Socio-cultural and financial issues against breast cancer screening behaviour among eligible Indian women: evidence for action.

PURPOSE: Breast cancer, a common malignancy in Indian women, is preventable and curable upon early diagnosis. Screening is the best control strategy against breast cancer, but its uptake is low in India despite dedicated strategies and programmes. We explored the impact of socio-cultural and financial issues on the uptake of breast cancer screening behaviour among Indian women. METHODS: Breast cancer screening-uptake and relevant social, cultural, and financial data obtained from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) round 5 were used for analysis. We studied 399,039 eligible females to assess their breast cancer screening behavior and determine the impact of socio-cultural and financial issues on such behavior using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Most participants were 30-34-year-old (27.8%), educated to the secondary level (38.0%), and 81.5% had bank accounts. A third (35.0%) had health insurance, and anaemia was the most common comorbidity (56.1%). Less than 1.0% had undergone breast cancer screening. Higher age, education, urban residence, employment, less privileged social class, and access to the Internet and mass media were predictors of positive screening-uptake behavior (p < 0.05). Mothers of larger number of children, tobacco- and alcohol-users, the richer and having health insurance had negative uptake behavior (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: A clear impact of socio-cultural and financial factors on breast cancer screening behavior is evident among Indian women. Therefore, apart from the ongoing health system strengthening efforts, our findings call for targeted interventions against prevailing misconceptions and taboos along with economic and social empowerment of women for the holistic success of India's cancer screening strategy.

Public Perception About Pandemic Situation and Preparedness Towards a Probable Lockdown in an Affected Indian State Amidst the Second Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 second wave badly affected India. This study assessed public preparedness and attitude towards a new lockdown in the state of West Bengal (WB) along with perception about the COVID pandemic situation. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire was administered to all willing adult attendees of a COVID vaccination centre in Kolkata, capital city of WB. Logistic regression was applied to find the relationship between attitude towards lockdown and other selected independent variables. RESULTS: Of the 839 persons analyzed, 72.0% were non-health workers; and 55.4% thought that available vaccines reduce COVID-19 risk. Among them, 54.4% wanted stricter guidelines imposed. For preparedness, 42.6% and 28.8% said they would stock additional food and medicines respectively. On multiple logistic regression, being female, having elderly family members, perceiving the second wave as worse, and favouring stricter restrictions, all had odds of favourable attitude towards the new, proposed lockdown. CONCLUSIONS: A new lockdown was favoured by the majority. However, a well-planned and phased approach for this is needed in the light of many concerns about the previous lockdown. Mental health issues, financial security, medical help at hand, and ease of travel to workplaces are important issues that need to be addressed in case of future lockdown(s).

Awareness Regarding Eye Donation and Effects of COVID-19 on Its Perception: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study From India.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess awareness toward eye donation and the effects of COVID-19 on perceptions about eye donation in an urban community of West Bengal, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligible adults residing in the area under study were chosen by simple random sampling and interviewed using a predesigned and pretested data collection schedule to assess awareness and perception. Based on their total awareness score, the participants were classified as having good awareness or poor awareness toward eye donation. RESULTS: Among 423 participants, 52.0% were male, 34.0% were 18 to 30 years old, 38.3% were educated up to secondary level, and 85.6% had eye disease in their family. Of total participants, 70.2% had heard about eye donation, with 59.9% of this group having knowledge of eye donation only after death and 57.9% having knowledge that donation must occur within 6 hours of death. In addition, 52.9% were aware about donation from home, 30.6% said only the cornea is transplantable, and 52.2% knew it can be preserved. Participants with higher education, higher socioeconomic status, and outside of the house occupational engagement had significantly higher chance of good eye donation awareness. Of total participants, 32.0% said that COVID-19 could be transmitted through eye donation, with 58.2% of participants opining that the pandemic was not a suitable time to consider donation of eyes. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 has had a negative impact on eye donation perceptions. Although most of our participants had heard about eye donation, their awareness regarding important aspects about eye donation were still lacking, thus calling for a more focused action plan and implementation of the same.