Background: Occupational health risks and hazards due to the polluted environment have become a serious public health concern. Thus, the duty-bound personnel like traffic police who are continuously exposed, may be at high risk and badly suffer from related health problems. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of occupational hazards and related health problems among traffic personnel in Mangaluru city. It also aimed to determine the association between occupational hazards and health problems.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among traffic personnel of Mangaluru city. A semi-structured questionnaire with established reliability and validity was used to measure occupational hazards, protective measures, and health problems.Results: The prevalence of respiratory morbidity, eye symptoms, and auditory symptoms was found to be 51.2%, 61.6%, and 47.5% respectively. Respiratory morbidity and duration of use of protective measures against air pollution are found to be significantly associated. The duration of exposure to noise pollution was also significantly associated with the auditory symptoms.Conclusions: Police personnel suffer from significant occupational health problems, due to hazards like air pollution and noise. Necessary protective measures should be taken to ensure the safety of traffic personnel. This study showed an association between occupational hazards and related health problems.

Background: Road traffic accident is one amongst the “biggest killers” across the World according to World Health Organization. Though road traffic accidents are both predictable and preventable, it is witnessed that there is an alarming increase in morbidity, mortality and disability owing to road traffic accident which has become a major public health concern in India. Hence this study aims to assess the awareness and obeyance of road traffic rules among commuters in south Mangaluru suburbs. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 180 motorists in south Mangaluru suburbs during August 2015, who were selected conveniently and structured questionnaire was administered for interview schedule. The data were analyzed for mean, median, frequencies, percentages, standard deviation and appropriate statistical tests were applied by using SPSS version 16. Results: More than two-thirds (67.2%) had insufficient awareness about road traffic rules and more than three fourth of the respondents (86.1%) had bad obeyance of road traffic rules. There was relationship between awareness and practice which was statistically significant (p=0.041) and there was statistical significant difference (p<0.05) in obeyance according to marital status, profession and type of vehicles used. Conclusions: Though the respondents were aware about road traffic rules to a certain extent but they were not obeying the road traffic rules wholly. This can be addressed through the strict enforcement of road traffic rulesand behavioral change communications.

Introduction and Aim: Diarrhea is a significant public health problem, resulting in nearly 16% of child deaths below the age of five, globally. This study was undertaken to find the relation between geographical variance in diarrheal prevalence and spatial dependence among under-five children of Karkala taluk of Karnataka State, India, between 2015 to 2018.   Materials and Methods: Data on registered diarrheal cases among under-five children between April 2015 and March 2018was obtained from the State Department of Health and Family Welfare. The thematic maps were prepared for the study area using data available at the village level. The GeoDa software was used to carry out spatial data analysis and spatial autocorrelation. Spatial dependence was analyzed through the Global Moran's Index and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA).   Results: Three thousand eight hundred ninety-four under-five children were recorded with diarrhea in Karkala taluk with a mean annual rate of 123.6/1000 diarrheal cases. There was an increase in diarrheal incidence during the study period with peak trends being seasonal. Global and Local spatial correlation analysis detected several hot and cold spot clusters among villages in Karkala taluk.   Conclusion: Diarrheal incidence among under-five children is highly seasonal and spatially clustered. The spatial analysis helps decide preventive measures for identified clusters and determines the observed heterogeneity of diarrheal infection.

Background: Mental health being a major concern gradually rising from the shadows, post-traumatic stress disorder is triggering as a major public health issue followed by any disaster. Hence, we aimed to determine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and its associated factors among the flood survivors.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among the flood survivors who resided on the banks of river Kaveri and river Harangi in Somwarpet Taluk of Kodagu district, Karnataka, India. A semi structured questionnaire was administered by interview method to capture the data from 331 participants who were sheltered at the relief camps during the flood in the year 2019. Association of sociodemographic variables with PTSD was analyzed using the Chi-square test and Logistic regression.Results: The mean (SD) age of the participants was 42.94 (±14.10) years and 141 (42.6%) were males. The prevalence of high severity symptoms of PTSD was 28.4%. Poor social support was perceived by 87.3% of the participants. Age, Loss of official documents, owning agricultural land and distance to river from the house were significantly associated with PTSD.Conclusions: PTSD after the disaster was 28% in the population and the majority perceived poor social support. Post flood, employment of support programs and mindfulness programs are the needs of the hour.