Vitamin D level as a predictor of pneumonia and asthma in children less than 5 years of age

Background: Childhood pneumonia is a global health problem .It the leading cause of death for children under the age of five years. 95% of all pneumonia cases under the age of five occurs in developing countries. Asthma remains the most common chronic disease of childhood in the world. The observation that vitamin D deficiency and asthma share risk factors such as urban residence, obesity and African American ethnicity has generated interest in exploring a link between these two conditions. This study was taken up to assess the role of vitamin D as a predictor of pneumonia and asthma in children less than 5 years of age.Methods: A prospective observational case control study was conducted in MLB Medical college, Jhansi from January 2015 to December 2016 (1 year 11 months). A total of 60 children including 30 asthma cases, 20 pneumonia cases and 10 controls, aged, 6-60 months were enrolled. Controls were healthy children attending outpatient services for immunization.Results: The mean age of the pneumonia patient was 1.5 years, while mean age in asthma patients was 3.1yrs. Ratio of male and female in pneumonia cases was1.5:1, while is asthma ratio was 2:1. In our study 45% pneumonia cases had deficient level of vitamin D (<20ng/ml) and mean level was 11.08±4.68 while 40% of control had deficient level of vitamin D and mean level was 16.04±1.61, p value was 0.0166 and there was significant difference in both the groups. In Asthma cases 53.33% patient had deficient level of vitamin-D and mean level was 10.62±2.908 as compared to 40% control (mean : 16.04±1.62) ‘p’ value was <0.0001 and was highly significant.Conclusions: Our study has illustrated that vitamin-D levels were significantly low in pneumonia and asthma patients as compared to control.

Evaluation of oral health status of 15 years old school going children in district Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

Background: Dental caries and Gum diseases are the major public health problem in developed and developing countries both and the prevalence is more during the childhood specially in lower socioeconomic strata of our society so present study was conducted to find out the prevalence of dental and gum diseases among the 15 years of age school going children.Methods: This study was conducted among 15 years old children of government rural schools in the catchment area of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences, District Indore after getting ethical approval from institutional ethical committee, 400 students were included till the required sample size was achieved. Oral cavity examination was done by a team of evaluated for oral health status by a trained examiner who took training in department of community dentistry and Pedo-odontology. Data was entered and analysed by using SPSS.Results: Present study reveals that 38% of participants had dental decay out of which was more there in boys and found statistically significant <0.05. Majority of participants (70%) had normal gums only 4% had bleeding gums. 9% of the the participants had hypoplastic enemal.Conclusions: The current study explores that the dental decay is the major oral health problem followed by calculus. Oral health education and oral cavity examination should be done at a regular interval study.