ABSTRACT
Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in the world, and it is the main cause of death and morbidity in Indian women. Breast self-examination (BSE) is a routine exam that can detect 40% of breast abnormalities and involves two key components that is looking and feeling. Women should learn what is normal for them, so that they can recognize any changes immediately. Aim & objectives: 1) To assess Knowledge and Practice about Breast Self-Examination. 2) To assess awareness about warning signs of Breast cancer. Methodology: A Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 55 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) in the month of January 2021 in the Rural field practice area of Rural Health Centre (RHC) attached to the Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Visakhapatnam. A predesigned, semi structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge and practice of BSE. Data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS Version 17. Chi square test was applied to find out the statistical associations if any between categorical variables. Results: In the present study only 1.8% of the ASHA workers were found to have good knowledge. 41.8% and 56.3% had average and poor knowledge respectively about BSE. Out of 55 ASHA workers, 39 (71%) have heard of BSE, 25.4% were practicing regularly and 14.5% of them were practicing correct method. Conclusion: The Knowledge and Practice of BSE among ASHA workers was observed to be inadequate which points out the need for training programs to educate them.
ABSTRACT
Background: Depression in old age is an emerging public health problem leading to morbidity and disabling effect on the quality of life. Depression in elderly is not yet perceived as a public health problem and is grossly underdiagnosed and undertreated. The physical and social environment plays an important role on the mental health of the elderly. Hence the present study was undertaken to assess and compare the depression among elderly residing in old age homes (OAHs) and community. The objective of the study was to assess and compare depression among elderly residing in OAHs and those living in community.Methods: A cross sectional study was done from October to December, 2016 among 100 elderly, of which 50 were inmates of old age homes and 50 were living in community selected by house to house survey. A pre tested, externally validated short form geriatric depression scale (GDS-15) in the local language is used after taking informed consent.Results: Prevalence of depression was high among inmates of old age homes (80%) compared to those of community (52%), this difference was statistically significant (p=0.003). On analyzing the association between sociodemographic factors and depression among the elderly residing in the community, it was found that marital status and presence of chronic disease were significantly associated with depression (p<0.05). Whereas among the elderly residing in old age homes, no significant asociation was found between depression and the sociodemographic factors.Conclusions: High prevalence of depression observed among the studied population indicates the need of screening for depression among elderly.