ABSTRACT
Background: Women who lay the foundation of the whole society are most neglected in our society, especially in their mid-life. Physical and psychosocial symptoms among post -menopausal women had a positive relation with the quality of life.Methods: A total of 110 women of an urban area of North Bengal region of West Bengal, India were interviewed with help of schedule to obtain information regarding the personal characteristics and MENQOL tool to assess four domains means on the basis of 29 symptoms.Results: The mean menopausal age was 44.58±3.11 years. The means and standard deviation found in different domains are, vasomotor domain (5.35±2.94), physical domain (27.95±10.25), psychosocial domain (13.81±4.70) and sexual domain (1.99±2.91). In the vasomotor domain, muscles ache, joint ache and low back ache were the common symptoms. In psycho-social domain, 99% of the women suffered from poor memory and 97.2% of them felt depressed or down/blue. In sexual domain, 33.6% were bothered by changes in their sexual desires and avoided intimacy. In physical domain, age category, financial and decision autonomy had significant association. In the sexual domain, age category, literacy status, money and sexuality had a significant difference.Conclusions: Post-menopausal women are vulnerable group for whom appropriate and practical measures should be provided in their post-menopausal age in order to have a contented and pleasant life till they die.
ABSTRACT
Background: Cadaver dissection is mandatory for medical education. The cadaver dissection develops the knowledge and skill of the students regarding human anatomy to understand and accomplish the necessity of medical education and clinics in future. This study was conducted to assess the attitude and emotional reactions of first year Medical students to the dissecting cadavers.Methods: The attitude and opinion of students on cadaver dissection was assessed by a modified structured pretested questionnaire after one week of dissection class among all first year medical students by cross-sectional design.Results: Males and females were in the ratio of 7:3.88.3% complied that active involvement is necessary but only 10.9% told that models or virtual program could replace dissection. Altogether 49.6%% had experienced the excitement, 15.3% had experienced headache and sweating. 87.6%% were curious about cadaver dissection and 84.7 %were interested; however 8% had negative feelings towards dead body.Conclusions: Majority of students opined cadaver dissection was the best method for learning and understanding Human anatomy. Pre-education sessions and interaction with the teacher’s prior dissection will help to remove the anxiety among students and will enable them to get involved in their dissection classes.
ABSTRACT
Background: HIV/AIDS has recognized throughout the world as the important public health problem and adolescents are at greater risk of having this infection because of varying behavior pattern. Adolescents need correct information to prepare them to make better choices in sexual behavior. The present study was conducted to find out the existing knowledge regarding the causes, modes of transmission, prevention and social impact of AIDS.Methods: Setting based cross-sectional study done in the secondary and higher secondary students of Siliguri Girls School during July-September 2018. A self-administered, well designed pretested semi structured questionnaire with anonymity of the respondent was used for data collection with the help of interview.Results: 66.2% of girls knew sexual intercourse as the primary route of transmission whereas 22.9% knew airborne as the method. 60.8% of them thought isolation could prevent HIV/AIDS and safe sex can prevent transmission 59.4%. All the correct four routes of transmission were known by only 14.2% of students.12.55 of them knew about AIDS vaccine. Working with AIDS patient, using same toilet or sharing meals or swimming were the common myths among them to contract HIV/AIDS.Conclusions: Prevention being the only strategy available for HIV/AIDS is of utmost importance that knowledge regarding its various aspects should be dispersed among the adolescents through addition of chapter of AIDS and sex education in school curriculum.
ABSTRACT
National iodine deficiency disorders control program needs to be continuously monitored. Hence, a cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from April-May 2011 to assess the prevalence of goiter, status of urinary iodine excretion (UIE) level and to estimate iodine content of salts at the household level in Darjeeling district, West Bengal. Study subjects were 2400 school children, aged 8-10 years selected through “30 cluster” sampling methodology. Goiter was assessed by standard palpation technique, UIE was estimated by wet digestion method and salt samples were tested by spot iodine testing kit. Overall goiter prevalence rate was 8.7% (95% confidence intervals = 7.6-9.8) and goiter prevalence was significantly different with respect to gender. Median UIE level was 15.6 mcg/dL (normal range: 10-20 mcg/dL). About 92.6% of the salt samples tested had adequate iodine content of ≥15 ppm. Findings of the present study indicate that the district is in a transition phase from iodine-deficiency to iodine sufficiency.
ABSTRACT
A cross sectional study was conducted from February - May 2009 with the objectives to find out profile of injuries among municipal primary school children in Siliguri, West Bengal and to identify the related factor associated with injury. 20% of total primary schools under municipal corporation of the town were selected and a pre-designed, pre-tested schedule was used to assess the profile of injury and associated factors. The Chi square test was usedto determine statistical significance at the 0.05 significance level. Out of 956 participants, a significantly higher injury was observed among males (68%). Open wound injuries were commonest (59.6%) occurring mainly at the extremities. Falls were mainly responsible for overall injuries. Injury at home (41.8%) was also found to be more. Mother education, number of siblings and presence of caregiver were significant related factors to injury.
ABSTRACT
A cross-sectional, clinical and epidemiological study was undertaken among 627 primary school children (rural 145, urban 482) to compare the common ear morbidity pattern between an urban slum of kolkata and a rural area of Hooghly. Middle ear pathology was found to be present in 20% and 12.6% among rural and urban students respectively. Cerumen in the external auditory canal was the commonest clinical finding in both the areas and was found to be present in 35.86% of rural and 30.70% of urban population respectively. Smoke nuisance, bathing in open ponds and overcrowding were some of the predisposing factors causing ear diseases, like chronic suppurative otitis media and serous otitis media.