.4) and adverse reproductive outcomes (OR-2.1; CI: 1.1-20.2).
Conclusions: Study findings reflect suboptimal engagement of ASHAs in providing information pertaining to specific tobacco-related diseases. There is an urgent need to sensitize and train ASHAs in appropriate tobacco control practices
A factor analysis of the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence for bidi smokers and smokeless tobacco users (FTND): findings from India
No full textBackground
Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine
Dependence (FTND) is widely used screening instrument for physical nicotine
dependence. Psychometric properties of FTND have been validated among cigarette
smokers, but the reliability and validity of its variant for smokeless tobacco users and bidi smokers is not well documented. The present study aims to evaluate reliability, construct
validity, and structure model of FTND among bidi smokers and smokeless tobacco
users.
Methods
A cross sectional survey was conducted
among
1350 patients visiting primary care facilities in
two states of India in 2016. FTND contains six items that evaluate the quantity
of tobacco consumption and dependence. Cronbach´s coefficient alpha was estimated to evaluate reliability of
the FTND scale. We applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal
component extraction and varimax with Kaiser Normalization rotation to
ascertain the factor structure of the FTND scale. Eigen values greater than 1
were used as a criterion for factor extraction.
Results
Out of 1350 tobacco users 406 (30%)
were smokers, 818(60%) were smokeless tobacco
users with mean FTND scores of 4.29 ± 1.67 and 4.42 ± 1. 72 respectively. Cronbach´s alpha coefficients were low for FTND among bidi smokers (FTND-0.47) and
smokeless tobacco users (FTND-0.32). FTND score did not predict the intention
to quit tobacco use. The results of exploratory factor analysis suggest eigenvalues greater
than1 for item 1(How soon after you wake up do you smoke your first cigarette) and Item 4 (How many cigarettes per day do you
smoke?). The other items in the scale add no relevant information.
Conclusions
Items of
the FTND are best modeled as two correlated factors on tobacco use. A
short version of FTND i.e. Heaviness of smoking index may represent an alternative to FTND. Future research should focus on refining questionnaires
that more precisely measure nicotine dependence in bidi and smokeless tobacco users in primary care
Cessation attempts in dual users (smoking plus smokeless): findings from two states in India
No full textCessation attempts in dual users (smoking plus smokeless): findings from two states in India
No full textBackground
Concurrent use of
smoking and smokeless tobacco products is common, but little is known regarding
the association of smokeless tobacco use with smoking cessation. The present
study aims to compare intention to quit and quit attempts among current smokers
who also use smokeless tobacco (dual users) and exclusive smokers
Methods
A cross-sectional
study was conducted among 1360 respondents (542 smokers and dual users; 818
smokeless tobacco users) visiting 22 primary care facilities in two high
tobacco burden states of India in 2016. The health facilities and patients were
chosen using systematic random sampling. We compared intention to quit between
dual users and exclusive smokers, using multivariate regression model
Results
Out of 542 tobacco users, about 70% (378) were smokers and 30% (164)
were dual tobacco users. Exclusive Smokers (62%) were more likely than dual
users (38%) to have an intention to quit tobacco even after adjusting for
demographic differences and tobacco dependence levels (OR:1.75; 95% CI
1.19-2.57). About 27% of smokers made an attempt to quit as compared to 23% of
dual users. The quitting attempt last for less than 6 months for about 20% of
smokers (19%) and smokeless tobacco users (17%). Less than 10% of smokers and smokeless
tobacco users used counseling technique for tobacco cessation.
Conclusions
Smokers are more likely to intend to
quit smoking and have recently made quit attempts as compared to dual
users. Findings
document a high level of interest in quitting among smokers than dual users
suggesting the need to develop targeted interventions for dual users and
smokeless tobacco users to enhance cessation attempts. Further population prospective
studies are needed to
understand the issues faced by
dual users as they make an attempt in quitting
tobacco
A factor analysis of the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence for bidi smokers and smokeless tobacco users (FTND): findings from India
No full textMerchants of Virtue
No full textMerchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.
“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor
“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of Washingto
Merchants of Virtue
No full textMerchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.
“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor
“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of Washingto
Improved collision detection in StarLogo Nova
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2015.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 65).StarLogo Nova is blocks-based educational software that allows students to write and play their own 3D games online. It is the online version of StarLogo TNG. This thesis explores the problem of needing more accurate collision detection in StarLogo Nova while maintaining reasonable performance. Three new collision detection systems for StarLogo Nova are developed and evaluated. Compared to the spheres used to perform collision checks in the current system, the first new system, called the TightestFitCollider, introduces a variety of bounding spheres, bounding boxes, and bounding capsules as bounding structures that may fit the models in StarLogo Nova more closely. The second system, called the HierarchicalCollider, uses hierarchies of bounding boxes to perform even more precise collision detection than the TightestFitCollider. Finally, the third system combines the first two systems, so that the advantages of each can be used as appropriate. The three systems are evaluated for their accuracy and performance within the StarLogo Nova framework.by Divya Bajekal.M. Eng
PP020 SELF REPORTED PRACTICES AND ATTITUDES OF COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS IN TOBACCO CONTROL
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