Integrating HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Education During Medical Residency: Training Outcomes and Suggestions for Learning Effectiveness.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is now preventable with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs, however, barriers to PrEP implementation include primary-care physician (PCP) knowledge-gap and lack of comfort prescribing and managing PrEP. We hypothesized that integrating HIV-PrEP education during medical-residency would help address these problems and developed a 40-minute case-based lecture focused on the 2021 United States Preventative Services Taskforce (USPSTF) oral HIV-PrEP guidelines and integrated this into our residency's core curriculum. We analyzed data from physician-trainees who voluntarily completed a pre- and post-lecture survey measuring HIV-PrEP "knowledge" and "self-assessed readiness to independently initiate and manage PrEP." Independent group analysis was completed via the Mann-Whitney U and Pearson Chi-square 2-sided test with P-value <0.05 deemed significant. Of the total of 189 residents invited to the lecture, 130 (69%) completed the pre-survey while 107 (57%) completed the post-survey. Per knowledge-assessment: the median number of correctly answered questions rose from a pre-lecture baseline of 4/9 (44%) to 8/9 (89%) following the education intervention (P < .001). When asked about comfort initiating and managing HIV-PrEP on their own, 7/130 (5.4%) responded in agreement pre-lecture, but this rose to 55/107 (51.4%) post-lecture (P < .001). Our study revealed PrEP training during residency was effective per stated objectives and may be an important tool to increase PrEP delivery/uptake to achieve the target goals for the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

Prevalence of dental caries, oral health awareness and treatment-seeking behavior of elderly population in rural Maharashtra.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: There have been numerous studies of oral health status of school children and young population; however, similar studies in elderly population in India are lacking. With advances in medical science and consequent increase in life expectancy, elderly population is on the rise and is a subject of growing concern for public health policy. Hence, an attempt was made to study factors influencing decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index, oral health awareness, and dental treatment-seeking behavior of elderly population. METHODS: A cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted between September 2014 and December 2014 in villages in rural Maharashtra. Sociodemographic and health-related information were collected from 352 participants 60 years of age and above in 10 villages. RESULTS: Prevalence of dental caries was 76.4% in a study population with median DMFT score of 12 with interquartile range of 7-22. The majority of the participants cleaned their teeth with fingers using charcoal and mishri. Only 17.2% participants used toothbrush. About 39% participants had experienced dental pain, of which majority did not visit dentist. The median DMFT index who used toothbrush and toothpaste was significantly less when compared with participants who did not use tooth brush and tooth paste. The majority of the participants had one or more missing teeth, but only 2.2% were using dentures. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need for comprehensive oral health educational programs, and accessible and affordable oral health services to be provided to rural community.