Anemia in pregnant women in a rural block of Kashmir valley: Its prevalence and socio-demographic associates.

Background: Anaemia is a major public health problem in developing countries like India and is especially seen among women of childbearing age, during pregnancy and lactation. Nearly two-thirds of pregnant and one-half of non-pregnant women in developing countries have anaemia, which increases the risk of maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity. Aims & Objective: The study was designed to assess the prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women and to report the socio-demographic factors associated with anaemia during pregnancy. Material and Methods: This is a Cross sectional study. The study was conducted in Block Hajan, the rural field practice area under the department of community medicine, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura.482 pregnant women were examined and screened for anaemia. Haemoglobin level, age, education, income, type of family and parity were among the various variables studied. Statistical analysis was done by using Chi-square test using SPSS statistical package version (Chicago 11, IL). Results: A high prevalence (91%) of anaemia (Hb<11g/dl) was observed. The prevalence of anaemia was significantly higher in those aged ≥ 35 years. A highly significant association was found with woman’s age, parity, educational and socio-economic status. However, family type and birth interval were not significantly associated with anaemia. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women and there is need for correcting this to improve the overall health of pregnant women.

An epidemiological study to assess the utilization of maternal and child health care services at sub-center level by the target population in Northern India, Kashmir valley.

Background: In any community mothers and children constitute an important and priority group especially in developing countries like India where, their numbers (constituting up to 2/3rd of total population), vulnerability to morbidity and mortality (constituting as special risk group) and amenability to prevention of ill health and mortality, to a large extent, makes them candidate for special attention. By improving health of mothers and children in any society we contribute to a large segment of general population and it is because of this special and usually combined health services for mother and child, the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services are considered globally more so in developing countries. The main aim of MCH Services remains to ensure that, throughout pregnancy and puerperium, every mother maintains optimal health and at the end of pregnancy we have a healthy mother and a healthy baby and promote the child health throughout the infancy and childhood. Delivery of MCH services to the vast majority of rural communities has been through Sub-centers that are manned by two Multipurpose Health Workers (one male and one female [ANM]) and cover a population of 5000 in plain areas and 3000 in hilly or difficult terrain areas. The functions of female worker are mainly confined to Maternal and Child health (essential obstetric care, new born care, child health promotion, family planning, health education. Aims & Objective: To assess the Utilisation of maternal and child health services at Sub-center level by target population in a sub-center area. Material and Methods: A sample of 40 sub centres was obtained by multistage sampling procedure. The sample size was obtained by calculating number of mother child pair beneficiaries to be interviewed for assessing the utilization of maternal and child health services. Results: Out of the total 671 mothers studied 640 (95.4%) beneficiaries had received any antenatal check-up while 4.6% had not received any antenatal check-up. Only 10.3% of the women had greater than 3 antenatal check-ups at the sub centre while 5.46 % had received 3 antenatal checks up and 1.4 % had less than 3 antenatal check-ups at sub centre. MPHW (Female) was the service provider for antenatal care in only 3.1% of cases while 86.4% of the women preferred a doctor for antenatal check-ups. Conclusion: Utilization of ante-natal services is very low, intranatal is almost non-existent, post natal maternal services are decimal but child health services and some components of family planning services are being utilized from sub centers.

Glucose intolerance in relation to socioeconomic status and gender in population of Srinagar city

To assess the pattern of type -2 diabetes in different socioeconomic groups in the urban and peri-urban areas of Srinagar city. A detailed questionnaire on the Socioeconomic and Clinical background of the 1040 subjects was collected. After an overnight for blood fasting blood samples were drawn for determination of plasma glucose. Diagnosis of diabetes was based on the American Diabetes Association [ADA 2004]. The overall Prevalence of the diabetes in the study population was 6.05% which included 4.03% of known diabetic and 2.02% undiagnosed subjects. There was significant difference between the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in men and women [3.6%vs 8.3% respectively, P=0.0013]. Subjects belonging to higher socioeconomic status had greater prevalence of diabetes compared to lower 17.4% vs 3.2% [P<0.001][middle class [class II and Class III] versus lower class[Class IV]respectively]. Socioeconomic factors influence the occurrence of diabetes in this study population, with prevalence being more come in the middle class