Cross-sectional study to assess the need to commence opportunistic screening of women for cervical cancer presenting with sexually transmitted disease in Western India.

This study examines the prevalence of suspected cervical cancer (established through the use of visual inspection with Lugol's Iodine - VILI) among outpatients attending Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education & Research Hospital, India. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 356 patients; 178 with an established sexually transmitted disease (STD) and 178 patients without. Patients with positive results were investigated with cervical biopsy; out of 356 patients, 21.91% patients with STD and 12.35% patients without STD tested positive for VILI respectively (p = .017). The factors found to be significantly associated with a positive VILI test were STD, marital status, oral contraceptive pill use, a complaint of PV bleeding, white discharge on speculum examination (PS) and cervical erosion on PS. On applying multiple logistic regression, STD, age of patient in years, parity, OC pill use, a complaint of PV bleeding and cervical erosion on PS were found to be significant predictors of VILI positivity among the patients. STD patients are 2.5 times more likely to test positive for VILI than patients without STD. In Indian populations comparable to ours, opportunistic screening should be considered in gynaecology outpatient clinics for women presenting with complaints related to STDs.

Cross-sectional study on socio-demographic and clinical correlates of depression among human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients in Surat City, Western India.

INTRODUCTION: Surat has the highest incidence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in Gujarat, the main reason being its large migrant population. Mental health in HIV/AIDS has most often been a topic of neglect all over the world. This study attempts to assess the magnitude of depression and the socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with it in HIV-positive patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 270 HIV-positive patients using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; translated and validated in Gujarati and Hindi) along with a questionnaire for eliciting information on socio-demographic and clinical variables. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression among HIV-positive patients was 30% with 12.22% having mild depression; 14.07% with moderate depression and 3.7% with severe depression. Bivariate analysis showed that physical pain, physical illness, Cluster of Differentiation 4 (CD4)<300 cells/mm3, HIV positive spouse, discrimination at hospital, discrimination in society, government setup as the first place of HIV test and broken relationship with spouse after HIV disclosure were significantly associated with depression among the patients. On multiple logistic regression, discrimination at hospital, physical pain and CD4<300 cells/mm3 were found to be the significant predictors of depression among the patients. DISCUSSION: HIV-positive patients can be screened by counselors using easy-to-administer scales like BDI, which can be translated and validated into any regional language. A trained psychiatrist should be appointed at the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) center to take care of the mental health issues of the patients.