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Introduction: Rational drug prescribing skills of interns remain bleak despite clinical pharmacology training during their second year, warranting the need for further training. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a short-structured learner-centric training program using the World Health Organization (WHO) guide to good prescribing in improving interns' knowledge of rational drug use and their rational drug prescribing skills., Methods: This quasi-experimental study was implemented at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. We conducted a short-structured learner-centric training program on rational drug prescribing for interns in September 2022, using the WHO guide to good prescribing. The medical interns who consented to participate were included in the study. A pre-test was administered at the start of the training, followed by a post-test and feedback questions at the end of the program. Statistical tests used for quantitative data were the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test and McNemar's Chi-square test. Qualitative data were analyzed using manual content analysis., Results: Of the 77 interns who attended the training program, 73 provided consent and completed both the pre-test and the post-test. Their mean age was 22 years, with a slight preponderance of female participants (53.4%). Overall, there was a statistically significant increase in the median (interquartile range) total scores from 52 (44.6 - 60) to 84 (70 - 88) after the training ( P = 0.001), out of a maximum score of 93. Also, a significantly greater number of them wrote legible prescriptions (grade 4/excellent - 44 in pre-test vs 52 in post-test; P = 0.001) after the training., Conclusion: The short-structured learner-centric training program based on the WHO guide to good prescribing significantly improved the knowledge of rational drug use and rational drug prescribing skills among medical interns., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)

Background: A major group of the population, especially antenatal checkup (ANC) mothers and their spouses, people admitted for surgery, and people attending STI clinics, are reluctant to pretest counseling., Objectives: This study has been taken up to explore the barriers and possible solutions to improve the utilization of Facility based integrated counseling and testing center (F-ICTC) counseling services., Materials and Methods: Phase 1: In-depth interview and ranking with stakeholders from the F-ICTC center (n = 13) were conducted to identify the barriers to utilization of F-ICTC and solution for the same. Phase 2., A: Delphi panel with experts (n = 17) was invited through mail to find out the potential solution to improve the utilization of F-ICTC counseling services., Results: Possible barriers from the stakeholders' perspectives were fear of the disease, violate the privacy, unacceptance, gender bias, fear of social stigma and discrimination, and neglect attached to the disease. At third round of Delphi experts had arrived at a consensus regarding of following possible potential solutions: 1. Those who refuse pretest counseling they should be asked to answer a set of questions(which are usually told during counseling), only those questions not answered correctly by them can be corrected, 2.conducive hospital environment, 3.zero discrimination policy, 4. group counseling for ANC mothers and patients in waiting area of the hospital,5. phone counseling for unwilling patients and relocation of testing center and health education camping., Conclusion: Context-specific proactive evidence-based intervention will help in improving the proper utilization of the F-ICTC center., (Copyright © 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Indian Journal of Public Health.)

Introduction: This pandemic has been accompanied by an overabundance of information and misinformation, an 'infodemic' on a global scale which have made acceptability of COVID-19 vaccine a major challenge. The objective of the study was to find out the Beliefs of mothers towards COVID-19 vaccine for children and its impact on vaccine hesitancy., Materials and Methods: After obtaining Institutional ethical clearance and informed consent, a total of 360 mothers who were having at least one child from 5 to 18 years were recruited based on simple random sampling. Face-to-face interview was conducted. The questionnaire was based on the WHO-SAGE working group on vaccine hesitancy. Based on Bartlett's test of sphericity, the model was found to be fit (there is adequate number of correlations for factor analysis) and KMO test results imply the samples are adequate for factor analysis. K means cluster analysis was used to divide the samples into three clusters and individual respondent's cluster membership was also identified., Results: It was found 49.4% of mothers were hesitant to vaccine their children against COVID-19. The seven items (reasons for vaccine hesitancy) were grouped into three dimensions (believes in vaccine effectiveness but concerned about side effects, believes in the importance of taking COVID vaccine, trusts information about COVID vaccine), based on how each item loads on to each of three factors. Cluster 1 was that they believe in effectiveness of vaccine but are concerned about side effects (.92094)., Conclusion: Mothers' concerns were mainly about the safety and adverse effects of vaccine., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2023 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)

Context: A module-based training program for medical interns using World Health Organization guide for good prescription along with the individual feedback on their prescription was developed and implemented., Objective: The objective of the study was to obtain the medical interns' reactions to newly developed skill-based training program on rational treatment., Study Setting: This study was conducted at the Department of Community Medicine., Participants: A total of 96 medical interns were included in the study., Study Design: A cross-sectional study consisting of retro-prefeedback and open-ended questions about self-assessment of perceived skill on rational treatment., Analysis: Collected data were entered in Epi Info (3.5.4) and analyzed., Results: After training, there was a significant increase in self-perceived posttest scores of setting up the therapeutic objective for the treatment (2.9-4.9), ability to select the correct drug (2.8-5.1), ability to select right dose, schedule, and duration of drugs (2.5-4.9). and overall prescription skill (2.9-4.9). There is a significant decrease in self-perceived scores in the skill of practicing polypharmacy (4.1-2.5)., Conclusions: Overall, the training program was taken well and interns perceived their skill on rational treatment was improved as shown by the feedback., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Background: The present study was undertaken to estimate and compare the levels of plasma total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglycerides in patients with oral precancerous lesions/conditions, oral cancer and normal subjects., Materials and Methods: The study comprised of 60 patients with oral precancerous lesions/conditions, 60 patients with oral cancer and a control group of 60 healthy individuals. The diagnosis of oral precancerous lesions/conditions and oral cancer was confirmed histopathologically. Under aseptic condition 5 ml venous blood of overnight fasting patient was withdrawn from each individual. Serum was separated by centrifugation and plasma levels of TC, LDL, HDL, VLDL and triglycerides were estimated. Descriptive statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study. Analysis of variance has been used to find the significance of study parameters between three or more groups of patients, Post-hoc test as Tukey has been used to find the pair wise significance. Significance is assessed at 5% level of significance., Results: Statistically significant decrease in levels of plasma TC, LDL, HDL, VLDL and triglycerides was observed in the precancerous and cancerous groups as compared to the control group. On comparison between precancerous and cancerous groups, significant decrease was observed in cancerous group., Conclusion: The change in lipid levels may have an early diagnostic or prognostic role in the oral premalignant lesions/conditions and oral cancer. The presence of decreased plasma lipid profile should increase the suspicion of these lesions to be investigated further.

Aim: The present study was conducted to determine the most accurate bite mark overlay fabrication technique by studying two physical characteristics, i.e., area and rotation of biting edges of anterior teeth of thirty volunteers. The objective of the study was to evaluate the reliability and efficacy of five commonly used methods of human bite mark overlays using two dimensional (2D) digital images of dental study casts as a gold standard, to rank different methods according to statistically based determination of relative accuracy of each method and to determine its feasibility in Forensic science., Materials and Methods: Overlays were produced from the biting surfaces of six upper and six lower anterior teeth of 30 volunteers using the following five methods: a) hand tracing from study casts, b) hand tracing from wax impressions, c) xerographic method, d) radiopaque impression method and e) 2D computer-based method. Area of the biting edges of the anterior teeth and relative rotation of each anterior tooth were measured and compared., Results: The xerographic method was determined to be the more accurate method with respect to tooth area and rotation. Hand tracing methods, from either wax impressions of teeth or directly from study casts, were determined to be inaccurate and subjective., Conclusions: It is recommended that forensic odontologists discontinue the use of hand tracing overlays in bite mark comparison cases as there is lot of scope for manipulation and observer bias.