ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Nearly 1.5 billion adolescent girls are entering into child bearing age groups without effective knowledge regarding family planning practices which are essential to maintain their reproductive health. Timely and effective knowledge regarding family planning norms and practices among the young women during their initial married days are vital. Therefore the study was carried out with the aim to find out the factors associated with use of contraceptive among Armed Forces Personnel. METHODS: A cross sectional survey was carried out among Armed Forces personnel living in a Military station with pre-validated and pre-tested questionnaire. Data was collected from 221 eligible couples. Univariate and logistic regression were done to find out the variables determining family planning. RESULTS: Out of 221 couples, 65.2% (144) of couples were practicing some or the other methods of family planning while 34.8% (77) didn't practice any methods. Age, age at marriage, sex of first child, type of family, empowerment and parity of women were significantly associated with contraceptive acceptance in univariate model. However in logistic regression analysis age at marriage, empowerment and parity were significant predictors of family planning. Major reason for not adopting any contraception was want of another child (20, 26%), girl child (18, 23%), male child (18, 23%) and worry about side effects (11, 14.3%). CONCLUSION: The study highlights the gap in preferences and practices of contraceptive and emphasized the need to highlight safety of contraceptive during Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is associated with variable morbidity and socio-economic burden and referred as a "silent epidemic" with increasing risk among Indian women. The present study was conducted to find prevalence of osteoporosis. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Ranchi city with household women as participants. Data was collected by means of pre-tested structured questionnaire in Hindi language and bone status was screened utilizing calcaneal quantitative ultrasound as a diagnostic tool to estimate bone mineral density from 223 participants and statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 37.9 (5.63) and majority (52.5%) of them were vegetarian. The prevalence of osteoporosis was 8.5% (5.2-13%) while 45.7% (39-52.5%) had osteopenia. We found no significant association of osteoporosis and osteopenia with income, physical activity, and dietary patterns on univariate analysis. There was no statistical significant difference between mean age and BMI of participant among normal, osteoporosis, and osteopenia participant (p value >0.5). Multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that 20% increase chances of risk with five years increase in age, the protective effect of physical activity (22%) and non-vegetarian diet (18%) though not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: This study shows that significant number of women had osteopenia/osteoporosis within 35-40 years age group. Intensive information, education, and communication activities with regard to osteoporosis causative factors and preventive measures targeted to household women may play an important role, if started at young age.
