scholarly journals Determinants of open-air defecation in rural Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu

Author(s):  
Swarnapriya Vasudevan ◽  
Srinivasan Nallasamy ◽  
Arjun Loganathan

Background: Open defecation refers to the practice whereby people go out in fields, bushes, forests, open bodies of water, or other open spaces rather than using toilet to defecate. This practice contributes to the emergence of infectious diseases which forms a threat to health of people. This study attempts to find the prevalence of open-air defecation (OAD) and to explore factors influencing the practice.Methods: The present study was a community based cross-sectional study taken up in the C. Manampadi village covering 153 households. A semi structured questionnaire along with the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) questionnaire was used to collect data.Results: Our study results show that 35.3% of the households had no toilet facility in their houses and were practicing open air defecation. There was a significant association between open air defection and variables like literacy level of head of the family, community and water adequacy.Conclusions: This study highlights that the study population practices OAD not due to economic in sufficiency but due to social constraints.

Author(s):  
Arun Sugumaran ◽  
Rajkumar Subramanian ◽  
Muthukumar Tharumaraj ◽  
Saravanan Vaithiyalingam

Background: In India, 17 per cent or nearly 50,000 of 2.89 lakh women died as result of complication due to pregnancy in 2013. In past decade, many studies have revealed low utilization of health services by different segments of society for varying reasons. This study was conducted to assess the utilization pattern of ANC services by the pregnant women in a rural area. The objectives of the study were to assess the pattern of utilization of ANC services by pregnant and recently delivered women; to study the association between socio-demographic factors and utilization pattern among recently delivered women.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study conducted at the rural health training centre in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu among pregnant women and recently delivered women using pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. The entire registered pregnant mothers were included for the study and survey was done through house to house visit and the analysis was done using SPSS 21.Results: Out of 170 study participants, majority 132 (77.6%) of them had their antenatal check-up at primary health centre, 138 (81.2%) have received the IFA tablets and 139 (81.8%) had early antenatal registration. And most of the study participants 108 (63.5%) did not utilize anganwadi for health education and supplementary nutrition. Number of IFA tablets consumption by mothers was significantly associated with literacy and socio-economic status of the mother with p value of 0.03 and 0.002 respectively.Conclusions: Our study results showed that better ANC services utilization pattern in our study area except anganwadi utilization.


BMJ ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 314 (7093) ◽  
pp. 1521-1521 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. B. Nielsen ◽  
J. Liljestrand ◽  
M. Hedegaard ◽  
S. H. Thilsted ◽  
A. Joseph

1969 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 644-647
Author(s):  
SARA GUL ◽  
ATIF HUSSAIN ◽  
KASHIF UR REHMAN KHALIL ◽  
IMRANULLAH ◽  
MUHAMMAD ISHTIAQ ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the common non communicable disease and is reported to beprevalent in 20% to 50% of the adult population, hypertension is one of the major contributor ofmortality and morbidity in developing and developed countries. The cross-sectional descriptive studywas formulated to find the prevalence and to assess different etiological factors of hypertension.MATERIAL & METHODS: This cross-sectional study among 400 adults of age 25-75 years wasconducted in months of June to December 2014 in Phase 5, Hayatabad Peshawar. A detailed structuredproforma having important questions was used to collect important data regarding various variables.RESULTS: Our study results showed that 22.75% of the study people were hypertensive i.e. 10.25% ofmales and 12.5% of females; and the prevalence of hypertension showed positive association withadvancing age. Out of all respondents; 60.25% were males while 39.75% were females; 28.5% weresmokers; 5.25% consume predominantly meat; 32.5% were obese & overweight; 36.75% checked theirB.P regularly; and 19.75% had positive history of hypertension in family.CONCLUSION: We conclude that hypertension prevalence was high among our study population andwas associated with various modifiable and non modifiable risk factors thus population based preventivestrategies are needed to control and prevent hypertension.KEY WORDS: Hypertension, Age, Diet, Smokers, Hayatabad, Peshawar.


Author(s):  
V. Pragadeesh Raja ◽  
G. Ravivarman ◽  
E. Venmathi ◽  
M. Salomi

Background: Mosquito are one of the well known causing many diseases like Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Lymphatic Filariasis, Japanese Encephalitis. They are more prevalent in rural area due to various social factors and lack of knowledge. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge of people and their practices regarding mosquito borne diseases in rural areas of Kancheepuram district, Tamilnadu. Materials and Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted among the residents of Pooncheri, Kancheepuram district of Tamilnadu, between the period of August 2017 to September 2017 among 124 houses selected. After obtaining informed consent from the participants they were interviewed using a pretested semi structured questionnaire regarding their knowledge and practices on mosquito borne diseases. Results: The study reported that in case of any symptoms suspected to be of mosquito born disease majority of the study population 82.2% reported consulting doctors.  The most preferred mode of prevention of mosquito bite was usage of spray (33.9%) in the breeding place followed by usage of electric repellents (31.4%). Conclusion: The study indicated that majority of the study population were unaware bout the prevention practices despite knowing about these diseases. Thus, arises the need for effective propagation in the rural area about prevention strategies of mosquito born disease through mass education and social media.


Author(s):  
Radhakrishnan A. ◽  
Karthik R. C. ◽  
Balaji Arumugam ◽  
M. Ezhilvanan

Background: Worldwide obesity prevalence has nearly doubled since 1980. Current guidelines recommend that “overweight” and “obese” individuals lose weight through engaging in lifestyle modification involving diet, exercise and other behaviour changes. It is necessary to prevent obesity so that the subsequent complications can be prevented.Methods: This community based cross sectional study was conducted in the field practice area of tertiary medical college from June 2019 to August 2019. Totally 154 participants enrolled in the study. Only those individuals who had body mass index (BMI) of more than 23 kg/m2 were included in the study.Results: Majority of the study subjects 57.1% (88) belonged to the age group of 21-40 years. We included only overweight and obese adults in the present study. In this study, 61% (94) of the study population belonged to obese- I category while 33.8% (52) belonged to obese- II and only 5.2% (3) of study population were overweight. Only 43% (66) of the study population had adopted some measures to reduce their weight. Out of these majority 69.7% (46) preferred walking while 12.1% (8) preferred jogging for reducing weight. Mean days of walking adopted was 3.7 days and mean minutes per day was 29.67 minutes.Conclusions: As seen in this study more than half of the study population had not taken any measures for weight reduction. Increased health awareness will improve their level of active participation in the weight reduction program such as diet modification and physical exercise promotes weight loss and weight maintenance.


Author(s):  
R. Sasikala ◽  
Dr.G. Ramu

Stress is physiological and psychological response towards any occurrences. It is very much vitalto learn about occupational stress because as it deters health and decreases the quality of work of nurses. The main objective was to determine prevalence, intensity and causes of occupational stress among nurses.Hospital based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from January to November 2017 at two tertiary care teaching hospitals of Tiruvarur. The study was carried out on 265 registered nurses, having valid license by Tamil Nadu Nursing Council. Convenient non-probability method was used to access subjects. After taking consent, semi-structured and pre-tested occupational stress questionnaire was used to obtain the data. The study results revealed that majority of nurses 125 (47.2%) were between 25 to 30 years of age.Maximum ratio of nurses were female 160(60.4%) and out of them 148(55.8%) were married. Two hundredand one (75.8%) were diploma holders in nursing, while only 2(0.8%) had done their master in nursing. Thestudy participants reported to suffer with job related stress; mild stress 2.0%, moderate stress 36.5% and severe61.5%.


Author(s):  
Kanchana Nagendra ◽  
Nandini C. ◽  
Mangala Belur

Background: Obesity is a most prevalent malnutrition all over the world. It is estimated by the WHO that globally, over 1 billion (16%) adults are overweight and 300 million of these (5%) are obese. The highest rise in the number of obese is noted in the countries with fast growing economies especially of South East Asia. In India the prevalence of obesity is 12.6% in women and 9.3% in men. In other words, more than a 100 million individuals are obese in India. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of obesity in urban population of Shivamogga.Methods:A cross sectional study was conducted in Urban Shivamogga Study was conducted during February 1st to July 30th 2016 for 6 months.  Data was collected from house hold members aged 15-64 years. The calculated sample size was 2000. Subjects were interviewed using a prestructured and pretested questionnaire adopted from WHO STEPS I and II, approaches for non-communicable diseases risk factors surveillance, after modifying to suit the local requirements (questions about Obesity and overweight were considered for study).Results: The prevalence of high BMI among study subjects was nearly fifty percent (45.6%).  The prevalence of obesity in the study subjects was 31.6%, the prevalence was more in females (34.9%) compared to males (28.4%). The prevalence of central/ abdominal type of obesity was 41.2%.Conclusions:This community based study demonstrated high prevalence of obesity and overweight among the productive population of urban Shivamogga. 


Author(s):  
C. Rajan Rushender ◽  
G. Dinesh Kumar ◽  
M. Logaraj

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health problem. It is reported that, globally, about 9 million people developed tuberculosis and about 1.5 million people died due to tuberculosis across the globe in 2013.Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in the Rural Health Training Center, SRM Medical College to assess knowledge and practice regarding tuberculosis using a pretested Interview schedule. Adult population, who are residing in the field practice area were considered as study population. The study period was between August 2013 to February 2014.Results: A total of 246 study subjects were included in the final analysis with the majority of the participants to be between 21 to 40 years (39.40%). Cough and expectoration as symptom of TB was known to 82.5% of study subjects. Only 22.8% of the study subjects are aware of at least one extra pulmonary for of tuberculosis. The proportion of subjects with good overall knowledge about TB was highest in subjects aged 61 and above, lowest in 41 to 60-year age group. The proportion of subjects with good knowledge had gradually increased with increasing socio economic status.Conclusions: Culture specific IEC interventions and their delivery mechanisms need to be designed, considering the highly heterogeneous nature of population in India. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document