RESUMO
Background: Antenatal period is important for identifying pregnancy related threats and antenatal care (ANC) is one of the most effective health interventions during this period. It provides a unique opportunity for screening and diagnosis, health promotion and disease prevention. This study assessed the antenatal service utilization pattern and its determinants among women.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in the field practice area of a teaching hospital in Mangalore. Study included 142 women who had delivered in the last one year in the study area, selected using snowball sampling method. A pretested semi-structured validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. Predictors of full ANC were identified using univariate analysis and explanatory variables were entered into multivariate regression model to obtain the adjusted odds ratios to find the association between full ANC coverage and its determinants.Results: Among the participants, 99.3% registered their pregnancy and 78.9% had early registration. Majority, 91.5% had minimum antenatal visits, 83.1% consumed iron and folic acid supplements for more than three months and tetanus toxoid (TT) coverage was 98.6%. Full ANC coverage was found to be 81% and unadjusted analysis showed higher odds of full ANC coverage among housewives, primiparous, women in joint family and among literates. However, multi variable analysis revealed literacy as the major determinant of full ANC.Conclusions: In the present study, majority of the women had adequate antenatal care utilization. Full antenatal coverage was found to be statistically significant among literate women.
RESUMO
Background: School children are a high risk population for refractive errors (REs). Uncorrected REs can adversely affect the learning abilities and mental development of school children. Objectives: This cross sectional study was conducted to observe the proportion of cases diagnosed with REs, to determine factors associated with it, to find out the practices of students in preventing these risk factors and to assess the perception towards visual aids among students with REs in schools of an urban area. Methods: This study was done in Mangalore city in February 2013. 482 high school children were interviewed using a structured interview schedule. RE was ascertained based on records of previous diagnosis by Ophthalmologist. Data was analyzed by Chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of already diagnosed cases of RE was 94(19.5%). Most of these cases had myopia 92(97.9%). Two cases were of hypermetropia. Mean age of onset of RE was 10.2±2.1 years. Only 19(20.2%) cases were first detected in schools in spite of functioning school health services at all the surveyed schools. RE cases were significantly more in private schools in comparison to government schools (P<0.001). Risk factors significantly associated with RE were history of RE among siblings (P<0.001), inadequate reading distance (P=0.011) and doing homework with inadequate illumination (P=0.021). One third of students with RE were irregular in eye examinations. Conclusion: Proportion of REs was high among school students. Education of students on healthy postural habits and good illumination while studying at home is essential to prevent REs in this population.
RESUMO
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Stress resulting from having to meet professional demands is common in the medical student's life. The perceived stress (PS) can be either an input or an outflow of EI or the lack thereof. This study was done to assess EI levels and to find out its association with sociodemographic variables and PS among medical students. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 198 first-year and 208 second-year medical students. EI scores were found to increase with age (r = 0.169, P = 0.004). PS scores were found to be higher among first-year students (P = 0.05). PS scores were found to decrease with increase in EI scores (r = −0.226, P < 0.001). Hence, if sufficient measures to improve EI are provided in the beginning, it would make students more stress-free during their training years at medical schools.
RESUMO
Introduction: Meeting the changing demands in medical education requires implementation of innovative teaching methods. Problem based learning (PBL) was introduced for the first time for teaching Community Medicine at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. The objective of this study was to obtain students’ perception towards this learning experience so as to evaluate its potential benefits. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was done in a private medical college between June to November 2014. Methods: It was conducted among final year medical students. PBL was introduced to a randomly chosen group of students and their perception towards this learning experience was obtained. The assessment was done using a standardized questionnaire containing responses in a five point Likert scale ranging from strongly agreement to strongly disagreement. Results: Mean age of the 54 participants was 21.4±1.0 years. Majority were females 33(61.1%) and were Indians 45(83.3%). Majority of students strongly agreed to most parameters under application of knowledge base, clinical reasoning, decision making skills, self-directed learning and collaborative work experience in PBL tutorials. Similarly feedback regarding standard of PBL exercise, self/peer performance and facilitator performance in the PBL tutorials was strongly agreed to be satisfactory by majority of participants. However 24(44.4%) of them found PBL to be time consuming. Greater proportion of males felt that their contribution was not satisfactory during sessions (p=0.049). Conclusion: Students feedback towards PBL was found to be satisfactory in all aspects. Few barriers like demotivation on the part of male participants needs to be resolved by facilitators so as to improve output in PBL sessions.
RESUMO
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be one of the most devastating and widespread infections in the world. Of the nine million annual tuberculosis cases, about one million (11%) occur in children (under 15 years of age). Childhood tuberculosis is a neglected aspect of the tuberculosis epidemic. Objectives: To know the socio-demographic profile, type of tuberculosis and treatment outcome in paediatric tuberculosis patients Methodology:The study was conducted in nine Tuberculosis units of Bangalore city from January 2009 to December 2009. Five Tuberculosis units from the nine tuberculosis units were selected by simple random sampling, paediatric patients diagnosed as having TB and registered under RNTCP were included in the study till the sample size of 209 was reached. Data regarding socio-demographic profile and type of TB was collected and the patients were followed up to assess treatment outcome. Results: Most of the patients coming to the RNTCP centres belong to the under-privileged group. Most of the patients were in the age group of 1 to <6 years, (37.7 %), male to female ratio was observed to be 0.6:1. Majority of the patients lived in nuclear families (73.2%), belonged to low socio-economic status (95.5%) and dwelled in overcrowded houses (89.5%). 23% reported history of contact with tuberculosis patients. More than half of the patients (57.4%) were undernurished. In the study, 56.5% had pulmonary TB and 43.5 % had extra-pulmonary TB. 94.7% of the patients completed treatment. Conclusion:Paediatric tuberculosis still continues to be a major problem in one-five years of age who are undernourished and belonging to low socio-economic status.