ABSTRACT
Background: The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues its deadly reign all over the world. Devising effective strategies for detecting and controlling the infection has become ever more critical. Effective prevention and control of the pandemic is entirely dependent on human behavior in terms of practicing preventive and curative measures. During the second wave of COVID-19, people’s perceptions of preventive and curative measures changed. Objective: To study healthcare-seeking behavior of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods: Hospitalized patients due to COVID-19 in the month of March, April and May of 2021 were included in the study. Their attendants/close relatives were contacted telephonically to know about the admitted patients’ healthcare-seeking behavior. Verbal consent was taken from attendants before the commencement of the interview, followed by informing them about the purpose of the interview. Results: Amongst the subjects, there were more males than females (67.5 vs 32.4%), age ranged between 18 to 88 with a mean value of 56.61 ± 14.7 years. Self-medication was significantly associated with study subjects’ mortality (p=0.03). Conclusion: Elderly people were having higher mortality rate than their younger counterparts. People were hesitant to visit primary care physicians after having symptoms of COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Background: Tobacco use is one of the major preventable causes of deaths globally. Although India responded early to combat this global problem by implementing Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), there is a need to evaluate its implementation. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the compliance and awareness of the tobacco vendors to Section 5 (Point of sale advertisements of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products) and Section 6 (Prohibition on sale to minors and within 100 yards of educational institutes) of COTPA. Materials and Methods: The present study was a community-based cross-sectional study. All tobacco selling stores located within 100 yards distance from 58 educational institutes in urban Ludhiana were assessed for compliance to Section 5 and 6 provisions of COTPA. The study also assessed awareness regarding COTPA legislation among the tobacco vendors available in these tobacco selling stores. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The questions were asked to determine the level of awareness of COTPA among the tobacco vendors. Results: Around 42.0% of the educational institutes had tobacco stores located within 100 yards and only around 25.0% of educational institutes had mandatory signage prohibiting ban on selling tobacco products displayed outside institutions. Most of the tobacco outlets (77.7%) were permanent, exclusive tobacco sellers (72%) and had displayed the products enabling easy access to minors. Majority (89%) of the vendors knew about an act regarding tobacco products. However, only 19.4% and 25% of vendors were aware of ban on selling tobacco products within the radius of 100 yards of educational institutions and to minors, respectively. Conclusion: Strict enforcement of the provisions of COTPA around educational institutes to reduce easy access of tobacco products to minors and strengthening awareness generation activities by involving key stakeholders is needed.