Are household food security, nutrient adequacy, and childhood nutrition clustered together? A cross-sectional study in Bankura, West Bengal.

BACKGROUND: Research on different measures of food security and their interrelation in order to identify vulnerable households are scarce in India. OBJECTIVES: The objective was to assess household food security (HHFS), nutrient adequacy, dietary diversity, and nutritional status of under-five children along with their interrelation in the slums of Bankura Municipality, West Bengal. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2016-2017 among 240 households using two-stage 30-cluster random sampling. Information regarding socioeconomic characteristics, availability, and utilization of different poverty alleviation schemes was collected. HHFS was assessed by a validated HHFS scale-short form in Bengali and nutrient adequacy with 24-h recall method. The eldest under-five child in the family was measured for anthropometry using standard procedure and for dietary diversity with the Individual Dietary Diversity Score. RESULTS: Overall, 74 (29.1%) households had "food security," whereas 102 (44.3%) and 64 (26.6%) had, respectively, low and very low food security. Among 190 under-five children, 63 (35.3%) had single and 50 (25.5%) had multiple anthropometric failures. Overall, 89 (36.1%) households were deficient for both energy and protein and 111 (47.6%) had deficiency of either of these two. Indicators on the utilization of different poverty alleviation schemes were associated with low/very low food security. A "Composite Index of Food Scarcity" comprising of HHFS, nutrient adequacy, and dietary diversity was proposed which was found to have dose-response relationship with grades of anthropometric failure of under-five children. CONCLUSIONS: An index comprising of three indicators might help identify the vulnerable households in relation to food security more effectively than a single indicator.

Road Traffic Injuries: A Study on Severity and Outcome among Inpatients of a Tertiary Care Level Hospital of West Bengal, India.

BACKGROUND: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a complex phenomenon caused by nonlinear combination and interaction of man, vehicles, road, and environment. AIM: This study aims to find out the outcome and severity of RTI in a district of West Bengal, India. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted among inpatients of Departments of Surgery and Orthopedics of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted for 1 year interviewing 295 RTI selected through scheduled sampling. Information pertaining to demographic and correlates of RTI was collected by face to face and over telephone using semi-structured questionnaire. Nine-item Simplified Injury Severity Scale (SISS) was used to assess injury severity. Internal consistency of SISS scale was showed by Cronbach's alpha and association with the correlates was done by Mann-Whitney U-test. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: With SPSS version 22.0, binary logistic regression, and Mann-Whitney U-test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Fatal outcome in terms of death and permanent disability was 34.24% and they had higher marginally significant (P = 0.06), SISS score (45.17 ± 12.59). Participants with absence of protective devices, presence of comorbidities, drunkenness, with accidents over national highways, in-between 6 am and 6 pm, mechanized two-wheelers, and nonreceipt of first aid were found to have significantly high scores compared to their counterpart. SISS, as a proxy measure of severity assessment, could throw a light on it and awareness generation and legislative stringency might be need of the hour for the country.

Correlation among perceived stress, emotional intelligence, and burnout of resident doctors in a medical college of West Bengal: A mediation analysis.

BACKGROUND: Perceived stress and burnout are by-products of powerless responsibility imposed on resident doctors. Emotional intelligence (EI) works as an adapting and coping tool. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to find out the role of work-related perceived stress on burnout and influence of EI on it. METHODS:: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2016 among 63 resident doctors of different departments of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire for background characteristics and work-related variables. Cohen perceived stress scale, Trait EI, and Shirom-Melamed burnout questionnaire were applied for measuring perceived stress, EI, and burnout, respectively. Statistical analysis was done with of SPSS version 22.0, and for mediation analysis, Andrew F. Hyne's SPSS macro was adopted. Nonparametric bootstrapping was done assuming small sample. RESULTS: Out of complete responses, 67%, 22.9%, and 9.8% were from clinical, paraclinical, and preclinical specialties, respectively. Burnout had a significant positive correlation with perceived stress and in negative correlation with EI-well-being and positive correlation with EI-self-control and sociability. Physical fatigue factor of burnout had a significant positive correlation with EI-emotionality. Perceived stress had a negative correlation with EI-well-being. On mediation analysis, assuming EI as a mediator, total, direct, and indirect effects of perceived stress on burnout were significant (<0.05). Mediation was proved to act with percent mediation of 0.07. CONCLUSION: There was definite mitigating effect of EI on burnout by perceived stress among resident doctors. This necessitates more attention by decision-makers toward this burning problem for the sake of care of caregivers.