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Introduction: Disability, which has been deemed as a significant public health problem in our country, in any form, be it correctable or not, tends to hamper the day to day life of the affected person. It affects their personal as well as professional life to a great extent, and creates a lack of confidence and difficulty in social interactions. To assess the burden of locomotor disability, its socio-demographic correlates, and suggest measures to improve the life of people with disability. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study, conducted in areas under the rural and urban health training centers, using a pretested and validated questionnaire along with appropriate examination of the involved system. A total of 900 individuals were included. The study duration was July 2017 to June 2018. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0. Results: The total prevalence of disability (of any type) contributed to 13.6% while locomotor disability was found to be 4.44% in the study population. Significant association of locomotor disability was observed with age, gender, marital status and occupation (p

Human monkeypox (now termed as the “Mpox”) was considered a geographically isolated disease until recently, but the current spread of the disease over 110 locations around the world has created an environment of fear. This study was thus conducted to evaluate the knowledge and apprehensions about the ongoing outbreak of Monkeypox among the medical students and nursing staff who can be a vital source of dissemination of knowledge to the general population. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire, was used in this cross-sectional offline study. The study population comprised Medical undergraduate students and nursing staff of a medical college situated in northern India. A total of 340 participants took part in the study comprising 302(88.8%) medical undergraduates and 38(11.1%) nursing staff. Overall, the knowledge of medical students and nursing staff was unsatisfactory. When the questionnaire data were analyzed only 17.05% of the participants had good knowledge, 20.58% had moderate knowledge and 65.78% had poor knowledge. Overall knowledge about the human monkeypox virus and disease was underwhelming. Medical students and nursing staff can be a vital source of dissemination of knowledge to the general population. In this era of emerging threats; to fill the knowledge gaps of the health care professionals’ strategies like continuing medical education, webinars, seminars, and workshops primarily focussing on better clinical, prevention, and control practices should be conducted frequently.

Background: Asthma is coined as a chronic inflammatory disorder and disarrays of the airways and respiratory tract which manifests as recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough. The World Health Organization recognizes asthma as a major health problem. Although asthma can occur at any age, children and young adults are the age groups which are affected more commonly. Objectives: The objective of this study is to find the prevalence of bronchial asthma in school-going children (6–16 years) and its associated factors. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study among the school-going children in the age group of 6–16 years was done in the field practice areas of urban health and training center and rural health and training center of the Department of Community Medicine, JNMCH, A. M. U., Aligarh, U.P. the study done for a period of one year. The validated questionnaire (International Study on Allergy and Asthma in Childhood) was used. The sample size was taken as 902. The data were entered and analyzed in the SPSS statistical software version 20.0. Chi-square was used. Results: The prevalence of asthma among the study population was found to be 26.9%. Family history of smoking and history of allergy in an individual came out to be a significant factor associated with asthma. The association is also significant between asthma and the diet of an individual. Conclusions: Asthma among school children is a public health problem in urban and rural areas. There was a rising pattern in the prevalence of asthma at national and subnational levels.

Introduction: With the highly effective antiretroviral treatment, HIV is transforming into a chronic condition, whose management is now experiencing problems of other chronic diseases, where quality of life (QoL) plays a central role. This study was conducted with the objective of determining the QoL among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) taking Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and examine the factors affecting it. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at ART center, Aligarh. 434 PLHA on antiretroviral therapy, were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire, assessing QoL with the World Health Organization (WHOQoL) HIV-BREF. For domain-based analysis, we examined the association of various factors with the individual domain. The P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean score in all the domains of WHOQoL was maximum for the level of independence (15.7 ± 2.6) followed by the physical domain (15.5 ± 3.0), while environment domain (11.7 ± 1.8) had the least mean. All the domains, including overall QoL scored above average QoL. This study also showed that a strong relationship exists between QoL with lower socioeconomic status, presence of side effects from ART and depression. Conclusion: The QoL of HIV patients taking ART from Aligarh was adequate, reflecting the efforts of NACO and other agencies in managing the disease. With respect to its determinants, providing good family support, better employment opportunities, reducing stigma, and proper and timely management of side effects and depression could further increase levels of QoL.

Background: Worldwide, 20% of children and adolescents experience a disabling mental illness, almost half of which begin by the age of 14. Puberty, also marks a transition in risks for depression and other mental disorders, psychosomatic syndromes, and antisocial behavior. The increase in stress during adolescence due to nutritional and pubertal transition may impact physical health and behavior. Objectives: The current study aimed at determining the association between psychological morbidity and nutritional status, as well as the association of psychological morbidity and physical activity, sleep duration, and dietary behavior. Methods: This study was based on a world health organization (WHO) Global School Health Survey (GSHS) conducted on 13- to 15- year-old age group. The study was held at 3 different schools of Aligarh. Strength and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) was used to measure psychological morbidity and its association with obesity, physical activity, sleep duration, and dietary behavior. Results: A total of 1456 students were included in the study and the prevalence of psychological morbidity was 9.75%. Those with psychological morbidity had higher odds for being obese (35.36), physically inactive (1.78), having sleep duration inadequacy (5.42), and poor dietary behavior (7.46) on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Psychological problems were present in seemingly normal adolescent student population in India. Most of these stu- dents and their parents/teachers were either unaware of this problem or thought that these problems were not worthy of attention. The association of these problems with lifestyle, dietary behavior, and physical activity warrants special attention.

Introduction: With the so-called modernization, the epidemiological and sociocultural context of adolescents in developing countries is rapidly changing and is affecting their eating behavior and dietary choices. The objective of our study is twofold. First, our study seeks to find whether there is a prevalence of the adverse eating behaviors among the adolescents. Second, our study seeks to examine whether the prevalence of the adverse eating behavior is related to obesity and quantifies their association of with body mass index (BMI) status. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted in 13–15-year-old adolescents from schools of Aligarh, India, with prevalidated study tools and standardized anthropometric measures. The Z-scores were found by the WHO recommended AnthroPlus. Results: The results indicate a high prevalence of different adverse eating behaviors. The dietary behavior was found to be poor in 19.3%, fair in 54.4%, and good in only 26.3% of the study population. The mean BMI for age Z-score was found to be 0.87 and 0.02 in poor and fair dietary behavior. The odds of being overweight and obese were high (1.82 [1.20–2.78]) in those with poor dietary behavior. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that more research and timely intervention in adverse eating behaviors are much needed in India before this widely neglected problem acquires even more alarming and gigantic proportions.

Primary health care is an evidence-based priority, but it is still inadequately supported in many countries. Ironically, on one hand, India is a popular destination for medical tourism due to the affordability of high quality of health care and, on the other hand, ill health and health care are the main reasons for becoming poor through medical poverty traps. Surprisingly, this is despite the fact that India was committed to 'Health for All by 2000' in the past, and is committed to 'Universal Health Coverage' by 2022! Clearly, these commitments are destined to fail unless something is done to improve the present state of affairs. This study argues for the need to develop primary care as a specialization in India as a remedial measure to reform its health care in order to truly commit to the commitments. Three critical issues for this specialization are discussed in this review: (1) The dynamic and distinct nature of primary care as opposed to other medical specializations, (2) the intersection of primary care and public health which can be facilitated by such a specialization, and (3) research in primary care including the development of screening and referral tools for early diagnosis of cancers, researches for evidence-based interventions via health programs, and primary care epidemiology. Despite the potential challenges and difficulties, India is a country in dire need for primary care specialization. India's experience in providing low-cost and high quality healthcare for medical tourism presages a more cost-effective and efficient primary care with due attention and specialization.