Comparison of tobacco use between urban and rural females

The pattern of diseases has changed and presently the risk factors of communicable diseases as well as non-communicable diseases have been rising day by day due to change in life style and 'epidemiological transition'. Geographical and socio economic factors have been noted to influence the occurrence of diseases such as cancers, hypertension and coronary heart disease [CHD] etc. In females relationship between cigarette smoking and CHID is uncertain; however in different cancers some relationship has been proved. Keeping this problem in view, a study was done and comparison made between 158 urban and 158 rural randomly selected adult females regarding their age, education, occupation and tobacco using habits. Results revealed that the study population was relatively young with low literacy rate. Majority of them were house wives in both areas. In urban area 13.7% were using tobacco of which, 0.2% smoke cigarettes, 5.8% chew paan with tobacco while in rural area 23.5% were using tobacco in different forms. Of these 3.5% were smoking cigarettes, 1.6% using beeri, 12.2% using Paan with tobacco and 0.6% were using Huqa. However, there was no significant [P<0.07] difference between urban and rural females with regards to the habits. 20.9% of urban females had high systolic blood pressure that is >140 mmHg and 25.3% had high diastolic blood pressure that is >'90 mmHg while 16.5% of rural females had high systolic blood pressure and 19% had high diastolic blood pressure thus showing significant difference [P<0.05]. There was also a significant difference [P<0.03] present regarding high body mass index in both areas. There is an urgent need for controlling the tobacco use among females so as to prevent the non-communicable diseases

Interaction between infection and malnutrition in squatter settlements of Karachi

Malnutrition remains one of the biggest health problems for children in developing countries. Relationship between infections and nutritional status and risk factors associated with this relationship were studied in 340 children residing in squatter settlements of Karachi. A case-control study was done; cases [n=140] were malnourished children under five years. Out of the 340 children studied, 36.5% had some illness/es in the last 3 months; children under 2 years of age had a higher prevalence of illnesses. Fifty-nine% of all the ill children were also malnourished [odds ratio 1.8]. This combination was observed in: illiterate parents, child living in a single roomed house, water supply outside the household, no gas supply for cooking and no smoke outlet. Access to health services can improve nutrition by controlling illnesses which are inextricably tied with malnutrition. Identifying risk factors associated with this dual pathology for which interventions can be initiated will break the infection-malnutrition cycle