A study to assess the effectiveness of a nutrition education session using flipchart among school-going adolescent girls.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescence is characterized by a rapid phase of growth and development during which the requirement of nutrition and micronutrients is relatively high. Although there is a decreasing trend in the prevalence of undernutrition among adolescents, the current prevalence of undernutrition is still very high (41.9%). Adolescents with good nutrition knowledge are more likely to follow healthy eating habits. In the light of this, the current study was planned to assess the baseline nutrition-related knowledge of adolescent girls and the effectiveness of nutrition education material (flipchart) in increasing their nutrition-related knowledge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A school-based interventional study was conducted among adolescent girls of class 9th of a school in an urban slum of Delhi. A structured pretested Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire consisting of 10 multiple-choice questions in Hindi with a maximum score of 10 was used. The intervention was a nutrition education session conducted by doctors of Community Health department using specially designed flipcharts covering important aspects of nutrition relevant for adolescent girls. A demonstration of food items and charts and flex material was also given. The total sample size was 265 adolescent girls. RESULTS: Baseline knowledge as assessed by mean pretest score was poor (3.698 ± 1.81). The students' baseline knowledge was significantly associated with mother's educational status (P = 0.024). There was a significant increase (mean difference was 1.7890 ± 0.1434) in the nutrition-related knowledge of the participants after the intervention (P < 0.001). The proportion of students who improved, i.e., 147 (55.47%) was more than proportion who deteriorated (25 [9.43%]) after the educational session. This difference was found to be statistically significant (P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION: Nutrition knowledge was found poor among school-going adolescent girls, which significantly improved after the nutrition education session.

Risk factors for undernutrition in under-five children living in a migrant populated area of South Delhi.

INTRODUCTION: Undernutrition is continuing to be a major public health problem in India. Moreover, India houses more than 30% of the world's stunted children aged under 5 years. There was a paucity of a community-based cross-sectional study on the nutrition of children aged under 5 years in urban Delhi. Therefore, we conducted this study to assess the prevalence of undernutrition and their associated factors in children aged under 5 years in urban South Delhi. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi with a semi-structured questionnaire. Systematic random sampling without replacement was implemented. Informed written consent was sought from the parents of participants. Questions were asked regarding demography and sociocultural factors of the participants. Anthropometry measurements were obtained. Underweight and stunting were defined using WHO child growth standards 2006. RESULTS: A total of 520 participants in 695 houses were contacted and interviewed. Prevalence of underweight and stunting were 34.0% and 42.6%, respectively. Sociocultural factors, associated with underweight and stunting, found in current study were fathers' education (with both, P value < 0.05), mothers' education (with both, P value < 0.05), poverty status (with both, P value <0.05), overcrowding (stunting only, P value <0.05), fathers' alcohol abuse (with both, P value < 0.05) and exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months (stunting only, P value <0.05). RESULTS: A total of 520 participants in 695 houses were contacted and interviewed. Prevalence of underweight and stunting were 34.0% and 42.6%, respectively. Sociocultural factors, associated with underweight and stunting, found in current study were fathers' education (with both, P value < 0.05), mothers' education (with both, P value < 0.05), poverty status (with both, P value <0.05), overcrowding (stunting only, P value <0.05), fathers' alcohol abuse (with both, P value < 0.05) and exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months (stunting only, P value <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There was a very high prevalence of underweight (34.0%) and stunting (42.6%) in children under 5 years age in Mehrauli.

Screening for common mental health problems and their determinants among school-going adolescent girls in Gujarat, India.

BACKGROUND: The school health program is a flagship program of Government of India with a focus on improving the physical and mental health of school children, but there is no specific strategy to screen for mental health disorders under the school health program. Also, the estimation of the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMDs) such as anxiety, depression, and psychosocial distress among school children is lacking. METHODS: The author conducted a cross-sectional study among 742 adolescent schoolgirls from one government, one government-aided, and one private school in an urban area in Gujarat. We used the pre-validated instrument, general health questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) to screen for CMDs. We estimated adjusted odds of association between screening positive for CMDs and various determinants. RESULTS: 48.78% adolescent girls screened positive for CMDs which is alarming. Among sociodemographic characteristics, the type of school (adjusted odds of private is 1.8 and government 1.6), mother's higher education (3.0), father's less education (3.1), and working mother (1.5) had shown significant association with positive cases of the girls. Among psychosocial factors, abnormal sleep patterns (1.9) and disturbance in studies (2.3) have been found statistically significant for the presence of mental health problems among adolescent girls as per the GHQ score. CONCLUSION: CMDs such as anxiety, depression, and psychosocial distress were indeed very common among adolescent school-going girls in an urban area of Gujarat, India. There is an urgent need to focus attention on the mental health of adolescent girls.

A Community-based Study on Growth and Development of Under-Five Children in an Urbanized Village of South Delhi.

BACKGROUND: Optimal development of children in their early months and years has a bearing on their achievement levels later in life. OBJECTIVES: To assess the socio-emotional and cognitive development in children 0-5 years and to find out the proportion of children having developmental delay and its associated factors. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in 520 children in Delhi. Development was assessed using the Indian Council for Medical Research Development Screening Test. RESULTS: In all, 10.6% of children <5 years old were found to be developmentally delayed. Maximum number of children (10.1%) were found to have a delay in the do main of 'hearing language, concept development'. Of all the factors, the strongest association was found with stunting, paternal education, alcohol abuse, attendance in anganwadi/playschool. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that developmental delay is present in a sizable proportion of children <5 years of age and may be a significant factor in the overall achievement of life's potential in them.

Updated BG Prasad socioeconomic classification, 2014: a commentary.

Modified BG Prasad socioeconomic scale is widely used to determine the socioeconomic status of study subjects in health studies in India. It is an income-based scale and, therefore, has to be constantly updated to take inflation and depreciation of rupee into account. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for industrial workers (IW) is used to calculate updated income categories for January 2014. Details of the calculations involved will enable young researchers to calculate specific income categories for their research work. State-specific CPI values are also available on the Department of Labour website and should be used to determine more accurate income categories for the study area.

Operational efficiency of an immunization clinic attached to rural health training centre in delhi, India: a time and motion study.

Background. Obtaining baseline data about current patterns of work is important for assessing the effects of interventions designed to improve care delivery. Time and motion studies allow for the most accurate measurement of structured components. Therefore, the present study was conducted to study the operational efficiency of an immunization clinic in Delhi, India. Methods. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the immunization clinic of Rural Health Training Centre in Delhi, India, from January 2014 to March 2014. The study composed two stage evaluations, a passive observation and a time and motion study. Systemic random sampling method was used to select 863 mothers/caregivers attending the immunization clinic. Results. At the immunization clinic, the study participants spent 64.1% of their total time in waiting. For new cases, the mean time taken for initial registration and receiving postvaccination advice was found to be significantly longer than old cases. Delivering health care services took more time during Mondays and also during the first hour of the day. Conclusion. Results of this study will guide public health decision-makers at all government levels in planning and implementation of immunization programs in developing countries.

Forecasting malaria cases using climatic factors in delhi, India: a time series analysis.

Background. Malaria still remains a public health problem in developing countries and changing environmental and climatic factors pose the biggest challenge in fighting against the scourge of malaria. Therefore, the study was designed to forecast malaria cases using climatic factors as predictors in Delhi, India. Methods. The total number of monthly cases of malaria slide positives occurring from January 2006 to December 2013 was taken from the register maintained at the malaria clinic at Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC), Najafgarh, Delhi. Climatic data of monthly mean rainfall, relative humidity, and mean maximum temperature were taken from Regional Meteorological Centre, Delhi. Expert modeler of SPSS ver. 21 was used for analyzing the time series data. Results. Autoregressive integrated moving average, ARIMA (0,1,1) (0,1,0)(12), was the best fit model and it could explain 72.5% variability in the time series data. Rainfall (P value = 0.004) and relative humidity (P value = 0.001) were found to be significant predictors for malaria transmission in the study area. Seasonal adjusted factor (SAF) for malaria cases shows peak during the months of August and September. Conclusion. ARIMA models of time series analysis is a simple and reliable tool for producing reliable forecasts for malaria in Delhi, India.