Résumé
Background: Despite several efforts to limit the viral transmission, the COVID-19 vaccine has been the only “the ray of hope” to end the pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy could reduce coverage and hinder herd immunity. People’s intention to get vaccinated can be shaped by several factors, including risk perception which, in turn, is influenced by effect. The need to acquaint oneself to the beliefs, concerns, and circumstances of one’s own population in the community becomes important for successful implementation of the program. Therefore, the present study was conducted to gain insights into perceptions of vaccination. Objectives: The objective is to understand the felicitating factors and hindering factors for acceptance of vaccines by the population among people aged 50 years in urban field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine in a Tertiary care teaching hospital, Hyderabad. Subjects and Methods: Data were extracted from audio recording of five focus group discussions that were conducted in the urban field practice care of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Hyderabad through open-ended questions. Categories, subcategories, and themes were created by deductive approach. Results: The motivating factors for vaccine acceptance were found to be fear of getting disease, wanting to return normalcy, and trust in treating doctors, whereas, barriers were fear of death due to vaccine, opacity in vaccine details, anxiety, and misinterpretation of adverse events. Conclusion: Having a clear understanding about the belief system of the target population could help in designing the guidelines for vaccination program to escalate the immunization and increase the acceptance.
Résumé
Background: Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in India in the 21st Century, affecting 5% of the country’s population. Childhood obesity is an emerging problem in urban Indian children and increase in childhood overweight and obesity may be a major contributor to adult obesity epidemic. Hence present study has been planned with the objective to study and compare the prevalence of obesity in government and private schools and also to study the risk factors associated with obesity. Methods: An institution based cross sectional study was carried out among 718 school children of randomly selected government and private schools of Hyderabad city. Students were enquired about their physical activity and dietary habits as per the questionnaire. Anthropometry measurements like height and weight were recorded for each student. Data was analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Results: Prevalence of obesity was found to be 21.09% among private school children and 19% in government school children. Physical activity factors like conveyance to school and less frequency of outdoor games were significantly associated with obesity. Diet related determinants like intake of soft drinks, sweets, pizza, fruits were found to be associated with obesity. Conclusions: It can be concluded that the prevalence of obesity in schools of Hyderabad is very high and it is positively associated with inappropriate exercise and improper dietary practices.