Context:Urinary incontinence (UI) is a chronic debilitating disease which is often under reported, but laid significant impact on one's quality of life (QoL) thus is of public health importance.Aims:The aim of this study is to find out proportion of rural women have UI, its associated risk factors and treatment-seeking behavior, QoL of affected women.Methods:This was a cross-sectional clinic-based study conducted from October 2016 to January 2017 among 177 women aged 50 years or above attending a rural health facility with a structured schedule. Data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods by SPSS (version 16).Results:Forty-nine (27.7%) out of 177 women were found having UI. The most prevalent type of UI was stress UI (51.0%), followed by mixed UI (32.7%) and urge UI (16.3%). In bivariate analysis, study participants who were illiterate, having a history of prolonged labor, having a history of gynecological operation, normal vaginal deliveries (NVDs) (>3), diabetic, having chronic cough, having constipation, and having lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) had shown significantly greater odds of having UI. In multivariable illiteracy (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] - 2.41 [1.02–5.69]), NVDs (AOR - 3.37 [1.54–7.37]), a history of gynecological operation (AOR - 3.84 [1.16–12.66]), chronic cough (AOR - 2.69 [1.21–5.99]), LUTS (AOR - 2.63 [1.15–6.00]) remained significant adjusted with other significant variable in bivariate analysis. Those with mixed UI had 5.33 times higher odds having unfavorable QoL. Only 30.6% sought medical help. Treatment-seeking behavior shown negative correlation with QoL while fecal incontinence and LUTS shown possitive correlation.Conclusions:The study revealed that rural women are indeed at high risk of developing UI. Majority of them did not sought treatment for UI which is matter of concern. Generating awareness regarding UI may help to improve health-seeking behavior and QoL.

Background: Empathy is a desirable quality in every clinician. It is a crucial determinant of patient–physician communication and relation. There are very few existent Indian studies on empathy of medical students and its correlates. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess empathy level of medical students and its correlates. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional, hospital-based, analytical observational study conducted from July to November 2017. In total, 249 undergraduate medical students of a medical college of Kolkata were interviewed with a structured schedule. The schedule comprised of the sociodemographic questionnaire, career satisfaction, future career choice, and Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Results: The mean empathy score was 98.5 ± 12.5. Third-semester students had higher empathy scores (102.4 ± 12.4) compared to fifth (97.2 ± 12.9) and seventh semester (95.0 ± 10.9) students. The difference between the mean scores of different semesters was statistically significant. Female students were more empathic than male students. In the multivariable linear regression model, sex, semester, residence, career satisfaction, future career choice, and current place of living were significant predictors of empathy scores. Conclusion: Empathy level of medical students of our study was quite low compared to other studies conducted outside India. Empathy eroded with semester, which supports earlier pieces of evidence in this regard.

Background: Medical education can impose a significant amount of psychological stress and strain on undergraduates. In India, there are limited shreds of evidence regarding the magnitude of different psychological morbidities (i.e. stress, anxiety and depression) among medical undergraduates. Aims & Objectives: To find out the proportion of medical undergraduates suffering from psychological morbidities and their determinants. Material and Methods: It was a cross-sectional hospital-based analytical observational study conducted from July to November 2017. In total 327 undergraduate medical students of a government medical college of Kolkata were interviewed with a structured schedule comprising of socio-demographic, behavioural related questionnaire and DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale) 21. Data were analysed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, SPSS (version 16). Results: The burden of stress, anxiety and depression among medical undergraduates were found out to be 33.0%, 26.9% and 21.1% respectively. The burden was much higher in females compared to males and increased with semester and age. In the multivariable model depression, anxiety and stress were significant predictors of each other along with sex, semester, both smoking and alcohol drinking, sleep adequacy and satisfaction with own educational performance. The variables in the multivariable models were explaining 29.0% of stress, 30.8% of anxiety and 32.2% of depression. Conclusion: The proportion of undergraduate medical students with psychological morbidity was found to be high in the current study. Smoking, alcohol drinking, sleep adequacy and educational satisfaction were some critical modifiable predictors of different psychological morbidities identified in the study.

INTRODUCTIONOverweight and obesity are major public health problems of the current world. 1,2 In 2014, in the world, 39% of adults aged 18 years and above were overweight and 13% were obese.3 Obesity is also an emerging health problem in countries like India. The rising prevalence overweight and obesity in India is directly correlated with the rising prevalence of obesity-related co-morbidities; hypertension, the metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. 4,5 Obesity is preventable. The cost of management of obesity and associated comorbidities are rising day by day.6 So, more emphasis is required on prevention, mostly in young individuals who does not come in contact with health facility often. Therefore, easy assessment of overweight or obesity is the need of the hour from public health perspective.Asian Indians have a unique tendency to accumulate excess body fat around the abdomen. They have higher percentage body fat, increased subcutaneous and intraabdominal fat at lower or similar BMI levels as compared to white caucasians. [7][8][9] Measuring body adiposity by magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography is highly reliable and valid but are costly, time consuming, requiring special skill and not feasible in ABSTRACT Background: Generalised and central obesity are established risk factors for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. Easy assessment of overweight or obesity is the need of the hour from public health perspective. Waist circumference (WC) can be a simple screening tool for identifying overweight individuals since measuring WC is simple, inexpensive, less time consuming, convenient for self-monitoring and needs no complicated calculation as BMI. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in January-February 2017 among 338 adults, in a village of Singur Block, West Bengal. Height, weight and WC were measured for each subject. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to estimate the cut-off values of WC. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of WC ≥90 centimeters for men for identifying overweight (BMI ≥25) were 78.8% and 75.6% respectively, whereas those of WC ≥80 cm for women were 80.3% and 44% respectively. ROC curve analysis revealed good diagnostic accuracy at 88.5 cm for WC cut-off for men (area under curve (AUC) 0.854, sensitivity 86.5%, specificity 67.6%) and fair accuracy (AUC 0.744, sensitivity 80.3%, specificity 44%) for WC cutoff for 80 cm for women. Conclusions: This study shows, WC can be used for screening of overweight individual infield practice as measuring tape is inexpensive and easy-to-carry compared to a weighing scale. More research may be done on larger sample size to establish an optimal WC cut-off value for Indian population.

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