Barriers for low acceptance of no scalpel vasectomy among slum dwellers of Lucknow City

Background: Uttar Pradesh is the most populated state of the country having population of 199.581 million and total fertility rate of 3.3 (annual health survey [AHS] 2012�13) with high fertile trajectory. Currently, female sterilization accounts for about 18.4% and male sterilization for 0.3% of all sterilizations in Uttar Pradesh (AHS 2012�13). A strategy to promote men's involvement in effective birth control is needed to reduce the population growth. Since no scalpel vasectomy (NSV) is an easy method but still not being utilized; hence, the purpose of this research is to ascertain various factors of nonutilization of NSV. Objectives: The objective of the study is (i) to determine the barriers among married males for adopting NSV as a method of family planning, (ii) to determine the awareness about NSV, (iii) to suggest measures to increase uptake of NSV by the people. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out. A two-staged multistage random sampling technique was used. Lucknow is divided into eight Nagar Nigam zones. In the first stage, two urban slums from each geographical zone were selected randomly. In the second stage, from each selected slum a sample of 24 eligible households was selected at random to achieve the desired sample size. Results: It was observed that among the study participants maximum 89.2% perceived Sociocultural barriers, while 0.6% of the participants perceived service delivery barriers. However, 14% of the participants also perceived procedure-related barriers as the most important cause for not accepting NSV. Conclusion: Measures should be taken to remove these barriers, and increase uptake of NSV.

Absenteeism among nurses in a tertiary care hospital in India.

Background. Absence due to sickness among nurses has not been studied in-depth in the Indian setting. Methods. We studied the sickness pattern among 385 nurses during one calendar year and retrospectively compared the absenteeism among nurses in different work areas of a tertiary care hospital. Results. Sickness leave was availed by 68.9% of nurses at least once during the year. Nurses in the ward area were significantly older (43[5.4] years of age) than those in operation theatres (38[6.2] years of age) and intensive care units (39[5.9] years of age). The average annual duration of absenteeism per nurse (index of severity) was 27.7 days/ person. The average sickness leave days/spell (index of duration) was 8.82 days/person. The annual inception rate of nonsickness leave (index of frequency) was 1.57 spells/person and for sickness leave was 1.27 spells/person. While nurses working in the ward area took the highest number of unplanned sickness leave (7.36 days/spell), the planned sickness leaves were highest (64.8 days/spell) among those in operation theatres. About half the episodes of sickness were related to diseases of the respiratory tract, digestive system, infections and injury. Planned sickness leave mainly constituted maternity leave related to childbearing and was highest among younger nurses in operation theatres and intensive care units. Conclusion. Unplanned leave demands greater administrative adjustments and substitution. Inappropriate substitution may compromise patient care and sharing of work by the staff present; it may increase the workload and absenteeism. Occupational welfare services at tertiary care hospitals should work towards decreasing absence due to sickness among nurses.

Species distribution and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of coagulase negative staphylococci isolated from various clinical specimens.

A study of 192 strains of Coagulase negative staphylococcus (CONS) showed that Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most common species, 158 (82.29%) isolated from all clinical specimens followed by S. saprophyticus (30, 15.62%) isolated mainly from urine. Slime production was exhibited by 77 (48.7%) strains of S. epidermidis and 8 (26.6%) of S. saprophyticus and the difference in the slime producing activity was statistically significant (p< 0.005). Antibiotic susceptibility testing against 15 commonly used antibiotics showed multidrug resistance with more than 90% resistance to penicillin, more than 50% to cephalexin and ciprofloxacin and more than 20% to methicillin, thus, highlighting the importance of species identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing for clinical isolates of CONS.

Bacteriology of bronchial secretions in non-tubercular lower respiratory tract infections.

Fifty samples of bronchial secretions collected from patients of non-tubercular lower respiratory tract infections through fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) were cultured both for aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Thirty-three (66%) samples yielded bacteria. Out of these, thirty were isolated in pure culture and from three, a mixed growth of aerobic and anaerobic micro-organisms was obtained. Aerobic bacteria were the predominant isolates. Stephylococcus aureus (10), pseudomonas (9) and streptococcus pneumoniae (8) were the major aerobic isolates. Ciprofloxacin was found to be the most effective drug against aerobes and metronidazole against anaerobes in vitro susceptibility tests.

Evaluation of antimicrobial efficacy of various root canal filling materials for primary teeth.

Four materials viz. zinc oxide-eugenol, iodoform paste, Kri paste, Maisto's paste and Vitapex (Calcium hydroxide + iodoform) were tested for their antibacterial effect against the aerobic and anerobic bacteria, viz. Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus viridans, Streptococcus faecalis, Bacteroides melaninogenicus and mixed bacterial culture; obtained from infected non-vital deciduous anterior teeth. The antimicrobial sensitivity was checked on BHI-agar plates using well method. The results showed that all the 4 materials were distinctly different from each other in their antimicrobial activity. Maisto's paste was invariably the superior most in its antibacterial efficacy (in comparison to all the 5 micro-organism strains). Iodoformized zincoxide eugenol appeared to be the second best followed by Kri paste. Vitapex showed the least antibacterial activity.

Microbial profile of pelvic inflammatory disease.

A total of 100 cases were studied. Fallopian tubes removed at operation constituted a very good material to study the infections of upper genital tract. Along with fallopian tubes, HVS from same patients were cultured both for aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Bacteriological analysis of 100 cases of fallopian tubes and same number of HVS showed bacterial growth in 30 cases (30%) whereas in HVS samples growth was obtained in 50 cases (50%). In 66.67% of cases same bacteria were isolated both from HVS and fallopian tubes which strongly favours the theory of ascending infection. Out of all antibiotics ciprofloxacin showed the widest spectrum of activity (94.20%). All anaerobes were sensitive to metronidazole.

Influence of some socio-demographic factors on smoking status of academicians.

Among many habits of life style, smoking is one which is acquired by the children during their years at school. To monitor smoking habits of teachers, 573 teachers of Lucknow University were surveyed with the help of a questionnaire based on WHO guidelines. Overall 21.4% and 12.3% of male teachers were found to be current and ex-smoker. respectively while none of the female teachers reported to be a smoker. Significantly higher prevalence of smoking was observed among teachers of sixth decade, muslims and unmarried. Engineering faculty had the maximum proportion (30.2%) of current smokers followed by medicine (25.2%). The study also found a significantly increasing trend of smoking in teachers according to the smoking status of their parents, siblings, children and best friends. There is a need to create smoking cessation opportunities for teachers so as to establish a non-smoking environment in the schools and colleges.

Factors influencing the initiation, continuation and cessation of smoking.

Smoking is complexely related to various aspects of life style. A survey conducted among 573 teachers of Lucknow University to identify the various factors influencing the smoking habit revealed that friends played a significant role in initiation of smoking and its continuation. Significantly higher proportion of current smokers used only filter cigarettes. Majority of ex-smokers were successfully able to stop smoking in the first attempt, the most common reason for them to stop being health related. Compared to this, almost half of the current smokers stated that they were never advised to stop smoking by anyone and they had never made an attempt to quit. The results suggest that creating an awareness among smokers about the health hazards may encourage them to stop smoking.