Prevalence of hypertension and associated risk factors in urban slums: A community based cross sectional study in India.

Hypertension is a global public health issue. Being a silent killer, very rarely symptoms are seen in the early stages till a severe medical crisis (heart attack, stroke, or chronic kidney disease) occurs. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of hypertension in urban slums and to evaluate the association of hypertension with various modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors. Data were collected by house-to-house visits in the slums. Pro forma created in the Magpi app was used to collect demographic characteristics and record anthropometric findings. SPSS version 25 was used for statistical analysis. Of the 534 participants, 71.91% were female. The prevalence of hypertension was found to be 15.36%. The risk of hypertension increased with age >50 years, female gender, and habits such as tobacco and alcohol. Awareness programs to reduce modifiable risk factors such as smoking and alcohol, promoting healthy lifestyles, as well as early diagnosis and treatment, will benefit the community.

Prevalence and determinants of undernutrition among under-five children residing in urban slums and rural area, Maharashtra, India: a community-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Undernutrition among under five children in India is a major public health problem. Despite India's growth in the economy, the child mortality rate due to undernutrition is still high in both urban and rural areas. Studies that focus on urban slums are scarce. Hence the present study was carried out to assess the prevalence and determinants of undernutrition in children under five in Maharashtra, India. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 16 randomly selected clusters in two districts of Maharashtra state, India. Data were collected through house to house survey by interviewing mothers of under five children. Total 2929 mothers and their 3671 under five children were covered. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify the determinants of child nutritional status seperately in urban and rural areas. RESULTS: The mean age of the children was 2.38 years (±SD 1.36) and mean age of mothers was 24.25 years (± SD 6.37). Overall prevalence of stunting among children under five was 45.9%, wasting was 17.1 and 35.4% children were underweight. Prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight were more seen in an urban slum than a rural area. In the rural areas exclusive breast feeding (p < 0.001) and acute diarrhea (p = 0.001) were associated with wasting, children with birth order 2 or less than 2 were associated with stunting and exclusive breast feeding (p < 0.05) and low maternal education were associated with underweight. Whereas in the urban slums exclusive breast feeding (p < 0.05) was associated with wasting, sex of the child (p < 0.05) and type of family (p < 0.05) were associated with stunting,and low income of the family (p < 0.05) was associated with underweight. CONCLUSIONS: Factors like sex of the child, birth order,exclusive breast feeding,economic status of the family, type of family,acute diarrhea and maternal education have influence on nutritional status of the child. Improvement of maternal education will improve the nutritional status of the child. Strategies are needed to improve the economic status of the community. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration number: CTRI/2017/12/010881 ; Registration date:14/12/2017. Retrospectively registered.

Reported incidence and risk factors of childhood pneumonia in India: a community-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is responsible for high morbidity and mortality amongst children under five year of age. India accounts for one-third of the total WHO South East Asia burden of under-five mortality. There is a paucity of epidemiological studies indicating the true burden of pneumonia. Identification of the risk factors associated with pneumonia will help to effectively plan and implement the preventive measures for its reduction. METHODS: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 16 randomly selected clusters in two districts of Maharashtra state, India. All mothers of under-five children in the selected clusters were included. A validated pretested interview schedule was filled by trained field supervisors through the house to house visits.WHO definition was used to define and classify clinical pneumonia. Height and weight of children were taken as per standard guidelines. Quality checks for data collection were done by the site investigators and critical and noncritical fields in the questionnaire were monitored during data entry. For continuous variables mean and SD were calculated. Chi-square test was applied to determine the association between the variables. Level of significance was considered at 0.05. RESULTS: There were 3671 under five-year children, 2929 mothers in 10,929 households.Unclean fuel usage was found in 15.1% of households. Mean birth weight was 2.6 kg (SD;0.61). Exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months of age was practiced by 46% of mothers. Reported incidence of ARI was 0.49 per child per month and the reported incidence of pneumonia was 0.075 per child per year. It was not associated with any of the housing environment factors (p > 0.05) but was found to be associated with partial immunization (p < 0.05). Poor practices related to child feeding, hand hygiene and poor knowledge related to signs and symptoms of pneumonia amongst mother were found. CONCLUSIONS: Very low incidence of pneumonia was observed in Pune and Sangli districts of Maharashtra. Partial immunization emerged as a most important risk factor. Reasons for low incidence and lack of association of pneumonia with known risk factors may be a better literacy rate among mothers and better immunization coverage. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registration number of the trial- CTRI/2017/12/010881 ; date of registration-14/12/2017.

Prevalence of the Acute Respiratory Infections and Associated Factors in the Rural Areas and Urban Slum Areas of Western Maharashtra, India: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) continue to be the most important cause of morbidity and mortality among under-five children. Some demographic and environmental factors are associated with ARIs among under-five children. This study was conducted with the objective to estimate the prevalence of ARIs among under-five children in the rural areas and densely populated urban slum areas in Maharashtra, India and to assess the association of the selected sociodemographic and household environmental factors with ARI. This study was conducted in 16 selected clusters from the rural areas and densely populated urban slum areas of the two districts in Maharashtra, India. Structured and validated proforma was used for collecting the data on the sociodemographic and household environmental risk factors. A total of 3,671 under-five children were surveyed. The prevalence of ARIs for the preceding month was 50.4%. It was higher among the children living in the rural areas (54.2%) compared to the children living in the urban areas (46.7%) (p = 0.01). The prevalence of ARIs was reported to be 51.4 and 49.4% in boys and girls, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, the researchers found that living in rural areas (p = 0.01) and parental smoking (p = 0.04) were significantly associated with the ARIs. An intervention such as reducing parental smoking habits at the household level may reduce ARIs.