The government of India enforced a strict lockdown on 24th of March 2020 to flatten the curve of COVID-19 pandemic. People feared this disease and their daily routine was greatly hampered. Social media and online activities became the life line. This is expected to bring changes in the physical and mental health of the citizens. A descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study was carried out on the last week of May 2020, after two months of lockdown. Data was collected using a predesigned, pretested google form which included personal details, symptoms experienced during lockdown and measures taken to reduce the problems. 234 participants submitted their response. Majority of the participants were living with their family during lockdown and 80% were studying or working from home. Sleep disorders, problems with appetite and eye problems were found among majority of the participants. About 65% were threatened with the thought of COVID infection and almost half of the participants were anxious about their career. There is need for monitoring and counselling of those affected with physical and psychological problems, especially the students, so that they can cope up with their regular activities, personal and professional life.
Background: Overweight and obesity are recognized as an "escalating epidemic" affecting both developed and developing countries. Medical students working under stress and adopting more sedentary life style, are likely to be the victims of obesity. Objectives: To find out prevalence of overweight & obesity and associated risk factors among medical students in Kolkata. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was carried out among undergraduate students of NRS Medical College, Kolkata with a sample siza-150. Results: 18% students were overweight and 2% obese. Mean height & weight of boys were higher significantly than that of girls. 20.7% boys & 17.2% girls were either overweight or obese. 24% boys and only 7% girls have the habit of addition to smoking and or alcohol. 26.7% students, about 23% male & 33% female, not used to perform any exercises. 24% students have family history of obesity. Of them 27.8% developed overweight. No association of overweight with factors like family history, physical exercise, addiction, food habit or stress factor could be statistically established. Conclusion: Prevalence of overweight among medical students trend to be high. Promotion to adopt healthy lifestyles is urgently required.
Background:
Primary health-care providers can play a crucial role in the prevention and early detection of non-communicable diseases. Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) survey of primary health-care providers is needed to assess their gaps in knowledge, and identify barriers for effective implementation of the national program. However, such KAP instruments are lacking.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to develop, validate and assess the reliability of a questionnaire to determine the KAPs of primary health-care providers about hypertension and associated comorbidities
Materials and Methods:
This study was conducted in the following steps: item construction and psychometric testing, by validity and reliability analysis.
Results:
The final KAP questionnaire comprised 25 knowledge items, 12 attitude items, and 8 practice items. Exploratory factor analysis using principal axis factoring with varimax rotation revealed four dimensions in the attitude section explaining 35.93% and two dimensions in practice sections explaining 65.96% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for attitude and practice session measured 0.65 and 0.85, respectively. A Kuder Richardson value of 0.70 was obtained for the knowledge section. ICC coefficients were 0.56 (
P
< 0.00) for knowledge, 0.77 (
P
< 0.00) for attitude and 0.88 (
P
< 0.00) for practice sections indicating moderate-to-good correlations. Overall, the instrument developed had acceptable validity and reliability.
Conclusion:
Overall, the instrument developed had acceptable validity and reliability to assess the perceptions and practices of primary healthcare providers about prevention and control of hypertension and associated comorbidities in the community.
episodes of Acute Respiratory Illness and 1.7 of diarrhea annually. Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses incorporates the integrated approach to manage these illnesses and is concentrating on health care practices of the community to reduce child mortality. Early recognition and prompt treatment of these diseases are life saving. However, within a given social setting and a given availability of health services, an individual';s health seeking behaviour may be determined by factors such as distance, availability, affordability and the appropriateness and adequacy of services as perceived by the users. So, this study was conducted to assess the pattern of acute childhood illnesses among under five children and to find out the health seeking behaviour of the mothers in respect to the child's illness. MATERIAL AND METHODS This was a community based cross-sectional study carried out in the Mollasimla village of Hooghly district of West Bengal, the rural field practice area of All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata. The village Mollasimla had a population of 3176. This was
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