Background & objectives:Hypertension is a health problem of global priority. Screening and early diagnosis is important to plan appropriate interventions. The present study objectives were to screen the urban population aged 30 yr and above and diagnose for hypertension and to identify the factors associated with poor screening for hypertension, if any.Methods:A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in urban field practice area of a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry, India, among individuals aged 30 yr and above. Individuals were asked if they have tested themselves for hypertension in the past two years. Pretested questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collection was done during regular working time of the health centre. All eligible participants from consecutive households were included till the required sample size of 394 was achieved.Results:Of the 394 individuals interviewed, 252 (64%) had undergone screening for hypertension. The prevalence of self-reported hypertension among those screened was 26.2 per cent with no significant gender-wise differences. Screening for hypertension was better among females (71.6%) as compared to males (55.2%). Population who were at a higher risk of not getting screened for hypertension were relatively younger (30-44 yr) individuals and males.Interpretation & conclusions:The prevalence of self-reported hypertension among those screened was 26.2 per cent [95% confidence interval (21.1-31.9)]. Screening needs to be targeted more towards males and younger population.
Background: Re-treatment TB cases are still a big challenge to National TB control programme. The objectives of the study were among retreatment TB cases, to study the source of previous anti-TB treatment, to find the time delays in initiating re-treatment and to find the risk factors for initiating retreatment under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) in Pondicherry.Methods: It was a cross sectional study. Source, date of completion or interruption of recent previous anti-TB treatment, missed doses, DM status; smoking and alcohol intake in the past TB treatment were collected using pretested structured questionnaire and available records. Data was entered in EpiData software version 3.1 and analysed using SPSS v20.Results: Of 241 re-treatment TB patients, the proportion of relapse, TAD, failure and others were 52%, 24%, 12.4% and 11.6 respectively. About 90% [95% CI (85.6-93.2)] had received their recent previous anti-TB treatment from RNTCP sources. In multivariate analysis, Age >24 years, below secondary level of education and relapse cases have independently associated with RNTCP source of previous TB treatment. The median time interval of re-registration for relapse, TAD, failure and others were 334, 211, 140 and 53 days respectively. This difference between groups are statistically significant (p<0.0001). Almost one out of four retreatment TB patient was known diabetic. More than half of retreatment TB patients had consumed alcohol during their recent previous TB treatment.Conclusions: The public-private partnership is better in Pondicherry as only 10% of re-treatment TB cases were previously treated from Non-RNTCP sources. There is a scope for reducing the time between declaration of failure and initiation of re-treatment TB regimen. Screening and appropriate counselling of all registered TB patients for smoking and alcohol intake may be necessary.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.