Epidemiology Of Voice Disorders Among Government School Teachers - An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study from Kancheepuram District

Background: Voice disorders cause undesirable effects on school teachers such as reducing their quality of life, decrease in work performance affecting the quality of education, job absenteeism, and reduced social activities as well. Methodology: Voice disorder among teachers was assessed through the “Voice handicap Index”, which was developed by Jacobson et al in 1997 to self-assess the severity of voice disorder in dysphonia pa-tients Results: The overall prevalence of voice disorder among government school teachers was found to be 46.5% with a 95% confidence interval from 41.5% to 51.5%. Using Backward Wald, the binary logistic regression analysis showed that female teachers (AOR 1.6, p<0.01*), teaching experience less than 10 years (AOR 2.4, p<0.01*), and teaching hours more than 21 hours per week (AOR 6.7, p<0.01*) had a sig-nificant association with voice disorders. Conclusion: The prevalence of voice disorder was found to be high since teachers are professional voice users. The study also recommends that teachers must receive the required health education on the ergo-nomic risk factors that they will come into contact with in their daily lives as part of their jobs.

Is Neck Circumference A Better Measure for Determining Obesity? A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study to Assess Its Validity in Type II Diabetes Mellitus Patient

Introduction: Several anthropometric measurements like Body mass index (BMI), skin fold thickness, Waist circumference (WC), waist-height ratio (WHtR), and Waist hip ratio (WHR) are available for diag-nosing obesity at the population level. But each of them has its disadvantage as well. Neck circumference, which has been the recent anthropometric tool of interest can be used as an alternative to these meas-urements. Objective: To determine the validity of neck circumference as an anthropometric parameter of obesity and to estimate the cut-off points for obesity in type II diabetes mellitus patients. Material & Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was done among 141 Type II diabetes pa-tients attending rural and urban health training centre non-communicable disease clinic of Sri Rama-chandra Institute of higher education and research, Chennai. After obtaining informed consent, their an-thropometric measurements like NC, BMI, WC, HC, and WHR was measured. Results: Neck circumference ≥36.5cm in males and ≥33.2cm in females is conceivably the perfect cut-off point for diagnosing overweight/Obesity in Type II diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: This analytical study deduced that NC is a valid anthropometric measurement for diagnos-ing obesity among Type II diabetes mellitus with plausible sensitivity and specificity.

Intellectual and motor functions in school children from severely iodine deficient region in Sikkim.

High prevalence of endemic goitre (54%) and endemic cretinism (3.5%) exist in Sikkim. The level of intellectual functioning and motor performance were assessed in 90 school children in the age group of 10 to 12 years selected randomly from four severely iodine-deficient villages. Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, Binet-Kamat Test for mental ability and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices were the tests used. The results show an impairment in intellectual and other neuropsychological functions in a high percentage of the children. Visuomotor coordination was poor in 62 (69%). Binet-Kamat test results showed that 19 (21%) children were intellectually subnormal (IQ < 70). Majority of the children (> 80%) had significant impairment in language, meaningful memory, non-meaningful memory, conceptual thinking, numerical reasoning and motor skills. The children did better on non-verbal reasoning and social intelligence. Goitre was detected in 82 (91.1%). Urine samples for iodine estimations was collected from every second child examined. The mean urinary iodine concentration was 4.23 micrograms/dl (SD 2.16). Urinary iodine concentration was less than 2 micro gm/dl in 26.1% (11 children) and less than 5 micro gm/dl in 84.8% (39 children) indicating severe iodine deficiency. The test results show impairment of psychomotor development in children born and brought up in iodine-deficient environment.

Clinical study of endemic cretinism in south Sikkim.

One hundred individuals suffering from Endemic Cretinism were studied. There were 55 males and 45 females. 62% of the cretins had visible goitre. Thirty nine (62.9%) goitrous cretins had grade II goitre. Neurological cretinism was the predominant type encountered (99%) and Myxoedematous cretinism was seen in only one patient. The most salient neurological feature was deaf-mutism seen in 74%. Findings in the motor system were, apart from deaf-mutism, the most characteristic feature of the condition on clinical examination. 58% had exaggerated deep tendon reflexes and 31% had extensor plantar response. Squint was noticed in 29%. Familial aggregation was noticed and was striking. Endemic cretinism is a distinctive and easily identifiable clinical entity and is an important indicator of the severity of iodine deficiency in a community.