A lifetime experience of violence and adverse reproductive outcomes: findings from population surveys in India.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health issue that threatens the reproductive health of women. Despite a growing demand for research on the potential threat of IPV in relation to adverse reproductive outcomes, there have been no population-based studies of India. The current study analyzed the National Family Health Survey 3, which contained detailed information on types of violence in relation to the single question of pregnancy outcomes. The dataset was used to assess the association between a lifetime experience of IPV and terminated pregnancies among married Indian women. Multiple logistic regression analysis was then used to assess the association between these variables, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Results showed that 39.6% of Indian women have experienced violence by their husbands, while 18.3% of women have terminated a pregnancy during their lifetimes. The odds ratio of a terminated pregnancy among women who had experienced any type of partner violence was 1.62 (95% CI (confidence interval) = 1.51-1.73). All combinations of violence except a combination of emotional and sexual violence were associated with an increased risk of a terminated pregnancy. These results suggest that prevention of IPV would reduce the high incidence of terminated pregnancies, thus improving maternal health in India.

Study on clinico-epidemiological profile of HIV patients in eastern India.

In this study, 438 HIV positive patients attending the HIV clinic of Sir Sundar Lal Hospital, IMS, BHU were enrolled. Of these 354 were males (mean CD4 count 179 +/- 9.3 cells/microl) and 84 were females (mean CD4 count 323 +/- 28.26 cells/microl). The mean age of the study subjects at the time of diagnosis was 32.6 years. Heterosexual contact was the commonest mode of transmission in 352 (80.4%) patients followed by blood transfusion in 2.5%. History suggestive of a risk factor for HIV transmission could not be elicited in 62 (14.1%) patients. Among male patients, 71.5% were migrant workers. Fever (70.6%), weight loss (53.3%), chronic diarrhea (43.9%) and cough (40.3%) were the common presenting symptoms. Out of the 438 patients, 66.4% had opportunistic infections at the time of reporting to the hospital. The most common opportunistic infection was tuberculosis (38.8%) followed by oropharyngeal candidiasis (20.3%) and diarrhea (12.7%). CD4 counts of the patients were significantly inversely correlated with the number of symptoms and the number of opportunistic infections (correlation coefficient were -.289 and -.236 respectively).