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Background: Children are considered as an important asset for any country and their health as one of the important indicators of a healthy country. There are several factors affecting children's health and anemia is one of them. Globally around 1.62 billion people are affected by it, which corresponds to 24.8% of the population, with the highest prevalence of anemia (47.4%) among preschool-aged children. Aim: The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of anemia among toddlers (12-36 months) and to determine the associated factors. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among toddlers (12-36 months) in the urban field practice area of Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak. A total of 170 toddlers were enrolled in the study and their mothers were interviewed using a semi-structured pretested questionnaire. Hb was estimated by Sahli's acid hematin method. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20. Results: In the present study, more than half (55.9%) participants were girls and 44.1% were boys. The overall prevalence of anemia was found to be 62.4%, with mild, moderate, and severe anemia being 41.8%, 17.7%, and 2.9%, respectively. The children with regular intake of iron supplementation were found to be 6.625 times likely to be nonanemic as compared to those with no supplementation. Conclusion: Every endeavor should be made to combat the anemia in children through multisectoral and multipronged approach such as nutritional education of mothers, growth monitoring, nutritional supplementation, etc.
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BACKGROUND: Adolescents are being involved in aggressive activities nowadays. Sometimes, involvement in aggressive activities may be fatal for the victim as well as for the doer. It is a matter of great concern for all including parents, teachers, psychologists, social reformers, and others. A momentary expression of anger sometimes may spoil the future life of the adolescents. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of aggression and to identify the psychosocial risk factors associated with aggression among school-going adolescents. METHODOLOGY: The study recruited 480 school-going rural adolescents from eight government senior secondary schools in the rural block of Beri, district Jhajjar (Haryana). OBSERVATIONS: The mean age of the adolescents was 14.11 ± 1.12 years; 49.4% of the adolescents were found to be aggressive. After applying binary logistic regression, there was a statistically significant relation between aggression and determinants like class, gender, occupation of the father. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The study concluded that determinants like age, class of students, gender of the subject, occupation of father found a significant association with aggression. To solve this current situation, parents must give love, attention to their children and must act in an appropriate way in front of them and be role models.
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BACKGROUND: Demographic and epidemiological transitions have increased the life expectancy of middle aged women, resulting in higher burden of morbidities related to menopausal symptoms and also effect the quality of life (QOL). OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and its effect on QOL among rural middle aged women (40-60 years) of Haryana, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in 400 middle aged women (40-60 years) from April 2018 to March 2019 by random sampling technique. The menopause rating scale was used to assess the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and the QOL and data were collected for sociodemographic factors, relevant menstrual history and other variables. RESULTS: Prevalence of menopausal symptoms was found to be 87.7%. Majority of the study subjects had anxiety (80%), followed by physical and mental exhaustion (71.5%), sleep problem (61.2%), irritability (60.7%), Joint and muscular discomfort (56%) and heart problems (54%). The most classical symptom of menopause i.e., hot flushes were reported in 36.7%. The mean age of menopause was 47.53 standard deviation 4.5 years. Statistical significant difference was seen for the mean score of few symptoms i.e., hot flushes, sweating (P < 0.003) and joint and muscular discomfort (P < 0.014) between post and peri-menopausal groups. The QOL was impaired in 70.2% of study subjects. The psychological symptoms attributed 70.8% to the poor QOL. CONCLUSION: To improve the QOL and to decrease the menopausal symptoms in these women, a holistic approach in the form of lifestyle and behavioral modification are required.
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BACKGROUND: WHO indicates that India has the highest burden of soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) in the world, contributing to 25% of the total global cases, with 220 million children aged 1-14 estimated to be at risk. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To study the association between the socioeconomic factors and STHs among primary school children in a rural area of Haryana. METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted among children aged 6-10 years studying in the rural government primary schools in the rural areas of Haryana. A total of 300 children were enrolled from government school. RESULTS: The study found that the prevalence of helminthiasis was 28.7% (86/300) and of these 14.0% children were infected with Ascaris lumbricoides and sex wise association with Helminthic infection was observed as statistically nonsignificant. One third of the (31.39%; 27/86) children were pallor and 5.81% subjects were having Bitot's spot while 13.95% children were having constitutional symptoms such as weakness, 6.97% subjects have fatigue, and 5.81% children have body ache. DISCUSSION: The morbidity can be reduced with appropriate inputs to improve the environmental factors. This may need investment for sanitary latrines, food hygiene, and safe drinking water, anti-helminthic drugs, and health education. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The results of the study concluded and recommended that proper implementation of national deworming day and other long-term strategies like sanitation, clean drinking water, adequate sanitation, and also improvement in nutritional status through various nutritional health programmes.
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BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity are important determinant of increasing morbidity among all age groups, including menopausal women. The symptoms of menopause have a negative impact on the quality of life. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity in menopausal women and also to find its association with menopausal symptoms and sociodemographic variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted among middle-aged women (40-60 years) from April 2018 to March 2019. The Menopausal Rating Scale was used to assess the severity of menopausal symptoms in 400 women, and data were collected for sociodemographic factors, menstrual history in the past month, and personal history. RESULTS: About 35.5% of menopausal women were overweight/obese (26% overweight and 9.5% obese) with average body mass index of 23.9 ± 4.84 and mean age of 53.65 ± 5.11 years Joint and muscular discomfort (P = 0.001), hypertension (P = 0.014), literacy level (P = 0.009), and socioeconomic status (P = 0.01) were significantly associated with overweight/obesity. With reference to women with no/little somatic and urogenital complaints, the odds of developing obesity was more (adjusted odds) in patients with mild (odds ratio [OR] - 2.8), moderate (OR - 2.1), and severe (2.19) somatic complaints and also higher risk in patients with mild (OR-3.2), moderate (OR - 1.1), and severe (OR - 1.74) urogenital symptoms. The age of menopause was significantly more among overweight than normal-weight women (P = 0.033). CONCLUSION: Overweight and obesity associated with menopause require increased attention and a multidisciplinary approach to women's health to prevent morbidity in this population group.
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INTRODUCTION: Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kill 40 million people each year, equivalent to 70% of all deaths globally. Cardiovascular diseases account for most NCD deaths or 17.7 million people annually. Police work has been regarded by some researchers as one of the most stressful occupations in the world, and coronary heart disease has been identified as a major cause of mortality in this population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out during July 2016-June 2017 among 450 policemen posted in Rohtak city of Haryana selected randomly. The investigator made two measurements of blood pressure. Data were collected using predesigned, pretested, semi-structured interview schedule, and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0. RESULTS: Of 450 participants, 164 (36.4%) participants were found to be hypertensive. Age of study participants, duration of service, rank, and education are significantly associated with the prevalence of hypertension (HTN) among policemen. CONCLUSION: HTN in policemen has emerged as an important public health problem. Knowledge of risk factors for HTN may give tracks for prevention in this population. Therefore, it is the need of hour to devise a sound screening strategy to diagnose HTN among policemen and devise a comprehensive strategy for the management of HTN.
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Mother and child constitute a large, vulnerable, and a priority group as the risk is involved with childbearing in women and of growth and development in children. For every woman who dies from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes, it is estimated that twenty more suffer from pregnancy-related illness or experience other severe complications. These women who nearly escape death are categorized under "near miss" which has been defined as "a woman who nearly died but survived a complication that occurred during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy." Maternal near-miss audits give us an opportunity to study the cases which were almost similar to those where maternal deaths happened; thus, their review may give concrete evidence of reasons/deficiencies in health care leading to severe complications and even grave consequences as maternal deaths. Near-miss audits will allow the care of critically ill women to be analyzed, deficiencies in the provision of care to be identified, and comparison within and between institutions and, ultimately, improve the quality of obstetric care and further reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.
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BACKGROUND: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. In India and other developing countries, breast carcinoma ranks second only to cervical carcinoma among women. Although studies have been done globally, to find the association between breastfeeding and breast cancer, very few studies in India document such a benefit. METHODS: A case-control study was done from August 2009 to July 2010 in the wards of General Surgery and Oncosurgery at Pt. B. D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana, India. A total of 128 histopathologically confirmed new cases of breast cancer during the study period were taken as cases. Equal numbers of controls were selected by simple random sampling. Controls were matched for age with a range of ± 2 years. Subjects were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire after obtaining written informed consent. The categorical data were analyzed statistically using the Chi-square test and odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval. Continuous variables were analyzed using an independent t-test. All the analysis was done using SPSS, version 17. RESULTS: The age group of the cases was 25-78 years, while that of the controls was 24-79 years. The proportions of cases (56.3%) and controls (63.3%) living in rural areas were more than those living in urban areas. A significant association of breast cancer cases was found with caste, age at marriage, age at the first pregnancy, number of live births, and lifetime duration of breastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: Breastfeeding has a significant role in reducing breast cancer, and so information, education, and communication activities for the promotion of breastfeeding and creating awareness about this fatal disease are the need of the hour.
