Use of social networking sites among medical undergraduates of a medical college in north-west India.

Introduction: Use of Internet for communication has become a very important part of young people's life. Social networking sites are virtual communities that allow users to create a profile and interact with friends. One area of interest in this field is regarding the activities of medical students on social networking sites and how these activities affect their academic performances. Objective: To assess the use of social networking sites and its impact on academic performance among medical undergraduates of a rural medical College. Methodology: It was a cross sectional study conducted over a period of three weeks in December 2013 among undergraduate students of Dr RPGMC Kangra at Tanda. A self-administered questionnaire was used to conduct the study. Data was entered in Microsoft excel sheet and analysed.Result: A total of 150 participants were enrolled of which only 141 agreed to participate. Among these 74 (52%) were males and 68 (48%) females. The mean age of the subjects was 20.2 ± 1.5 years. Majority 123 (87.2 %) used multiple networking sites, 45 % (60/123) had joined communities related to medicine. More than half 52.7 % (65/123) of subjects used these multiple sites to remain connected with their friends.81.7% (49/60) visited medical communities daily and 93.9% (46/49) among them said that these communities has helped increase their knowledge. Average time spent per session was 10-30 minutes among 26.8 % (33/ 123) participants.Conclusion: The results of the study showed that role of social networking sites among undergraduate students pursuing a professional course is important while communicating with friends and people of their own field. It helps them in broadening their knowledge and they feel it has helped them positively in their academic performance.

A pilot comparative study of attitude of trainee nurses, nursing staff and trainee doctors towards the mentally ill patients.

Context : The issue of stigma in mental illness has great practical and research implications. Health professionals including the nursing staff are important stakeholders in this issue. The issue of health professionals’ attitude towards people with mental illness has been controversial. Aims : The current study aims at comparison of the attitudes of the nursing students, nursing staff and trainee doctors towards mentally ill. Settings and design : The study was conducted at a tertiary level medical teaching and training institution with an attached hospital. Methods and Materials : The survey was conducted among trainee nurses, nursing staff and trainee doctors in the institution. A total of seven trainee nurses, eighteen nursing staff (including four Psychiatric nursing staff) and forty nine trainee doctors were included in the study. The participants were asked to complete a self-rated Attribution Questionnaire-27 (AQ 27). Statistical Analysis : Analysis was carried out using SPSS ver 16.0. ANOVA with post-hoc analysis was carried out to find in-between group differences on the nine domains of AQ 27. Results : The four groups differed significantly on the different domains of AQ 27. Conclusion : The negative attributes towards the mentally ill persons tend to be high among the nursing trainee, nursing staff and trainee doctors. There is a need to address these issues in the training curricula of these professionals in order to improve the health care delivery to the mentally ill.

The Sexual Function and Influence of Urinary Incontinence Questionnaire (SF-IUIQ) - Assessing Sexual Function of Urinary Incontinent Women in South Africa

Objective. To develop and psychometrically validate a questionnaire that assesses sexual function of urinary incontinent women in South Africa and the influence of inconti- nence on their sexual function. Design. A prospective descriptive study. Setting. Urogynaecology and gynaecology outpatient clinics at Tygerberg Hospital; Stellenbosch University; South Africa. Subjects. All patients attending the urogynaecology or gynaecology outpatient clinic at Tygerberg Hospital; who were older than 18 years; not pregnant and could communicate in either Afrikaans or eng. Outcome measures. The content validity; reliability (internal consistency) and construct validity (convergent and discrimi- nant validity) of the Sexual Function and Influence of Urinary Incontinence Questionnaire (SF-IUIQ). Results. Of the subjects 33were not sexually active. Sexual quality of life was significantly influenced by urinary incontinence in 37.7of individuals. Leakage during sexual activity occurred in 32.Conclusions. The SF-IUIQ is a reliable and valid measure of sexual function in urinary incontinent women; and ofthe influence of urinary incontinence on sexual function

Validez de una versión del cuestionario general de Salud, para detectar psicopatología en estudiantes universitarios / Validity of a version of the general health questionnaire for dectecting psychopathology in university students

En el presente estudio se revisan los principales resultados que se obtuvieron aplicando el Cuestionario General de Salud de Goldberg, D.P. (1972) a una muestra de estudiantes universitarios mexicanos, para determinar, entre otras cosas, la validez de una versión breve de 28 reactivos adaptada para este tipo de población. Se presentan los resultados más relevantes que se obtuvieron sobre la prevalencia global de trastornos emocionales en la población estudiada, así como la proporción y el tipo de alteraciones más frecuentes. La investigación se llevó a cabo en una muestra de 296 alumnos de uno y otro sexo, que tomaban 2 materias obligatorias, a los que les fue aplicado el GHO en su versión de 60 reactivos. De ella se seleccionaron 134 sujetos cuyas respuestas incluían más de 6 reactivos, así como una muestra al azar de aquéllos que presentaron menos de 6 síntomas positivos. A esta muestra se le aplicó la Entrevista Psiquiátrica Estandarizada (Goldberg D P y cols., 1970). La entrevista la llevó a cabo uno de los 5 psicólogos que habían sido entrenados previamente para que aplicaran el instrumento, y quienes en este curso obtuvieron una confiabilidad entre puntuaciones de + 0.84 al evaluar la presencia, la ausencia y la severidad de los síntomas. Con la finalidad de desarrollar la versión breve, todas las preguntas fueron recalificadas de acuerdo con el método de Liker (0, 1, 2, 3). Primero se llevó a cabo un análisis de los componentes principales y después se realizó una rotación varimax utilizando una serie de paquetes estadísticos. Se encontró que el 39.32% de la población que se estudió presentaba algún tipo de padecimiento que requería atención especializada. En el grupo de mujeres, el 53.07% mostró síntomas de irritabilidad; el 51.84%, de ansiedad; el 49,3%, de ánimo depresivo; el 40.73%, de disminución en la concentración; el 39.49%, de fatiga, y el 32.09%, de alteraciones...

Las encuestas / Surveys

Se presentan ideas fundamentales sobre el método de encuestas, en el cual cada investigador puede diseñar el cuestionario que corresponda a su investigación. Se expresa que la construcción del cuestionario para la encuesta sigue un procedimiento estricto y las normas de validez del trabajo de campo o en el terreno son considerablemente más rigurosas que en el caso de casi todas las investigaciones de bibliotecas. Se plantea que el éxito de una encuesta epidemiológica depende de la idoneidad del cuestionario empleado y del método que se utilice para obtener los datos y que los progresos en el conocimiento de la epidemiología de los trastornos mentales, dependen de la obtención de resultados comparables y esto sólo se logra utilizando encuestas ajustadas a un plan científicamente uniforme