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Introduction: Millions of women are still suffering from pregnancy related complications even after the implementation of a number of health programs relating to mother and child. The utilization of these services is not up to the mark, so a study was done to evaluate the utilization of Maternal and Child health services in relation to the mother who had complications related to them or their children during the last pregnancy. Material and Methods: A community based cross sectional study was performed in the field practice areas of the department of community medicine, the study period was one year and the data was analyzed by SPSS13. Results: It was found that 32% Recently Delivered Women suffered from complications in their last delivery. The most common being Still Birth. Utilization rates for all maternal health services except full ANC package were found to be significantly better in women having had experienced a complication in an earlier pregnancy. Conclusions and Recommendations: Even though we are having so many health programs in place still a majority of women are suffering from pregnancy related complications. The utilization of Maternal health services was high for these women as compared to the ones who had no complications in their last pregnancy. But need of the hour is to further increase the rate of utilization to achieve our MDG goals.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Iodine deficiency is one of the most neglected and wide spread of all nutritional deficiencies, constituting a real brake on human development. Deficiency of iodine may result in development of goitre and other Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD). Objective: To assess the status of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in school children. Methods: This study was conducted among school children of 1st to 5th standard (6–12 yrs.) from 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2013. A total of 950 students of seven schools were included in the study using proportionate to population size (PPS) method. Each child was examined clinically. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Result. Age distribution of the study population shows that majority of the students (30.5%) belonged to 11-12 years, and most of the students (56.2%) were males. Only 17 (1.8%) students had goitre. Goitre prevalence was slightly higher (1.9%) in the 6-8 years age group and in females (1.9%). Manifestations of iodine deficiency other than goitre, were retarded growth (0.6%), squint (0.3%), deafness (0.2%), lethargy (0.5%), and mental retardation (0.1%). Conclusion. In the present study, Aligarh may be classified as non-endemic for iodine deficiency as the goitre prevalence in school children was only 1.8%, below the 5.0%, required for endemicity. Sustained IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activities should be carried out to sensitize the people regarding IDD.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Population of India has jumped to 1,290,974,613 (1.29 billion) on Dec 07, 2015. There are certain demographic factors, which affect the acceptance of family planning methods. Therefore this study was conducted to determine the extent of felt need of family planning methods and to assess the demographic factors influencing the contraceptive acceptance. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in J.N. Medical College, AMU, Aligarh, for a period of two and half year. Only the mothers in the post partum period were interviewed. Those mothers who had already accepted family planning methods were not included in the study. 1383 mothers were interviewed. Data were tabulated and analysed using SPSS version 20. Chi-square test (χ2) was applied to know the statistical significance. Results: Significant number of mothers (39.6%) had planned to adopt family planning methods. Majority of the mothers (71.4%) were in the age group of 21-30 years. In this age group, 39.7% mothers wanted to adopt family methods. As the age of the mothers increased, the acceptance rate also increased. Majority of mothers (52.9%) admitted in the hospital were Hindus. Among Muslims, 40.3 per cent mothers had felt need of family planning methods. Mostly the mothers were illiterate (50.8%). 30.8 per cent of these illiterate mothers wanted to accept family planning methods. Similar felt need (36.4%) was observed in mothers with education up to primary level (V standard). As the birth order increased, felt need also increased. Conclusion: It may be concluded that significant number of mothers had planned to adopt family planning methods. Though the campaign to promote family planning methods in our country is being carried out, the message should be given more vigorously through information, education and communication (IEC) activities and involvement of non-governmental organisations (NGO). Concerted efforts are needed to find out the reasons for unmet need and its solution
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Objectives: To evaluate the relative frequency of hereditary spherocytosis and hereditary elliptocytosis with particular reference to clinical and hematological parameters
Material and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted from Feb 1999 to Dec 2007 [08 years and 10 months]. A total of 25 patients, in the age range from 10 years to 30 years, presenting with weakness, anaemia, jaundice and splenomegaly were included in the study. Out of these, 16 patients were studied from Feb 1999 to Sep 2002 in Jinnah Hospital Lahore, 04 patients from Oct 2002 to Sep 2004 in King Abdul Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, KSA, and 05 patients from Dec 2005 to Dec 2007 in Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital Lahore. Blood complete picture including peripheral blood film, osmotic fragility test, Coombs' test and auto-haemolysis tests were performed on clotted blood samples, EDTA anticoagulated blood samples and defibrinated/heparinized peripheral blood samples
Results: Anaemia was seen in 19 patients [76%], jaundice in 13 patients [52%]and splenomegaly in 22 patients [88%]. Laboratory parameters showed spherocytes in 15 patients [60%], ovalocytes/elliptocytes in 10 patients [40%], positive osmotic fragility test in 18 patients [72%], positive autohaemolysis test in 21 patients [84%], raised serum bilirubin level in 15 patients [60%]. In addition, positive direct Coombs' test was also seen in 02 cases [8%]. After determining the specificity and sensitivity of each test sample, results were compared with clinical presentation. These findings were found to be consistent with international studies carried out in different parts of the world
Conclusions: The application of proper clinical and hematological approach has revealed an unexpected proportion of cases with hereditary spherocytosis and hereditary elliptocytosis who present with mild jaundice and minimal to moderate splenomegaly. These cases if not investigated properly may be misinterpreted as suffering from immune hemolytic anaemia. Injudicious use of steroids in such cases can jeopardize the individual's immune status
ABSTRACT
Iron overload is known to occur in the West European and American population due to the consumption of iron-rich diets. On the other hand, genetic disorders leading to iron overload are also known. Iron overload leads to increased peroxidation and disruptive disintegration of lipid-rich membranes, and predisposes humans for an enhanced risk of cancer induction. In experimental animals iron overload enhances intestinal, colonic, hepatic, pulmonary and mammary carcinogenesis. In this study, we have shown that iron overload is a mild tumor promotor in mouse skin. Female albino Swiss mice were iron overloaded and their backs were shaved. Tumors were initiated using a complete tumorigenesis protocol by applying 200[micro]g 7, 12-dimethylbenz [a] anthracene [DMBA]/mouse in multiple doses of 40[micro]g DMBA/day for 5 consecutive days. The appearance of the first tumor [latency period],% of tumor incidence and number of tumors/ mouse were recorded. When compared to the positive control group, the iron overloaded mice showed an increased incidence of tumors. In iron overloaded animals, the tumors appeared about four weeks earlier. The number of tumors per mouse were significantly higher in the iron overloaded group. Biochemical studies performed in the present study include the determination of the activity of lipid peroxidation, catalase and xanthine oxidase measurement in mice skin tissue. We observed an iron-mediated induction in lipid peroxidation [LPO] and xanthine oxidase [XOD] and diminished catalase [CAT] activity in skin tissues of mice overloaded with iron as compared to the normal unloaded control group. Based on these studies we propose that iron increases tumor promotion potentials significantly. An induction in LPO in the iron overloaded group suggests that oxidative stress may be responsible for such an observed augmentation of cutaneous carcinogenesis in mice. Our data indicate that iron overload exerts tumor promoting potential in mouse skin, and that oxidative stress generated by iron overload is responsible for the augmentation of cutaneous tumorigenesis