ABSTRACT
Background: The prevalence of Diabetes is increasing globally and these numbers include women with Gestational diabetes mellitus also. Based on demographic projections made by United Nations Population Division for the year 2025, WHO issued estimates of adults with diabetes in all countries and reported that there will be more women with diabetes than men and we may anticipate a considerable increase in the burden of GDM especially in less prosperous countries. ‘Gestational Diabetes Mellitus’ (GDM) is defined as any degree of glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy. Worldwide prevalence of GDM varies between 1.4 – 14 %. The prevalence of Gestational diabetes mellitus in India varies from 3.8 to 21% in different parts of the country, depending on the geographical locations and diagnostic methods used. Gestational diabetes mellitus has been found to be more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas.Women diagnosed to have GDM are at increased risk of future diabetes predominantly type 2 DM as are their children. Aims & Objective: To estimate the prevalence of Gestational Diabetes mellitus and various socio-demographic factors of the studied subjects. Material and Methods: A Community based cross sectional study was conducted in the field practice area of Government Medical College Srinagar (Block Hazratbal: District Srinagar).The study was conducted for a period of one year from April 2011 to March 2012. All pregnant women in 24 weeks of gestation and above after undergoing preliminary clinical examination were given a 75 g oral glucose load, without taking in to consideration the time since last meal. Gestational diabetes mellitus was diagnosed if 2 hour plasma glucose was ≥140 mg/dl (DIPSI guidelines, a modified version of the WHO criterion). Tests of proportions (Chi square) and unpaired t-test were used to obtain results. Results: A total of 306 women were registered for the study. The prevalence rate of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was 7.8 % and all the cases were newly diagnosed during the study. Among various risk factors associated significantly with GDM were Gravida status, Parity and History of abortion. Overall, there was a preponderance of illiterate females (52.9%). However, the association between GDM and literacy was found to be non-significant at p > 0.05. The majority of females were home makers (96.4%) and occupation did not influence the prevalence of GDM. Majority of the studied population belonged to socioeconomic class III (Modified BG Prasad). Conclusion: Increasing prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus and its co-morbidities among females need immediate attention in terms of prevention and health education.
ABSTRACT
Background: Anaemia is a major public health problem in developing countries like India and is especially seen among women of childbearing age, during pregnancy and lactation. Nearly two-thirds of pregnant and one-half of non-pregnant women in developing countries have anaemia, which increases the risk of maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity. Aims & Objective: The study was designed to assess the prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women and to report the socio-demographic factors associated with anaemia during pregnancy. Material and Methods: This is a Cross sectional study. The study was conducted in Block Hajan, the rural field practice area under the department of community medicine, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura.482 pregnant women were examined and screened for anaemia. Haemoglobin level, age, education, income, type of family and parity were among the various variables studied. Statistical analysis was done by using Chi-square test using SPSS statistical package version (Chicago 11, IL). Results: A high prevalence (91%) of anaemia (Hb<11g/dl) was observed. The prevalence of anaemia was significantly higher in those aged ≥ 35 years. A highly significant association was found with woman’s age, parity, educational and socio-economic status. However, family type and birth interval were not significantly associated with anaemia. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women and there is need for correcting this to improve the overall health of pregnant women.
ABSTRACT
Background: In any community mothers and children constitute an important and priority group especially in developing countries like India where, their numbers (constituting up to 2/3rd of total population), vulnerability to morbidity and mortality (constituting as special risk group) and amenability to prevention of ill health and mortality, to a large extent, makes them candidate for special attention. By improving health of mothers and children in any society we contribute to a large segment of general population and it is because of this special and usually combined health services for mother and child, the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services are considered globally more so in developing countries. The main aim of MCH Services remains to ensure that, throughout pregnancy and puerperium, every mother maintains optimal health and at the end of pregnancy we have a healthy mother and a healthy baby and promote the child health throughout the infancy and childhood. Delivery of MCH services to the vast majority of rural communities has been through Sub-centers that are manned by two Multipurpose Health Workers (one male and one female [ANM]) and cover a population of 5000 in plain areas and 3000 in hilly or difficult terrain areas. The functions of female worker are mainly confined to Maternal and Child health (essential obstetric care, new born care, child health promotion, family planning, health education. Aims & Objective: To assess the Utilisation of maternal and child health services at Sub-center level by target population in a sub-center area. Material and Methods: A sample of 40 sub centres was obtained by multistage sampling procedure. The sample size was obtained by calculating number of mother child pair beneficiaries to be interviewed for assessing the utilization of maternal and child health services. Results: Out of the total 671 mothers studied 640 (95.4%) beneficiaries had received any antenatal check-up while 4.6% had not received any antenatal check-up. Only 10.3% of the women had greater than 3 antenatal check-ups at the sub centre while 5.46 % had received 3 antenatal checks up and 1.4 % had less than 3 antenatal check-ups at sub centre. MPHW (Female) was the service provider for antenatal care in only 3.1% of cases while 86.4% of the women preferred a doctor for antenatal check-ups. Conclusion: Utilization of ante-natal services is very low, intranatal is almost non-existent, post natal maternal services are decimal but child health services and some components of family planning services are being utilized from sub centers.
ABSTRACT
Background: Substance abuse disorder is among the leading public health problems in modern day world as they cause enormous human suffering in terms of morbidity, mortality and economic loss; and threatens the very social fabric of almost all communities around the world and as such is a great threat to the global health, economy and peace. Like most social behaviours the etiology of substance abuse is complex, varying through time, geographical regions and by demographic characteristics. Among young people, students are the most vulnerable group as the initiation into substance abuse first starts during this period. Aims & Objective: To find out the prevalence and pattern of substance abuse and its association with various sociocultural and demographic variables. Material and Methods: Multi-stage random sampling method was adopted to select the study subjects. The study subjects were asked about the substance abuse and related socio-demographic variables by means of WHO model core questionnaire format and results were subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The overall life-time prevalence of for substance abuse among college students was found to be 31.3%. Male students had significantly higher prevalence of substance abuse as compared to female counterparts(37.5% versus 19.6% respectively).The most common substance being abused was Tobacco products(22.5%) followed by solvents (10.0%), alcohol (6.2%), sedatives (5.9%), cannabis (4.4%), amphetamine products (2.1%), hallucinogens (0.5%) and cocaine (0.3%). Age, gender and family type were found to be strongly associated with substance abuse (p<0.001). Conclusion: Prevalence of substance abuse among college students is high and causes significant problems in this population; therefore there is necessity of targeted interventions to reduce this huge burden.