Background: Elderly population is on raise globally and in India. Malnutrition in old age, significantly increases the susceptibility to infection, compromises the outcomes of other underlying conditions and diseases and hence increases the risk of morbidity and mortality. The malnourished elderly are more likely to require more hospitalizations, cause burden to caregivers and possess a huge economic cost to society. This facilitates the need for early detection of malnourishment among elderly by assessing the nutritional status as a part of geriatric evaluation therefore appropriate measures can be taken to overcome the malnourishment and associated complications. Hence this study attempts to assess the nutritional status and factors influencing it among elderly, in an urban area, Bengaluru. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 elderly population aged ≥60 years in an urban area, Bengaluru during April to August 2016. Results: Among the study participants majority 182 (60.66%) were females and 64(21.33%) were malnourished. Nutritional status was found to worsen significantly with advancing age (χ²=42.12, P value <0.0001), Illiteracy (χ²=16.19, P value 0.0003), dependent financial status (χ²=16.45, P value 0.0003) and living arrangements without spouse and/or children (χ²= 14.17, P value 0.0278). Good awareness but low utilization levels of the old age social security scheme was noted among the study population. Conclusions: Old age can only be protected, promoted and extended by adding quality to life. Geriatric nutritional status assessment helps to detect the malnourished and those at risk of malnutrition at an early stage, following which an early corrective interventions can improve their quality of life.
Background: Total thyroidectomy (TT) is a commonly performed procedure for various thyroid disorders, with parathyroid insufficiency manifesting as hypocalcaemia being a well-known complication. Albeit, vitamin D is well implicated in calcium homeostasis, the association between hypovitaminosis D and postoperative hypocalcaemia is yet to be concluded. The aim of our study is to evaluate the correlation of preoperative serum vitamin D3 levels with occurrence of post-operative hypocalcemia in patients undergoing TT.Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 50 patients undergoing TT for benign thyroid diseases from November 2016 to May 2018. Pre-operative vitamin D3 levels were estimated. Serum calcium levels was measured pre‑ and post‑operatively at 24hours, 1st week and 4th week. Serum calcium level ≤8.5 mg/dl was considered as biochemical hypocalcemia. A data of demographic, clinical, biochemical and intraoperative findings were documented and analysed.Results: Statically 14 (28%) patients developed symptomatic hypocalcemia. Out of these, 11 (78.5%) patients had preoperative vitamin D levels of <30 ng/dl (p=0.034). 24 hours postoperative serum calcium level was significantly lesser in patients with lower preoperative vitamin D levels (p=0.015), suggesting that postoperative hypocalcemia (24 hr) is statistically related to pre-operative vitamin D3 levels.Conclusions: It could be concluded from our study that preoperative serum vitamin D3 levels can predict post-operative occurrence of symptomatic and/or biochemical hypocalcemia. Thus, it could be hypothesized that supplementing vitamin D preoperatively could curb the incidence of hypocalcaemia following TT. However, further relevant trials are needed to attest to this.
Background: Road traffic accident's (RTA's) is an important global public health problem causing 20 to 50 million non-fatal injuries and 1.25 million deaths annually, currently the 8th leading cause of death globally and predicted to become the 5th leading cause of death by 2030. RTA is one of the leading cause of death among the most productive age group (15-29 years) costing billions of dollars to deal with its consequences. The present study is aimed to determine the awareness and behavioral patterns about road safety measures among undergraduate medical students, Bangalore. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 540 undergraduate medical students in a medical college, Bangalore from August to October, 2015 by universal sampling technique using a semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. Results: Majority of the study participants were aware of traffic signal rules 99.2% and helmets usage 98.8%. 87.7% knew that alcohol consumption is dangerous while driving/riding, 67% were aware of seat belts usage and only 64.8% were aware of usage of hands free devices while driving/riding. Among the 392 two wheeler and 188 four wheeler users, 36.2% and 50% regularly used helmets/seatbelts respectively and 70% followed lane rule. The risky behaviours like jumping traffic signals, riding hands free, drag racing and drunken driving were noted. Conclusions: In order to restrict the epidemic of RTA's undertaking proper road safety measures are the best available interventions. The overall knowledge and practice of road safety measures was high except in certain areas the practice levels were not desirable which has to be strengthened.
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