Awareness about disaster management among accredited social health activists in field practice area of a medical college in Mysuru

Background: The changing global climate due to human influences is leading to a greater incidence of extreme weather events and natural disasters. The natural and man-made disasters have a great impact on physical and mental health and health system. Disaster preparedness is therefore important at all levels of the health system. Being the first contact of the health system to the communities, accredited social health workers have a great role in managing the disasters at the village level. This study attempts to assess the awareness regarding disaster management among accredited social health activists (ASHAs) in the field practice area of J.S.S. Medical College in Mysuru, Karnataka.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted for one month in July 2019. A total of 40 ASHAs were assessed by direct interview method using a pre-structured, validated questionnaire. The data were entered into the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using SPPS version 22.Results: The median years of experience of ASHAs were 10 years (interquartile range: 5.75-10) with a minimum and maximum experience of 2 and 10 years respectively. None of the study participants had received any trainings or mock drills for disaster management/ preparedness. The awareness about disaster management was low among the ASHAs assessed. Most of the ASHAs (92.5%) had average knowledge about disaster management while 7.5% had only poor knowledge.Conclusions: The awareness about disaster management among ASHAs is very poor. We recommend training programs and mock drills for the frontline health workers to improve awareness and disaster preparedness.

Anaemia prevalence among school children of southern districts of Karnataka

Background: Anaemia is a major health problem creating an extreme burden on public health, especially in developing countries. Globally, anaemia affects 1.62 billion people, which corresponds to 24.8% of the population. The government of India is implementing various programs to bring down the prevalence of anaemia including iron and folic acid supplementation to school going children. This study attempts to assess the prevalence of anaemia among school going children of first to the tenth standard, in rural and urban areas of Mysore and Chamarajanagara districts of southern part of Karnataka state, India.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in 50 selected schools of Mysore and Chamarajanagara districts for a period of one academic year, and 8719 students were evaluated for anaemia. The data was analyzed using appropriate software and statistical methods.Results: The prevalence of anaemia among school going children in Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts was 27.6%. While 22.7% of the girls showed the signs of anaemia, only 19.2% of boys showed anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia was high in rural areas than urban areas and maximum prevalence was seen among high school students followed by upper primary school students and lower primary school students.Conclusions: The total prevalence of anaemia among school children in Mysore and Chamarajanagara districts was 27.6%. The prevalence of anaemia was below the currently available national standards. This low prevalence could be attributed to the continuing care with yearly screening and iron and folic acid tablets provided to the study population under National Health Mission.