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Background: National legislation (COTPA) in India has focused on school children with dedicated section (6a and 6b) for tobacco control at Educational Institutions. Innovative mediums like Comic offer unique and engaging medium for dissemination of health information. However, its true potential remains unexplored in tobacco control. The study was conducted to develop and validate Comic for promotion of tobacco control laws in school settings. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted among school teachers in Delhi in three phases: (1) need assessment, (2) development of Comic, and (3) validation (face/content validity by experts in public health/tobacco control, and construct validity by school teachers). Ethical clearance was obtained from Institutional Ethical Review Board. Prevalidated, structured, close-ended, and self-administered Questionnaire was used for the data collection. SPSS version 21 was used for descriptive and inferential results. Results: Phase 1 showed, out of 150 school teachers, 121 participated (80.66%). Mean age and teaching experience was 41.85 ± 9.76 years and 10.35 ± 6.53 years, respectively. Overall awareness about COTPA was 47.9% (n = 58) and COTPA sections 4 and 6 were 37.2% (n = 45). Majority 59.5% (n = 72) reported lack of access to training material. Phase 2 and 3 showed overall content validity index (CVI) score of 0.84. Construct validity evaluation from pre–postintervention yield mean ± SD scores of 3.94 ± 0.99 and 7.97 ± 1.17, respectively, (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Comic was developed on sound theoretical basis with satisfactory face, content and construct validity, to raise awareness about tobacco control among school children, and teachers to promote tobacco-free school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: COVID-19 has led to a spate of rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis cases in India, the epidemiology of which was least understood before. Only a few case series and case reports discuss the symptomatology of mucormycosis. Aims: The primary objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of pain in patients with mucormycosis. The secondary objectives include the type, regional distribution, characteristics and determinants of pain in patients with mucormycosis. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted on consecutive adult patients with mucormycosis in our hospital. Materials and Methods: Following recruitment, a preplanned written questionnaire that was tested for validity with peers, with closed-ended queries was filled on a sole visit by an anesthesia postgraduate based on the response by the patient. Statistical analysis used: Categorical variables were summarized as proportion and percentage. To compare quantitative variables, Chi-square test was used. Results: A total of 69 out of the 80 patients recruited complained of pain (P value = 0.468). A total of 76.8% of patients had pain in the supraorbital region with 84% of the patients complaining of throbbing pain and 98.6% needing analgesics. Gender, pre-existing diabetes mellitus, organs affected due to mucormycosis, prior steroid usage, prior COVID illness, surgical intervention, and previous experience of pain in the same region had no influence on the presence or severity of pain. Conclusions: Pain is one of the presenting symptoms in patients with mucormycosis which is usually in the supraorbital and maxillary region, nociceptive type and throbbing in nature, and moderate to severe in intensity usually managed with simple analgesics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the community living skills involving money handling skills of children with learning disability and typically developing children aged 10 to 14 years. Method: 139 children with typical development and 31 with learning disability aged 10-14 years studying in integrated schools participated in the study. The children were divided into two groups based on their standards and age, Group 1:5th and 6th std (10-11 yrs), Group 2:7th, 8th and 9th std (12-14yrs). A student's questionnaire on financial community living skills was developed and administered on the children. The children were scored on a dichotomy scale for the desired and not desired responses. Results: Findings indicated that children with typical development are more independent than the children with learning disability of same age. The children with learning disability were also found to have problems in communication, awareness and process, apart from the financial handling. Conclusion: Children with typical development attain the community living skills by 14 years. However, in children with learning disability the competency is not achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]