Health care seeking behaviour and its socio-demographic determinants among women in rural area: a community based cross sectional study

Background: The health care delivery system of a country determines the health seeking behaviour of that country’s population. Women’s health care seeking behaviour is undocumented because women suffer the disease in silence, without seeking appropriate remedy for her illness. Hence the study was planned to assess the health care seeking behaviour and factors associated with it among rural women. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the catchment area of Rural Health Training Centre located in Thane district in January 2024. Sample size of women aged 18 years and above was estimated. Subjects were interviewed after obtaining verbal consent. Data was recorded in pre-designed proforma and was analysed with the help of Microsoft excel. Descriptive and inferential statistics was applied. The statistical level of significance was fixed at p<0.05. Results: Of the 400 women studied, 63.50% were illiterate. 52.75% visit private practitioners for treatment. 56.50% could make own decision regarding their health while 43.50% need permission from senior family members to visit health care facility. Only 42.50% visit to health care facility at the onset of symptoms. Due to time consuming nature, 35.75% were not using government health care facilities. Also, 22.50% women experienced unfriendly behaviour of the health care staff working there. Conclusions: More than half of the women could not seek medical care immediately, two third were not aware of the various government health schemes, emphasizing the need to create awareness about it through grass root level health workers. There is an urgent need to rebuild community trust about public health care facilities.

Oral health problems among school children in rural area: a cross-sectional study

Background: Students are the wealth of the nation as they constitute one of the important segments of the population. The foundation of good health and sound mind is laid during the school age period. During this period, they are vulnerable to various oral health problems. These conditions are the hurdles in their physical, mental, emotional, and social development. In view of this, a study was conducted to assess the oral health status of the school students in rural areas. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted in rural area among school children in the month of March 2023. Standard proforma was used to record the data related to oral morbidity among the subjects. Data entry and statistical analysis was done with the help of Microsoft Excel. ?2 and SE (p1-p2) tests were used to compare difference in categorical variables. The statistical level of significance was fixed at p<0.05. Results: 432 students were examined. 226 (52.31%) subjects were having oral morbidity. 151 (66.81%) subjects in the age group of 5-10 years while 75 (33.19%) in the age group of >10-16 years were having oral health problems (p<0.05). 155 (59.73%) students from primary section and 71 (40.27%) students from secondary section were suffering from oral morbidity (p<0.05). Dental caries was observed among 194 (44.91%) subjects followed by mouth ulcers (09.72%). 143 (53.36%) underweight subjects were suffering from dental caries (p<0.05). Conclusions: Common oral health problems found in school going children can be addressed with the implementation of school health program in effective way. These common infirmities can be prevented by actively involving parents and teachers in school health services.

Socio-demography, nutritional status, age-appropriate immunization coverage and morbidity among under-five children in rural Maharashtra

Background: Morbidities among under-five children in rural areas is a major public health problem. This study was conducted to assess the nutritional status, age-appropriate immunization coverage, personal hygiene and morbidity pattern among under-5 children and their socio-demographic determinates in rural slum dwellings. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in rural area of Maharashtra using purposive sampling technique. The survey was done by using predesigned and pretested proforma along with recording of socio-demographic factors, anthropometric measurements, immunization status and clinical examination of the study subjects. Results: The study included 86 under-5 children from a rural slum dwelling. 16 (18.60%) subjects were underweighted, 35 (40.70%) were stunted and 14 (16.28%) were wasted. 04 (04.65%) and 02 (02.33%) subjects were MAM and SAM respectively. 35 (40.70%) subjects were morbid. 20 (23.26%) subjects were suffering from louse infestation of which 07 (14.58%) were boys and 13 (34.21%) were girls (p<0.05). 17 (19.77%) subjects were suffering from dental caries. 12 (13.95%) subjects were suffering from skin diseases. 23 (26.74%) subjects were suffering from oral health problems. All subjects’ personal hygiene was poor. 72 (83.72%) subjects were age-appropriate fully immunized. The association between monthly family income and presence of stunting among the subjects is statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: Underweight, stunting, wasting, MAM, SAM, louse infestation, skin diseases, dental caries, oral health problems and poor immunization coverage are found to be major health problems among the under-five children in rural areas. Poor personal hygiene of under-5 children is also a major issue. Capacity building of parents for early health seeking and strengthening of primary health care services is essential to act timely in managing these morbidities.

Prevalence of dental caries and other oral health problems among municipal secondary school children in Mumbai metropolitan region

Background: Dental caries and other oral health issues are major public health problems among school going children. This study is conducted to assess the prevalence of dental caries, other oral health problems and some oral hygiene practices among municipal secondary school children in an urban area. Methods: The present study was conducted among randomly selected 152 students studying in a Municipal Secondary School in an urban area. They were examined for dental caries and other oral health problems. Also, they were asked about the oral hygiene practices. Data was entered in Google form. Obtained data was entered in a MS-Excel spreadsheet and statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test. Results: Of the 152 subjects examined, 137 (90.13%) were having one or more oral health problems. 74 (48.68%) subjects were having dental caries. Of the 137 subjects having oral health problems, 132 (86.84%) subjects’ fathers’ education and 135 (88.82%) subjects’ mothers’ education was ?12th standard (p<0.05). Of the 77 subjects studying in 5th to 7th standard, 45 (29.61%) were suffering from dental caries (p<0.05). Of the 140 subjects whose fathers’ education was ?12th standard, 73 (48.03%) were suffering from dental caries (p<0.05). Of the 74 (48.68%) subjects who were suffering from dental caries 24 (15.79%) and of the 78 (51.32%) who were not suffering from dental caries 35 (23.03%) were brushing their teeth for more than 2 minutes. Conclusions: School health services should be strengthened to detect and treat oral health problems in time as well as to increase general oral health awareness among school children.

Biochemical profile of hypertensive individuals in an urban community.

Of the 1,432 participants, 767 were males and 665 were females. The prevalence of hypertension was 13.90%. The sex-wise prevalence was 9.52% and 18.95% in males and females respectively. The age distribution of hypertension was multi-modal. More than one-third of the hypertensive patients were also diabetics. The difference in the distribution of blood levels of sugar, electrolytes and cholesterol in the hypertensives and normotensives were not statistically significant. These findings question the rationale of ordering these blood tests as part of routine investigations for all hypertensives.