Background:Among the chronic rheumatic diseases, hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent and is a leading cause of pain and disability in most countries worldwide. Its prevalence increases with age and generally affects women more frequently than men. OA is strongly associated with aging and heavy physical occupational activity, a required livelihood for many people living in rural communities in developing countries. Determining region-specific OA prevalence and risk factor profiles will provide important information for planning future cost effective preventive strategies and health care services.Materials and Methods:The study was a community based cross sectional study to find out the prevalence of primary knee OA in India which has a population of 1.252 billion. The study was done across five sites in India. Each site was further divided into big city, small city, town, and village. The total sample size was 5000 subjects. Tools consisted of a structured questionnaire and plain skiagrams for confirmation of OA. Diagnosis was done using Kellgren and Lawrence scale for osteoarthritis.Results:Overall prevalence of knee OA was found to be 28.7%. The associated factors were found to be female gender (prevalence of 31.6%) (P = 0.007), obesity (P = 0.04), age (P = 0.001) and sedentary work (P = 0.001).Conclusions:There is scarcity of studies done in India which has varied socio geographical background and communities. We conducted this study for analyzing the current prevalence of OA in different locations. This study has evidenced a large percentage of population as borderline OA; therefore, it depends mainly on the prevention of modifiable risk factors to preserve at ease movement in elderly population through awareness programs.
BackgroundGlobally, the threat of infectious diseases, particularly emerging infectious diseases, originating at the human-animal-environment interface, has caught health systems off guard. With forecasts that future pathogen emergence will be centred in hotspots in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the need to prepare policy frameworks that can combat this threat is urgent.DiscussionEmergence of diseases such as avian influenza and Ebola virus disease, which threatened social disruption, have established the need for intersectoral coordination/collaboration. These events led to the initiation of establishing institutionalised collaborative frameworks in India to adopt a One Health approach to disease prevention and control. However, the gains made in influenza control could not be adapted to other infectious diseases. Intersectoral coordination was briefly carried out, more as a reactive response to threats. The systemic failure to sustain such efforts have therefore, only undermined a coordinated response. The recent draft National Health Policy, 2015, has also failed to establish the need for intersectoral coordination in disease control approaches. Neglecting the need to endorse linkages between human health, animal health and husbandry, agriculture, and environmental sectors, has led to duplicative and weak response systems.The absence of health impact assessment with respect to the development agenda in policies, has cast negative effects on the health and wellbeing of man, animal, and the environment. Lack of attention to building core capacity in these critical sectors has further raised challenges in designing and deploying mitigation strategies. With developing countries like India being home to a major portion of the world’s poorest livestock farmers, the absence of a policy discourse that endorses the One Health approach in development and health policies is a major hurdle in eliminating poverty and poverty-related diseases.ConclusionsThe adoption of One Health approaches in health and related sectoral policies is a critical policy requirement for India and other developing countries. The goal should be to not just establish preparedness plans, but also to encourage a policy environment where assessment and mitigation of downstream impacts of different agenda are incorporated.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-016-0181-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The view from the south is, more than ever, dominated by ominous signs of change. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are intrinsic to the Earth system, and their evolution is intertwined with and influences the course of the Anthropocene. In turn, changes in the Antarctic affect and presage humanity's future. Growing understanding is countering popular beliefs that Antarctica is pristine, stable, isolated, and reliably frozen. An aspirational roadmap for Antarctic science has facilitated research since 2014. A renewed commitment to gathering further knowledge will quicken the pace of understanding of Earth systems and beyond. Progress is already evident, such as addressing uncertainties in the causes and pace of ice loss and global sea-level rise. However, much remains to be learned. As an iconic global ''commons,'' the rapidity of Antarctic change will provoke further political action. Antarctic research is more vital than ever to a sustainable future for this One Earth.
Background:Seventy per cent of premature deaths among adults are due to behavioral patterns that emerge in adolescence, including smoking.Objective:The objective was to study the prevalence of tobacco use among adolescent students in South Delhi and its epidemiological correlates.Materials and Methods:This was a cross-sectional study.Setting:Three schools and two colleges of South Delhi were chosen. There were 550 adolescent students aged 14-19.Statistical Analysis:Statistical analysis was done using proportions, the chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression.Results:A total of 88 (16.0%) students reported having ever tried cigarette or bidi smoking. The prevalence of current smoking was 7.1%. Exactly 10% (55) of the students reported having ever used smokeless forms of tobacco. The prevalence of tobacco use overall was found to be 20.9%, and was significantly higher (P=0.016) among the males than the females. Tobacco use was found to be significantly associated with having seen a brother/sister smoke (OR 5.15), best friend smoke (OR 2.92), and belonging to a nuclear family (OR 1.96).Conclusions:Tobacco use is still an important risk behavior among adolescent students. This study found a strong association of tobacco use by the adolescents with their having seen various role models ever smoking.
A total of 679 primary school children drawn from developed southern parts and underdeveloped eastern parts of Delhi were examined for ocular morbidity. Their age range was 5-15 years and both sexes had almost equal representation. The prevalence of eye diseases was relatively high. Over 40 percent of all the children studied had one or more ocular problems. Trachoma (18%) was the most common ocular morbidity followed by vitamin A deficiency (10.6%), visual acuity < 6/9 (7.4%) and apparent/latent squint (7.4%). In most of these eye disorders, the majority of the children came from the underdeveloped eastern parts of Delhi. Ocular morbidity seems to be unevenly distributed in rural Delhi with a significantly worse picture in the underdeveloped eastern parts, across the river 'Yamuna'. Though blinding trachoma may cease to be a major problem in India, the country continues to have endemic pockets of its non-blinding form. One puzzling observation was that children with protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) did not show any specific vulnerability to ocular diseases. In fact, those with normal weight-height index were having a higher share of eye diseases. Though this issue needs to be explored further in the light of biological plausibility, it appears that children who do not have PEM are also exposed to ocular diseases at least with comparable risk.
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