Key drivers of hysterectomy among women of reproductive age in three states in India: comparative evidence from NFHS-4 and NFHS-5.

PURPOSE: According to the 4th and 5th rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), there is high prevalence of hysterectomies in the three states of Andhra Pradesh Telangana and Bihar. The three said states have more than double the number of hysterectomies taking place than the national average. Our purpose is to analyse whether these rates are increasing, decreasing or have stabilized and their reasons thereof. Such an analyses will help the policy makers in recommending good clinical practices within their states. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used data from NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-2021) rounds. We calculated the differences in predicted probabilities for various factors, performed a Fairlie Decomposition analyses to quantify the positive and negative contributors in the prevalence of hysterectomy across the three states over two time points, and assessed the association of various socio-demographic characteristics to hysterectomy through a multilevel logistic regression model. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results show that out of a total of 80,976 eligible respondents from the states under study, 5826 respondents self-reported that they had a hysterectomy done. It was found that older age, living in rural areas, belonging to other backward classes and higher wealth quintile, and higher parity positively contributed to the increased prevalence of hysterectomies in the three states. Higher educational attainment and previous use of family planning methods acted as protective factors. Characteristics at the household level had the highest intra-class correlation value in the prevalence of hysterectomy among women, followed by the Primary Sampling Unit and District levels, indicating high clustering in the prevalence of hysterectomy at the household level in all three states. Heavy menstrual bleeding/pain was the leading cause of hysterectomies in all three states, followed by fibroids/cysts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Uterine disorder/ prolapse in Bihar. Over 80% of hysterectomies took place in the private hospitals. RECOMMENDATIONS: The study recommends better, more efficient and accountable hysterectomy surveillance to ensure more sustainable woman's reproductive health services in India. Government should adopt and implement standard regulatory guidelines to prevent provider-driven avoidable hysterectomies. Moreover, we recommend informing primary care professionals about the long-term health effects of hysterectomy and promoting alternate therapies for treating uterine fibroids and heavy bleeding.

Utilization of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and its linkages with undernutrition in India.

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme has been the central focus of the POSHAN Abhiyaan to combat maternal and child malnutrition under the national nutrition mission in India. This paper examined the linkages between utilization of ICDS and underweight among children aged 6-59 months. The study utilized data from two recent rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4 [2015-2016] and NFHS-5 [2019-2021]). Descriptive analyses were used to assess the change in utilization of ICDS and the prevalence of underweight at the national and state levels. Multivariable logistic regressions were performed to examine factors associated with the utilization of ICDS and underweight. Linkages between utilization of ICDS and underweight were examined using the difference-in-differences (DID) approach. Utilization of ICDS increased from 58% in 2015-2016 to 71% in 2019-2021. The prevalence of underweight decreased from 37% to 32% in the same period. Changes in ICDS utilization and underweight prevalence varied considerably across states, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Results from decomposition of DID models suggest that improvements in ICDS explained 9%-12% of the observed reduction in underweight children between 2016 and 2021, suggesting that ICDS made a modest but meaningful contribution in addressing undernutrition among children aged 6-59 months in this period.

Laboratory evaluation of the efficacy of deltamethrin-laced attractive toxic sugar bait formulation on Anopheles stephensi.

BACKGROUND: Attractive toxic sugar bait (ATSB) is a promising "attract and kill"-based approach for mosquito control. It is a combination of flower nectar/fruit juice to attract the mosquitoes, sugar solution to stimulate feeding, and a toxin to kill them. Selecting an effective attractant and optimizing concentration of toxicant is significant in the formulation of ATSB. METHODS: Current study formulated an ATSB using fruit juice, sugar and deltamethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid. It was evaluated against two laboratory strains of Anopheles stephensi. Initial studies evaluated comparative attractiveness of nine different fruit juices to An. stephensi adults. Nine ASBs were prepared by adding fermented juices of plum, guava, sweet lemon, orange, mango, pineapple, muskmelon, papaya, and watermelon with 10% sucrose solution (w/v) in 1:1 ratio. Cage bioassays were conducted to assess relative attraction potential of ASBs based on the number of mosquito landings on each and the most effective ASB was identified. Ten ATSBs were prepared by adding the identified ASB with different deltamethrin concentrations (0.015625-8.0 mg/10 mL) in 1:9 ratio. Each ATSB was assessed for the toxic potential against both the strains of An. stephensi. The data was statistically analysed using PASW (SPSS) software 19.0 program. RESULTS: The cage bioassays with nine ASBs revealed higher efficacy (p < 0.05) of Guava juice-ASB > Plum juice-ASB > Mango juice-ASB in comparison to rest of the six ASB's. The bioassay with these three ASB's ascertained the highest attractancy potential of guava juice-ASB against both the strains of An. stephensi. The ATSB formulations resulted in 5.1-97.9% mortality in Sonepat (NIMR strain) with calculated LC30, LC50, and LC90 values of 0.17 mg deltamethrin/10 mL, 0.61 mg deltamethrin/10 mL, and 13.84 mg deltamethrin/10 mL ATSB, respectively. Whereas, 6.12-86.12% mortality was recorded in the GVD-Delhi (AND strain) with calculated LC30, LC50, and LC90 values of 0.25 mg deltamethrin/10 mL, 0.73 mg deltamethrin/10 mL and 10.22 mg deltamethrin/10 mL ATSB, respectively. CONCLUSION: The ATSB formulated with guava juice-ASB and deltamethrin (0.0015625-0.8%) in 9:1 ratio showed promising results against two laboratory strains of An. stephensi. Field assessment of these formulations is being conducted to estimate their feasibility for use in mosquito control.

Obesogenic diet and metabolic syndrome among adolescents in India: data-driven cluster analysis.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome is on the rise in India and is primarily linked to obesogenic dietary habits. The synergy of both is a prominent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Hence, the present study aims to unveil clusters at high risk of metabolic syndrome and ascertain cluster characteristics based on dietary patterns among adolescents aged 10-19 years. DATA AND METHODS: The study utilizes secondary data, i.e., Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey conducted in 2016-18. The study sample includes children and adolescents aged 10-19 years. An unsupervised learning algorithm was used to ascertain possible clusters in the data based on individuals' dietary patterns. The k-means were used to cluster the data according to their dietary patterns. To determine the number of clusters elbow method was used, and appropriate validation indices were also obtained for the final k. Further, to ascertain the distribution of the obesogenic dietary patterns and metabolic conditions in each cluster was analysed. Bivariate descriptive analysis was used to draw further inferences. RESULTS: The k-means clusters identified five optimum clusters based on 12,318 adolescents (6333 males (mean age:14.2 ± 2.8) and 5985 females (mean age:14.3 ± 2.8)) 17 dietary patterns. Clusters were named based on how prudent these were in terms of consuming a healthy diet. Cluster phenotypic characteristics were defined as follows: a cluster of obesogenic diets (24%) constituted the highest proportion of the total sample and was significantly suffering from obesity (p < 0.001), and greater proportions of lipid anomalies (p = 0.51) and hypertension (p = 0.44) but not statistically significant. In contrast, 21% of the sample comprised a plant-based diet cluster and suffered from all deficiencies but folate (p = 0.625), zinc (p = 0.132), and greater proportion from obesity (p = 0.19; not significant), and diabetes (p < 0.001). A cluster of "convenient" (20%) mainly suffered from lipid anomalies (p = 0.00), diabetes (p = 0.03), and a greater proportion from hypertension (p = 0.56) with deficiencies of all the essential vitamins and minerals but significantly from vitamin A (p < 0.001), folate (p < 0.001), and iron (p = 0.017). Lastly, the cluster of those who follow a "Western diet" (17%) was found to have lipid anomalies (p = 0.003), diabetes (p = 0.016), greater proportion of vitamin B12 (p = 0.136), D (p = 0.002), folate (p < 0.001), and iron deficiencies (p = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Adolescents in India show a strong association between obesogenic diet and metabolic syndrome. Therefore, the burden of metabolic syndrome at early ages can be prevented by controlling obesogenic dietary practices and addressing micronutrient deficiencies. This may be done by targeted health promotional campaigns in schools and college-going populations in India.

Chronic non-communicable disease burden among reproductive-age women in India: evidence from recent demographic and health survey.

BACKGROUND: Chronic disease burden among women leads to various detrimental consequences, impacting women's health throughout their life course and off-springs. The present study explores the chronic disease profile among reproductive-aged women and analyzes the effects of various covariates on multimorbidity among reproductive-aged women in India. Here, multimorbidity is defined as an individual suffering from two or more chronic conditions. METHODS: The present study employed the most recent National Family Health Survey round, 2019-2021. The study utilized information on 695,707 non-pregnant women aged 15-49 years. The study used descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable ordered logistic regression analysis to explore the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases and multimorbidity. RESULTS: The mean age of women with single chronic condition-related morbidity is 30 years, whereas it was 35 years for those with multimorbidity. Approximately 28% of urban women suffered from multimorbidity. Further, significant factors that affect multimorbidity include age, educational attainment, working status, marital status, parity, menopause, religion, region, wealth index, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and dietary patterns. CONCLUSIONS: The present study hints that women in the reproductive age group are at very high risk of developing multimorbidity in India. Most of the programs and policies are focused on the elderly population in terms of awareness and facilitating them with better health services. However, right now, one should also prioritize the emerging chronic condition related to chronic conditions other than hypertension, diabetes, and cancer among the study population, which is escalating as soon as women reach 30 years of age.

Quantifying the burden of lipid anomalies among adolescents in India.

BACKGROUND: The present study's aim is to quantify the burden of lipid abnormalities (excessive non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol) among Indian adolescents. Which has emerged as a significant covariate of coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS: The present study aims to unearth the prevalence of any lipid anomalies, their level, and types of lipid profiles among adolescents in India using the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey 2016-18 i.e., cross-sectional data. Descriptive and bivariate statistical analyses have been used to check the associations and significant differences between groups of individuals suffering from any type of lipid abnormalities. RESULTS: A total of 35,830 adolescents aged between 10 and 19 years (mean age:14.36 yrs.; SD = 2.81 for males and 14.39 yrs.; SD = 2.78 for females) were included. Roughly 77 percent of the adolescents are suffering from any lipid anomalies. Their mean lipid levels are 140.6 (SD = 32.9), 84.1 (SD = 24.8), 47.3 (SD = 10.7), and 95.3 (SD = 50.0) for total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides, respectively. A higher proportion of adolescents suffered from lipid anomalies among those who were overweight or obese (89%, 95% CI 85, 92) and pre-diabetics (81%, 95% CI 78, 83) compared to each of their counterparts. Furthermore, a considerable proportion of samples with vitamin A (70%, 95% CI 68, 73), D (81%, 95% CI 79, 82), and B12 deficits (73%,95% CI 72, 75), as well as zinc (77%, 95% CI 76, 77), folate (76%, 95% CI 74, 77), and iron deficits (75%,95% CI 73, 77), were suffering from any lipid anomalies. Of individuals who consume an unhealthy diet, 77% (95% CI 76, 78) of them were suffering from any lipid anomalies than others. CONCLUSIONS: The study contends that preventing the increasing burden of lipid abnormalities among Indian adolescents is essential. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies and unhealthy dietary habits are significantly associated with high LDL and non-HDL levels. In the longer run, this might cause the early onset of hypertension, diabetes, and CHDs. Hence, appropriate interventions are needed to curtail these early onsets by primarily focusing on adolescents.

Socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive use among female adolescents in south Asian countries: a decomposition analysis.

BACKGROUND: Contraceptive knowledge and use has been an emerging topic of interest in adolescents in Asia. This study quantified the contribution of the socioeconomic determinants of inequality in contraceptive use among currently married female adolescents (15-24) in four south Asian countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. DATA AND METHODS: The data of Demographic Health Survey (DHS) for four South Asian countries, i.e. India (NFHS 2015-16), Nepal (DHS 2016), Bangladesh (DHS 2014) and Pakistan (DHS 2012-2013) has been used for examining the contraceptive use and inherent socioeconomic inequality. After employing logistic regression, concentration curves based on decomposition analysis have been made to analyse the socioeconomic inequality. RESULTS: The results reveal that the use of contraception among female adolescents remains low and factors like education, employment, having one or more children, media exposure were positively associated with it. In terms of socioeconomic inequality, a significant amount of variation has been observed across the countries. In India, poor economic status (95.23%), illiteracy (51.29%) and rural residence (23.06%) contributed maximum in explaining the socioeconomic inequality in contraceptive use among female adolescents. For Bangladesh, the largest contributors to inequalities were rural residence (260%), illiteracy (146.67%) while birth order 3 + (- 173.33%) contributed negatively. Illiteracy (50%), poor economic status (47.83%) and rural residence (16.30%) contributed maximum to the inequalities in contraceptive use in Pakistan while birth order 3 + (- 9.78%) contributed negatively. In Nepal, the important operators of inequalities were unemployment (105.26%), birth order 3 + (52.63%) and poor economic status (47.37%), while rural residence contributed negatively (- 63.16%) to inequalities in contraceptive use. CONCLUSIONS: Using a cross country perspective, this study presents an socioeconomic inequality analysis in contraceptive use and the important factors involved in the same. Since the factors contributing to inequalities in contraceptive use vary across countries, there is a need to imply country-specific initiatives which will look after the special needs of this age-group.

Covariates of Multiplicity of High-Risk Sexual Behavior Among Men in India: Evidence from the Latest Indian Demographic and Health Survey.

Modern Indian society has witnessed rapid sociocultural transformation where loosening of cultural values is observed at all levels. In the era of transition, traditional norms and values are changing where young male individuals are found to be associated with high-risk multi-partner sexual behavior. Findings are based on a nationally representative sample of 45,231 and 65,704 men aged 15-54 during the period 2005-2006 and 2015-2016, respectively. The burden of high-risk sexual behaviors among men aged 15-54 years in India over the last decade remains disproportionately higher among younger, unmarried, and urban men, who are mainly from economically better-off households. Despite tremendous efforts of the government of India as well as various state governments in condom promotion as part of the HIV/AIDS prevention program, the improvements in condom use over the last decade are not impressive as it has not yet reached the desired threshold level. The disparities in high-risk sexual behavior among men aged 15-54 years, coming from rich and poor households, have narrowed. The findings of the study also underline an apparent paradox in the relationship between knowledge of HIV/AIDS and indulgence in high-risk sexual behavior and adopting safe sexual practices. It is recommended that all the HIV prevention programs in India should promote the concept of men as the responsible sexual partner. This concept may be promoted among young and unmarried men by reinforcing the shift from violence to respect and projecting the condom as a sexual stimulus rather than a means of disease prevention.

Socio-economic Correlates and Spatial Heterogeneity in the Prevalence of Asthma among Young Women in India.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is one of the leading causes of disease burden when measured in terms of disability adjusted life years, despite low prevalence of self-reported cases among young women. This paper deals with the meso-scale correlates and spatial heterogeneity in the prevalence of self-reported Asthma across 640 districts in India, using a nationally representative sample of 699,686 women aged 15-49 years from all 36 States/UTs under NFHS-4 (2015-16). METHODS: Analytical methods used in this paper include multivariate logistic regression to examine the adjusted effects of various independent variables on self-reported Asthma and poor-rich ratios (PRR) and concentration index (CI) to understand the economic inequalities in the prevalence of Asthma. For the spatial analysis in the prevalence of Asthma, univariate and bivariate local Moran's I statistic have been computed in addition to measure of spatial autocorrelation and auto regression using spatial error and spatial lag models. RESULTS: Results highlight that women's education was an important marker to the prevalence of Asthma. Smoking tobacco in any form among women were significantly more likely to suffer from Asthma. The prevalence of Asthma was further aggravated among women from the households without a separate room for kitchen, as well as those using unclean fuel for cooking. The poor-rich ratio in the prevalence of Asthma across various States/UTs in India depict inherent inequality. An analysis of spatial clustering in the prevalence of Asthma based on spatial autocorrelation portrays that Moran's I values were significant for improved source of drinking water, clean fuel used for cooking, and household environment. When spatial weights are taken into consideration, the autoregression model noticeably becomes stronger in predicting the prevalence of Asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Any programmatic effort to curb the prevalence of Asthma through vertical interventions may hinge around the use of clean fuel, poverty, and lifestyle of subjects, irrespective of urban-rural place of their residence, environmental and ecological factors.

Genetic profiling of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite population in uncomplicated malaria from India.

BACKGROUND: The genetic complexity and the existence of several polymorphisms in parasites are the major hindrances for the malaria control programmes of the country. The genetic profiling in the parasite populations in India will provide useful baseline data for future studies elucidating the parasite structure and distribution of drug resistance genotypes in different regions. METHODS: The blood samples of symptomatic patients were collected and analysed for drug resistance genes (Pfcrt, Pfmdr-1, dhfr, dhps and k13) and gametocyte genes (Pfs25, Pfg377); in vitro drug sensitivity assay by schizont maturation inhibition (SMI) was also performed in adapted field isolates. RESULTS: Of the 122 field isolates analysed; 65.5% showed Pfcrt K76T mutant alleles, 61.4% Pfmdr-1 N86Y mutants, 59.5% dhfr mutants, 59.8% dhps mutants was observed, but no polymorphism was seen for k13. The sequence analysis of Pfg377 gene revealed five types of populations in the field isolates. The inhibitory concentrations (IC50) for anti-malarial drugs viz chloroquine (CQ), artesunate (AS), were in the range of 10.11-113.2 nM and 2.26-4.08 nM, respectively, in the field isolates evaluate by in vitro assay. The IC50 values for CQ have shown a remarkable reduction on comparison with the previous available data, whereas a slight increase in the IC50 values for AS was observed in the study. CONCLUSIONS: The increase in mutation rate in drug resistance allelic loci with inhibitory concentration of CQ and AS drugs was observed in the field isolates and high diversity in Pfg377 gametocyte gene indicate towards parasite multifactorial behaviour. The knowledge of the prevalent drug resistance genes is important for intervention measures to be successful and efforts should also be made to prevent transmission of P. falciparum.

'MATRI-SUMAN' a capacity building and text messaging intervention to enhance maternal and child health service utilization among pregnant women from rural Nepal: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Capacity development of health volunteers and text messaging to pregnant women through mobile phones have shown improved maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes and is associated with increased utilisation of MCH services. However, such interventions are uncommon in Nepal. We aim to carry out an intervention with the hypothesis that capacity building and text messaging intervention will increase the MCH service utilisation. METHOD/DESIGN: MATRI-SUMAN is a 12-month cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT). The trial involves pregnant women from 52 clusters of six village development committees (VDCs) covering 66,000 populations of Dhanusha district of Nepal. In the intervention clusters, Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) will receive capacity development skills through reinforcement training, supervision and monitoring skills for the promotion of health seeking behaviour among pregnant women and study participants will receive periodic promotional text messaging service about MCH components through mobile phones. A sample of 354with equal numbers in each study arm is estimated using power calculation formula. The primary outcomes of this study are the rate of utilization of skilled birth attendants and consumption of a specified diversified meal. The secondary outcomes are: four antenatal (ANC) visits, weight gain of women during pregnancy, delivery of a baby at the health facility, postnatal care (PNC) visits, positive changes in child feeding practices among mothers, performance of FCHVs in MCH service utilization. DISCUSSION: The intervention is designed to enhance the capacity of health volunteers for the promotion of health seeking behaviour among pregnant women and text messaging through a mobile phone to expecting mothers to increase MCH service utilization. The trial if proven effective will have policy implications in poor resource settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN60684155, ( https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN60684155 ). The trial was registered retrospectively.

Reliability and validity of general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) for male tannery workers: a study carried out in Kanpur, India.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability, validity and factor structure of GHQ-12 questionnaire on male tannery workers of India. We have tested three different factor models of the GHQ-12. METHODS: This paper used primary data obtained from a cross-sectional household study of tannery workers from Jajmau area of the city of Kanpur in northern India, which was conducted during January-June, 2015, as part of a doctoral program. The study covered 286 tannery workers from the study area. An interview schedule containing GHQ-12 was used for tannery workers who had completed at least 1 year at their present occupation preceding the survey. To test reliability, Cronbach's alpha test was used. The convergent test was used for validity. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare three factor structures for the GHQ-12. RESULTS: A total of 286 samples were analyzed in this study. The mean age of the tannery workers in this study was 38 years (SD = 1.42). We found the alpha coefficient to be 0.93 for the complete sample. The value of alpha represents the acceptable internal consistency for all the groups. Each item of scale showed almost the same internal consistency of 0.93 for the male tannery workers. The correlation between factor 1 (Anxiety and Depression) and factor 2 (Social Dysfunction) was 0.92. The correlation between factor 1 (Anxiety and Depression) and factor 3 (Loss of confidence) was the highest 0.98. Comparative fit index (CFI) estimate best-fitted for model-III that gave the CFI value 0.97. The SRMR indicator gave the lowest value 0.031 for the model-III. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the Hindi version of GHQ-12 is a reliable and valid tool for measuring psychological distress in male tannery workers of Kanpur city, India. Study found that the model proposed by the Graetz was the best fitted model for the data.

A comparative study of occurrence and fate of endocrine disruptors: diethyl phthalate and dibutyl phthalate in ASP- and SBR-based wastewater treatment plants.

Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals which affect endocrine system by bio-accumulation in aquatic organisms and produce adverse health effects in aquatic organisms as well as human beings, when come in contact. Present study focuses on occurrence and removal of two phthalates: diethylphthalate (DEP) and dibutylphthalate (DBP) in two full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) i.e. sewage treatment plants (STPs) based on well-adopted technologies, activated sludge process (ASP) and sequencing batch reactor (SBR).Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was performed for both wastewater and sludge sample for determination and identification of the concentration of these compounds in both STPs by monitoring the STPs for 9 months. It was observed that the concentration of DEP was less than DBP in the influent of ASP and SBR. Average concentrations of DEP and DBP in sludge sample of ASP were found to be 2.15 and 2.08 ng/g, whereas in SBR plant, these values were observed as 1.71 and 2.01 ng/g, respectively. Concerning the removal efficiency of DEP, SBR and ASP plants were found effective with removal efficiency of 91.51 and 91.03 %, respectively. However, in the case of DBP, SBR showed lower removal efficiency (85.42 %) as compared to ASP (92.67 %). Comparative study of both plants proposed that in ASP plant, DBP reduction was higher than the SBR. Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) analysis also confirmed the same result of sludge analysis for both STPs. Sludge disposal studied with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques confirmed that sludge of both STPs have high calorific value and can be used as fuel to make fuel-briquettes and bottom ash to make firebricks.

Ordering kinetics in liquid crystals with long-ranged interactions.

We present the results from comprehensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of ordering kinetics in d = 2 liquid crystals (LCs). Our LC system is described by the two-component Lebwohl-Lasher model with long-ranged interactions, V(r) ∼ r(-n). We find that systems with n ≥ 2 show the same dynamical behavior as the nearest-neighbor case (n = ∞). This contradicts available theoretical predictions.

Latent class analysis of chronic disease co-occurrence, clustering and their determinants in India using Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) India Wave-2.

Background: Understanding chronic disease prevalence, patterns, and co-occurrence is pivotal for effective health care planning and disease prevention strategies. In this paper, we aimed to identify the clustering of major non-communicable diseases among Indian adults aged ≥50 years based on their self-reported diagnosed non-communicable disease status and to find the risk factors that heighten the risk of developing the identified disease clusters. Methods: We utilised data from the nationally representative survey Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE Wave-2). The eligible sample size was 6298 adults aged ≥50 years. We conducted the latent class analysis to uncover latent subgroups of multimorbidity and the multinomial logistic regression to identify the factors linked to observed latent class membership. Results: The latent class analysis grouped our sample of men and women >49 years old into three groups - mild multimorbidity risk (41%), moderate multimorbidity risk (30%), and severe multimorbidity risk (29%). In the mild multimorbidity risk group, the most prevalent diseases were asthma and arthritis, and the major prevalent disease in the moderate multimorbidity risk group was low near/distance vision, followed by depression, asthma, and lung disease. Angina, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke were the major diseases in the severe multimorbidity risk category. Individuals with higher ages had an 18% and 15% higher risk of having moderate multimorbidity and severe multimorbidity compared to those in the mild multimorbidity category. Females were more likely to have a moderate risk (3.36 times) and 2.82 times more likely to have severe multimorbidity risk. Conclusions: The clustering of diseases highlights the importance of integrated disease management in primary care settings and improving the health care system to accommodate the individual's needs. Implementing preventive measures and tailored interventions, strengthening the health and wellness centres, and delivering comprehensive primary health care services for secondary and tertiary level hospitalisation may cater to the needs of multimorbid patients.

Hub gene identification and immune infiltration analysis in hepatocellular carcinoma: Computational approach.

In the case of hepatocellular carcinoma, there is a need to find novel immune biomarkers to predict cancer prognosis, which will help prolong patient survival. On the basis of these findings, we explored the role of the hub genes in hepatocellular carcinoma via computational analysis for future immunotherapy. To study this phenomenon, we selected three datasets downloaded from the GEO database (GSE25097, GSE76427 and GSE84402). The gene expression analysis platform (GEAP) online tool was used for the data analysis to identify the DEGs. Functional enrichment analysis was performed by GO and KEGG enrichment analysis. The genes associated with these genes were identified via Cytoscape software. Immune cell infiltration and correlation analysis were used to screen the hub genes. The results revealed that the PTTG1, NCAPG, RACGAP1, PBK, ASPM, AURKA, CDCA5, KIF20A, MELK and PRC1 genes were correlated with immune targets, and these hub gene biomarkers will aid in future cancer prognosis and immunotherapy targeting in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40203-024-00215-2.

Development of Deltamethrin-Laced Attractive Toxic Sugar Bait to Control Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) Population.

Background: The attractive toxic sugar bait (ATSB) is a promising strategy for controlling mosquitoes at the adult stage. The strategy is based on the use of a combination of fruit juice, sugar, and a toxin in order to attract and kill the adult mosquitoes. The selection of the components and optimization of their concentrations is significant for the formulation of an effective ATSB. Methods: The present study formulated nine ATSBs and evaluated their efficacy against two laboratory strains (AND-Aedes aegypti and AND-Aedes aegypti-DL10) and two wildcaught colonized strains of Aedes aegypti (GVD-Delhi and SHD-Delhi). Initially, nine attractive sugar baits (ASBs) were prepared using a mixture of 100% fermented guava juice (attractant) with 10% sucrose solution (w/v) in 1 : 1 ratio. ATSBs were formulated by mixing each ASB with different concentrations of deltamethrin in the ratio of 9 : 1 to obtain final deltamethrin concentration of 0.003125-0.8 mg/10 mL ATSB. Cage bioassays were conducted with 50 mosquitoes for 24 h in order to evaluate the efficacy of each ATSB against the four strains of Ae. aegypti. The data were statistically analyzed using PASW software 19.0 program and 2-way ANOVA. Results: The ATSB formulations registered 8.33-97.44% mortality against AND-Aedes aegypti and 5.15-96.91% mortality against AND-Aedes aegypti-DL10 strains of Ae. aegypti, while GVD-Delhi strain registered 2.04-95.83% mortality and SHD-Delhi strain showed 5.10-97.96% mortality. The administration of 0.8 mg of deltamethrin within 10 mL of attractive toxic sugar bait (ATSB) has led to the maximum mortality rate in adult mosquitoes. Conclusions: The ATSBs formulated with guava juice-ASB and deltamethrin (9 : 1) showed toxin dose-dependent toxicity by all the four strains of Ae. aegypti. Most effective dosage was found as 0.8 mg deltamethrin/10 mL ATSB which imparted 96% to 98% mortality in adult mosquitoes. The investigations demonstrated the efficacy of deltamethrin-laced ATSB formulations against Ae. aegypti and highlighted the need for conduct of structured field trials and investigating the impact on disease vectors and nontarget organisms.

FishMicrosat: a microsatellite database of commercially important fishes and shellfishes of the Indian subcontinent.

BACKGROUND: Microsatellite DNA is one of many powerful genetic markers used for the construction of genetic linkage maps and the study of population genetics. The biological databases in public domain hold vast numbers of microsatellite sequences for many organisms including fishes. The microsatellite data available in these data sources were extracted and managed into a database that facilitates sequences analysis and browsing relevant information. The system also helps to design primer sequences for flanking regions of repeat loci for PCR identification of polymorphism within populations. DESCRIPTION: FishMicrosat is a database of microsatellite sequences of fishes and shellfishes that includes important aquaculture species such as Lates calcarifer, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Penaeus monodon, Labeo rohita, Oreochromis niloticus, Fenneropenaeus indicus and Macrobrachium rosenbergii. The database contains 4398 microsatellite sequences of 41 species belonging to 15 families from the Indian subcontinent. GenBank of NCBI was used as a prime data source for developing the database. The database presents information about simple and compound microsatellites, their clusters and locus orientation within sequences. The database has been integrated with different tools in a web interface such as primer designing, locus finding, mapping repeats, detecting similarities among sequences across species, and searching using motifs and keywords. In addition, the database has the ability to browse information on the top 10 families and the top 10 species, through record overview. CONCLUSIONS: FishMicrosat database is a useful resource for fish and shellfish microsatellite analyses and locus identification across species, which has important applications in population genetics, evolutionary studies and genetic relatedness among species. The database can be expanded further to include the microsatellite data of fishes and shellfishes from other regions and available information on genome sequencing project of species of aquaculture importance.

Phase ordering kinetics in uniaxial nematic liquid crystals with second- and fourth-rank interactions.

We present comprehensive results of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the phase ordering dynamics in d = 2 nematic liquid crystals. We study a system of size N (2)(N = 512) with molecules confined to a 512×512 square lattice and report the results for two LC Hamiltonians: generalized Lebwohl-Lasher (GLL) model and r(-6) dependent anisotropic dispersion interaction potential. In these Hamiltonians a fourth-rank Legendre polynomial P4 interaction term is added to the usual second-rank P2 term. We find that in both the cases the presence of the P4 interaction term significantly influences the nematic domains morphology. Our numerical data show a diffusive growth law with a logarithmic correction: L(t) ∼ (t/ln t)(1/2).

Biodiversity of freshwater fish of a protected river in India: comparison with unprotected habitat.

In India, freshwater environments are experiencing serious threats to biodiversity, and there is an urgent priority for the search of alternative techniques to promote fish biodiversity conservation and management. With this aim, the present study was undertaken to assess the fish biodiversity within and outside a river protected area, and to evaluate whether the protected river area provides some benefits to riverine fish biodiversity. To assess this, the pattern of freshwater fish diversity was studied in river Gerua, along with some physicochemical conditions, from April 2000 to March 2004. For this, a comparison was made between a 15km stretch of a protected area (Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary), and an unprotected one 85km downstream. In each site some physicochemical conditions were obtained, and fish were caught by normal gears and the diversity per site described. Our results showed that water temperature resulted warmest during the pre-monsoon season (25 degreeC) and low during the winter (14-15 degreeC); turbidity considerably varied by season. In the protected area, a total of 87 species belonging to eight orders, 22 families and 52 genera were collected; while a maximum of 59 species belonging to six orders, 20 families and 42 genera were recorded from the unprotected areas. Cyprinids were found to be the most dominant genera and Salmostoma bacaila was the most numerous species in the sanctuary area. Other numerous species were Eutropiichthys vacha, Notopterus notopterus, Clupisoma garua and Bagarius bagarius. The results indicated more species, greater abundances, larger individuals, and higher number of endangered fishes within the sanctuary area when compared to the unprotected area. Analysis on the mean abundance of endangered and vulnerable species for the evaluated areas in the sanctuary versus unprotected ones indicated significant differences in fish abundance (p<0.05). These results showed that this riverine protected area could be important for conservation and management of fish diversity in the region, especially for resident and threatened species.