scholarly journals Tobacco and Alcohol Use and the Impact of School Based Antitobacco Education for Knowledge Enhancement among Adolescent Students of Rural Kerala, India

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radhakrishnan Jayakrishnan ◽  
Seema Geetha ◽  
Jagathnath Krishna Kumara Pillai Mohanan Nair ◽  
Gigi Thomas ◽  
Paul Sebastian

Objectives. Limited information is available on adolescent tobacco and alcohol use in rural Kerala, the southernmost state in India. The study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use among adolescent school students and further to understand the extent of knowledge pertaining to tobacco before and after conducting awareness programmes in schools.Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 government schools of rural Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state based on a multistaged sampling design. Using a pretested semistructured questionnaire, prevalence and patterns of tobacco use by students and their households, as well as students’ knowledge on tobacco hazards before and after delivering antitobacco messages, were collected.Results.The overall prevalence of self-reported ever users of tobacco in the current academic year was 7.4% (95% CI 5.86–8.94), while that of ever alcohol users was 5.6% (95% CI 4.25–6.95). Knowledge assessment scores revealed a significant increase in the mean knowledge scores after posttraining evaluation (mean score = 10.34) when compared to pretraining evaluation (mean score = 9.26) (p<0.0001).Conclusion. Apart from antitobacco awareness programmes, strict monitoring of trade of tobacco and alcohol products near educational institutions has to be conducted consistently to curb the problem.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 4505-4509
Author(s):  
Anna Różańska-Walędziak ◽  
Paweł Bartnik ◽  
Joanna Kacperczyk-Bartnik ◽  
Krzysztof Czajkowski ◽  
Maciej Walędziak

Abstract Introduction Obesity is associated with hyperestrogenism along with other hormonal abnormalities affecting the menstrual cycle. The most effective and decisive method of obesity treatment is bariatric surgery. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of bariatric surgery on menstrual cycle, the incidence of menstrual abnormalities, hyperandrogenism manifestation, and contraception use. Materials and Methods It was a cross-sectional study of 515 pre-menopausal women who had undergone bariatric surgery between 1999 and 2017 in a bariatric center. Data was collected via anonymous questionnaire, and the questions covered a 1-year period before the surgery and the last year before questionnaire completion. Results Before the surgery, 38.6% of the patients reported irregular menstruations in comparison with 25.0% after bariatric surgery (RR = 0.65; 95%CI 0.53–0.79). The mean number of menstruations per year did not differ before and after surgery (10.2 ± 3.9 vs 10.4 ± 3.3; p < .45). There were no statistically significant differences in terms of prolonged menstruations, acne, and hirsutism prevalence. A total of 14.4% of patients before surgery reported estrogen-based contraception use in comparison with 15.0% after the surgery (p < .95). There were no significant differences in the frequency of OC use (11.0% before surgery vs 13.6% 12 months after the surgery vs 11.5% at the moment of survey administration; p < 0.46). Conclusion Bariatric surgery improves the regularity of the menstrual cycle in obese women in reproductive age. The lack of any changes in the combined hormonal contraception (CHC) use, especially OC, before and after bariatric surgery may be a result of a possibly low level of contraception counseling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Sarita Tuladhar ◽  
Jamuna Gurung

Introduction: Conjunctivitis is a common health problem in Nepal. It is inflammation of conjunctiva presenting as red eye. It is a communicable eye disease. Health education to the students and proper management can help spread of the disease. Knowledge of conjunctivitis among school students will help in prevention of the disease. So the study was carried out to assess the knowledge of conjunctivitis among high school students in Pokhara valley of Western Nepal. Materials/ Methods: A school based cross sectional study was performed among six government schools in western Nepal from May 2019 to June 2019. Students from grade eight, nine and ten were included in the study. Data was collected using structured questionnaire including demographic data, knowledge regarding sign symptoms of conjunctivitis, treatment, prevention, complication of conjunctivitis. Data was analysed using SPSS version 11.6. Result: A total of 523 students were included in the study. The mean age of the students was 14.7 ± 1.2 years with majority of females (53%). Nearly 2/3rd of the students (61.6%) had heard of conjunctivitis. Majority of the students (87.4%) of the students mentioned that it is communicable while 80.3% of the students correctly mentioned its etiology. Majority of the students (97.9%) mentioned that it is curable with treatment as first option (97.5%). Majority of the students (98.3%) correctly responded to the preventive measures but majority of the students (83.2%) wrongly mentioned mode of transmission. Conclusion: Secondary school students in Western Nepal have poor knowledge of conjunctivitis. Appropriate eye health education should be given to school students to prevent rapid spread of infective conjunctivitis.  


2020 ◽  
pp. 019459982096963
Author(s):  
Vanessa F. Torrecillas ◽  
Kaden Neuberger ◽  
Alexander Ramirez ◽  
Paul Krakovitz ◽  
Jeremy D. Meier

Objective Third-party payers advocate for prior authorization (PA) to reduce overutilization of health care resources. The impact of PA in elective surgery is understudied, especially in cases where evidence-based clinical practice guidelines define operative candidacy. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of PA on the incidence of pediatric tonsillectomy. Study Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Health claims database from a third-party payer. Methods Any pediatric patient who had evaluation for tonsillectomy from 2016 to 2019 was eligible for inclusion. A time series analysis was used to evaluate the change in incidence of tonsillectomy before and after PA. Lag time from consultation to surgery before and after PA was compared with segmented regression. Results A total of 10,047 tonsillectomy claims met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Female patients made up 51% of claims, and the mean age was 7.9 years. Just 1.5% of claims were denied after PA implementation. There was no change in the incidence of tonsillectomy for all plan types ( P = .1). Increased lag time from consultation to surgery was noted immediately after PA implementation by 2.38 days (95% CI, 0.23-4.54; P = .030); otherwise, there was no significant change over time ( P = .98). Conclusion A modest number of tonsillectomy claims were denied approval after implementation of PA. The value of PA for pediatric tonsillectomy is questionable, as it did not result in decreased incidence of tonsillectomy in this cohort.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-264
Author(s):  
D Ranabhat ◽  
S Nepal ◽  
B. Regmi

Menstruation is a part of female reproductive cycle that starts when girls become sexually mature at the time of puberty. This study sought to assess the menstrual hygiene practice and school absenteeism among the rural school going adolescent girls. A descriptive cross-sectional study was done among 321 female high school students of 4 selected government schools of Kalikot a rural district of Nepal. It was found that majority of student’s menstrual hygiene practice was poor i.e. 86.9%. Majority of respondents (96 %) used clean cloth during their menstruation cycle, whereas only 4% of respondents used sanitary pad. Almost every adolescent girl i.e. 98.8 % practiced any cultural restriction. Nearly 1 in 4 respondents (22.1%) did not attend school during their last menstruation and more than 1 in 10 adolescent girls felt that their academic performance was degraded after menarche. Adolescent girls of 10-14 age group were three time more likely to have poor practice than those who were between 15-19 years. Adolescent girls from nuclear families are 1.9 times more likely to be absent from school during the menstrual cycle in comparison to girls from joint families. The study revealed that among the adolescent girls of the study area, the overall menstrual hygiene practice was found to be poor and the various beliefs were found to be inappropriate and school absenteeism was also prevalent during menstrual cycle.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. e027233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen S Marshall ◽  
Mark McMillan ◽  
Ann Koehler ◽  
Andrew Lawrence ◽  
Jenny MacLennan ◽  
...  

IntroductionInvasive meningococcal disease is uncommon but associated with a high-case fatality rate. Carriage prevalence of the causative bacteria,Neisseria meningitidis, is high in adolescents. A large (n=34 500) cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess the impact of a meningococcal B (MenB) vaccine on meningococcal carriage was implemented in the state of South Australia (SA) for year 10, 11 and 12 senior school students in 2017–2018. This study will assess the impact of MenB vaccine (4CMenB) on carriage prevalence in school leavers in SA, 1 and 2 years after implementation of the cluster RCT in adolescents. Measuring the impact of population programmes on carriage can assist in informing future meningococcal immunisation programmes such as targeted age groups and use of catch-up campaigns.Methods and analysisThis repeat cross-sectional study will assess carriage prevalence in 2018 and 2019. All school leavers who attended year 12 in any school in SA in 2018 or 2019 will be invited to participate in this study. An oropharyngeal swab will be taken from each participating student and a risk factor questionnaire completed by the student following informed consent. Students will attend clinics at SA universities, technical colleges, and metropolitan, rural and remote government council clinics. Confirmed vaccination history will allow a comparison in carriage prevalence between vaccinated and unvaccinated school leavers. A sample size of 4096 students per year will provide 80% power to detect a 20% difference in carriage prevalence of disease-causing meningococci (defined as genogroup A, B, C, W, X or Y) between years.Ethics and disseminationThe study was approved by the Women’s and Children’s Health Network Human Research Ethics Committee. Results will be published in international peer review journals and presented at national and international conferences.Trial registration numberNCT03419533; Pre-results


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Levent ◽  
A Ozer ◽  
A Gokce

Abstract Background Usage rate of cigarette, alcohol, and substance is increasing day by day.Protectiv efactors have primary importance for prevention of substance use.The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalance of using cigarette, alcohol and substance and research relationship between risk factories and substance using, among high school students. Methods İn Malatya city there are 17866 Anatolian, 14381 Vocational,10362 Religious high school students.Totally all of this 42629 students form the universe of this cross-sectional study. When the prevalance of using cigarette accepted as 25 % in high school students; sample size in Anatolian high school,Occupatioanal high school and Religious high school was found 283, 283 and 280 respectively.This survey was conducted in 9 different high schools which choosed by stratified sampling method, and 975 high school students have been reached in this survey.İn the statistical analysing of data,Chi square test, logistic regression test were used. Results The prevalance of cigarette, alcohol and substance using found 34%, 14.3% and 4.2% respectivey among students participating in the survey.Cigarette using; in male students is 2.2 times higher (Cl 95%,1.661-3.073), in alcohol users is 7.6 times higher(Cl 95%,4.919-11.834)(p &lt; 0.05).Alcohol using is 9.6 times higher(Cl 95%, 5.712-16.250) in cigarette smokers(p &lt; 0.05).And alcohol using in students with alcohol use in their families is 26.8 times higher(Cl 95%,12.489-57.711)(p &lt; 0.05).Substance using; found 12.2 times higher(Cl 95%,4.900-30.566) in alcohol users,2.4 times higher(Cl 95%,5.712-16.250) in cigarette smokers and 5.6 times higher(Cl 95%,1.366-23.068)in students with substance use in their families (p &lt; 0.05). Conclusions Cigarette using is more common in males and alcohol users.Alcohol use increses in smokers and students with alcohol use in their families.Substance use among students increases when student uses cigarette or alcohol and if there are substanceuse in their families. Key messages Alcohol use increses in smokers, smoking increses in alcohol users. Substance use increses in smokers, alcohol users and in the students with substance use in their families.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 9549-9549
Author(s):  
Chunkit Fung ◽  
Chintan Pandya ◽  
Katia Noyes ◽  
Emelian Scosyrev ◽  
Deepak M. Sahasrabudhe ◽  
...  

9549 Background: The impact of BC on HRQL is poorly understood. To our knowledge, this is the first and largest cross-sectional study that compares HRQL of patients before and after BC diagnosis (DX). Methods: Our sample included 1,476 BC patients (≥ age 65) within the SEER-Medicare Health Outcomes Survey linkage database (1998-2007). We assessed differences in HRQL as measured by SF-36 physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) summary scores in patients who had a survey >1 yr before BC DX (n=620) and those who had a survey after BC DX (n=856). We compared groups by year from BC DX using regression analyses and results were adjusted for cancer stage, race, gender, age at BC DX, marital status, education, income, smoking status, activity of daily living (ADLs), and non-cancer comorbidities. Results: Patients who had a survey after BC DX were diagnosed with BC at an older age than those with a survey before BC DX (55.9% at age ≥75 yr vs. 36.8%; P<0.01). Other baseline demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were similar. Baseline HRQL were poor in patients before DX (PCS mean=40.1; MCS mean=51.1) with 50.6% and 31.9% of them having comorbidity score ≥2 and impairment of ≥1 ADLs, respectively. After BC DX, significant decreases in PCS (-2.7; 95% CI -3.8,-1.7) and MCS (-1.4; 95% CI -2.6, -0.3) were observed, with HRQL being lowest in those who had BC DX within 1 yr (PCS mean= 36.6; MCS mean=49.7). Declines in PCS during the <1, 1-3, 3-5, 5-10, and 10+ yr periods after BC DX compared to before BC DX were -3.8 (P<0.01), -2.5 (P<0.01), -2.2 (P=0.01), -1.1 (P=0.19) and -0.8 (P=0.57) whereas decreases in MCS were -2.0 (P=0.01), -2.2 (P<0.01), -1.2 (P=0.21), -0.1 (P=0.92), -0.8 (P=0.62) respectively. More advanced BC, lower educational level, higher comorbidity score, and impaired ADLs were significantly associated with both worse PCS and MCS after BC DX (P<0.05). Lower income and older age at BC DX showed significant association with low PCS (P<0.05). Conclusions: Older BC patients are a vulnerable population with poor baseline HRQL. HRQL of patients after BC DX is significantly worse than HRQL of patients before DX, possibly due to therapy and/or disease progression. Future research that evaluates interventions to improve HRQL in older patients with BC is critical.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Enguday Tirfeneh Gebeyehu ◽  
Mengesha Srahbzu Biresaw

Introduction. The impact of alcohol use among adolescents is multidisciplinary and affects the adolescent’s academic performance, precipitates with sexually transmitted infections or psychiatric disorders, and disturbs the social domain of adolescents. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of alcohol use among adolescents aged 15–19 years at the governmental high schools of Aksum Town, Tigray, Ethiopia, in 2019. Methods. A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 to 30 January 2019 at Aksum town high school. Alcohol use was assessed by asking the question “have you used at least one of the alcoholic beverages in the last three months for nonmedical purposes?” Study participants were selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected with face-to-face interview and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 22. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to see the association between alcohol use and associated factors. Adjusted odds ratio at a p value < 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval was taken to declare the statistical significance of variables. Result. About 633 adolescents aged 15–19 years were addressed with a response rate of 99.7%. Prevalence of alcohol use was found to be 39.7% [95% CI (35.7, 43.6)]. Being male [AOR = 1.80; 95% CI (1.24, 2.60)], fathers’ educational status 1–8 grades [AOR = 2.98; 95% CI (1.60, 5.53)], fathers’ occupation farming [AOR = 4.24; 95% CI (2.038.85)], experienced parental neglect [AOR = 1.75; 95% CI (1.20, 2.55)], strong social support [AOR = 1.79; 95% CI (1.11, 2.87)], and family size of greater than five [AOR = 2.03; 95%CI (1.39, 2.97)] were factors identified to be significantly associated with alcohol use among adolescents aged 15–19 years. Conclusion. In the current study, the prevalence of alcohol use is found to be high when compared to other populations. A strong association has been found between alcohol use and lower paternal educational status and farming as an occupation of parents. There should be a regular awareness creation program for parents with lower education about the devastating effects of alcohol on adolescents.


Author(s):  
Bianca Simone Zeigelboim ◽  
Maria Renata José ◽  
Maria Izabel Rodrigues Severiano ◽  
Geslaine Janaína Bueno dos Santos ◽  
Helio Afonso Ghizoni Teive ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive degeneration characterized by motor disorders, such as tremor, bradykinesia, stiffness and postural instability. Objective To evaluate the independence, confidence and balance in the development of daily activities in patients with PD before and after rehabilitation. Methods A descriptive, retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out with 16 patients (mean 57.6 ± 18.7 years), submitted to anamnesis, otolaryngological evaluation and vestibular assessment. The Vestibular Disorders Activities of Daily Living (VADL) and the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scales were applied before and after rehabilitation with virtual reality. Results a) The instrumental subscale of the questionnaire showed statistically significant result (p = 0.022; 95% CI 1.21; 2.21) between the first and second assessments; b) The correlation between the questionnaires showed statistically significant result in the ambulation subscale (p = 0.011; 95% CI −0.85; −0.17) first and (p = 0.002, 95% CI −0.88; −0.31) second assessments, and the functional subscale was only verified in the second assessment (p = 0.011, 95% CI −0.85; −0.17); and c) The patients presented clinical improvement in the final assessment after rehabilitation with significant result for the tightrope walk (p = 0.034, 95% CI −12.5; −0.3) and ski slalom games (p = 0.005, 95% CI −34.8; −6.6). Conclusions Our results showed that the VADL and ABC questionnaires, applied before and after rehabilitation, were important tools to measure the independence, confidence and balance while developing daily activities. The VADL and ABC questionnaires may effectively contribute to quantify the effect of the applied therapeutics and, consequently, its impact on the quality of life of patients with PD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doaa Alhabib ◽  
Arwa Alumran ◽  
Saja Alrayes

UNSTRUCTURED Displaying patients’ data on electronic dashboards in the emergency room provides emergency room employees continuous visual monitoring. With this study, we aimed to measure the effects of displaying data on electronic dashboards on the quality and safety of the patient care provided in the emergency room (ER). We used a cross-sectional study design to compare the results of specific quality and safety indicators before and after the implementation of the dashboards in the ER of the Royal Commission Hospital, Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Our results showed statistically significant improvements on the waiting time for all ER patients, the total length of stay in the ER, and the time from arrival until an electrocardiogram test was performed for patients who came to the ER with symptoms suggesting coronary artery disease. Future studies might be conducted to evaluate the end-users’ utilization and satisfaction of the ER dashboards.


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