Can personal hygiene act as a proxy indicator of morbidity profile? A study on orphans of Uttarakhand region

Background: A healthy childhood is essential for future growth and development. It is greatly influenced by parent, family, society and environment which formulate attitude, behavior, manner and emotions. Millions of children across the world are deprived of this crucial phase of life; those are the orphans and abandoned children.Methods: This institution-based cross sectional study was carried out with the help of pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire amongst 193 orphans aged 5-14 years to assess the personal hygienic practices and morbidities among orphans and to find out the association between the morbidity with personal hygiene and other risk factors.Results: The leading morbidities observed were poor oral hygiene (57.51%) as a morbidity followed by dental caries (50.58%) and pallor (30.57%). The average morbidity per child was found to be 2. There was significant association between ages, education, personal hygienic practices with the presence of morbidity in the orphans.Conclusions: Practices related to personal hygiene was not satisfactory. There was a significant association between morbidity and personal hygiene. Despite of the fact that these children are highly vulnerable; their health needs are poorly understood and ill served.

Prevalence And Bio- Social Predictors Of Hypertension In Rural Dehradun.

Abstract: Background and Objectives: Cardiovascular diseases account for a large proportion of all deaths and disability worldwide. Hypertension is directly responsible for 57% of all stroke deaths and 24% of all coronary heart disease deaths in India. Studies have shown a high prevalence of hypertension in both urban and rural areas. Although there is generally a lower prevalence of hypertension in rural Indian population, there has been a steady increase over time in this rural population as well. Methodology: This observational cross sectional study was conducted in a randomly chosen block in district Dehradun. Overall 457 people were interviewed and measurements were taken to know the prevalence of hypertension and related risk factors. The collected data was entered and analysed in SPSS software (21.0 version ). Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 23.9% and male subjects had higher prevalence than females (26.2% and 21.5%respectively). With increasing age, prevalence of hypertension increased significantly. Age, sex, marital status, family type and occupation were found as important bio-social predictors of hypertension. Conclusion: Increasing prevalence of hypertension in rural areas and in younger age groups is of concern to the public health. In developing countries like India, preventive strategies should be directed towards masses with focus on behaviour change communication.

ICDS — is it the entitlement of every Indian child.

Objectives: To assess the extent of utilization of services by underthree & their mothers at AWC’s & to study the gender differences in availing the services . Methods : A cross- sectional study regarding the utilization of services by children (0-3 years) & their mothers among 11 Anganwadis in 8 villages registered under RHTC,HIHT Dehradun. The data was tabulated on Microsoft Excel sheet and analyzed using the software SPSS 17.0 for Windows. Results : Study findings showed that majority of underthree children i.e. 89.2% were enrolled in the AWCs whereas only 29.20 % went to AWCs to avail the combined benefits of vaccination, supplementary nutrition, healthcheckups followed by Immunization services(23.2%).63.55% children in the age group 0-3 years were attending the AWC to receive SN whereas only 22% of children were availing it regularly. Conclusion: The problems encountered at AWCs were under utilization of services due to lack of awareness of parents & insufficient motivation of AWW. There is a need to improve awareness about the services especially in the underthree age group so that eligible beneficiaries can avail them.