ABSTRACT
Background: Leprosy has been known to the Indians since the Vedic period. Leprosy is synonymous with social stigma due to reasons like mystery around its transmission, lack of knowledge on available treatment, deformities and religious views. Prejudice and lack of knowledge about leprosy exist even among medical practitioners and healthcare professionals around the world. Considering above mentioned facts, this study was conducted to study knowledge and attitude of medical students and interns towards leprosy. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at IGGMC, Nagpur, among Third MBBS part one of 7th semester medical students who were exam going for community medicine and interns of IGGMC between October 2018 to January 2019. Questionnaire comprised of 27 knowledge-based and 22 attitude–oriented questions. In all total 210 subjects, 99 Interns and 111 students were enrolled for the study. Results: Mean age of interns was 23.52±0.66 years and that of students was 21.45±0.85 years. There was no significant difference in knowledge regarding cause and modes of transmission and clinical features of leprosy between interns and student however interns were having significant higher knowledge regarding diagnosis, treatment, prevention of deformity limitation and precaution to be taken against leprosy. Only 13(6.19%) participants were having knowledge regarding targets of NLEP that was to be achieved by year 2017. Though both interns and students both showed good attitude towards leprosy but only 34 interns and 31 students had ever rendered service or donated money for cause of leprosy. Conclusions: Knowledge regarding national program is limited in both groups, curriculum should be strengthen pertaining to National program.
ABSTRACT
India is facing a dual burden of overweight/obesity and under nutrition among children less than 5 years of age. Neck circumference is recently studied marker for malnutrition among adults and older children. Objective: To correlate neck circumference with body mass index and to associate it with wasting and underweight status. Material & Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among children less than 5 years of age attending the outpatient setup of a tertiary care setup in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Demographic details and anthropometric measurements were done for the children with necessary permission before the start of the study. Anthropometry was done using standard guidelines and WHO charts were used for classification of wasting and underweight Results: We included 260 study subjects in our study. The mean age of the children was 21.55 ± 17.31 months and majority of them were females, belonged to Hindu religion (58.07%), belonged to Class 4 (33.08%) and the mothers were educated up to senior secondary (34.62%). Neck circumference had significant positive correlation with birth weight (r=0.138) and body mass index (r=0.211). The average neck circumference was significantly lower in case of wasted (p<0.05) and underweight children (p<0.05). Conclusion: Neck circumference correlated significantly with body mass index and was significantly lower in wasted and underweight in children less than 5 years of age.