Effectiveness of Group Health Education on "Perceived Stress" among High-School Children of Kolar: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents are exposed to various psycho-physiological stressors due to rapid changes in their bodies along with increased academic pressure, peer pressure, and pressures from other sources of society. Group health education sessions in schools could have a positive outcome in not only the way they perceive stress but also tackle it efficiently. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of group health education intervention on "perceived stress" among the high school children of Kolar. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An open-label cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted among high school students (8th, 9th, and 10th standard) in selected English Medium Schools of Kolar Taluk. The study was conducted in three phases spanning 5 months of duration. Phase I included baseline data collection wherein "perceived stress" level was captured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) 10 questionnaire. Phase II was the interventional phase in the form of group health education sessions. Phase III was end-line assessment. RESULTS: Before the intervention, 6.2%, 92.4%, and 1.5% of the students had mild, moderate, and severe stress, respectively, in the intervention group. After the intervention in the intervention group, about 57.9% had mild stress, 42.1% had moderate stress, and none had severe stress. The difference in difference analysis (DID) showed that the mean PSS scores in the intervention group changed by -8.84 while in the control group by 0.40. CONCLUSION: Group health education delivered was effective in reducing the perceived stress levels among high school children and it is a feasible and acceptable intervention for stress in school-going adolescent children.

Vaccine hesitancy towards COVID vaccine among unvaccinated frontline health care workers working in a designated COVID care center: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Frontline health care workers (FLHCW) like doctors and nurses are bound to treat COVID patients being themselves not immune to disease are at a greater risk of COVID infection than the general population. The study was started with objectives to find out the vaccine hesitancy towards the COVID vaccine and to find out the factors associated with vaccine hesitancy among FLHCW working in a designated COVID care center. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study carried out for a period of 6 months from Jan 2021 to June 2021 at a designated COVID care center. FLHCWs who were part of treating COVID patients were our study participants. Among them, FLHCWs who had not received even one dose of COVID vaccine (Covishield) were included in the study. FLHCWs who had been part of the COVID vaccine trial were excluded from the study. The sample size calculated based on a previous study found to be 240. The data collected were entered into a Microsoft office excel sheet, analyzed using SPSS v 22(IBM Corp). Descriptive statistics were applied, and parametric tests were used to compare among the groups with statistically significant P value lesser than 0.05. Results: A total of 121 (52.6%) of FLHCWs were aged more than 30 years, 118 (51.5%) were male participants, 100 (43.5%) were paramedics by occupation, 51 (22.1%) had contracted COVID infection, 202 (87.8%) had received information, education, and communication (IEC) regarding COVID vaccine. FLHCWs more than 30 years, male participants, currently not working in COVIDward, FLHCWs who had not received IEC about COVIDvaccination and paramedics had higher scores of Vaccine hesitancy, and the difference was statistically significant indicating vaccine hesitancy. Conclusion: Vaccine hesitancy remains a persistent global threat. Awareness campaigns can be tailored to specific locales to address identified concerns regarding vaccines.

Mini international neuropsychiatry interview kid or child posttraumatic stress disorder symptom scale 5I for posttraumatic stress disorder among adolescent girls infected with COVID-19.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that may develop after exposure to exceptionally life threatening or horrifying events. People suffering from PTSD are vulnerable for both physical and mental health. Objectives: To find out sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and to plot receiver operating characteristic curve taking Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview-Kid (MINIKID) as the gold standard and Child PTSD Symptom Scale 5I (CPSS-5I) as the newer diagnostic tool for diagnosing PTSD. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out for a period of 6 months from January 2021 to June 2021 at R. L. Jalappa Hospital and Research Center, Kolar, Karnataka through telephonic interviews. All the data entered in Microsoft office Excel sheet, analyzed using the SPSSv22 (IBM Corp). Results: Sensitivity of the CPSS-5I was 56% and specificity was 96% compared with MINIKID. 83% and 85%, respectively, was PPV and NPV of the CPSS-5I compared with MINIKID. Area under the curve is 83.9% with P < 0.001 (72.5-95.2) indicating CPSS-5I is 84% sensitive proving to be a very good diagnostic tool for diagnosing PTSD. Furthermore, scores of 9.5 or 10.5 from CPSS-5I can be used as cutoff in diagnosing PTSD using CPSS 51. Conclusion: CPSS-5I is extremely well designed, helpful and functional tool used in diagnosing PTSD. With the current study showing CPSS-5I can be used in post-COVID PTSD diagnosis, it also provides cutoff which can be helpful in mass screening.