ABSTRACT
Background: Emergency response service (ERS) is associated with medical, police emergency and fire. In the Indian context, a much discussed and successful public-private partnership (PPP) model for ERS is the 108 emergency service being managed and operationalized by EMRI. The World Health Organization has projected that by 2020 road crashes will be a major killer in India. It is a well-accepted fact that a patient who receives basic care from trained professionals and transported to the nearest healthcare facility within 15-20 minutes of an emergency has the greatest chance of survival and terms like ‘The Golden Hour’ and the ‘Platinum Ten Minutes’ that imply the importance of it.Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in Surendranagar district. Out of 10 talukas of district 4 talukas were selected randomly; out of them one village was selected from each taluka. 20 houses were selected randomly from each village; one adult male and one adult female from selected house were included for the study.Results: 100% respondents knew that 108 could be used for medical emergencies where as 3.57% and 6.43% of respondents, respectively, knew that it also could be used for police and fire type of emergencies. Awareness regarding ‘108’ services and literacy status of respondents showed statistically significant association.Conclusions: Although people were aware about ‘108’ service and had faith in the service, there is large gap in knowledge as to how and when to utilize it including police and fire emergencies.
ABSTRACT
Background: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), substance abuse is “persistent or sporadic drug use inconsistent with or unrelated to acceptable medical practice.” Recently, substance abuse has been increasing among children and adolescents. Alcohol is one of the leading causes of death and disability globally and in India. Tobacco consumption is a major preventable cause of death, accounting for 13,000 deaths per day globally. This study was conducted to identify the prevalence of substance abuse and its pattern among adolescents in rural and urban community of Surendranagar district.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out among 300 rural (150 from school and 150 from community) and 300 urban (150 from school and 150 from community) adolescents selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected and analysed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences and Microsoft excel have been used to generate graphs, tables, etc.Results: Prevalence of substance abuse in our study was 30.17%. Adolescents from rural community had higher prevalence (37.67%). Prevalence was significantly higher in males (55.33%) than compared to females (5%). Tobacco was most common substance abused by the adolescents.Conclusions: Prevalence of substance abuse was higher in rural compared to urban community and in males compared to females. Chewing form being the most common form of abusing the tobacco followed by smoking and drinking form in our study.