Risk factors and prevalence of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions among women in south India: A community-based cross-sectional study.

Background: ">Cervical cancer in India accounts for one-fifth of the global burden. Well-defined precancerous stages help early detection of the disease. Apart from human papillomavirus, the risk factors include age, education, occupation, early age at marriage and first delivery, abortions, and multiple sexual partners. Prevalence and risk factors for cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) among women by Pap smear screening in south India were analyzed through a cross-sectional study. Methods: ">Women from rural and urban area were motivated by local accredited social health activists to attend pre-fixed Pap smear clinics in government hospitals. Pap smears collected in these clinics were taken to the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, processed, and cytology reports were prepared. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for SIL and high-grade SIL (HSIL). Results: ">The number of SIL was 67 out of 10,580 and HSIL was 39. Having higher education (Odds Ratio, OR:0.05(95% Confidence Interval, CI: 0.01-0.2), being married but living single (OR : 5.3, 95%CI:2.4-11.5), Having >2 abortions (OR:21, 95% CI:4.5-24), having younger age at delivery (OR : 0.1, 95% CI:0.01-0.3) and having unhealthy cervix (OR: 16.4, 95% CI:6.2-42.7) were the factors found to be the associated risk factors in multiple regression analysis. Conclusion: ">Pap smear screening can be focused on women with risk factors such as low education, married but living single, having >2 abortions, younger age at delivery, and unhealthy cervix on per speculum examination.

Prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in an elderly community-based sample in Kerala, India.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the most important causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the elderly. With the increase in the number of elderly in India, hypertension is likely to emerge as an important public health problem. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 357 community-dwelling elderly individuals (191 women, 166 men; mean age 70 years) in Kerala. We measured blood pressure on all study participants using a standardized technique to assess the prevalence of hypertension. We compared the variations in prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension according to age, sex and place of residence of the subjects, and examined the socio-demographic correlates of hypertension using sex-specific multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of hypertension in our sample was 51.8% (95% CI: 46.8%-56.8%), which did not vary with sex but increased with age. Fewer than half of the hypertensive subjects were aware of their condition or were on treatment, and only a quarter of the treated hypertensives achieved adequate control of blood pressure. Rural elderly subjects were especially less likely to be aware of, and on treatment for hypertension. Smoking status and rural residence (in men) and marital status (in women) were important correlates of hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings emphasize the public health importance of hypertension in the elderly in Kerala at present, and point to a likely increase in burden of this problem in India in the near future. A National Hypertension Programme, targeted to meet the imminent public health challenge posed by hypertension seems warranted.