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Background: Diabetes as being a chronic disease with a number of complications deteriorates the quality of life among the people with type 2 diabetes. Health related quality of life is widely used as an important health outcome measure worldwide. This study assessed the quality of life among the people living with type 2 diabetes in rural area of eastern Nepal., Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among type 2 diabetic patient of rural area of eastern Nepal. Pre-tested Nepali version of D-39 questionnaire was administered through face to face interview to assess the quality of life. Door to door visit was done to identify all the type 2 diabetic patients residing in Baniyani village. Data was entered in Micro-soft excel 2007 and further processed in SPSS v.11.5 for analysis., Results: Highest quality of life mean (SD) score was in social burden domain (56.26 ± 12.07), followed by sexual functioning domain (54.35 ± 9.47), Anxiety and worry domain (54.33 ± 7.76), energy and mobility domain (51.46 ± 8.73) and diabetes control domain (50.08 ± 10.84). There was negative correlation between age and domains sexual functioning (p = 0.001) and energy and mobility (p = 0.002). In bivariate analysis, there was significance difference by sex in sexual functioning (p = 0.002), educational status in diabetes control (p = 0.021), smoking habit in energy and mobility (p = 0.038), duration of disease in diabetes control (p = 0.002) and sexual functioning (p = 0.001), presence of co-morbidity in social burden (p = 0.034) and family history of diabetes in anxiety and worry (p = 0.042)., Conclusion: Increasing age affects sexual life and mobility of the type 2 diabetic patient. The domain sexual functioning is difference by sex and presence of co-morbidity. Similarly, domain diabetic control is affected by duration of disease and educational status of the patient. And having family history of diabetes affects the mental state of the type 2 diabetic patient.

Introduction: The Bhaktapur Glaucoma Study is a population-based, cross-sectional and longitudinal study undertaken in one of the districts of Nepal., Objectives: To determine the prevalence of glaucoma in Bhaktapur district, Nepal., Materials and Methods: Thirty clusters were randomly selected and a door-to-door census was conducted to identify citizens 40 years of age and older. Four thousand eight hundred individuals fulfilling the eligibility criteria were referred to the base hospital in Kathmandu for a detailed clinical examination. The diagnosis of glaucoma was based upon criteria described by the International Society for Geographic and Epidemiological Ophthalmology (ISGEO)., Results: Complete data was available on 3991 subjects (response rate 83.15 %). The mean IOP was 13.3 mm Hg (97.5th and 99.5th percentiles, 18 and 20 mm Hg, respectively) and mean VCDR 0.26 (97.5th and 99.5th percentiles, 0.6 and 0.8 mm Hg, respectively). Seventy-five subjects had glaucoma, an age-sex-standardized prevalence of 1.80 (95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.68 - 1.92). The age-and sex-standardized prevalence of POAG was 1.24 % (CI, 1.14 - 1.34), PACG 0.39 % (CI, 0.34 - 0.45) and secondary glaucoma 0.15 % (CI, 0.07-0.36). The prevalence of glaucoma increased with increase in age and there was no significant difference in gender. Nine eyes were blind and two subjects bilaterally blind from glaucoma., Conclusion: The overall prevalence of glaucoma was 1.9 %. POAG was the most common form of glaucoma. Visual morbidity from PACG, however, was higher. A large majority of the subjects with POAG had not been previously diagnosed and had intraocular pressure within the normal range., (© NEPjOPH.)

Inability to reduce neonatal and maternal mortality in poor countries is sometimes blamed on a lack of contextual knowledge about care practices and care-seeking behavior. There is a lack of knowledge about how to translate formative research into effective interventions to improve maternal and newborn health. We describe the findings of formative research and how they were used to inform the development of such an intervention in rural Nepal. Formative research was carried out in four parts. Part 1 involved familiarization with the study area and literature review, and parts 2, 3 and 4 involved community mapping, audit of health services, and qualitative and quantitative studies of perinatal care behaviors. Participatory approaches have been successful at reducing neonatal mortality and may be suitable in our context. Community mapping and profiling helped to describe the community context, and we found that community-based organizations often sought to involve the Female Community Health Volunteer in community mobilization. She was not routinely conducting monthly meetings and found them difficult to sustain without support and supervision. In health facilities, most primary care staff were in post, but doctors and staff nurses were absent from referral centers. Mortality estimates reflected under-reporting of deaths and hygiene and infection control strategies had low coverage. The majority of women give birth at home with their mother-in-law, friends and neighbors. Care during perinatal illness was usually sought from traditional healers. Cultural issues of shyness, fear and normalcy restricted women's behavior during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period, and decisions about her health were usually made after communications with the family and community. The formative research indicated the type of intervention that could be successful. It should be community-based and should not be exclusively for pregnant women. It should address negotiations within families, and should tailor information to the needs of local groups and particular stakeholders such as mothers-in-law and traditional healers. The intervention should not only accept cultural constructs but also be a forum in which to discuss ideas of pollution, shame and seclusion. We used these guidelines to develop a participatory, community-based women's group intervention, facilitated through a community action cycle. The success of our intervention may be because of its acceptability at the community level and its sensitivity to the needs and beliefs of families and communities.

"The objective of this paper is to examine continuation and effectiveness of contraception based on a 1986 survey of more than 3,200 women in rural Sri Lanka. Data on both programme and non-programme methods of contraception are analyzed. Programme methods are defined as including all those methods that are provided through the public or private family planning programmes (namely, oral pills, IUDs, injectables, condoms, female barrier methods and sterilization). Non-programme methods refer to those that are not provided through any structured programme; these methods include calendar rhythm (commonly referred to as 'safe period' in Sri Lanka), withdrawal, abstinence and other traditional methods.", (excerpt)

This study examines the influence of a selected set of determinants of contraceptive method switching in rural Sri Lanka. Of interest is the question of how change in contraceptive practice at the individual level can account for patterns observed at the aggregate level. Based on calendar data on contraceptive use over a 3-year period, collected for more than 3,000 married women in a 1986 survey, the multivariate analysis shows that women who attain all or a significant proportion of their desired fertility tend to switch to more effective methods. Women who experience method failure tend to switch methods, usually to a type that is more effective. The woman's background determinants of age and education have small but significant effects on method switching, whereas the effect of household economic well-being is not significant. There is strong indication that rural couples are practicing contraception in a nonrandom fashion, switching methods in accordance with changes in their fertility motivations and contraceptive experience.

Patterns of contraceptive method change and their association with reproductive motivation and contraceptive failure are examined using data from a 1986 survey of family planning behaviour of rural Sinhalese married women aged 15-44 in seventeen districts of Sri Lanka. A notable degree of rationality in contraceptive method changes occurs with family formation. The attempt to control unwanted fertility leads to more efficacious use of contraception, including traditional methods. Some methodological improvements to the analysis of contraceptive switching are indicated. Implications of the findings for programmatic emphasis on permanent versus non-permanent modern methods are discussed.