ABSTRACT
Background: India is the diabetic capital of the world with nearly 31.7 million people suffering from the disease in 2000 which is projected to become 79.4 million in the year 2030. The incidence of diabetes in India is around 8.8%. This study aims at developing a mini questionnaire to quickly assess the self-care practices among the diabetic patients attending rural health training centre and also to educate the diabetic patients about self-care practices and dietary pattern they need to follow.Methods: The study design is a community based cross-sectional study. All diabetic patients who visited rural health training centre attached to a private medical college aged 40 years and above in the period of June to July 2019 were included in our study. Institutional ethical clearance was taken before commencing the study. Construction of mini self-care practices questionnaire (MSCPQ) comprised of two phases. Trained medical students collected the data by interview method using semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire.Results: The reliability of the MSCPQ using Cronbach’s alpha came to be 0.82 and the intra class correlation coefficient was 0.81; 95% CI (0.763-0.853) (p=<0.001). Around sixty six percent are having their health check-up regularly. Most (43%) of the study participants check their blood sugars monthly.Conclusions: Even though there are various factors contributing in facilitating self-care activities in patients living with diabetes, the role of health care physicians in educating about self-care practices are indispensable.
ABSTRACT
Background: Menstruation is a normal physiological process and irregular menstrual pattern is a problem affecting the quality of life among women in the reproductive age group. Although many factors contribute to the irregularity in menstrual cycles this study was conducted to find out the relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and irregular menstrual pattern.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural health and training centre of SRM hospital between August and October 2018 by using a convenience sampling method and data was collected from 163 women in the reproductive age group and analysed to find out the relationship between the BMI and menstrual irregularity.Results: The mean age of the study participants was 31.29 (±8.32) years and their mean age at menarche was 12.59 (±1.86) years. Majority of the study participants belongs to lower middle class (25%), Hindus (85%) by religion, married (82%), homemakers (53%) belongs to nuclear family (45%) having education up to high school level (61%). Only 44% of the participants have their BMI within normal range and 8% are obese. Irregular menstrual pattern was present in 13% of the study participants. The association between the BMI and the irregular menstrual pattern was found to be significant with a p<0.05.Conclusions: A significant association between the BMI and the irregular menstrual pattern highlights the importance of adapting simple and effective lifestyle and behavioural modifications in the reduction of excess weight thereby leading to healthy reproductive life among women.