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Background & Aim: It is important that clinicians understand statistical methods into their own research and correctly apply in their research. The main objective of this study is to explore the study designs, statistical methods used and the issue of inaccuracy and inappropriate usage of statistical methods in the research publications of the specialty of general medicine as evidenced by five selected journals over a 10-year period and improvements thereof. Methods & Materials: Originally published articles were reviewed of the journals of specialty of general medicines for the above-defined objective (list of journals: Indian Journal of Medical Research, Indian Journal of Critical Care, Indian Journal of Nephrology, Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, and New England Journal of Medicine were reviewed). Qualitative data represented by percentage, Z-test of proportion applied at 95% level of significance. Results: The usage of some statistical methods in 2003 was 61.54% which increased to 79.26% by 2013. Only 2.19% research article had mentioned the concept of study design in 2003 which increased to 10.56% by 2013. There was a greater usage of statistical concepts and methods such as parametric and nonparametric tests, regression, survival analysis in 2013 as compared to 2003. There was a significant improvement observed in the usage of statistical software over a 10-year period. A common error observed was the usage of standard error instead of standard deviation to present the data and we found that there was a vast improvement in the use of advanced statistical methods over the decade. Conclusion: This study highlights the increasing importance of medical statistics in the research publications pertaining to the specialty of general medicine over time so that the inferences drawn from these studies are actually representative of the population that they represent and are valid and reliable. These concepts are of paramount importance while physicians read these articles and try to adopt their recommendations.

Background: India shares the largest burden of under-nutrition in world. The aim of this study was to conduct follow-up assessment of under-nourished children attending anganwadi center (AWC). Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study conducted in 50 AWC of Tapi district. Total 529 children aged 1-6 years diagnosed as under-nourished before 1 year were included. Pre-structured questionnaire was used for present day assessment of these children followed by Epi-info mediated analysis. Results: Children of literate mothers had higher weight gain. Ninety percent of children attended anganwadi regularly, however 25% of children dropped out for more than 1 month. In 1 year, growth had faltered in 20% children and was stagnant in 63% of them. Children who were treated for under-nutrition; that completed course at Child Development and Nutrition Center; and whose parents were counseled about the under-nourished status of child had higher weight gain than their counterparts. Conclusions: Parents of under-nourished children must be counseled about the nutritional status of their child. In cases of under-nourished child, referral to higher center must be ensured by health worker. Supplementary feeding as a long-term solution to country′s under-nutrition problem should be studied in detail with the alternative solutions.

Background: The relationship between becoming a smoker and having smoker parents, siblings, and relatives is still uncovered in India. The influences of a smoking role model in a family on smoking habits of individuals are yet to be revealed. This study aimed to understand the relationship of smoking abuse of a person with smoking of their family members. Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the slums of 20 urban health centers (UHCs) of Surat city (India). A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was analyzed using Epi-Info software. Findings: Among 281 smoker participants, 168 (59.8%), 55 (19.6%), 95 (33.8%), and 50 (17.8%) had smoking fathers, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives, respectively. While 131 participants (44.6%) had correct information about the law of banned smoking, 249 participants (88.6%) were in favor of this law. The association of smoking abuse in fathers with smoking abuse in siblings came out to be odds ratio (OR) = 3.75 (95% CI: 2.11-6.63) and grandparents to be odds ratio 16.43 (95% CI: 4.98-54.17), respectively. The association between education and following the law of banned smoking was statistically significant OR = 2.98 (95% CI: 1.43-6.00).Conclusion: Substance abuse in parents, siblings, and other relatives is likely to influence the behavior of the person towards it. Persons living in the same vicinity may also greatly influence the behavior of an individual.Keywords: Smoking, Smoker, India.

Introduction: Leptospirosis, zoonotic disease with very wide geographical distribution, is likely to be missed due to its wide spectrum of symptoms which may mimic the clinical signs of many other diseases. The present study was carried out to study the epidemiology, clinical and laboratory profile of died patients with confirm leptospirosis in Surat and Navsari Districts. Methods and Material: A household visits were done for all leptospirosis confirmed death cases of Surat and Navsari district during 15th June to 31st Oct 2012. Result: Out of 13 patients all were male, 10(76.9%) were in age group (20-45 years), 11 (84.6%) patients had history of exposure while working in farm in last 15 days and 12 (92.3%) patients had received Doxycycline chemoprophylaxis in current year. Most common presenting symptoms were fever (100%) followed by calf muscle myalgia (92.3%), jaundice (92.3%) and Oliguria (92.3%). Mean serum billirubin level, SGPT, SGOT, Serum blood Urea and creatinin were 13.7mg/dl, 111.5 IU/l, 139.7 U/l, 184.85mg/dl and 4.5mg/dl respectively. Severe anemia, thrombocytopenia and co-agulopathy were found in all cases. The average duration between onset of the symptoms and first medical consultation was 3.1 days and duration between onset of symptoms and first dose of antibiotics was 3.7 days. Conclusion: Hepatic dysfunction, acute renal failure, co-agulopathy, ARDS were the commonest presentation requiring artificial ventilation among deceased Leptospirosis cases. Delay in medical consultation and first dose of antibiotics may be a reason for Multi-organ dysfunction in these cases.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to explore a method to reach the community via school going adolescents for screening tribal people for Sickle Cell disease. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of 1023 school going adolescents for Sickle Cell Disease screening by Dithionite Tube Turbidity (DTT) test with subsequent Hemoglobin Electrophoresis for confirmation among those testing positive for DTT. They were then advised to get their family members tested for the same. Results: 24.41% of school going adolescents tested positive by DTT test. 152 family members of those positive school children came forward for testing. On performing the DTT test on the family members, 53.94% tested positive. Out of those who tested positive, 61% belonged to Vasava caste; 36.6% belonged to Chaudhari caste followed by Gamit and Dhodhia Patel. On the subsequent Hemoglobin electrophoresis, 52.63% of the family members were found to be positive for Sickle Cell Trait and 1.97% tested positive for Sickle Cell Disease. Conclusions: School going children can be an effective medium to approach the community for the screening of Sickle Cell Disease.

Abstract  Improving the health of urban residents, particularly those living in slum areas, requires an integrated approach. Appropriate interventions must be based on a well-grounded understanding of health determinants. Social factors are as important as physical factors in determining health status and suggest alternative interventions. Employment, stress, social exclusion, social support, substance use, nutrition, transport, and conditions during childhood are among the most important social determinants of health status identified by the International Center for Health and Society. This paper uses social determinants of health approach to understand morbidity outcomes for people residing in the slums of Surat City, India. To quantify suboptimal health behavior and identify the determinants of health status for this population survey data on household characteristics, health-seeking behavior, socioeconomic status, food and personal habits, social life, and physical activity has been used. After controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors, logistic regression analysis reveals that social exclusion, stress, and lack of social support are significantly associated with morbidity. Thus, understanding of social determinants of health by policy makers is important as the health sector has a crucial role in addressing disparities in social determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]