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Background: Adolescence is the most vulnerable developmental period in one's life. In low to middle-income countries like ours, adolescence living in the rural area face increasing physical and mental health challenges that are not addressed due to ignorance or resource limitation. This study is conducted with the aim of assessing the magnitude of health behavior and protection factor among school children in the study area and to compare the same between boys and girls. Materials and Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed method descriptive observational study with cross-sectional study design was conducted on 102 students aged 15-19 years studying in a government school in Amdanga block, West Bengal. Purposive sampling was done for the quantitative part. Global school health survey questionnaire was used. Qualitative study with FGD was done after the quantitative part. Results: Out of 102 students, 58 (56.66%) re females and 44 (43.13%) are males, only 10 (9.8%) have consumed alcohol and 14 (13.72%) have consumed tobacco of some form. 15 (14.8%) students were bullied last year. Around 11 (10.8%) students had suicidal thoughts in the last 1 year. Most of them have proper hygiene behavior. Qualitative analysis revealed issues amongst both males and females regarding body image perception etc. Conclusion: It is seen that males have more addictive behavior and gets into fighting easily then females. It is found that there are many issues regarding mental and physical health of the adolescents. That needs to be addressed and measure should be taken seriously and proper services like counseling, monitoring, parent's support should be given.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Student absenteeism is a major concern for undergraduate medical education training in India. Regular class attendance helps students have a proper understanding of the topic of discussion. This study explores the pattern of absenteeism among medical students and whether absenteeism is associated with their academic performances. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A record-based, cross-sectional study was done by reviewing departmental attendance registers, item cards and marks obtained in exam by 190 students in the community medicine department who had passed their 3rd professional part 1 examination in 2018. The data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16. A descriptive analysis summarizes the pattern of absenteeism and their marks obtained in the semester and professional exam of community medicine. The primary outcome indicator was the 3rd professional exam marks. The correlation between class absenteeism and other predictors and exam result was analyzed. Regression analysis was done to predict dependence of outcome variable on class attendance and formative examination marks. RESULTS: Overall, female students had better class attendance than male students. There was a positive correlation of lecture class attendance (r = 0.369) and marks obtained in the 6th semester exam (r = 0.717) with the final exam result. Further regression analysis showed final marks had a higher dependence on the 6th semester examination score (B = 0.669) when compared to lecture class attendance (B = 0.051). CONCLUSION: Although lecture class attendance is an important predictor of final result, this study showed that the 6th semester marks were a better predictor. This may be due to multiple factors (alternate source of learning, student's motivation, etc.) which require further exploration.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Nutrition transition has replaced homemade foods with processed items that increased the prevalence of noncommunicable disease in adult population. But we know little about the food intake pattern of adults specially in urban sector. AIMS: The study aimed at describing the food-consumption patterns in a sample of adults residing in urban area. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: An observational cross-sectional study was done from April to June, 2019 at urban field practice area of a teaching hospital of Kolkata. METHODS AND MATERIAL: A prevalidated, pretested, 51-item, food-frequency questionnaire was applied to assess the food-consumption pattern of 110 participants. RESULTS: Adults reported poor dietary intakes; more than half reported no consumption of green-leafy vegetables (GLV) (66.4%), other vegetables (52.8%), and fruits (63.6%). Whereas 72.7% reported consumption of three or more servings of energy-dense foods and 90.9% reported consumption of three or more servings of energy-dense beverages on previous day. Mean intake of food varied from 0.34 (SD = 0.47) for GLV to 8.19 (SD = 2.39) for cereals. Females consumed more servings of GLV, other vegetables, roots-tubers, and fruits than males. Fruit consumption was low in all age groups. Higher socioeconomic class people strikingly consumed no GLV. CONCLUSIONS: Study participants reported consumption of more energy-dense snacks, beverages than healthy food like GLV, fruits. Study findings highlight to design strategies to promote nutrition education and practical application of healthy food habits in target population group.
