Women’s and Providers’ Experiences with Injectable Contraceptives (Depo-Provera): A View from Vadodara, India

Objective: To compare users’ and providers’ perspectives on injectable contraceptives (IC). Methods: This qualitative study employed semi-structured in-depth interview technique. Sixty women with experience of using IC and 10 doctors involved in providing IC were selected. Telephonic interviews of doctors were also conducted. Results: Over 50% of the women had side effects and had discontinued use within 1 year. The most common ‘likes’ according to women included ease of use, being tension free for 3 months and being effective and those of the providers were that it reduced anemia, privacy could be maintained, noncontraceptive benefits, good substitute, not to be taken daily like pills, safe and effective. The most common ‘dislikes’ reported by providers and clients were excessive bleeding, amenorrhea, irregular periods, spotting, weight gain and frequent pregnancy tests. Conclusion: Although certain distinct advantages of IC have been expressed, the associated problems are equally significant and therefore IC should not be an over-the-counter contraceptive

“When treatment is more challenging than the disease” : a qualitative study of MDR-TB patient retention.

CAPRISA, 2016.Abstract available in PDF file

A case control study of risk factors of coronary heart disease among patients admitted at tertiary hospital in western India

BackgroundCoronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death in the world. In this study, various risk factors of CHD were explored.AimsTo find out association of CHD with its risk factors in Western India.Methods A 100 cases of first episode of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patients and 200 age and sex matched controls from medical wards of a government run tertiary care hospital were interviewed through modified WHO STEPS questionnaire along with physical examination and anthropometric measurements. Data was cleaned and analysed through SPSS.Results On bivariate analysis current smoking status [OR=2.906 (1.69–4.98)], BMI [OR=2.6492 (1.49–4.72)], waist circumference [OR=1.7051 (1.01–2.88)] and positive family history [OR=2.0457 (1.07–3.91)] were found to be significantly associated with ACS cases. On multivariate analysis, BMI [OR=2.612 (1.376–4.959)] and current smoking status [OR=3.005 (1.791–5.042)] were found to be significantly associated with ACS cases.ConclusionOut of conventional risk factors, BMI and current smoking status were the only risk factors which had positive association with CHD in this study