Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Substance Abusers Among Intercollege Students in a District of Uttarakhand.

Substance abuse by children and adolescents is a major health problem. The use of illicit substances frequently starts among school children during adolescence. Concern with the use of harmful habit forming substances in students appears to be a very natural reaction; as they constitute a vital part of the society. Their age and often sudden wide exposure to new environments may render them extremely vulnerable for substance abuse. To find out the association of socio-demographic factors with substance abuse among intercollege students, a Cross-sectional study was conducted among intercollege students of district Dehradun. Multistage random sampling was used for the selection of two intercolleges (one rural and one urban). Overall 1094 students from 9th to 12th classes were included in the study. Statistical analysis was done by entering the data in SPSS software. The prevalence of substance abuse was found to be maximum in the students belonging to the middle slab of income group (socio-economic classes II, III and IV). Nonvegetarian dietary habits, Hindu religion and fathers in professional jobs were also found to be major risk factors for substance abuse behaviour among students.

Evaluation of the usefulness of phage amplification technology in the diagnosis of patients with paucibacillary tuberculosis.

The present study was undertaken to assess the performance of the Fast Plaque TB(TM) (FPTB) test in the diagnostically difficult group of paucibacillary tuberculosis (TB) and to compare its results with the conventional bacteriological methods. The study was conducted on a total of 139 patients, who were negative for TB in sputum-smear examination. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) or pleural biopsy specimens collected from these patients were subjected to smear examination, LJ culture and FPTB test. The smear, culture and the FPTB positivity rates were compared between patients with pulmonary and pleuro-pulmonary involvement. The FPTB test was found to register an overall sensitivity of 58.8% and specificity of 97.9%. The positive and negative predictive values of the test were 98.1 and 56.5, respectively. Among patients with paucibacillary TB, on head-to-head comparison, we found that the sensitivity and specificity values of the FPTB test were marginally better than smear-microscopy and inferior to culture on LJ media.

Serum Creatine Kinase Activity in Thyroid Disorders

Thyroid function and creatine kinase activity was measured in 50 patients of thyroid disorders. The decreased serum levels of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and increased level of Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in hypothyroid patients is well established but whether there is any correlation of creatine kinase (CK) with hypothyroidism is not well established. Therefore, a study of serum CK and thyroid profile was carried out. In hypothyroid patients with decrease in serum T3, there is a significant increase in CK and findings were reversed in hyperthyroid patients. Serum creatine kinase levels thus, show an inverse relation with serum T3 and T4 levels.

Knowledge, Attitude and Perception about HIV/AIDS among Pregnant Women in Rural Area of Dehradun

Out of 356 pregnant women interviewed regarding their knowledge, attitude and perception about HIV/ AIDS, 156 (43.8%) were illiterate and only 10 (2.8%) were graduate and above. About 15(4.2%) of the study subjects were less than 20 years of age and 6(1.8%) were of 35 years and above whereas maximum number i.e., 193(54.2%) belonged to 20-25 years of age group. Subjects mainly belonged to lower middle 101 (28.4)% and lower 110 (31%) socio-economic class. Only 125 (35.1) of subjects had heard of HIV/ AIDS. With increasing status of literacy, awareness regarding HIV/ AIDS was observed to increase i.e., from illiterate 30 (20%) to graduate and above 10 (100%) 55(44%) of the subjects responded correctly that HIV/AIDS was not transmitted by mosquito or bed bug bite. Subjects with higher levels of education i.e., intermediate/ or graduate and above responded 100% correctly to questions such as, one could get AIDS by having sex with prostitutes or multiple partners, while 76.7% illiterates responded to this question correctly. The relationship between various levels of education and knowledge on modes of transmission was found to be statistically significant (p<0.01). Among those who had heard of HIV/ AIDS, 94(75.2%) perceived serious threat of AIDS to the human health in near future. Mass communication was source of information on HIV / AIDS among 109(87.2%) subjects. Television being the most common source of information (73.6%).

Epidemiological Factors Affecting Low Birth Weight

The present study was conducted to determine the epidemiological factors influencing low birth weight. The prominent factors associated with low birth weight (LBW) such as maternal age, parity, obstetric and maternal anthropometry were studied in a rural community of district Dehradun. The average birth weight of all newborns was 2.67± 0.42 kg and 23.84% of newborns were LBW. The factors which were significant for LBW were antenatal care, parity, inter-pregnancy interval, gestational weight, and bad obstetric history. However, the relationship between maternal age and height with low birth weight was not found to be statistically significant (p>.05).