ABSTRACT
Background: India accounts for a quarter of the world cervical cancer burden. Cervical cancer is highly preventable. However, low level of participating women in screening is one of the major issues. The aim of this work was to study the factors that influence women to participate in cervical cancer screening by providing menstrual pads for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing. Methods: Menstrual clothes were collected from two different populations from the rural areas of Maharashtra state for HPV testing to screen for cervical cancer. For this study, out of 945 participated women, 557 (58.9%) provided their menstrual pads. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Results: The probability of providing the menstrual pads was high among the women who were highly educated compared to those with less education (OR: 1.4; 95% CI: 1.0–1.9), having mobile phone facilities as compared to those with no mobile phones (OR: 1.4; 95% CI: 1.0–2.0), who were using new cloths as menstrual pads compared to those who did not use the same (OR: 8.5; 95% CI: 5.0–14.3), who did not have tobacco habit as compared to those who had tobacco habit (OR: 1.4; 95% CI: 1.1–1.9) and in the village where health worker was stationed as compared to the village where health worker was not stationed (OR: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.4–2.5). Conclusion: Factors including health worker availability, using mobile phones for communication and high education level facilitate women’s participation. To improve the participation, there is need to apply special strategies for older age group, less educated women and women having tobacco habit.
ABSTRACT
Background: Inter-hospital transfer is a common in trauma victims due to paucity of super-specialty care, lack of specialty beds, and lack of funding. The government of Uttar Pradesh introduced Emergency Medical Response system (EMRS). There is a need to audit and evaluate the transfer process since the introduction of the service. The objectives of this study were to identify critical gaps in the transfer of trauma patients and secondary over triage to the trauma centre of KGMU.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted on trauma victims referred to the trauma centre. Patients were evaluated for clinical status, Injury Severity Score, protective patient devices present, type of intravenous fluid infusion, mode of transport, and level of referring hospital. Transfer records, transport vehicles and accompanying personal were evaluated.Results: Of the 342 patients enrolled in the study, 91 had a GCS score <8 and 112(32.74%) had a diastolic BP <60 mm Hg at arrival. Twenty patients (5.8%) were referred from tertiary care centers, 74(21.6%) were referred from district hospitals, 136(39.76%) were referred from primary care centers and 112(32.74%) were referred from private hospitals. Date and time of injury was not recorded in any of the patients. Referral time was recorded in 48(14.03%) patients. One hundred seventy-six patients (51.14%) were transferred in EMRS ambulances, 102(29.82%) patients met the criteria for secondary over triage.Conclusions: There is a need to adopt and strictly implement guidelines for transfer of trauma victims to plug the critical gaps in the transfer process.