ABSTRACT
Background and Aim: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an Adolescent as “an individual between 10-19 years of age”. As adolescents are not a homogenous group, their needs vary with their sex, stage of development, life circumstances & their socioeconomic conditions. Inspite of existing Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS), adolescents are reluctant to utilize them because of lack of privacy & confidentiality. Aims of this study are (1) To study reproductive health needs of adolescent girls (2) To assess awareness & utilization of AFHS. Methodology: Community based cross sectional study was conducted in Urban Health Training Centre (UHTC) field practice area of Govt. Medical College, Bhavnagar among 532 Adolescent girls during February 2014 to August 2014. Information about their reproductive health needs, awareness about AFHS & its utilization were collected by pretested prestuctured questionnaire. Data entry & analysis done in Epi info software (version3.2). Results: In the present study regarding reproductive health needs, more than half (54.71%) girls desired correct information about reproductive health system , problems & hygiene & most of the girls (53.20%) choose seminar as best source to provide such information. 21.99% girls desired supply of sanitary pads at lower cost than market. An important finding was that very few (14.1%) girls were aware of AFHS. Among those who were aware of AFHS, 38.67% girls had visited & satisfied with services. The major reason for not utilizing AFHS was shyness among 54.35% girls. Conclusion: Information about reproductive health (54.71%) & supply of sanitary pad at lower prices than market (21.99%) are two important reproductive health needs of adolescent girls. Awareness & utilization of AFHS is very less among adolescent girls due to various barriers.
ABSTRACT
Background & Objectives: Besides spiritual achievements, the practice of yoga is accompanied by a number of beneficial physiological effects in the body. The regular practice of yoga integrates the mind and the body.It produces many systemic psycho-physical effects in the body, besides its specific effects on the respiratory functions.The aim of the present study was to assess the beneficial effects of yoga in the improvements in the pulmonary functions of young healthy adults. Methods: The study group consisted of 30 young adults (19 males and 11 females) who were students of first year M.B.B.S.,medical college Baroda.They were motivated to participate in yoga workshop for one hour daily for four weeks. The first phase of the recording of the pulmonary parameters (M.V.V,FVC,FEV1,PEFR) was done at the beginning of their course. The second phase of the recording was done after 4 weeks of the regular yoga practice. The data were analyzed using student’s Paired T – test. Results: Participants had a mean±SD age of 17.81 ± 0.48 years, height of 164.21±5.09 cm and weight of 54.34±5.63kg. The MVV(L/MIN) - before yoga practice showed a value of 97.4±24.4 and after , it showed a value of 119±28. The FVC(ml) - before yoga practice showed a value of 2575 ±631and after , it showed a value of 2768 ±618. The FEV1(ml)- before yoga practice showed a value of 2270± 636 and after , it showed a value of 2476 ±570. The PEFR(L/MIN) - before yoga practice showed a value of 479±103 and after , it showed a value of 585±120. For all the parameters, a P value of <0.01 was considered as statistically significant. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant increase in all the above lung parameters in the regular yoga practitioners.This study proposes that regular practice of yoga can improve health related aspects of physical fitness and general wellbeing.
ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: For almost a century, there has been constant speculation on the relationship between life stress, the individual’s response and the blood pressure changes. Various studies have shown that actual decline in blood pressure with non invasive behaviour therapy vary widely. We studied the effectiveness of progressive muscular relaxation technique in re-establishing normalcy in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in young hypertensive subjects in Baroda. Methods: 84 hypertensive individuals were randomly divided in group Ia and group Ib of which 24 subjects in group Ia and 26 subjects in group Ib completed the study. Group Ib subjects were instructed to practice relaxation technique as per pre-recorded cassette twice daily for three months. Age and sex matched 23 normotensive subjects served as controls (group II). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured in sitting and lying down position before and after 3 months of practice. Results show a significantly higher systolic (143.1 vs 121 mmHg) and diastolic (92.13 vs 76.35 mmHg) blood pressure in hypertensive group compared to control in basal condition. After 3 months of relaxation practice systolic (137.87 vs 142.93 mmHg) blood pressure was significantly lower in experimental group Ib while diastolic blood pressure shows no significant change with relaxation practice. Compared to control the blood pressure was still higher in experimental group Ib after relaxation practice. Conclusion: The progressive muscle relaxation technique by decreasing sympathetic tone probably reduces systolic blood pressure. Thus it is found to be a valuable adjunct to the treatment of essential hypertension in young hypertensive.