Socio demographic predictors of depression among the elderly patients attending out patient departments of a tertiary hospital in North India

Depression is the most common geriatric psychiatric disorder. Other than organic, socio demographic factors, have been found to play an important role in mental health. In this study we evaluated the association of some socio-demographic factors with geriatric depression. A cross sectional study was carried out in the Out Patient Department registration area of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Delhi. Questionnaire based interviews were conducted among the elderly people visiting the hospital. A 15 item geriatric depression scale Hindi was used to assess depression. Six hundred and seventy eight subjects were interviewed. The age of the subjects ranged from 65 to 85 years. About three fourth of the study population were males. About 61.4% scored positive for depression. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the following were significant [P<0.05] independent predictors of depression: Higher age, low educational status, financial dependence and presence of any chronic health problem. The present study found that the prevalence of depression among the study subjects was high. Also the independent risk factors found in this study need to be targeted in formulating mental health policy for geriatrics

Acute type a aortic dissection: a pathology under diagnosed

To compare the frequency of acute type A aortic dissection with chronic dissections, at two large cardiac surgery centers of the country. Acute type an aortic dissection: a pathology under diagnosed. This study was conducted at Rehman Medical Institute, Peshawar and National Institute of Cardiovascular diseases, Karachi, between January 2001 and January 2007. All patients with type A aortic dissection are studied retrospectively. Patients with aortic aneurysm, undergoing aortic root surgery, were not included in the study. Out of 13 patients who underwent aortic root surgery for various pathologies of the aorta, 9 cases had type A aortic dissection. Eight patients were diagnosed by trans-thoracic and trans-esophageal echocardiography and one patient was diagnosed on contrast enhanced computerized tomography [CT] scan. None of the patients had cardiac catheterization or MRI. Six of the nine dissections were chronic. One patient had Marfan Syndrome. Eight patients were hypertensive. One patient had aortic valve repair with supra coronary tube graft interposition for ascending aortic dissection; while eight patients had aortic root replacement with prosthetic composite grafts. There was one in-hospital death. Post operative echocardiogram of the patient with aortic valve repair, revealed mild aortic regurgitation. Seven of the eight surviving patients are in NYHA class I while one patient is in NYHA class two. Aortic root surgery can be safely performed with results comparable to the published data. Hypertension needs to be controlled to avoid its potentially lethal complications, like aortic dissection

HIV and sexually transmitted infections among women presenting at urban primary health care clinics in two cities of sub-saharan Africa

In a cross-sectional study; 786 consenting women from two cities in Africa; Harare and Moshi; attending primary health care clinics were interviewed; examined and tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The aim of the study was to assess and compare differences in the characteristics that may affect the prevalence of HIV/STIs among women in the two cities. Multivariate analysis was used to generate odds ratio. STIs and behaviour characteristics among this low risk group of women could not fully explain the higher HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe; 29.3 compared to 11.5 in Tanzania (p 0.01). Interventions should target identified risk factors with particular attention to youths