ABSTRACT
Background: Adolescence is considered as a stressful phase due to physical, psychological, and sexual changes. Due to stress overload, people from adolescent age group easily fall prey to mood disturbances such as anxiety and depression compromising their quality of life. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to study the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of stress, among urban and rural areas of Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Materials and Methods: A present cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2017 to December 2017 among adolescents of field practice areas of the Department of Community Medicine, Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College and Research Centre, Moradabad. A total of 400 participants were selected using a multistage sampling design with a random approach. Results: Majority of adolescents (165) belonged to late adolescent followed by early (119) and midadolescent (116). One hundred and thirteen adolescents were in primary school, high school (124), intermediate (100), and illiterate (18). About 54.5% of adolescents belonged to nuclear families. Amongst our 400 study participants 49.3% reported of being stressed. This was significantly more in mid and late adolescents, who were living either alone or belonging to nuclear families, children of illiterate parents, belonging to lower socioeconomic class (58.7%) followed by participants from upper socioeconomic class (51.8%). Conclusion: Our study draws attention to the high prevalence of stress among adolescents. Identification of stress can enable us to intervene proactively which can avert further complications. We recommend strengthening the information, education, and communication activities for prevention, early identification, and timely treatment for stress in adolescents.
ABSTRACT
Hepatitis E virus [HEV] is endemic in Pakistan. Although otherwise asymptomatic, HEV infection becomes fatal in pregnancy, with considerable maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. We conducted a descriptive study from April to October 2015 in 10 tertiary care hospitals throughout Pakistan to determine maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality in HEV-positive pregnant women with acute jaundice or raised liver function tests. Twenty-one of 135 women were HEV positive and in 3rd trimester except for 1 in 1st trimester. Overall prevalence of HEV in pregnancy was 0.19%. Ten women were artificially induced, 3 had premature labour, 4 delivered spontaneously [full term], 3 died and there was 1 intrauterine death. One woman had a home abortion before coming to hospital. There were 7 perinatal infant deaths: 4 intrauterine, 3 stillbirths and 1 abortion. Maternal mortality was significantly associated with delivery, as 17 mothers who lived went into labour spontaneously or were artificially induced, whereas 3 women who continued their pregnancy and did not deliver, died. Case fatality rate of HEV infection in pregnancy was 14.2%