RESUMO
Background: Anaemia has significant impact on health of the fetus as well as that of mother. Increased need of iron during pregnancy especially after 2nd trimester makes iron supplementation mandatory. Ferrous ascorbate is known to exist intact inside the gastrointestinal tract due to the stable chelation of iron with ascorbate. This compound does not dissociate due to any of the food inhibitors. The aim is to study the effec-tiveness of Ferrous Ascorbate and Ferrous sulphate in terms of compliance and cost effectiveness of manage-ment of anaemia in pregnancy. Methodology: Study design: Quasi Experimental study, Study area: District Vidisha, Study participants: Preg-nant women of first trimester registered during the study period in the selected Anganwadis/ Gram Arogya Kendra (GAK), Sample size: 240 antenatal mothers. Results: Baseline mean haemoglobin was 11.31±1.05 gm/dl. The mean increase in Ferrous Sulphate was 0.55 gm/dl, and in Ferrous ascorbate was 1.27 gm/dl. Ferrous Sulphate was less compliant than Ferrous ascorbate, and has higher efficacy and lesser side effects. Only Rs. 10.2 additional cost per antenatal mothers for increase of ≥1gm% in Hb will be borne by government if Ferrous Sulphate is replaced by Ferrous Ascorbate. Conclusions: Study results show statistically significant difference in rise of haemoglobin amongst the ante-natal mothers consuming Ferrous ascorbate over Ferrous Sulphate
RESUMO
Background: Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) constitute the single largest cause of preventable neurological damage worldwide. Majority of consequences of IDD are invisible and irreversible but at the same time these are preventable. The study was conducted to assess the prevalence of goiter in school children aged 6-12 years, to estimate the urinary iodine excretion and to assess the level of iodine concentration in salt samples obtained from households of selected school children.Methods: Population proportionate to size sampling. Sample size was 90 primary school-going children of age 6-12 years in each selected village, total 2700 from 30 villages/wards in Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, India.Results: The prevalence of goiter among the 6-12 years children was found to be 32.06%. Females had higher prevalence compared to males. Of the 540 salt samples, 370 (68.4%) had iodine concentration ?15 ppm at household level.Conclusions: IDD is a mild public health problem in Betul district.
RESUMO
Background: Improper food production, handling, and preparation techniques have direct influence on health. A food borne disease is a disease usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through ingestion of food. The objective of the present study was to assess the food safety knowledge and hygienic practices among food handlers and to assess the improvement in knowledge and hygienic practices after educational intervention.Methods: This was a longitudinal educational interventional study, carried out during October to December 2017 among 50 randomly selected food handlers in and around Gandhi Medical College campus, where the study subjects were interviewed by using a questionnaire in local language regarding their knowledge and practices of food handling, and were then later educated on proper food handling practices by lecture and demonstration method followed by a post intervention interview after a gap of 2 weeks.Results: Out of 50 food handlers, 62% had knowledge of the food borne diseases and it raises up to 100% post intervention. During pre-intervention, only 78% of the participants used to wash their hands before preparing meal and after intervention 92% were washing their hands before preparing meal.Conclusions: Food safety knowledge and hygienic practices among food handlers improved by 73% after the educational intervention. Maximum improvement was seen in the use of gloves, caps and hand washing practices.