A Study on Association between Sleep Habits and Academic Performance among Medical Undergraduates in Maharaja Agrasen Medical College Agroha.

Introduction: Good quality and adequate amount of sleepis necessary for being healthy. Medical students are proneto more stress due to their academic demands. The sleepamong students is characterized by inadequate sleeping hours,delayed sleep onset, and mid day nap. Current research aimedto study sleep habits among medical students and to findrelationship between sleep habits and stress with academicperformance of students.Material and Methods: This cross–sectional study wascarried out among 139 medical students of third semester,seventh semester and interns enrolled at Maharaja AgrasenMedical College, Agroha (Dist. Hisar), Haryana. Primarytool in this study was a predesigned and semi-structuredquestionnaire. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used toassess daytime sleepiness. Collected data was analysed usingfrequencies, percentages and chi square test.Results: Out of 139 students, 38.8% were considered tohave excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS score >10). Femalestudents (43.1%) were found to have more abnormal EDS scoreas compare to male students(35.1%). Out of total, 70 studentssecured marks between 60-70 percent in which maximumnumber of students (61.42%) were stress free during examsand 54% had sleep duration of 7-10 hours. Good health wasfound to be strongly significant with academic performanceof the students. Duration of study hours was found to besignificant with academic performance of students. Delayedsleep onset was found to be more in female students (55%).Mid day nap was found in 76.25% of students.Conclusion: The negative effects of sleep difficulties havebeen well documented. EDS was more in female students.Also, good health had significant association with academicperformance so the knowledge of importance of good qualityand adequate amount of sleep and its impact on health shouldbe emphasized and translated into practice.

A Retrospective Study to Estimate the Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors among First Year MBBS Students of Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha, Hisar.

Introduction: Anemia is a most common public healthproblem affecting around 1.9 billion population of the world.It is a severe public health problem in India. Medical studentsare vulnerable to develop anemia due to irregular eatinghabits due to hectic study schedule. Anemia among this agegroup has significant health consequences resulting in poorcognition, decreased attention span and memory affectingthe performance, depressed immunity, repeated infections,increased fatigue, and shortness of breath, dizziness, blurredvision, low endurance and irregular menstruation.Material and Methods: This study is conducted among 100students of both gender taking admission in MBBS first yearat MAMC, Agroha. Hemoglobin values and other relevantdetails of the students were taken from academic sectionsubmitted at time of admission. World Health Organizationcriteria were taken to determine the severity of anemia.Modified B.G. Prasad scale was used to assess the socioeconomic status of the family. Data was first entered into MSexcel sheet and then was exported to SPSS version 20.0 forappropriate analysis.Results: Prevalence of anemia came out to be 54% amongstudy subjects. Difference between the mean levels ofhemoglobin across the genders came out be statisticallysignificant (P=<0.001).Conclusion: Prevalence of anemia is high among the studysubjects with more prevalence among females study subjects.There is a need to accelerate efforts for achieving control ofanemia by strengthening multi-sectoral partnership involvinggovernment departments, academic institutions, bilateralagencies and food industry.

Interventional Study to Evaluate Efficacy of Acupuncture for Treating Sciatica Pain

Introduction: Low back pain has a profound impact bothdirectly and indirectly on individuals. It is estimated that 60%to 80% of any population will experience low back pain atsome point in their lives. There are number of causes for lowback pain and Sciatica is one of them. Study aimed to assessthe efficacy of Acupuncture for the management of Sciaticapain.Material and Methods: This study was conducted among 200patients attending the Outdoor Patient department at Dr D.N.Kotnis Health and Education Center. With each subject a priorinformed and written consent was obtained. A predesigned andpretested proforma was used to collect the socio demographicprofile. Severity of Pain was measured with the help of LikertScale whereas the reading on Likert scale was taken at thetime of first visit and last visit of patients for comparison ofpain. Data was first entered into MS excel sheet and then wasexported to SPSS version 20.0 for appropriate analysis.Results: Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to determinethe efficacy of the treatment on reducing the pain, further itwas observed that the effect of the treatment was statisticallysignificant (p<0.001)Conclusion: Acupuncture provides effective relief fromSciatica pain. However initiation of treatment at young ageprovides quick response and healing by reducing suffering ofsciatica pain.