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Background: The dermatological condition accounts for an important public health problem of the global load of disease in low and middle-income countries and places significant pressure on primary healthcare centers. There is heterogeneity in the frequency of diverse skin conditions between different areas (1). Most of the knowledge presently available about various aspects of skin diseases is based on observations made and data collected from secondary and tertiary level hospitals (2). Information on community-based prevalence and pattern of skin diseases would be a better measure of burden due to skin diseases in general population in order to assist in the planning of possible intervention strategies (3). Aims & Objectives: To find out the prevalence, distribution, and determinants of various dermatological manifestations at the community level in Doiwala block of district Dehradun. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of 12 months, the study subjects comprised of individuals of all age groups. A sample size of 834 (416 males & 418 females) was calculated by using current prevalence of skin diseases (43.7% in males & 44.7% in females) in Uttarakhand (1). Results: Nearly half of the studied population (45.8%) had some type of dermatological manifestations. It was slightly higher in females (47.1%) than males (44.5%). Out of 382 symptomatic respondents, 247 (64.7) had infective dermatoses followed by 124 (32.5%) non-infective, 6 (1.5%) others and 5 (1.3%) nutritional deficiency dermatoses. The gender-wise distribution of various types of dermatoses was found to be statistically significant (χ²-15.225, df-3, p-0.002). Conclusions: The prevalence of dermatological conditions in district Dehradun is fairly high with increased prevalence in the younger age group that might be an indicator to the fact that the burden of skin diseases may go to rise in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic scales are being used for determining the socio-economic status of study subjects which in turn is important indicator of health and nutritional status of an individual. Since BG Prasad socio-economic classification is an income-based scale and, therefore it demands constant update to take inflation and depreciation of rupee into account. Among all socio economic scales used in India BG Prasad socio-economic classification is one of most frequently used scale. BG Prasad scale was originally devised in 1961 and was later modified by himself in 1968 and 1970. These details of the calculations involved will help many researchers to calculate specific income categories for their ongoing and prospective research work in current calendar year. State-specific CPI (IW) should be used to determine more accurate income categories by researchers in community health-related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A deficient data is among the biggest obstacle facing planners and policy makers. Health data collection in the developing world is often hampered by the high costs and inefficiencies of traditional large-scale paper-based surveys. mHealth using Epi-Info is most appropriate tool to create, share, deploy health surveys and for strengthening of health systems. The program runs on free and open software, is easy to use, and can be downloaded to handheld devices to be used by workers in the field. Objectives: To find out the usefulness and limitations of data collection for mHealth by use of Epi Info™ software. Material and Methods: The devices used Epi Info 7.1.5 (Android version), which has been modeled as a database with variables of the traditional form. A cross sectional survey among adolescents regarding their health needs was carried out in a sample of 200 adolescents (purposive sampling) of rural hilly (Jaunpur block of Tehri Garhwal district) and plain (Doiwala block of Dehradun district) areas of Uttarakhand by the use of Android tablets with Epi Info™. Results: It was found that adolescent questionnaire tool developed in Epi Info™ android tablet application is a powerful tool for data collection having numerable practical advantages like: Interview Time Tracking (ITT) that gives the reality check in field studies along with cases Geographical presentation by GIS mapping. In addition to this complete filling of data in field so no left over or guessing for data entry operator, paperless, bio-friendly. Despite of Tablet cost, it is cost effective as tablet can be repeatedly used for other surveys. Conclusions: Epi Info™ is a developing open access software for primary data collection and analyzing data from the field, with advantageous benefits of epidemiological surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]