Perception of family medicine as the career option among young Indian graduates.

Aims and Objectives: 1. To estimate the number of graduates who had exposure to family medicine specialty. 2. To estimate the number of graduates who consider family medicine as the carrier option. 3. To compare the perception of family medicine as career option among the young graduates who had exposure to family medicine during their training or practice with no exposure. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study. The doctors graduated 2018 onwards were contacted through SIMSA (South Indian Medical Students Association) and WhatsApp groups (students doing the rural health service and intern WhatsApp). Subjects who consented for the study filled the google form. Filled Google forms were evaluated. Results: First choice of among the graduates is general medicine followed by general surgery and paediatrics. Family medicine is 4th in the order. There is overall a very positive perception about the family medicine among the respondents irrespective of exposure to family medicine. Majority of them feel that it gives good financial gain (55.55%), interesting (67.03%), work and family balance (75.55%), which contributes to individual and community health (84.07%) and essential part of healthcare system (83.33%). Graduates feel that career growth (26.66%) and academic growth (33.70%) are less and it is not popular (38.88%). If there is an opportunity, majority would choose family medicine (54.44%). Conclusions: Around 5.9% are open to choose family medicine as the career option. Medical graduates perceive family medicine subject to give them good work and family balance and the subject is essential part of healthcare system and contributes to the individual and community health, and at the same time, it may not give them great financial gain, academic and career growth.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of patients, visiting a private primary level health care facility towards family physicians.

Aim and Objective: To study the knowledge, perception, attitude, and practice of patients visiting a private primary health centre towards family physicians. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was planned. Results: A total of 272 patients visiting the health centre were included in the study. Knowledge: Above 90% of the patients felt confident in the capabilities of family physicians in managing all kinds of health problems and the time/cost-effectiveness of this speciality. Timely referral and holistic care were other areas that boosted their confidence on family physicians. 96.7% knew that family physicians are trained specialists. Attitude: Although only 50% of the study participants were already seeking the services of a family physician, 88% of them felt that a family physician would be their primary point of contact in their health care needs. Practice: The positive attitude, knowledge, and perception towards family medicine were not reflected on their treatment seeking practice in areas of care, such as childcare (66.2%) and pregnancy (81.6%), where they preferred the services of a specialist. Also, for diabetes (52%) and chest pain (66%) related issues, the patients favoured a specialist's care over that of a family physician. Conclusion: Patients visiting our primary health centre had good knowledge and positive perception about the family physicians. Preference for specialists over family physicians was seen for conditions such as chest pain, diabetes care, child care, and obstetrics issues.

Prevalence of self-care practices and assessment of their sociodemographic risk factors among diabetes in the urban slums of Bengaluru.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-care practices in the urban slums of Bengaluru among diabetes and also to assess their sociodemographic risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done in the two slums of Bengaluru comprising 163 diabetes patients. The prevalence of self-care practices and their sociodemographic risk was analyzed. RESULTS: Maximum adherence was seen for blood sugar testing (77.91%), and least adherence was seen for diet (12.26%). Adherence to exercise was 30.67%, adherence to foot care was 48.46%, and adherence to medication was 60.73%. Some of the sociodemographic factors associated with good self-care practices are young age, gender, formal education, occupation, and religion. Good adherence to medication is associated with better control of blood sugars. CONCLUSION: A clinician should be able to identify these risk factors and give special attention to these groups of patients and make realistic recommendations for self-care activities.

Effectiveness of yoga program in the management of diabetes using community health workers in the urban slums of Bangalore city: A non-randomized controlled trial.

TRIAL DESIGN: Nonrandomized controlled trial. METHODS: Nonrandomized controlled trial. This was an interventional study that was conducted in 4 slums of Bengaluru. Of the 256 diabetes participants, only 109 people agreed to participate in the program. Of 109 people, 52 people agreed to participate in the intervention (agreed to learn and practice Yoga) while the remaining 57 people were assigned to nonintervention group. Randomization and blinding could not be done. OBJECTIVE AND OUTCOME: The study was conducted with objective of assessing the effectiveness of Yoga, Pranayama, and Sudarshan Kriya in the community-based management of diabetes mellitus. The primary outcome variable was Hb1Ac and secondary outcome variables were systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), adherence to medication, and changes in lifestyle. RESULTS: The study was conducted for 40 days. Community health workers made a total of 6 visits during the study. All the 109 participants were available for weekly follow-up. There were no drop outs among the study population. Statistically significant change was seen in the consumption of vegetable (χ2 = 15.326, P < 0.005), fruits (χ2 = 16.207, P < 0.005), salty food (χ2 = 14.823, P < 0.005), bakery food (χ2 = 10.429, P < 0.005) and fried food (χ2 = 15.470, P < 0.005), adherence to metformin (χ2 = 41.780, P < 0.005) and other medication(χ2 = 21.871, P < 0.005) and proportion of patients with DBP under control (χ2 = 9.396, P < 0.005) and proportion of people with glucose random blood sugar under control (χ2 = 29.693, P < 0.005) between the two groups following the intervention. Statistically significant change was also seen in the proportion of people with SBP/DBP ≤140/90 (χ2 = 10.635, P < 0.005) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The Yoga program was successful in improving dietary practices and medication adherence and in increasing the proportion of diabetics and hypertensive patients under control.

Prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes and assessments of their risk factors in urban slums of Bangalore.

BACKGROUND: To determine the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes and to assess the risk factors associated with diabetes and pre-diabetes in the urban slums of Bangalore. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in four slums of Bangalore in the age group of 35 years and above comprising of total 2013 subjects. Risk factors like age, sex, family history, behavior, physical activity, BMI, waist hip ration, diet habits were assessed to find their association with diabetes. RESULTS: Prevalence of diabetes was 12.33% and of pre-diabetes was 11.57%. Prevalence was more among the females compared to males. Increasing age, over weight and obesity, sedentary life style, tobacco consumption, diet habits showed statistically significant association with prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes. CONCLUSION: Physical activity like regular exercises both at the office and at home, fibers-rich diet, blood sugar estimation after 35 years are some of the recommendations which can control diabetes.