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.
ABSTRACT
Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes-are the world’s biggest killers. In developing countries, cancer is among the ten most common causes of mortality. Cancer is not just one disease but many diseases. There are more than 100 different types of cancer. The most conspicuous feature of the distribution of cancers between the sexes is the male predominance of lung cancer. Prostate, colorectal, stomach and liver cancer are also much more common in males. Cancer of breast, colorectal, cervix, uteri, lung and stomach are common in females. This study was conducted to identify the prevalence of various types of cancers in rural and urban community of Surendranagar district.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out among 300 rural and 300 urban families 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: Study revealed that out of total study population (2053), 37 participants were having cancer. The prevalence of cancer was 1.80% in our study. Out of 37 respondents who were having cancer, majority cases were oral cancer 11 (29.73%) and 9 (24.32%) lung cancer, followed by cancer breast 5 (13.51%), cancer colorectal 5 (13.51%) and other cancers 7 (18.92%).Conclusions: Prevalence of cancer was increasing with the age. Higher number of cancer cases was found amongst older age than younger age. Significant difference was found between cancer prevalence and gender.