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INTRODUCTION: Rajasthan is a semi-arid state in India where people still use groundwater for drinking purposes. However, the quality of groundwater as compared to standards have not been studied in any details. This ecological study was done to study the groundwater quality parameters in the stone-belt states, compare the quality of groundwater in Alwar with the rest of Rajasthan, and study the morbidity profile of surgical in-patients in the same district, with special emphasis on kidney stone disease (KSDs). METHODS: The morbidity profile of patients coming to the surgery department of a tertiary teaching hospital between January 2002 and June 2023 was obtained from the medical records department, and water quality data was obtained from the publicly available Water Resources Information System (WRIS) groundwater dataset for the year 2023. The dataset provided detailed information on the chemical parameters of water samples throughout the country that were evaluated to estimate the quality of groundwater. RESULTS: It was found that the groundwater in Alwar is non-potable due to the presence of iron, alkalinity, magnesium, and total dissolved solids (TDS). Iron was estimated to be much higher than the acceptable limit of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) drinking-water quality guidelines (0.3 mg/L). Similarly, most of the chemical parameters in the groundwaters of Rajasthan significantly exceeded the national average. The median electrical conductivity, fluoride, magnesium, sodium, hardness, alkalinity, and turbidity were found to be 1680 µS/cm, 1.05 parts per million (PPM), 41 PPM, 233 PPM, 330 PPM, 310 PPM, 988 PPM, respectively, which are above the WHO recommendations for drinking water guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: The levels of iron and total alkalinity were significantly higher in the study district as compared to the rest of the state. Also, magnesium hardness and TDS levels were very high in the groundwater of the entire state of Rajasthan, making the population vulnerable to KSDs in the long run.
RESUMO
Background: Telephobia is a kind of anxiety disorder in which the individual is afraid of either answering or making telephone calls. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of telephobia among medical students and to determine the association of socio-demographic and other factors with this disorder. Methods: A total of 320 undergraduate medical students were enrolled at a tertiary medical college in Western India, of which 300 (93.75%) responded to the survey. A stratified sampling strategy with the proportional allocation method was used in which 40 males and 20 females were selected from each year of students, spanning 5 years. A specially designed semi-structured questionnaire was used for the study, consisting of demographic data, purpose of using the internet, gadget used, and a 10-item telephobia questionnaire modified from the Severity Measure for Agoraphobia-Adult (SMA-A) Questionnaire to measure student's avoidance of telephone calling and receiving. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 21.91 (±1.84) years, and most of the students were urban residents (184, 61.3%). The prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe telephobia was 33.0%, 7.67%, and 1.33%, respectively, giving an overall prevalence of 42%. Univariate analysis revealed that male gender (χ2 = 9.822, df = 3, p = 0.0201), higher duration of internet usage (χ2 = 41.15, df = 9, p value < 0.000), and viewing porn (χ2 = 15.94, df = 3, p = 0.0011) had significant association with higher severity of telephobia. Viewing of porn sites was reported by 65 (21.7%) medical students, exclusively among males. Conclusion: A prevalence of 9% moderate to severe telephobia among medical students is much alarming, which may aggravate further as the students move from academic to clinical settings. The phenomenon of telephobia needs further exploration, to find its determinants and predictors, especially among vulnerable populations.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Spiritual health is an important dimension of positive health and is often ignored as it is not amenable to measurement. The present study was conducted to generate relevant evidence on spiritual health among adolescents living in urban areas of Northern India. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done from June 2019 - May 2020 in an urban area of Northern India on a sample of 300 adolescents selected purposively. After collection of demographic details of the participants, the Index of Core Spiritual Experiences (INSPIRIT) tool was used to capture their spiritual health. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.832 (0.797-0.863) indicating good internal consistency of the measure. As far as spiritual health is concerned, 217 (72.3%) of the study participants scored medium-high to high, followed by 83 (27.7%) who scored medium-low to low on the spiritual health scale. Adjusted multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression showed that positive traits like caring (odds ratio (OR) 1.19, 95% CI: 1.08-1.33), connection to school (OR 1.16, 95% CI: 1.04-1.29), having positive identity (OR 1.19, 95% CI: 1.04-1.36) and having highly educated (post-graduate) parents (OR 2.18, 95% CI: 1.13-4.21) lead to significantly higher spiritual health scores. Discussion: Although spiritual health is not routinely measured among adolescents, the current study demonstrated high levels of spiritual health among half of the urban adolescents. Parental education was found to have a positive association with spiritual health scores, indicating the indirect effect of parental spiritual inclination. The study has important implications for policy, as it demonstrates the feasibility of measuring a covert dimension of health which tends to have an indirect effect on holistic youth development.