ABSTRACT
Background: Cervical cancer is a disease which claims maximum number of deaths in developing countries. Objective of this study was to understand the reason for delayed approach to medical help in women with advanced carcinoma cervix.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. Information obtained from women with carcinoma cervix clinical stage IIb and above with proven histopathological diagnosis was recorded in the predetermined format.Results: Almost all the subjects were illiterate and were from lower socioeconomic strata and rural areas. None of them knew about the disease and its symptomatology. About 82% of the patients were symptomatic since 5-10 years however took no medical care during the period and 2/3rd of them even did not reveal their problem to any of the family members. About 79% of the subjects had never used any contraception and none had knowledge about its role in preventing infection. Majority of them (98%) had no idea about the role of PAP smear in screening carcinoma cervix. All of them said if they had knowledge about the disease, they would have sought medical help much earlier.Conclusions: The most important reason for delayed approach in our study was found to be lack of knowledge about the disease. Therefore, till such time that we have national screening program in place, these women who are at high risk of developing carcinoma of cervix should be targeted and educated through mass media so that these women could seek medical help in early stages.
ABSTRACT
Background: Prevalence of COPD and resistance towards drugs available for its treatment are increasing day by day. Objectives: To assess the impact of socio-economic status, rural background and gender on the prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Methods: This observational, prospective, open study was conducted in the Department of Chest & TB Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. A total of 250 patients were included in the study over a period of 1 year of mild to very severe stage of COPD according to GOLD guidelines for COPD 2011. Impact of rural background, household medium of cooking food, male: female ratio of disease occurrence, and patient’s socio-economic status were evaluated using modified kuppuswami grading. Results: In the rural population 100 patients out of 215 patients were males and 115 patients were females showing the rising trend of COPD in females of rural background and using biomass combustion and kerosene stove as the medium for cooking food, moreover most of the patients were living in the overcrowding. According to modified kuppuswami classification of socio-economic status, 170 patients were in the lower lower class, and 45 patients were in lower middle class socio-economic status in the rural background. Conclusion: Highest prevalence of COPD was seen in 51-60 years age group and among the patients of rural background with 215 patients (86%) affected with COPD out of 250 patients. With modified kuppuswami grading of Socio-economic status (SES), we found out that maximum patients in the rural background were from lower lower class SES thus signifying that poor socio-economic status can be a link to COPD.