Study to find out reasons for opting medical profession and regret after joining MBBS course among first year students of a medical college in Andhra Pradesh

Background: Many students in India are influenced by parental pressure to pursue a career in medicine. It has been consistently observed that a notable number of medical students later regret their career choice. This study aims to delve into the reasons behind the choice of a medical career, preferences for various teaching methods, causes of inattentiveness in classes, and the level of regret experienced by students after opting for this path. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 first year medical students with a pre-tested, semi structured questionnaire. Data collected was analysed using SPSS software. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 19.13±1.18 and most of them were females (57.6%). The majority (72.2%) of students opted MBBS out of self-interest. To serve the society (21.2%) was the most common motivational factor to choose MBBS. 14.6% of the subjects were having feelings of regret for choosing the medical profession. Conclusions: Self-interest was the major reason for opting MBBS. Fulfilling parent’s wishes was also observed as one of the reasons for opting MBBS. Most students considered interactive lectures as their preferred teaching method, though many also preferred demonstrations and video lectures. Almost one third of the students were having feelings of regret for selecting the medical profession.

Electronic device use and its adversities among BPH students of Kathmandu valley

Background: Electronic devices here means devices like computer, laptop, smart phones, e-games etc. Recently the ownership, use and time-spent on electronic devices has increased dramatically on all age groups for the purpose of communication, entertainment, education, work, etc. and mostly adults are dependent on these devices. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional was done among 248 BPH students of Kathmandu valley. Four colleges were selected through lottery method and 62 students of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year were conveniently selected from each college by disproportionate stratified sampling. Semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data which was analysed in SPSS version 21.0 and interpreted using bivariate test. Results: All the respondents owned at least one electronic device. Smart phones were found to be the mostly used electronic device and entertainment was the main purpose for which the devices were used. 10.5% showed range of health adversities in relation to electronic device use with eye symptoms being the most common adversity. 80% were found to use electronic device before going to bed which was associated with the sleep quality of the respondents. Conclusions: This study concluded that time-spent on electronic device is high and using electronic devices before bed time was significantly associated with the sleep quality. Not just sleep quality but excessive use of these devices for long run had the risk of developing health effects like headache, eye, ear and musculoskeletal symptoms and few had mild health effects.

Assessment of effect of menopause on oral health and its awareness in population visiting dental OPD: a hospital-based study

Background: Menopause is a normal mechanism which takes part in every woman’s life. However, the awareness regarding menopause has to be highlighted effectively. Aim of this study was to assess the incidence and frequency of oral symptoms in postmenopausal women as well as to assess the level of awareness of menopause in women. Methods: A hospital-based study using a 60-item questionnaire was conducted on postmenopausal women with age range of 35-70 years for a period of three months. Statistical analyses were performed. Results on continuous measurements were presented on Mean±SD. Descriptive statistics with frequency and percentage were computed. Results: A total of 650 responses were received. In the present study, the mean age of menopause was 54 years. The most prevalent general symptoms reported were tiredness (89.8%), joint pains (89.7%) and irritability (76.5%). The most common oral manifestations of menopause were dryness of mouth (57.1%), altered taste (26.3%) and cracked corners of mouth (25.8%). About 39.8% of postmenopausal women had poor KAP score followed by 34.6% who had an average score while 18.3% had a good score and only 7.2% had scored excellent. Conclusions: Our study showed that the occurrence of classical menopausal symptoms of sweating and hot flushes was lesser in comparison to previous studies on Asian women. The increased incidence of dry mouth could lead to a rise in oral diseases. Moreover, a majority of postmenopausal women had a poor KAP score which showed that the awareness towards menopause needs to be increased.

An in vitro study to evaluate retentive property of resinous dental adhesives and other dental luting cements.

Background: Retention of crowns depends on various factors such as the retentive properties of the luting cements and the type of cast metal. Limited information is available regarding the retentive strengths of crowns, cemented with resin cements. Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the retentive property of resinous dental adhesives with three other luting cements. Material and methods: Twenty freshly extracted human sound first mandibular molar was used for the study. The root of each tooth was embedded into a cylindrical shape block of self cured resin. Each of the tooth samples was prepared to receive a full metal crown. Total samples were divided into four groups, each containing five samples, for cementation of the metal crown in order to compare retentive properties of resinous adhesive and other luting agents; group A- resinous adhesive Panavia, group B - Zinc Phosphate cement, Group C- Glass ionomer cement, and group D- polycarboxylate cement. After 10min of cementation, the retention test was performed in an Instron tensile testing machine, to analyze the retentive properties of different luting cements. A one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the data, with a significance level of alpha =.05. Results: Result showed a maximum mean retentive strength in Panavia Ex. (281.34kg), followed by Glass Ionomer (70.21kg), Polycarboxylate (63.06kg), and least in Zinc Phosphate cement (40.31 kg), which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Within the limitation of the present study, it was concluded that resinous adhesive Panavia Ex. cement has better retentive properties compare to other luting cements.

Comparative study on the effect of chemicals on Alternaria blight in Indian mustard - A multi-location study in India.

High severity of Alternaria blight disease is a major constraint in production of rapeseed-mustard in India. The aim of this study was to investigate the suppressive potential of chemicals viz., zinc sulphate, borax, sulphur, potash and calcium sulphate, aqueous extracts viz., Eucalyptus globosus (50 g l-1) leaf extract and garlic (Allium sativum) bulb (20 g l-1) extract, cow urine and bio-agents Trichoderma harzianum, Pseudomonas fluorescence in comparison with the recommended chemical fungicide (mancozeb), against foliar disease Alternaria blight of Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. and Coss] under five different geographical locations of India. Mancozeb recorded the lowest mean severity (leaf: 33.1%; pod: 26.3%) of Alternaria blight with efficacy of garlic bulb extract alone (leaf = 34.4%; pod = 27.3%) or in combination with cow urine (leaf = 34.2%; pod = 28.6%) being statistically at par with the recommended chemical fungicide. Chemicals also proved effective in reducing Alternaria blight severity on leaves and pods of Indian mustard (leaf = 36.3- 37.9%; pod = 27.5-30.1%). The effective treatments besides providing significant reduction in disease severity also enabled increase in dry seed yield of the crop (mancozeb = 2052 kg ha-1; garlic = 2006 kg ha-1; control = 1561 kg ha-1).

Intestinal myiasis caused by Muscina stabulans.

Intestinal maggots were isolated from a patient, who had reported to the Department of General Medicine of Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College, Puducherry, in southern India with complaints of abdominal distress, bloating of abdomen and intestinal hurry following a meal. He was diagnosed as a case of intestinal myiasis. Maggots obtained from his stool were identified to be Muscina stabulans based on characteristic patterns of posterior spiracles. He was treated with purgatives and albendazole. This intestinal myiasis case caused by M. stabulans is reported here because of its rare occurrence and the need to establish a correct diagnosis.

Lithium - induced tardive dystonia.

Tardive dystonia is an uncommon form of chronic dystonia, which usually develops on exposure to neuroleptics. Tardive dystonia (Tdt) following lithium therapy has not been previously reported. The case of 38 year old man with bipolar affective disorder who developed tardive dystonia while on maintenance lithium treatment is described. Presentation of Tdt in this patient was fairly characteristic although there was no suggestion of recent neuroleptic exposure. Tdt known to have poor treatment response, responded very well to clozapine, a novel anti-psychotic, in this case. To conclude, Tdt may develop on exposure to drugs other than neuroleptics. An adequate trial to clozapine can prove to be a useful treatment option.

Serum, zinc and copper levels in children with protein energy malnutrition.

Serum zinc and copper were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in 58 children (3 months-5 years); of these, 46 children had protein energy malnutrition (PEM), and 12 children served as controls. The levels of serum zinc and copper were found to be significantly low in children with severe malnutrition (grades III and IV PEM). There was a significant positive correlation between serum zinc and height-for-age (r = 0.8809, p < 0.001). Serum copper was found low only in children exhibiting marked linear growth retardation (height-for-age < 85% of the normal). Hypoalbuminemia (serum albumin < 2.5 g/dl), and anemia (hemoglobin < or = 8.0 g/dl) in malnourished children were associated with significant decline in serum zinc and copper levels, respectively.

Epidemiology of measles--a thirteen years prospective study in a village.

A prospective study on measles was undertaken during 1974 to 1986 in Hiramanpur village, Varanasi having an initial population of 1538 which rose to 2101 in 1986 enabling to register a total of 23,221 (all population) person years of observation and a total of 9191 (0-14 years) person years of observation. The entire population was covered regularly through domicilliary visits by trained para-medical personnel under direct supervision of medical officers. All cases were verified by doctors. A total of 411 measles cases were detected, which gave average annual incidence rates of 17.7 and 44.7 per thousand population and per thousand children (0-14 yrs), respectively. The maximum number of cases occurred in Ist quarter of the year (69.7 per cent). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistical method validated the seasonal character of the disease (Vn = 5.18, p less than 0.01). The maximum measles cases occurred in children 1-4 yrs (57.4 per cent). Males (54.9 per cent) were affected slightly more than females (45.1 per cent). A total of 246 (59.9 per cent) cases developed complications. The most frequent was respiratory infections (42.2 per cent) followed by infection of gastrointestinal system (32.2 per cent). The complication rates were found higher in infants and older children (greater than 5 yrs.) in both the sexes. Three-fourth of the cases did not get any treatment. The overall case-fatality rate was 2.2 per cent. Females had higher rate (3.3 per cent) than males (1.3 per cent) and the highest case fatality rate was observed in infants, particularly in females.