Search

Background: Pharmacological drugs and medications are being widely used for the control of non-communicable diseases like hypertension. Hill-Bone-Compliance to High Blood Pressure Therapy Scale (HB-HBP) is a newly developed specific questionnaire for assessing the anti-hypertensive medication adherence. Hence, this study was done to translate the HB-HBP in Tamil and to assess the construct validity and reliability of the Tamil version., Materials and Methods: Translation of HB-HBP to native language, Tamil was done by experts and piloted with subsample of hypertensive patients from rural Puducherry. Final Tamil-translated HB-HBP was administered among 328 Tamil-speaking hypertensive patients in the selected villages of rural Puducherry (union territory in South India). Construct validity was assessed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) through the principal component method. Based on the minimum average partial and parallel analysis, three-factor model was distinguished. Confirmatory factor analysis was done to obtain the goodness-of-fit. Reliability of questionnaire was assessed through Cronbach's alpha coefficient., Results: Three factor structure s were obtained with eigenvalues of 6.5045, 2.8165, and 1.2261, respectively, which accounted for 75.34% of variance. Three-factor model assessed by the confirmatory factor method found Chi-square value of 1055.048 ( P value <0.001). Goodness of fit revealed acceptable comparative fit index (0.773), Tucker-Lewis index (0721), standardized root mean square residual (0.077), and root mean square error of approximation (0.201). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) for the scale was 0.9020., Conclusion: Our study concludes that the HB-HBP questionnaire is internally valid and consistent with a good reliability coefficient for application in Tamil-speaking patients with hypertension., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest, (Copyright: © 2024 Indian Journal of Community Medicine.)

Background: Studies have shown increase in health-risking behavior and a decline in health-promoting behavior among medical students during their stay in medical school. This study aims to determine the prevalence and reason for substance abuse among the undergraduate medical students in a selected medical college in Puducherry., Material and Methods: This was a facility-based explanatory mixed method study conducted from May 2019 to July 2019. Assessment of their substance abuse was done using ASSIST questionnaire. Substance use was summarized as proportions with 95% CI., Results: A total of 379 participants were included in the study. The mean age of the study participants was 20 years (± 1.34). The most prevalent substance use was alcohol (10.8%). About 1.9% and 1.6% of students surveyed consume tobacco and cannabis, respectively., Conclusion: Facilitating factors for substance use as perceived by the participants were stress, peer pressure, easy availability of substances, socialization, curiosity, and awareness knowledge about safe limits of alcohol and tobacco., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2023 Indian Journal of Community Medicine.)

Background: Cervical cancer ranks fourth in global cancer incidence and mortality among women. A comparison of the global trends in cervical cancer would help us to identify high focus regions and serves an opportunity to evaluate the impact of the screening programs. Hence, the current study was done to assess the global trend in the incidence of cervical cancer from 1993 to 2012 among individuals aged between 30 and 79 years., Methods: This secondary data analysis was conducted using the World Health Organization (WHO) Cancer Incidence data of five continents plus database (America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) on the incidence of cervical cancer. Joinpoint regression was performed to determine the average annual percent change (AAPC) in cervical cancer incidence. We performed an age-period-cohort analysis to obtain age, period, and cohort-specific deviations and rate ratio (RR)., Results: Out of the four regions studied, all the regions showed a declining trend in cervical cancer incidence. The maximum decline was found in Oceania (AAPC = -3.3%) followed by America (AAPC = -2.0%). There was a consistent rise in cervical cancer incidence across the age groups in all the four continents with the maximum burden among the elderly. All the regions showed a steady decline in the rate of cervical cancer through the periods 1998-2002 to 2007-2012. There was also a steady decline in cervical cancer incidence across the cohorts from 1923-1927 to 1978-1982 in all the regions except America., Conclusion: To summarize, cervical cancer incidence showed a declining trend globally, with the maximum decline in the Oceania region from 1993 to 2012.

Background: Meropenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are the two most common nosocomial pathogens causing ventilator-associated pneumonia. To combat this resistance, different combinations of antibiotics have been evaluated for their efficacy in laboratories as well as in clinical situations., Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of combined colistin and meropenem against meropenem-resistant isolates of A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa by checkerboard method., Materials and Methods: Fifty meropenem-resistant isolates of A. baumannii (n = 25) and P. aeruginosa (n = 25) from endotracheal aspirates were studied. The MIC of colistin and meropenem was found using the microbroth dilution method. The fractional inhibitory concentration was calculated for the combination of antibiotics by checkerboard assay and the antibiotic interactions were assessed. Fisher's exact test was carried out for statistical comparison of categorical variables., Results: A synergistic effect between colistin and meropenem was observed in 18/25 (72%) and 6/25 (24%) isolates of Acinetobacter baumannnii and P. Aeruginosa, respectively, with fractional inhibitory concentration indices of ≤0.5. None of the tested isolates exhibited antagonism., Conclusion: Our results showed that combinations of colistin and meropenem are associated with improvement in minimum inhibitory concentration and may be a promising strategy in treating meropenem-resistant A. baumannii respiratory tract infections., Competing Interests: None

Background: The risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) increase exponentially when type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity coexist., Objective: To estimate the proportion of people with diabesity and assess the sociodemographic, dietary, and morbidity related factors associated with diabesity., Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in 2018 among persons with T2DM attending an urban Primary Health Centre in Puducherry using a structured questionnaire., Results: The mean (standard deviation) age of 151 study participants was 58.2 (11.8) years with 66% ( n = 100), 77% ( n = 116) and 40% ( n = 60) being females, sedentary workers and belonging to lower socioeconomic status, respectively. Of total, 71% ( n = 107) had hypertension, 66% ( n = 99) had uncontrolled fasting blood sugar (FBS) level and 74% ( n = 111) did not consume fruits daily. The proportion of diabesity was found to be 66.9% (95% CI 58.8-74.3). After adjusting for other factors, obesity was significantly high among T2DM patients aged 50 years and less (adjusted prevalence ratio- (aPR) 1.4; (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-1.83) compared to >60 years. Having uncontrolled FBS values (aPR 1.28; [95% CI: 1.01-1.64]), deficient in calorie intake (aPR 1.66; [95% CI: 1.25-2.22]), deficient in fruits intake (aPR 1.45; [95% CI: 1.07-1.97]), and high fat consumption (aPR 1.26; [95% CI: 1.02-1.57]) had significant association with diabesity., Conclusion: Considering the rising burden of diabetes associated with obesity, vigilant strategy to reduce modifiable risk factors for CVD needs further emphasis at primary care settings., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 Indian Journal of Community Medicine.)