ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes mellitus, chronic non communicable disease triples the risk of developing tuberculosis by decreasing the immunity status. The prevalence of tuberculosis is higher in people with diabetes than in the general population, and diabetes is common co morbidity among people with tuberculosis. Health seeking behaviour of a patient depends up on their awareness of disease. The objective of this study was to determine the perception of tuberculosis among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending urban and rural health training centers.Methods: A facility based, comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among diabetics attending urban and rural training centres of a medical college hospital, Kancheepuram district. Sample size was estimated as 140. A semi structured questionnaire was used to interview the participants. Data was analysed using SPSS software 16v.Results: Among 140 participants, 70 were from rural setting and remaining of them from urban setting. The perception score was good among 31.4% of diabetics in urban and 8.6% among rural setting. The educational status, socio economic status and family history of tuberculosis were significantly associated with good perception score.Conclusions: The perception score was better in urban diabetes compared with rural diabetes patients. Health education measures will improve the health seeking behaviour.
ABSTRACT
Background: Hospital waste is a potential reservoir of pathogenic micro-organism and requires appropriate, safe handling. Sanitary workers entail to do waste collection, handling, storage and disposal. Hence they have higher chances of exposure to numerous risk factors. The objective of the study was to assess the adoption of ‘standard precautions’ among sanitary workers pertaining to hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), prevention of needle stick/sharp injuries, handling of soiled linen and finding out the reasons for non-adoption.Methods: A cross sectional study was done in two health care institutions in Chennai and Madurai, Tamil Nadu during January to May 2018. Institutional ethics committee approval was obtained. All sanitary workers willing to participate in the study were included. After getting informed consent, data was collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS 20.0. Mean, frequency and percentages were calculated.Results: Sanitary workers included in the study were 118. The overall hand hygiene was satisfactory among 35.6%. Only 62.7% were using gloves while handling waste. 54(45.8%) had NSI in last one year. Immersing soiled linen in hot water was done only by 15 (12.7%) before washing with disinfectant and autoclaving.Conclusions: The adoption of ‘standard precautions’ among sanitary workers is inadequate due to lack of proper orientation