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BACKGROUND: Online modality of pedagogy was introduced in many medical institutes globally, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these techniques were not evaluated, either with respect to effectiveness or student satisfaction in terms of promoting successful educational outcomes. The current study was conducted to identify determinants of student satisfaction with respect to online learning, in the post-pandemic era. METHODS: A pilot-tested and validated online questionnaire was administered to 370 medical/paramedical students who attended online classes during the pandemic. The students were selected randomly from four different streams of a medical university, representing all the years of study. The questionnaire included Likert-type questions and was divided into two parts: socio-demographic profile and satisfaction with online learning. RESULTS: The response rate was 81.4%. Overall satisfaction with online learning among students was 35.9% and the areas of most satisfaction for students were user-friendliness of the online portal (65.5%), self-directed responsibilities assigned to pupils (49.9%), faculty accessibility/availability (48.8%) and timely evaluation, test and feedback (47.9%). The areas of most dissatisfaction were lack of personal effect as compared to offline learning (n=71, 23.6%), effect on social life (n=54, 17.9%), and feeling of not belonging to the online session (n=38, 12.6%). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that having previous exposure to online courses and having a separate room led to more satisfaction, whereas the emergence of health problems led to poor satisfaction with the course. The duration of previous exposure to online courses was not a statistically significant predictor of satisfaction. One or more health problems were reported by 176 (58.5%) of the respondents. Some of the common health problems reported were eye strain (72.8%), headache (56.1%), insomnia (47.2%), stress (35.2%), muscle fatigue (22.6) and tingling sensation (10.6%). CONCLUSION: Adopting a combination of online and offline approaches, i.e., blended pedagogy, involving different methods to involve students and their feedback are important to ensure student satisfaction.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: An essential part of pediatric dentistry in recent times is age estimation for various purposes such as orthodontics, forensic dentistry, human anthropology, and bioarchaeology. Assessment of calcification of dental tissue is another physiologic method for skeletal growth assessment. AIMS: This study aims to evaluate the correlation between dental calcification stages and skeletal maturity indicators and their application in age estimation purposes. METHODS: Tooth calcification was assessed by Demirjian's method and hand-wrist assessment was done by Fishman's method. Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient was applied to measure the association between skeletal maturational indicators and dental calcification stages of individual teeth, and the statistical significance of the correlation was tested. RESULTS: Spearman's significant coefficients for canine, first premolar, second premolar, and molar are 0.11, 0.09, 0.09, and 0.13, respectively, which are not significant. CONCLUSION: Fishman's method of hand-wrist radiograph assessment is quite accurate as a maturity indicator but its association with dental calcification stages cannot be established.
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Background: The well-known phenomenon of tribal disadvantage in India requires constant monitoring to ensure diligent attention to equitable protection of tribal people's right to life. Methodology: This study, based on an analysis of secondary data from the National Data Analytics Platform database in different tribal communities in Indian states, charts the differential progress of tribals by establishing a gap. Results: Huge differences were observed in the total fertility rate among the tribal population across the states, with the lowest in Sikkim (1.02) and Delhi NCT (1.24) and the highest in Bihar (2.98) and Meghalaya (3.07). Similarly, family planning is a matter of great concern as contraceptive usage showed wide disparities with the tribal women of Meghalaya (28.0%) and Mizoram (30.9%) on one end of the spectrum and that of Uttarakhand (77.9%) and Delhi (75.7%) on the other end. An association was demonstrated between the literacy gap in any state and the percentage of ST population below the poverty line. The patriarchal social structure in mainland India and matriarchal structure in North-Eastern India were also evident in tribal population. Financial independence ranged from 29.5% in Andhra Pradesh to nearly 67% in Karnataka. Similarly, mobile phone penetrance among tribal women ranged from 25.8% in Madhya Pradesh to nearly 90% in Sikkim. Conclusion: While many households in these tribes still lack basic amenities, notable differences regarding maternal child health, education, health insurance, and overall empowerment were identified, supporting arguments for devising more sophisticated differential forms of intervention.
ABSTRACT
CONTEXT: The prevalence of psychiatric illness in correctional settings is significantly elevated, with higher than community rates reported for most mental disorders. AIMS: (1) To examine the socio-demographic profile of convicted prisoners. (2) To evaluate the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in convicted prisoners. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 500 convicts were assessed for psychiatric morbidity with the help of (a) Socio-demographic proforma, (b) Pareek Udai and Trivedi G's socio-economic status scale (rural) (household schedule), (c) Kuppuswamy's economic status scale (urban) and (d) Present State Examination (PSE). RESULTS: 23.8% of the convicted prisoners were suffering from psychiatric illness excluding substance abuse. 56.4% of the prisoners had history of substance abuse / dependence prior to incarceration. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that a substantial burden of psychiatric morbidity exists in the prison population of India and the burden of psychiatric illness in this vulnerable and marginalized population poses a serious challenge to psychiatrists.
