Anurag Agrawal and colleagues describe their experience of setting up a readily deployable cargo container-based health center in rural India.
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BACKGROUND:In spite of impressive gain in the field of health and nutrition, significant proportion of adolescent girls in our country is under-nourished. Often health and nutritional status of adolescent girls are direct reflection of the cumulative effects of various factors. One of the important parameters that causes under nutrition in adolescent girls is an increased risk of low protein and energy intake but high energy expenditure. Hence the problems related to adolescent girls deserve special attention. OBJECTIVE: (a) To assess nutritional status of study subjects, (b) To study energy balance and protein intake of adolescent girls in a rural area, (c) To find out the association of energy balance and protein intake with the nutritional status of adolescent girls. STUDY DESIGN: Community based cross-sectional study. SETTING: Primary Health Centre, Agroha, Haryana. PARTICIPANTS: 273 adolescent girls between 10-19 years of age. SAMPLE SIZE ESTIMATION: Based on the extent of under nutrition in adolescent girls. 39 adolescent girls were selected by simple random sampling from each of the 7 villages covered under PHC, Agroha.
METHODS AND MATERIALS:The primary tools in this study were predesigned and pretested interview and examination schedule. Nutritional status of study subjects, was assessed on the basis of Body Mass Index (BMI). Their protein and energy intake was computed by 24 hours recall oral questionnaire method. Estimation of energy expenditure was based on physical activity which was noted by 24 hours activity recall questionnaire method. Energy balance of each subject was obtained by subtracting energy expenditure from energy intake. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Proportions and X 2 test. RESULTS: Two third of the adolescent girls were under weight. Under-nutrition was 68.50% and 57.53% in subjects with negative and positive energy balance, respectively. There existed significant (P<0.01) association between protein intake and nutritional status of study subjects. CONCLUSIONS: In view of widespread under-nutrition in adolescent girls and it's significant association with protein intake, it is imperative that nutrition education programmers, both in schools and at community be initiated through the existing rural networks including health services.
Introduction: Anemia is a most common public health problem affecting around 1.9 billion population of the world. It is a severe public health problem in India. Medical students are vulnerable to develop anemia due to irregular eating habits due to hectic study schedule. Anemia among this age group has significant health consequences resulting in poor cognition, decreased attention span and memory affecting the performance, depressed immunity, repeated infections, increased fatigue, and shortness of breath, dizziness, blurred vision, low endurance and irregular menstruation. Material and Methods: This study is conducted among 100 students of both gender taking admission in MBBS first year at MAMC, Agroha. Hemoglobin values and other relevant details of the students were taken from academic section submitted at time of admission. World Health Organization criteria were taken to determine the severity of anemia. Modified B.G. Prasad scale was used to assess the socioeconomic status of the family. Data was first entered into MS excel sheet and then was exported to SPSS version 20.0 for appropriate analysis. Results: Prevalence of anemia came out to be 54% among study subjects. Difference between the mean levels of hemoglobin across the genders came out be statistically significant (P=<0.001). Conclusion: Prevalence of anemia is high among the study subjects with more prevalence among females study subjects. There is a need to accelerate efforts for achieving control of anemia by strengthening multi-sectoral partnership involving government departments, academic institutions, bilateral agencies and food industry.
BACKGROUND About 190 million people all over the world consume one drug or the other. Drug abuse causes immense human distress and the illegal production and distribution of drugs have spawned crime and violence worldwide. Today, there is no part of the world that is free from the curse of drug trafficking and drug abuse. Drug abuse and drug dependence is showing an increasing trend worldwide. Keeping these points in view, this study was conducted with following objectives: a) To find out the prevalence of cannabis abuse in a rural area of Punjab; b) To assess pattern of cannabis abuse in a rural area of Punjab.
Introduction: Low back pain has a profound impact both directly and indirectly on individuals. It is estimated that 60% to 80% of any population will experience low back pain at some point in their lives. There are number of causes for low back pain and Sciatica is one of them. Study aimed to assess the efficacy of Acupuncture for the management of Sciatica pain. Material and Methods: This study was conducted among 200 patients attending the Outdoor Patient department at Dr D.N. Kotnis Health and Education Center. With each subject a prior informed and written consent was obtained. A predesigned and pretested proforma was used to collect the socio demographic profile. Severity of Pain was measured with the help of Likert Scale whereas the reading on Likert scale was taken at the time of first visit and last visit of patients for comparison of pain. Data was first entered into MS excel sheet and then was exported to SPSS version 20.0 for appropriate analysis. Results: Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to determine the efficacy of the treatment on reducing the pain, further it was observed that the effect of the treatment was statistically significant (p<0.001) Conclusion: Acupuncture provides effective relief from Sciatica pain. However initiation of treatment at young age provides quick response and healing by reducing suffering of sciatica pain.
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