Impact of educational intervention on the awareness of undergraduate medical students towards teratogenicity: an observational study

Background: The term teratogenicity is defined as any morphological, behavioral or biochemical effect induced during embryonic life or fetal life detected at birth or later. the factors that lead to teratogenicity include both non-genetic and genetic factors. The objective of the present study was to assess the impact of educational interventions on the awareness of undergraduate medical students towards teratogenicityMethods: The present study was a questionnaire-based comparative observational study carried out at Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Government Medical College, Jammu (J&K) for a period of three months from 1st November 2017 to 31st January 2018. The questionnaire was designed and validated by conducting pilot study on a sample of ten students. The questionnaire comprised of two main parts. The first part comprised of questions pertaining to the demographic profile of the students and second part consisted of questions assessing the students’ knowledge and awareness towards teratogenicity. The scoring of the assessment of the performance of the students regarding knowledge of various aspects of teratogenicity was done before and after the educational intervention and was compared using paired t-test.Results: A total of 134 second year MBBS undergraduate students participated in the study. Mean age of students was 19.32±0.82 years. In the present study it was found that before the educational intervention about 98.5% of the students and after the intervention all the students were aware of the term teratogenicity. About 69.4% of students knew about all the causes that lead to teratogenicity but after the intervention about 76.1% of the students knew about it. Also, the percentage of students who knew about the name of two teratogenic drugs and two teratogenic defects associated with drugs were only 31.3% and 22.3% respectively. After the educational intervention it increased to 61.9% and 52.2% respectively.Conclusions: In the present study, it was found that after the educational intervention, there was a significant improvement in the mean knowledge score of the students. This reflects the need of early exposure of students to this important issue of teratogenicity

Mapping Global Research Output in Big Data during 2007-16

The paper examines global research in big data, as covered in Scopus database 2007-16, on a series of bibliometric indicators. The study finds that big data registered exceedingly fast growth (135.2%), but averaged low citation impact per paper (3.75) and accounted for very low share of highly cited papers (0.86%) in 10 years. The study reports publication trends in big data research by top countries, top institutions, top authors, top journals, major subject areas, publication modes, and country-level share of international collaborative publications. The study concludes that big data is a subject of recent origin. Given its major potential to impact business, governance, society, healthcare, industry and many other sectors, big data is fast emerging as a major discipline of interest and importance to nations, corporates, and institutions across developed and fast emerging economies

Prostate cancer research in India: A scientometric analysis of publications output during 2004-13

This review article examines 1,368 publications on prostate cancer in India, as covered in Scopus database during 2004-13, experiencing an annual average growth rate of 18.77% and citation impact of 5.23. The world prostate cancer output (89,994 publications) came from several countries, of which the top 15 (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, and China) accounts for 94.80% share of the global output during 2004-13. India’s global publication share was 1.52% and hold 14th rank in global publication output during 2004-13. The Indian prostate cancer output came from several organizations and authors, of which the top 20 and 19 contributed 41.81% and 24.05% share, respectively, during 2004-13. India’s international collaborative share in prostate cancer was 23.39%, which decreased from 24.42% to 22.98% from 2004-08 to 2009-13. Medicine accounted for the largest share (59.50%) of output in prostate cancer followed by biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (40.13%), pharmacology, toxicology & pharmaceutics (27.63%), chemistry (8.55%), agricultural and biological sciences (4.31% share), and immunology and microbiology (2.70% share) during 2004-13. Diagnosis, screening, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, pathology and prognosis together account for 60.24% publications share among treatments methods used in Indian prostate cancer research during 2004-13. Only Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu together contributed 57.82% share in Indian publications output in prostate cancer during 2004-13. The authors stressed the need for developing national policy for prostate cancer which should take care of screening for detection and diagnosis, management and treatment options of the prostate cancer patients in India.

Prostate cancer research in India: A scientometric analysis of publications output during 2004-13

This review article examines 1,368 publications on prostate cancer in India, as covered in Scopus database during 2004-13, experiencing an annual average growth rate of 18.77% and citation impact of 5.23. The world prostate cancer output (89,994 publications) came from several countries, of which the top 15 (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, and China) accounts for 94.80% share of the global output during 2004-13. India’s global publication share was 1.52% and hold 14th rank in global publication output during 2004-13. The Indian prostate cancer output came from several organizations and authors, of which the top 20 and 19 contributed 41.81% and 24.05% share, respectively, during 2004-13. India’s international collaborative share in prostate cancer was 23.39%, which decreased from 24.42% to 22.98% from 2004-08 to 2009-13. Medicine accounted for the largest share (59.50%) of output in prostate cancer followed by biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (40.13%), pharmacology, toxicology &amp; pharmaceutics (27.63%), chemistry (8.55%), agricultural and biological sciences (4.31% share), and immunology and microbiology (2.70% share) during 2004-13. Diagnosis, screening, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, pathology and prognosis together account for 60.24% publications share among treatments methods used in Indian prostate cancer research during 2004-13. Only Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu together contributed 57.82% share in Indian publications output in prostate cancer during 2004-13. The authors stressed the need for developing national policy for prostate cancer which should take care of screening for detection and diagnosis, management and treatment options of the prostate cancer patients in India.  </p

Prescription pattern of medicines in a tertiary care hospital: a cross-sectional study

Background: Prescribing drugs for any disease is not complete until it is rationally done. Irrational prescriptions often lead to treatment failure, toxicity or drug interactions which may prove detrimental to the patient. Antibiotics are very much prescribed in day to day practice but their rational use prevents treatment failure, resistance.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital to see the antibiotic prescribing pattern. Prescriptions were screened one time from different OPDs with prior permission from the doctor attending the respective OPD.Results: A total of 200 prescriptions were assessed out of which 121 had monotherapies prescribed, 79 had FDCs. Antibiotics were the most commonly prescribed drugs. Prescriptions having drug combinations were assessed and pantoprazole domperidone was the most commonly prescribed (32.91%).Conclusions: Drugs should be prescribed rationally for proper therapeutic benefit. It encourages the patient to properly use the medicine and properly comply to it

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice about dengue in factory workers of Jammu region, India

Background: Dengue, a mosquito borne, arboviral disease has become a major cause of health concern in the recent times throughout the world. In India, we have been witnessing annual outbreaks for the past few years and lack of knowledge about prevention and treatment of dengue among majority of the population leads to increased mortality. In spite of this fact, very few studies have been done to know about the knowledge of people regarding dengue fever and whether proper preventive measures are being practiced by the community to limit its spread. The objective of the study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding dengue in factory workers in Jammu.Methods: An observational study was conducted in a factory of Jammu to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of factory workers about dengue.Results: Majority of workers had knowledge about dengue (92.56%), source (81.81%), nature of disease, symptoms, but complications were not known. Majority of the workers had no idea that laboratory test for dengue is not available in every laboratory.63.63% of the workers knew that papaya is useful in dengue. 74.38% of the workers knew that low platelet count is found in dengue. There were 82.64% of the workers told that they think dengue is curable and preventable. There were 54.54% of the workers told that dengue can be prevented by avoiding stagnation of water. 57.85% of the workers told that they are aware about the sprays used by govt. to kill mosquito.Conclusions: There is a need to bring awareness about dengue, prevention and treatment as it is a prevalent disease now

Pneumonia Disease Research in India: A Scientometric Study during 2004-13

Examines 2508 publications in Indian pneumonia research, as indexed in Scopus database during 2004-13, witnessing an annual average growth rate of 19.86%, an average citation impact per paper of 2.85 and international collaborative publication share of 14.19%. The global share of Indian pneumonia research was 2.74% during 2004-13, which increased from 1.83% to 3.39% from 2004-08 to 2009-13. Medicine contributed the largest publications share (76.28%) in Indian pneumonia research, followed by pharmacology, toxicology & pharmaceutics (16.27%), biochemistry, genetics & molecular biology (13.12%), immunology & microbiology (7.19%) and chemistry (3.99%) during 2004-13. The 15 most productive Indian organizations and authors in Indian pneumonia research contributed 34.01% and 10.88% share each to its cumulative publications output during 2004-13 and have registered an average productivity of 56.87 and 18.20, an average citation impact per paper of 3.15 and 4.06, an average h-index value of 9.27 and 7.00 and an average share of international collaborative papers of 16.65% and 14.29%.

Social Science Research Landscape in South Asia: A Comparative Assessment of Research Output Published during 1996-2013

Abstract - The paper analyses composition and dynamics of social sciences research output in five South Asia countries as reflected in publications indexed in Scopus international bibliographical database and as summarised in Scimago database. The study which covers publications and citations data for the years 1996-2013 reveals that social sciences research in South Asia appears to be growing exponentially, doubling in publication size every six years. Within the confines of South Asia region, there is a great social science research divide between nations that publish papers in bulk and those that publish very little. India alone published prolific share (84%) within South Asia region compared to 6.4% by Pakistan and 3.2% by Bangladesh. In the global context also, there exists social science research divide. South Asia region barely published less than 1.6% share in 18 years 1996-2013, compared to rest of the world share that published 98.427%. South Asia is strong in quantity but not in quality in social sciences research. Relative citation index of South Asia has been below the world average. South Asia share of internationally collaborated papers is low (14.15%). India’s share of internationally collaborative papers has been the least across all fields of social sciences. It is a pointer for investigation why India should rank at bottom in South Asia countries ranking on international collaboration despite its prolific share (84%) in the region in social Sciences research

A Scientometric Assessment of Indian Himalayan R&D Publications during 2004-13

The paper analyses 9909 global and 4862 Indian Himalayan R&D publications, as covered in Scopus database during 2004-13. It compares the contribution, citation impact and international collaborative publications share of top 10 most productive countries, and the place of Indiaamong them. It mainly examines Indian output, with a focus its annual average growth rate (13.21%), citation impact per paper (1.86%), distribution of citations (with 62.40% publications received one or more citations), share of international collaborative papers (16.29%) and contribution of leading collaborative countries, distribution of output by broad subject areas, publication productivity and citation impact of thirty leading institutions and authors; media of communications and characteristics of highly cited papers. The paper stresses the need for developing a national policy for Himalayan R&D, which will help in increasing the output, raising the research quality and in increasing international collaborative output

Glaucoma Research: A Scientometric Study of Indian Publications Output, 2002-11

Objectives: Analyses the Indian publications output in glaucoma research during 2002-11 on several parameters including contribution & citation impact of top most productive countries, India’s overall contribution, its growth pattern and citation impact, the share of international collaboration in India’s overall research output, contribution of leading countries and identification of leading foreign collaborating partners, Indian contribution & impact of different types of glaucoma, glaucoma research by sub-fields and glaucoma research output by different population age groups, productivity and impact of leading Indian institutions and authors and pattern of communication of Indian output in most productive journals. Methods: The Scopus Citation Database has been used to retrieve the data for 10 years (2002-11) by searching the keywords “glaucoma or intraocular pressure” in combined Title, Abstract and Keywords field. Results: The Indian publications output in glaucoma research consisted of 1078 papers during 2002-11, which increased from 61 papers in 2002 to 207 papers in 2011, witnessing an annual average growth rate of 18.29%. The average citation impact per paper registered by Indian publications in glaucoma research was 3.03 during 2002-11, which decreased from 3.87 during 2002-06 to 2.49 during 2007-11. The international collaborative share ofIndia in overall glaucoma research was 21.06% during 2002-11, which increased from 17.92% during 2002-06 to 23.09% during 2007-11 Conclusions: The glaucoma’s irreversibility, lacking of glaucoma specialists and patients unawareness demand for an economic and effective glaucoma diagnosis system for screening. Disease control and elimination require an adequately trained functional workforce with an enabling infrastructure and technology