Knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) of diabetes in Mathura Uttar Pradesh - An observational study

Introduction: Objective of this study is to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding type 2 diabetes in diabetics as well as in Non-diabetics and also to determine the knowledge versus practice gap among diabetics. There is almost no study of this kind from Uttar Pradesh region of India. Material and method: A pretested and validated questionnaire were used for assessment of these parameters. This questionnaire was divided in to 3 parts. First part used for assessment of knowledge in all the study subjects and had 8 questions. Second part had five questions based on risk factors and complication of diabetes. Third part was used only for diabetics and again had five questions based on their health care seeking behavior. A total of 412 study subjects (206 diabetics and 206 Non-diabetics) were interviewed and their responses were noted in this questionnaire form. Results: 50% of the diabetics are in the age group category of 41-60 years. > 50% of non-diabetics are in the age group category 21-40 years. Most of the respondents were aware of symptomatology, non-communicability, need of self-monitoring of glucose at home and rapidly increasing incidence of diabetes. Almost 70 % of diabetics were aware about foot care and Very nominal number of diabetics (7.8%) was consuming sweets daily. A disheartening fact revealed that approximately 87% of diabetics do not carry sugar candy or any form of sugar before leaving home to correct any hypoglycemic episode. Conclusion: Knowledge of symptomatology of diabetes and requirement of self-monitoring of blood glucose at home was adequate among most of the study subjects and uniformly distributed among diabetics and Nondiabetics. More than 80% of diabetics were not aware about hypoglycemia symptoms and its treatment. Training of health care providers and large-scale education and awareness campaigns are the need of the hour for this region to further improve the knowledge and to improve self-care practices among all Diabetics.

Lifestyle Related Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases among Adults of Etawah District

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are also known as chronic diseases, as they tend to be of long duration. Detection, screening, treatment and palliative care, are key components of the response to NCDs. Aim& Objective: To find out the prevalence of risk factors of non-communicable diseases. Settings and Design: It was a community based cross sectional study in urban and rural areas of district Etawah. Methods and Material: Present study was conducted among persons aged between 25-64 years. WHO STEPS approach was used. Statistical analysis used: Qualitative data were expressed in the percentages and tested by chi square test. Results: In the study almost half of the subjects were males. Current tobacco use, alcohol use, insufficient use of fruits and vegetables and physical inactivity were found in 33.9%, 15.9%, 88.8% and 53% of the subjects respectively. Overweight, obesity, increased waist circumference, raised systolic and diastolic blood pressure were found in 37.1%, 16.1%, 37.7%, 14.6% and 19.3% respectively. The prevalence of self-reported diabetes and hypertension (HTN) were 3.6% and 10.2% respectively. Conclusions: There is considerable prevalence of NCDs in the district. Majority of having insufficient use of fruits and vegetables and physical inactivity. Most of them were overweight and increased waist circumference.

Epidemiology of stress among Nursing Undergraduate Students

Background: Stress is a double-edged sword that can either invigorate or decrease the student’s performance. Longer the duration of stress poorer the performance. Nursing students may develop feeling of inadequacy regarding the activities required during professional education which may lead to stress Aims & Objectives: To study the level of stress among undergraduate nursing students of Lucknow city and to determine the risk factors causing stress. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 380 B.Sc. (Nursing) Students enrolled in government and private colleges of Lucknow city using semi-structured questionnaire and DASS 42 scale Results: 60 percent and 62 percent of total nursing student from government college and private nursing respectively were stressed. There was no statistical difference (p= 0.17) between median stress score of two colleges. Predictor for stress was gender (odds ratio =3.41) Conclusion: The study showed high level of stress among the nursing students from government college and private college. Risk factors which were responsible for stress among students were gender, sharing of room, educational expenses, academic performance, mobile phone and harassment in college.

Spectroscopic characterization of gelonin--assignments secondary structure and thermal denaturation.

Gelonin, a type 1 ribosome inactivating protein (RIP), having only one polypeptide chain, and which could be used against deadly diseases like cancer and AIDS is investigated spectroscopically through infrared (IR), diffused reflectance infrared fourier transform (DRIFT) and Raman techniques and observed vibrational modes are assigned. It is found that gelonin is having mainly alpha-helix and beta-sheet structure with some turn and disordered structure, the estimated percentage structure using Raman data being approximately 32% alpha-helix, approximately 20% beta-sheet, approximately 26% turn and approximately 22% disorder type. The temperature dependent infrared study of gelonin reveals its thermal stability, the denaturation temperature being around 60 degrees C and disordered contribution increasing with heating.

Possible role of mononuclear phagocytes in clearance of immune complexes in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Phagocytic activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was investigated in 30 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The test was done using neutral red. Higher percentages of phagocytic cells were detected with PBMC of tuberculosis patients as compared with controls. An inverse relationship was observed between neutral red positive cell counts vs. relative percentages of several proteins (IgG, C3 and C4) in PEG precipitates in tuberculosis patients. It was interpreted that phagocytes might have mopped up the CICs via their surface Fc receptors.