Study of Domestic Violence among Currently Married Females of Haryana, India.

BACKGROUND: No nation is untouched by domestic violence, and it is well-known that domestic violence has serious impact on women's health and well-being. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence and characteristics of domestic violence and injuries owing to domestic violence among currently married women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a community-based, cross-sectional study conducted in the rural and urban areas of Haryana. In total, 880 currently married females of the reproductive age group were interviewed using the Women's Questionnaire (used in National Family Health Survey-3) which is according to the Modified Conflict Tactics Scale. RESULTS: Totally, 37% of the females had ever experienced domestic violence and 28.9% currently experienced domestic violence. All types of violence (except sexual violence) were significantly more common in the rural area than the urban area. Injuries owing to domestic violence were reported by more than half (55.4%) of the women. Among spousal violence, emotional violence was the most common type of violence followed by physical violence. Only 0.1% and 4.5% of females had ever initiated physical and emotional violence respectively, against their husbands, and in rest of the cases, it was the husband who initiated violence. CONCLUSION: Awareness regarding domestic violence needs to be made, and law enforcement regarding it needs to be made stringent. Rehabilitation of victims of domestic/spousal violence should also be considered on priority.

Breastfeeding reduces breast cancer risk: a case-control study in north India.

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.

Malaria vaccine: a step toward elimination.

Malaria has long been recognized as a public health problem. At the community level, vector control, and antimalarial medicines are the main means for reducing incidence, morbidity, and mortality of malaria. A vaccine not only would bring streamlining in the prevention of morbidity and mortality from malaria but also would be more accessible if integrated with Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI). Globally, an estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria. Most cases (80%) and deaths (90%) occurred in Africa, and most deaths (77%) are in children under 5 years of age. An effective vaccine has long been envisaged as a valuable addition to the available tools for malaria control. Although research toward the development of malaria vaccines has been pursued since the 1960s, there are no licensed malaria vaccines. The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which targets P. falciparum, has reached phase 3 clinical trials and results are promising. Malaria Vaccine Technology Road Map 2013 has envisaged the world aiming for a licensed vaccine by 2030 that would reduce malaria cases by 75% and be capable of eliminating malaria. It will not only fill the gaps of today's interventions but also be a cost-effective method of decreasing morbidity and mortality from malaria.

HIV/AIDS knowledge among first year MBBS, Nursing, Pharmacy students of a health university, India.

OBJECTIVE: To determine level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among first-year MBBS, nursing and pharmacy students of a health university. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pre-designed, pre-tested, anonymous self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was circulated among available 129, 53 and 55 first-year MBBS, nursing and pharmacy students during Oct' 09. Data entry, management and analysis were carried out using MS excel and software statistical package. RESULT: Out of the total 237 students, there were 123 (51.9%) female and 103 (44.0%) students from rural native place. A majority of students were able to correctly write the full form of AIDS (95.8%) in comparison to HIV (72.6%) and the difference between two terminologies were known to 87.6%, 81.1% and 70.9% of MBBS, nursing and pharmacy students, respectively. All four common routes of transmission of infection and methods of prevention were known to majority of the lot. However, injecting drug users (IDU) and truck driver as a risk category was correctly reported by 67.5% and 55.3% students, whereas 35.9% incorrectly mentioned that smoking is a risk factor for acquiring infection. A statistically significant (P <0.05) proportion of MBBS followed by nursing and pharmacy students were aware that infection neither spreads by social activities like handshake/playing nor by mosquito bite. However, low level was ascertained with regard to items related to non-curability of infection (57.4%) and availability of anti-retro viral therapy (27.4%). CONCLUSION: Overall high level of knowledge was recorded in the present study with a difference noted among students in three professional streams.