RESUMEN
Background: Adolescents are the group of children transforming to adults (aged 10 to 19 years). There are more than 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide and about 243 million live in India i.e. about 20% of Indian population. They are apparently healthy people but they do also have health related issues. Objective of this study was to determine the morbidity pattern prevalent among adolescents who attended an urban health training centre in Kancheepuram district. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried among 918 adolescents aged between 10 to 19 years, who visited the urban health training centre during the study period using convenient sampling technique. Data collection was done by using a structured questionnaire which consisted of questions related to their demographic characteristics and the reason for coming to the centre seeking medical help. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 16 and the results expressed in percentages. Results: Among the study population of 918, 57% were males and 43% were females. About 81.8% were studying while 17.7% were working. About 78.2% adolescents (84.3% of males and 70.1% females), were suffering from acute conditions while 21.8% (15.7 % males and 29.9% females) were suffering from chronic conditions. Among the acute conditions, upper respiratory tract infection constituted 22.5% of complaints followed by musculo-skeletal, gastrointestinal and ENT problems. The most common chronic condition reported was anemia (6.2%) which was followed by acne on their face and minor psychiatric illnesses like anxiety and depression. Conclusions: Improvement in the quality of diagnosis and treatment for both acute and chronic illnesses among adolescents are required to be implemented at all levels.
RESUMEN
India is now in the epidemiological transition stage of having to face the challenge of increasing number of both communicable and non-communicable diseases burden. Recently cancers have become the second most fatal disease among the non-communicable diseases category next only to cardiovascular diseases. Cancer affects all age groups and both sexes with a high mortality rate and low survival rate. Cancer registration is the process of continuing systematic collection of epidemiological data on reportable neoplasms with the purpose of helping to assess and control the impact of malignant disease in the community. The cancer registries are mainly of two types: Population based cancer registry and hospital based cancer registry. The Population-Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs) are aimed to identify all cases of cancer that occur in a defined population while Hospital Based Cancer Registries (HBCRs) aim at the improvement of cancer therapy. Recently, the Madras Metropolitan Tumour Registry (MMTR) Chennai had published a report on various hospital based statistics about cancer patients from 2007-2010. The report gives exhaustive details of nearly 13 categories of variables related to cancer management and characteristics attributed to both males and females patients separately. Objective of this article is to analyze the epidemiological details of cancer patients registered with the reporting hospitals in Chennai in relation to the age, sex, site of cancers, diagnostic methods, treatment of choice, mortality etc. among the cancer groups based on the cancer registry for the period from 2007 to 2010, in order to understand the epidemiological trend of the disease in and around Chennai at present.