Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety among 10th Standard Exam Going Children in Rural Area of Kancheepuram District

Depression is a common illness worldwide, with an estimate of about 350 million as on 2016. Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. The annual years of healthy life lost per 100,000 people from anxiety disorders in India has increased by 7.2% since 1990, an average of 0.3% a year. The purpose of this study is to know whether the students are depressed and anxious during exam times and if so, in what grade of depression and anxiety the majority of students comes under .And with the results, to make general awareness and pacify the school student regarding their exams. Materials and Methods:  A cross sectional study will be conducted among the school students studying 9th and 10th standard in the field practice areas of the Department of Community Medicine Pondicherry institute of Medical Sciences, Duration of the study is one month (February 2017). Considering the prevalence of Anxiety and Depression as 25%, with 20% absolute precision the sample size calculated was 312. Results: Most of the 9th and 10th standard students are having mild depression, ie 119 students (n) which constitutes about 38.1%. Also on comparing 9th and 10th standard students, 9th standard students are having minimal depression ie 65 students which constitutes about 60.2 %, whereas 10th standard students are having mild depression ie 70 students which constitutes about 51.8%.. Providing counselling for students, the teacher of a class should know the different difficulties of each student of their class and try to solve them in a smooth manner by doing these activities we can reduce the percentage of depression and anxiety among school children’s for an extent

Three Years Experience of Third Year Undergraduate Medical Students in Different Teaching Learning Methods: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: India is a second largest populous country producing more than sixty thousand doctors every year. Still in India research on teaching learning methods are subtle. To improve the quality of knowledge and skills of medical students, there is a need to analyse the existing teaching learning methods as well as innovating new methods. Aim: To compare the three years experience of third year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) students in three different teaching learning methods (Tutorials, Integrated Teaching sessions and Routine Lectures). Materials and Methods: Qualitative study was carried out among 60 third year MBBS students in medical college in south India. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed, with the help of literature review and is distributed among 66 students. Six participants excluded due to incomplete information. Questionnaire consisted of totally 16 questions. For the first ten questions answers were captured in Likert scale of one to five (one-poor; five- excellent). Eleventh to sixteenth questions were asked as an open-ended question to mention some positive and negative things about each method. Questions with Likert scale were analysed using Kruskal Wallis H Test and the open ended questions were analysed by thematic analysis. Results: Overall mean rank for Tutorial was 129.03 followed by Integrated Teaching (mean rank 86.33) and Routine Lecture (mean rank 56.14). Students gave better scores for Tutorials in areas such as easily understandable, better attention span and students involvement in the session. Students gave better scoring for Integrated Teaching in areas such as well organized, integration with other departments, ideal usage of audio visual aids and providing detailed information to the students. Drawbacks of Integrated Teaching were failure to attract the students, prolonged sessions (long duration), boring and minimal involvement of students. Lecture classes on the other hand purely depend upon the ability of the faculty. Conclusion: In three years of students experience, when comparing to Routine Lecture and Integrated Teaching, Tutorial was considered as the best teaching learning method by students because of involvement of students, easily understandable, focussed and increased student teachers interaction

Social capital as a mediator of the influence of socioeconomic position on health: Findings from a population-based cross-sectional study in Chandigarh, India

Background: Social capital has been recognized as part of the WHO's Social Determinants of Health model given that social connections and relationships may serve as resources of information and tangible support. While the association between socioeconomic position and health is relatively well established, scant empirical research has been conducted in developing countries on the association between social capital and health. Objective: Based on the WHO's Social Determinants of Health framework, we tested whether social capital mediates the effect of socioeconomic position on mental and physical health. Methods: A population-based study was conducted among a representative sample (n = 1563) of men and women in Chandigarh, India. We used standardized scales for measuring social capital (mediator variable) and self-rated mental and physical health (outcome variable). Results: A socioeconomic position index (independent variable) was computed from education, occupation, and caste categories. Mediation model was tested using path analysis in IBM SPSS-Amos. Participants' mean age was 40.1 years. About half of the participants were women (49.3%), and most were relatively well educated. The results showed that socioeconomic position was a significant predictor of physical and mental health. Social capital was a significant mediator of the effect of socioeconomic position on mental health but not physical health. Conclusion: Besides removing socioeconomic barriers through poverty alleviation programs, interventions to improve social capital, especially in economically disadvantaged communities, may help in improving population health

Choice of point of Care diagnostic device in anemia prevalence surveys: policy-level Implications in monitoring progress and guiding further action.

Anemia is highly prevalent disease of global concern. Childhood anemia can result in irreversible damage to brain and affect cognitive, intellectual, and pyscho-motor development. In pregnant women, it is a significant contributor to adverse maternal outcome (1–4). In 2011, alone it was responsible for loss of 42 million Disability adjusted life years and among the top three causes of disability worldwide (5). In an attempt to address this huge public health problem, guidelines have been issued by various leading international organizations and targets have been set to monitor progress towards its control. One such indicator is 50% reduction of anemia in women in reproductive age group (WRA) between 2011 and 2025 (6). This makes it necessary to carry out huge population-based anemia prevalence surveys repeatedly, to measure the progress and guide policy makers in carrying out specific interventions needed to reduce its prevalence

Additional file 1: of Level, causes, and risk factors of stillbirth: a population-based case control study from Chandigarh, India

Table - Association of maternal and foetal causes of stillbirths. This cross tabulation shows the association between maternal and foetal causes of stillbirth. (DOCX 38 kb

Xpert negative means no TB: A mixed-methods study into early implementation of Xpert in Puducherry, India

Introduction: Xpert MTB/RIF was implemented in 2016 as the initial diagnostic test for extrapulmonary, pediatric, and human immunodeficiency virus–associated tuberculosis (TB) and as an add-on test for sputum microscopy–negative patients under Revised National TB Control Programme, Puducherry, India. We intended to study the change in TB case notification rates (CNRs) after 2015 and explore the enablers and barriers for implementation of Xpert. Materials and Methods: Sequential mixed-methods study, quantitative phase followed by a descriptive qualitative phase (key informant interviews with healthcare providers in the program). Results: The TB (all forms) CNR increased in 2016 followed by a drop to 2015 levels in 2017. There was a reduction in patients notified as sputum-negative pulmonary TB and pediatric TB during 2016–2017. Healthcare providers used a negative Xpert result in ruling out TB among patients who would previously get diagnosed clinically. Perceived benefits of Xpert were efficiency, rapid results, and detecting resistance. Barriers included poor awareness among medical colleges and the private sector, difficulty in motivating sputum microscopy–negative patients for Xpert, and incompletely filled referral forms. Conclusion: Xpert-negative results should be interpreted cautiously after clinical assessment. Identified barriers should be addressed to ensure that all eligible undergo testing