Background: Falling sex ratio is signaling precipitation of demographic catastrophe in India. Female feticide, male child preference, and gender inequities are to be blamed. Objective: To study awareness and perception regarding Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act among mothers of under-five attending immunization clinic and gender preference among them. Materials and Methods: A Cross-sectional study was carried out among 200 mothers of under-five attending immunization clinic at Government Medical College, Nagpur, during April-June 2014. Data were collected by interview using semistructured pro forma after obtaining written consent of mothers. Data were presented in percentage, mean, range with SD, and c 2-test as test of significance. Result: Majority of mothers 150 (75%) were aware about decreasing girls in India. One hundred and sixty-one (80.5%) mothers were aware about prenatal sex determination, and 61 (30.5%) knew that sonography is used for this purpose. Awareness about PCPNDT Act was 65%. Awareness was significantly associated with higher education, upper socioeconomic class, and working status. Although 85 (42.5%) mothers knew that punishment under PCPNDT is in the form of jail or monetary fine, none were aware about the correct penalty. Of 83 mothers desirous of more children, 33 (40%) preferred to have male child; while only 14 (17%) had preference for a female child. Preference for male child was significantly associated with the birth of previous female child. Conclusion: Awareness regarding PCPNDT Act is high among those with higher education, upper socioeconomic class, and working mothers. Preference for male child is significantly associated with the birth of previous female child.
Background: Controversies over the value of BMI for the estimation of body fat have led to recommendations of the use of new methods to measure body fat. The objective of the study was to find the association between hypertension and anthropometric variables like BMI, Waist-Hip ratio, Ponderal index, Brocca index.Methods: Newly diagnosed 150 hypertensive patients aged more than 30 years attending medicine OPD were selected as cases. Equal numbers of age matched controls were selected from relative or neighbourhood. Blood pressure of the subjects was recorded. BMI, WHR, Ponderal index, Brocca index were calculated. Association between two categorical variables was analyzed by using Chi -square test, odds ratio along with 95% confidence interval (CI). Student’s T test was used as test of significance for difference between two means. P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results: Those having BMI >25 has 2.28 (1.31, 3.95) times risk of being hypertensive. Those having waist to hip ratio (WHR) >0.9 had 2.73 (1.68, 4.41) times higher chance of being hypertensive. Those having Ponderal Index <40 had 3.08 (1.75, 5.42) times higher risk of hypertension. Those with ideal body weight percent more than 100 by Brocca index had 2.98 (1.84, 4.83) times chance of getting hypertension.Conclusions: Ponderal index (PI), Ideal body weight percent by Brocca index (BI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) were found to be strongly associated with hypertension with higher odds ratio than BMI.
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.