Background:Obesity is a complex, multi-factorial chronic disease. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths.Objectives:To find the prevalence and risk factors for obesity in women aged 20-60 years in Ludhiana city.Methods:The present study is a community based cross sectional study carried out in an urban area of Ludhiana among women aged 20-60 years. Among the study population of 324 women, a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to record the socio-demographic and anthropometric profile of women. Chi square test and logistic regression was used to find the association of obesity and hypertension with socio-demographic variables.Results:The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 12.7% and 29.6% respectively. Obesity was found to be more common among middle-aged Punjabi housewives belonging to upper socio-economic strata. There was strong association between overweight/obesity and hypertension.
A retrospective study was carried out to investigate the twinning rate and its correlates from January 1991 to December 2005 in 10 villages of the Rural Health Centre, Pohir, a field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. During this study period, 5070 deliveries took place. A total of 5017 singleton births and 53 sets of twins were recorded, giving a twinning rate of 10.45 per 1000 total deliveries. Monozygotic and dizygotic twinning rates were estimated as 2.96 and 7.49 per 1000 deliveries, respectively. The twinning rate was strongly associated with maternal age; the twinning rate for mothers between 30 and 34 years of age was about 10 times higher than the rate for mothers younger than 20 years. This variation was due to variation in dizygotic twinning; the rate of monozygotic twinning was almost constant for all ages. The twinning rate was highest at gestational order 4 or higher. The perinatal mortality rate among the twins was 173.1 per 1000 total twin births and was significantly higher among the group in which diagnosis of twins was not done during the prenatal period. We should expect 1 twin birth per 100 births, and because perinatal mortality is alarmingly high in undiagnosed twin pregnancies, early recognition of twin pregnancy during prenatal visits and delivering in a health facility with adequately trained personnel should be encouraged.
Background: Infant and young child feeding practices directly affect the nutritional status of children under two years of age and, ultimately, impact child survival. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the WHO infant and child feeding indicators in a rural area of Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in fifteen villages of Ludhiana district under rural health training centre of Department of Community Medicine, Dayan and Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab. The data was obtained from mothers/primary caregivers of 813 living children 0-23 months of age group and information about seven core and three optional WHO infant and young child feeding indicators was collected using WHO questionnaire. Prevalence estimates with 95% confidence interval were calculated. A Χ2 test and Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% CI was calculated wherever required. Results: Only 56.7% of infants were put to breast within one hour of birth, while three fourths of infants younger than 6 months were exclusively breastfed. About seventy percent of children aged 12-15 months and 54.7% of children 20-23 months continued breastfeeding at 1 & 2 years respectively. Almost all the children born in the last 23 months were ever breastfed. Nearly ninety percent of infants 6-8 months of age were fed with complimentary foods at the recommended daily frequency. Conclusion: To improve breastfeeding practices, health education needs to be strengthened for target population having sub-optimal breastfeeding indicators. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i6.12067Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.6(6) 2015 60-65
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