Are pregnant women also vulnerable to domestic violence? A community based enquiry for prevalence and predictors of domestic violence among pregnant women.

AIM: To generate local evidence to fill up the knowledge gap about the domestic violence faced by the antenatal females. OBJECTIVES: To screen for domestic violence in antenatal females. To explore association, if any, with socio-demographic and pregnancy related attributes among antenatal females of an urbanized village of Delhi. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Socio demographic details and pregnancy related attributes and HITS (Hurt, Insult, Threaten, Scream) questionnaire for screening domestic violence was used on 165 pregnant females in a community based setting. RESULTS: 23% of pregnant women were screened positive for domestic violence. Physical hurt was present among 60% of victims of domestic violence. The predictors for domestic violence among pregnant women as derived from logistic regression were - educational status of head of the family/husband, substance abuse by husband and history of previous abortions. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: More emphasis should be given on well being of the pregnant women who are victims of domestic violence. The policy makers and program managers should integrate social welfare schemes with the RCH program and all levels of health care functionaries should be sensitized about dealing with victims of domestic violence. Laws should be implemented effectively against perpetrators of domestic violence and more importantly females should be made aware of such laws and should be motivated to report it to the legal authorities and not to take up violence for granted.

Cancer related knowledge and behavior among women across various socio-economic strata: A study from Delhi, India.

BACKGROUND: Cancer is predicted to be an increasingly important cause of morbidity and mortality in the next few decades worldwide. One important step in reducing the burden of morbidity and mortality from cancers is awareness among the population about the causes and prevention of cancers. OBJECTIVE: To study the knowledge and preventive behavior regarding common cancers among the women from an area of Delhi, India. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Four purposively selected residential areas representing various socio-economic strata, in North-East Delhi. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand two hundred and six women in the age group 18-60 years. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Proportions, Chi-square test. RESULTS: Majority of the women (43.9%) were graduates while 10.4% were illiterate. The awareness about breast cancer was maximum with 73.8% of the respondents being aware about it. The proportions of women aware about the other cancers were low. Only 52 (4.3%) had ever been for a preventive check-up for cancer. The most common cancer checkup for which the respondents reported visiting a hospital was, breast cancer. Among the respondents, 46 (3.8%) reported having a female member in their family who ever had cancer. Five hundred and seventy seven (47.8%) had not seen any message regarding cancers common in females in any mass media. Women with a higher education level, having a female family member with cancer, and those who could recall mass media message regarding cancers, were significantly more likely to have had a preventive cancer checkup for self. CONCLUSION: The knowledge and actual preventive behavior about cancers was found to be low among the women. Increased mass media exposure and targeted strategies can possibly increase the awareness and the cancer-related health behavior among the women.

Awareness and practices regarding malaria in clinical suspects and the alarming slide positivity rate amongst them: a hospital based study from Delhi.

It has been repeatedly reported that lack of effective community participation in malaria control strategies has been partly responsible for high incidence of malaria in India. Active involvement of community in malaria control is a function of the awareness of that community. The present study was conceived with the objective to study the awareness and practices regarding malaria among fever cases clinically suspected of malaria and to assess the slide positivity rate among the same. Awareness and practices of 101 consecutive clinically suspected malaria cases (presenting with fever) attending medical OPD in Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital, Narela in North West district of Delhi regarding malaria were assessed using a 37 item pre-tested, semi-structured, semi-open ended, and Investigator administered questionnaire. Thin blood films were made for these patients and stained by Romanowski's method using Leishman's stain and reported by haematologist in the Department of Pathology, UCMS & GTB Hospital, Delhi. 37.5% patients had fever ranging from 1-3 days & 60% patients knew of chills and rigors as a symptom of malaria. While 80.2% patients correctly reported that malaria is caused by mosquito, only 52% patients stated that water should not be allowed to stagnate in order to prevent mosquito breeding. 61% patients did not get their houses sprayed with insecticides in last one year. 85.4% patients used one or more methods for personal protection against malaria. On laboratory examination 21% peripheral smears were found to be positive for Plasmodium vivax. Respondents were found to have modest knowledge regarding malaria. Relatively high malaria positivity was seen in malaria suspects. These aspects need to be addressed by the programme managers.

Conventional risk factors among newly diagnosed coronary heart disease patients in Delhi.

AIM: To analyze the conventional risk factors among newly diagnosed cases of coronary heart disease (CHD) admitted to a hospital in Delhi, India. METHODS: This hospital-based prospective study included 276 consecutive newly diagnosed cases of CHD in the Coronary Care Unit of a tertiary care hospital in Delhi. RESULTS: The mean age of the cases was 49.7 ± 9.5 years, with the youngest case aged 27 years. The two risk factors present most frequently among the cases were inadequate physical activity and abnormal lipid profile. Just about 3.6% of cases in our study had a physical activity level (PAL) that could be termed as "active", with a large proportion (96.4%) having a PAL suggestive of a sedentary lifestyle. A majority of patients were found to be current tobacco smokers (53.3%) and 188 (68.1%) subjects were lifetime ever smokers. There was not a single case who did not have one or more of the risk factors. More than one-quarter (n = 76) had six or more of the studied risk factors. CONCLUSION: Indians have among the CHD highest mortality rates amongst all ethnic groups studied so far. It is important to study the regional epidemiology of the cardiovascular events to allow for location-specific prevention and control programs.

Depression, anxiety and stress among adolescent students belonging to affluent families: a school-based study.

OBJECTIVE: To study depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) among adolescent school students belonging to affluent families and the factors associated with high levels of DAS. METHODS: 242 adolescent students belonging to class 9-12th selected for the study. DASS-21 questionnaire was used for assessing DAS. RESULTS: The scores in the three domains (DAS) were found to be remarkably correlated. It was seen that depression was significantly more among the females (mean rank 132.5) than the males (mean rank 113.2), p=0.03. Depression (p=0.025), Anxiety (0.005) and Stress (p<0.001) were all significantly higher among the 'board classes' i.e., 10th and 12th as compared to the classes 9th and 11th. All the three (DAS) were found to have an inverse relationship with the academic performance of the students. Depression and Stress were found to be significantly associated with the number of adverse events in the student's life that occurred in last one year. CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of the students were found to be having high levels of DAS and several important factors were found to be associated with them. Proactive steps at the school-level and community-level and steps for improved parent-adolescent communication are needed for amelioration of the problem.

Routine immunization - do people know about it? A study among caretakers of children attending pulse polio immunization in East delhi.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Do caretakers of children under five years have sufficient knowledge regarding routine immunization (RI)? OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge about RI among caretakers of young children. SETTINGS: Pulse polio immunization centres in East Delhi. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred and eighty-two caretakers accompanying children under 5 years to pulse polio booths in November 2006. STUDY TOOL: Pre-tested semi-open-ended questionnaire. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Proportions, Chi-square test. RESULTS: The proportions of respondents who had awareness about different aspects of RI, such as weekday of RI (37.0%), age group for RI (49.1%), number of visits required in the first year of life (27.0%), were all low. When asked to name the four diseases covered under the RI program in Delhi, only 268 (39.3%) could name at least three. The education level of respondents was strongly associated with their knowledge about RI. CONCLUSION: The need of the hour is to make RI a 'felt need' of the community. Making caretakers more aware about RI is a vital step in achieving this goal.