Are Future Doctors Healthy?-Study of Lifestyle Behavior of First-Year Medical Students of Delhi

Background: The current study was done to find out the prevalence of risk factors of non-communicable diseases among students of government medical and dental colleges of Delhi.Methods: The newly admitted medical and dental students filled a pre-tested proforma pertaining to their lifestyle behavior and sociodemographic features. Anthropometric examination was conducted to find out the prevalence of overweight and truncal obesity. Blood pressure was measured. Chi-square and independent t-test was applied to find out the difference in proportion and mean values of the risk factors in males and females.Results: Around two-thirds of students were males. The prevalence of ever use of alcohol was more than current use of tobacco (2.2% vs. 1.1%). Truncal obesity was more in females (37%) and overweight was more common in males (26%). More students were doing physical activities of duration less than 30 minutes a day.Conclusion: The prevalence of truncal obesity and overweight was more in the fresh entrants of a medical and dental college of Delhi

Problems Associated with Menstruation among School Going Adolescent Girls and Their Health-Seeking Behavior

Introduction: Start of menstruation among adolescent girls is a major concern, which leads to stress and physical conditions. Objectives: To find menstruation-related problems among the school-going adolescent girls and to assess their health-seeking behavior in relation to these problems.Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2013 to December 2013 in a government higher secondary school of Pooth Khurd village in North West Delhi, near rural residential health training center of Maulana Azad Medical College. All adolescent girls who gave consent (196 girls) from class 7 to 10 of the selected government higher secondary school were included in the study. A predesigned, pretested, semi-structured questionnaire was used. One of the investigators explained the questions to the respondents. The data was entered in MS-Excel and analyzed using SPSS version 17. Chi-square test and Fischer’s exact test have been used for comparison between proportions. “P” value less than 0.05 is considered to be statistically significant.Results: The mean age of the study participants was 15.31 (±1.35) years, with a range from 13 to 19 years. The mean age of menarche was 13.24 years, minimum reported age of onset of menarche was 10 years and maximum was 16 years. Out of 196 girls, 191 (97.4%) girls have attained menarche, while 57 (29.8%) girls complained of menstrual cycle-related problems, either in the form of irregular menstruation (47) or a current missing period in 10 girls.The school girls also experience a lot of somatic complaints during or just a day prior to onset of menstruation. It was found that a great number (21) of girls expressed their inability to perform simple daily activities owing to painful menstruation along with attending school and playing outdoor games.Only 28 girls (14.7%) would discuss menstrual problems with their mother who most of the time simply advises them to take rest. It was found that only few of them (14%) consult a doctor and few girls told they take self-medication (17.3%) during their painful menstruation

A Rapid Assessment Scorecard to Identify Informal Settlements at Higher Maternal and Child Health Risk in Mumbai

The communities who live in urban informal settlements are diverse, as are their environmental conditions. Characteristics include inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, poor quality of housing, overcrowding, and insecure residential status. Interventions to improve health should be equity-driven and target those at higher risk, but it is not clear how to prioritise informal settlements for health action. In implementing a maternal and child health programme in Mumbai, India, we had conducted a detailed vulnerability assessment which, though important, was time-consuming and may have included collection of redundant information. Subsequent data collection allowed us to examine three issues: whether community environmental characteristics were associated with maternal and newborn healthcare and outcomes; whether it was possible to develop a triage scorecard to rank the health vulnerability of informal settlements based on a few rapidly observable characteristics; and whether the scorecard might be useful for future prioritisation. The City Initiative for Newborn Health documented births in 48 urban slum areas over 2 years. Information was collected on maternal and newborn care and mortality, and also on household and community environment. We selected three outcomes—less than three antenatal care visits, home delivery, and neonatal mortality—and used logistic regression and classification and regression tree analysis to test their association with rapidly observable environmental characteristics. We developed a simple triage scorecard and tested its utility as a means of assessing maternal and newborn health risk. In analyses on a sample of 10,754 births, we found associations of health vulnerability with inadequate access to water, toilets, and electricity; non-durable housing; hazardous location; and rental tenancy. A simple scorecard based on these had limited sensitivity and positive predictive value, but relatively high specificity and negative predictive value. The scorecard needs further testing in a range of urban contexts, but we intend to use it to identify informal settlements in particular need of family health interventions in a subsequent program

Cost-Effectiveness of Early Versus Standard Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV-Infected Adults in Haiti

This cost-effectiveness study comparing early versus standard antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, based on randomized clinical trial data from Haiti, reveals that the new WHO guidelines for early ART initiation can be cost-effective in resource-poor settings

Prevalence of Dog Bites in Rural and Urban Slums of Delhi: A Community‑based Study

Background: Rabies is a fatal disease of the central nervous system caused by the bites of warm‑blooded animals. One of the important methods of controlling rabies is by interventions to limit the number of dog bites, the most common source of transmissionof rabies to humans in the community. Community‑based data on dog bites are rare from India. Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of dog bites and knowledge and practices relating to its management and prevention in an urban and a rural slum of North West Delhi, India. Subjects and Methods: A cross‑sectional house to house survey of 500 households covering a population of 2887 individuals was conducted. The families were selected by systematic random sampling. A pretested and a prevalidated questionnaire was used. Chi‑square test was applied for comparing proportions related to the categorical variables and t‑test was used for comparing means. Results: The dog bite incidence rate for the study population for the last year was 25.2/1000 population with higher rates in urban (30.1/1000) than rural (19.6/1000) slum. Two‑fifths of the dog bite patients did not wash the wound with soap and water. The practice of washing the wound with soap and water was significantly higher in urban than rural slum. One‑fifth of the patients did not receive anti‑rabies vaccine. There was lower coverage in rural than urban slum. A majority (79.0%) of the patients did not receive anti‑rabies serum.Conclusion: A high prevalence of dog bites coupled with poor knowledge and dog bitemanagement practices is a worrisome trend which policy makers should take into accountto make India rabies free.Keywords: Cross‑sectional study, Dogs, Incidence, Rabies, Rabies vaccines, Slum