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Background: Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI) have a direct impact on reproductive and child health through infertility, cancers, and pregnancy complications, and they have an indirect impact through their role in facilitating the sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. Objectives: To find the prevalence and determinants of RTI/STI among married women of reproductive age group in rural and peri-urban areas of Aligarh. Methods: The data were collected by using a pretested, semi-structured with both open and closed-ended questionnaire from 500 married women of reproductive age group. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 20.0 Proportion, frequencies, ?2, and logistic regression were used to interpret the data. Results: Prevalence of RTI/STI symptoms was found to (42.8%) in rural areas and 37.6 % in peri-urban areas. Strong association was found in study subjects having lower educational status, who were not using any contraceptive method, not following good menstrual hygiene, early marriage age had husband history of RTI/STI, had a history of abortion, had a history of violence, and increased parity. Conclusions: Prevalence of symptoms found to be associated with these females having low educational status, early age of marriage, high parity, partner history of reproductive Tract Infections, history of violence etc. So, there should be more focus on improvement in these factors to reduce the prevalence.

Background: Food security has always been a major determinant behind development of malnutrition among the under 5 children of India. Even after sustained efforts to alleviate this problem, we are still way behind in achieving our targets. Aims and Objectives: To assess the prevalence and determinants of food security, and find association of food security with stunting and wasting of children less than five years of age. Materials and Methods: This study among under five children was conducted in field practice areas of Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Food security was assessed through Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) while stunting and wasting were assessed by parameters defined by World Health Organization. Statistical Analysis: Done using IBM SPSS 20.0 version. Results: 41.1% children were found to have low food security and among these 1.8% children have very low food security. Overall, statistically significant association was found between food security and malnutrition among the children (p

Background: Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease and mainly affects children under five years of age.Objective: The present cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the impact of social mobilization on families resistant to giving polio drops to their children.Materials & Methods: One round of polio drop administration during September, 2014 was selected randomly. Medical interns were trained as social mobilizers by the UNICEF. The social mobilizers visited the households that refused to give polio drops to their children because of certain rumors and misguided beliefs. They tried to convince the family members that polio drops were safe and it did not hurt any religious and cultural sentiments.Results:The total number of resistant families, identified during first day of house to house activity was 270. Out of these, 180 families were visited by Team ‘A’. Rest of the houses were covered by other agencies. A large number of houses 106 (58.8%) were converted to ‘P’ houses and 74 houses (41.1%) remained resistant after the activity of Team ‘A’. These resistant houses were again visited by Team ‘B’ members. Out of these 74 houses, polio drops were administered in 57 (77.0%) houses. However, after maximum efforts of both the teams, only 17 (9.4%) houses remained extremely resistant.Conclusions: Large numbers of resistant families were converted to ‘P’ houses. However, some of the families remained resistant even after maximum efforts of the teams. These extremely resistant families might be the potent sources of polio infection in the community and they should be followed up strictly.

Background: Low level of utilization of continuum of maternal health services (CMHS) is a major factor responsible for high maternal mortality and morbidity. This study was conducted to assess status of utilization, determinants and satisfaction of /about CMHS in peri-urban women of north India.Methods: A community based, cross-sectional study of 310 recently delivered women (RDWs) was conducted. Data were collected using a structured interviewer administered questionnaire and analysed using SPSS 26.0.Results: 158 (51%), 228 (73.5%) and 92 (29.7%) of RDWs had full utilization of antenatal care (ANC), intra natal care (INC) and post-natal care (PNC) respectively. Birth order, education of husband, complications in previous pregnancies, type of family, first ANC visit and place of ANC were significant (p70% RDWs expressed satisfaction with the quality of CMHS while 28.5% were not satisfied.Conclusions: Utilization of all the three aspects of CMHS still lagging behind with regards to required goals with full utilization of PNC, as limiting factor. Comprehensive approach to increase utilization of CMHS is need of hour, to address the issue of drop out with special emphasis on PNC.

Background: Maternal mortality and morbidity continues to remain high in India, despite the existence of successive national programs for improving maternal and child health since the 1980s. In 2005, the Government of India launched the National Rural Health Mission to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population, especially the vulnerable populations. Reduction in MMR to 100/100,000 is one of its goals and the Janani Suraksha Yojana is the key strategy to achieve this reduction. But the awareness of scheme is low in women from rural areas and urban slums, especially in low performing states. Aims: To study the comparative awareness of JSY and the socio-demographic factors influencing it, among the recently delivered women (RDWs). Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out in the ten rural areas and urban slums coming under the practice areas of JNMC, AMU, Aligarh for a period of one year. The prevalence of institutional delivery in Uttar Pradesh as found in a study by UNFPA 2008 (50.2%) was used for calculation of sample size. The yielded sample size 300 was selected proportionately from these areas. The study subjects were interviewed by a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. Statistical analysis used: MS excel, chi square and logistic regression. Results: Awareness regarding the existence of a monetary scheme related to institutional delivery was more in rural areas i.e 75%. Regarding components of JSY maximum people (78%) were aware about the cash component. Religion, caste, parity, socio-economic status and place of residence showed a significant statistical association with the level of awareness of JSY. Conclusions: There is an urgent need to strengthen IEC campaigns and monitoring strategies for JSY as well as regularize the monetary flow for the health workers

Background: India ranks among the bottom five countries in public health spending. Out of pocket spending of households on healthcare is almost 70% of income and reimbursement in any form availed by households whose members are employed in the formal sector is negligible. Objectives: To determine the usual source of medical care opted for by the study population. To find out the illness pattern and its age/sex distribution in the study population. To find out the expenditure incurred on illness and its source of procurement by the study population. Methodology: 52.42% urban Aligarh resides in slums. A cross sectional study was done to study the newer slum pockets. 3409 households with a population of 16,978 were studied with the help of pretested questionnaire; SPSS 20 was used for statistical analysis. Results: In our study, we found that almost all the households suffered from catastrophic health expenditure. The study population, which was already vulnerable owing to their low socio-economic and migrant status was further forced into poverty and indebtedness on account of expenditure on illness. Conclusions: National health financing systems should be designed to protect households from financial catastrophe, by reducing out-of-pocket spending.

Background: Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient for the immune system. Its deficiency is one of the most important causes of preventable childhood blindness and is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality from infections. Studies have linked vitamin A deficiency to a greater risk of malnutrition. Therefore the present study was planned to assess the intake of Vitamin A in pre- school children and to find out its association with nutritional status of Pre- School children . Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in urban and rural Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Children (n=400) of 12-59 months were randomly selected and mothers were interviewed after taking informed consent on pretested predesigned questionnaire on socio-demographic and Dietary intake. Anthropometry was performed using standard procedures. Results: The mean age of children was 31.9 months and mean intake of Vitamin A was 344.8 µg. Underweight, stunting and wasting was seen in 43.7%, 51.3 % and 21.8% of children respectively. Stunting was associated significantly with mean Vitamin A intake (p

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease and mainly affects children under five years of age. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the impact of social mobilization on families resistant to giv-ing polio drops to their children. One round of polio drop administration during September, 2012 was selected ran-domly from total six rounds of Pulse Polio Immunization campaign carried out in the year 2012 in Aligarh, India. Medical interns of the Aligarh Muslim University were trained as social mobilizers by the UNICEF, Rotary Interna-tional trainers and divided into Teams ‘A’ and ‘B’. The teams of social mobilizers visited the households that re-fused to give polio drops to their children because of certain rumors and misguided beliefs. Medical intern tried to convince the family members that polio drops were safe and it did not hurt any religious and cultural sentiments. The total number of resistant families, identified during the house to house outreach activity of Team ‘A’ was 309. A large number of houses (70.9%) were converted to P houses (houses where children had polio vaccination). Ninety houses (29.1%) remained resistant even after the activity of Team ‘A’. These resistant houses were again visited by Team ‘B’ members. Out of these 90 houses, polio drops were administered in 70 (78.9%) houses. How-ever, after maximum efforts of both the teams, only 19 (21.1%) houses remained extremely resistant. Large numbers of resistant families were converted to P houses where children were administered oral polio drops. However, some of the families remained resistant even after maximum efforts of the teams. These extremely resistant families might be the potent sources of polio infection in the community and they should be followed up strictly. Strategies and polices should be developed to cover all children of the community by assessing the reasons for families resistance to polio drop, examining the past failures/limitations in program implementation, and implementing the effective social mobilizing techniques. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20035 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 23-29

Background: Pregnant women inhabiting urban slums are a "high risk" group with limited access to health facilities. Hazardous maternal health practices are rampant in slum areas. Barriers to utilization of health services are well documented. Slums in the same city may differ from one another in their health indicators and service utilization rates. The study examines whether hazardous maternal care practices exist in and whether there are differences in the utilization rates of health services in two different slums. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in two urban slums of Aligarh city (Uttar Pradesh, India). House-to-house survey was conducted and 200 mothers having live births in the study period were interviewed. The outcome measures were utilization of antenatal care, natal care, postnatal care, and early infant feeding practices. Rates of hazardous health practices and reasons for these practices were elicited. Results: Hazardous maternal health practices were common. At least one antenatal visit was accepted by a little more than half the mothers, but delivery was predominantly home based carried out under unsafe conditions. Important barriers to utilization included family tradition, financial constraints, and rude behavior of health personnel in hospitals. Significant differences existed between the two slums. Conclusion: The fact that barriers to utilization at a local level may differ significantly between slums must be recognized, identified, and addressed in the district level planning for health. Empowerment of slum communities as one of the stakeholders can lend them a stronger voice and help improve access to services.

Background: Making perinatal care accessible to women in marginalized periurban areas poses a public health problem. Many women do not utilize institutional care in spite of physical accessibility. Home-based care by traditional birth attendants (TBA) is hazardous. Inappropriate early neonatal feeding practices are common. Many barriers to perinatal care can be overcome by social mobilization and capacity building at the community level. Objectives: To determine the existing perinatal practices in an urban slum and to identify barriers to utilization of health services by mothers. Study Design: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting and Participants: The high-risk periurban areas of Nabi Nagar, Aligarh has a population of 40,000 living in 5,480 households. Mothers delivering babies in September 2007 were identified from records of social mobilization workers (Community Mobilization Coordinators or CMCs) already working in an NGO in the area. A total of 92 mothers were interviewed at home. Current perinatal practices and reasons for utilizing or not utilizing health services were the topics of inquiry. Statistical Analysis: Data was tabulated and analyzed using SPSS 12. Results: Analyses revealed that 80.4% of mothers had received antenatal care. However, this did not translate into safe delivery practices as more than 60% of the women had home deliveries conducted by traditional untrained or trained birth attendants. Reasons for preferring home deliveries were mostly tradition (41.9%) or related to economics (30.7%). A total of 56% of the deliveries were conducted in the squatting position and in 25% of the cases, the umbilical cord was cut using the edge of a broken cup. Although breast-feeding was universal, inappropriate early neonatal feeding practices were common. Prelacteal feeds were given to nearly 50% of the babies and feeding was delayed beyond 24 hours in 8% of the cases. Several mothers had breastfeeding problems. Conclusion: Barriers to utilization of available services leads to hazardous perinatal practices in urban slums.

Background: Hypertension is a global public health issue. Hypertensive heart disease is one of the top ten leading causes of death in the world. It was responsible for an estimated 1.1 million deaths worldwide in 2012. To prevent some of the complications of hypertension regular intake of the prescribed treatment in the form of medicines (pills) is essential. Poor compliance to anti-hypertensive therapy is usually associated with bad outcome of the disease and wastage of limited health care resources. With these viewpoints the study aimed to assess the level of compliance of hypertensive patients to their anti-hypertensive medications and to determine the socio-demographic correlates of compliance. Methods: This was community based cross sectional study conducted in urban and rural areas in Aligarh. A total of 350 hypertensive patients were selected using simple random sampling. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used. Compliance was measured by Morisky 8-item Medication Adherence scale. Analysis was done using proportions and Chi-square test. Results: The overall compliance of study population was 23.7%. It was found to be significantly associated with gender, education, social class and associated co morbidities. Education, higher social class and duration of hypertension were found to be the main facilitators to adherence. The barriers to adherence were cost of drug and more number of pills per day. Conclusions: Patient education, family counselling and social support networks should be strengthened in health promotion programs in order to enhance compliance of hypertensive patients with the therapeutic regimen and to improve their quality of life.

Background: Rabies is a potentially fatal disease with significant public health importance. Awareness among sanitation workers is a key component for prevention, and needs to be addressed. Therefore, a study was conducted with the objectives to determine the awareness of rabies and role of open garbage dumps in the spread of rabies among sanitary workers.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from January to February, 2017. All of the 65 sanitation workers employed by the University Health Office, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh were included in the study after taking their verbal consent. A total of 26 Open Garbage Dumps were studied and classified. The knowledge of rabies was assessed by evolving a scoring system. The data were then analyzed using SPSS statistical software version 24.0.Results: The mean age of the study population is 32.93 years (mean 38 years, SD 9.74). 62 (95.4%) were males. Mean duration of work was 8.14 years (SD 7.45). Maximum number of study participants had received education uptil high school and belonged to social class II. Mean knowledge score paired with different socio-demographic variables show a highly significant association with age, sex, duration of work, education, religion, socio-economic status and whether they owned a pet or not.Conclusions: Our study revealed that knowledge regarding OGDs and their role in the spread of rabies is poor. OGDs near residential houses and stray dogs increase the risk factors for canine rabies. Therefore, sustained efforts to decrease the stray dog population in residential areas should be advocated.

Background: Utilization of antenatal care (ANC) services is poor in the peri-urban areas, causing increased maternal morbidity and mortality. Objective: (i) To determine the current status of utilization of ANC services and (ii) to asses factors affecting utilization of ANC services. Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in peri-urban field practice area of urban health training center, J N Medical College, Aligarh, India. The data were collected by home visit using a pretested, structured, semi-open questionnaire from 200 recently delivered women, who utilized ANC services. Data were tabulated and analyzed by using SPSS-20. Proportion, frequencies, and χ2-tests were used to interpret the data. Result: Full utilization of ANC services was found to be 59%. Home deliveries were 23% and all were conducted by untrained persons. Utilization of ANC services was significantly associated with education, socioeconomic status, parity, and age at marriage. Main reasons for inadequate (partial/no) utilization of ANC services were financial constrains (34.14%) and lack of awareness (30.48%), whereas for home deliveries it was tradition (23.91%) and financial constrains (21.74%). Conclusion: Utilization of ANC services was not satisfactory and home deliveries by untrained person were still present. Prevailing barriers to utilization of ANC services and institutional deliveries must be identified and taken into consideration in planning and policy making.

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) is the first necessary requisite for a healthy mother and a healthy child. But access to care is poor for women living in slums, particularly newly formed slums. Why women either do not access these services, or access them late, or suffer an avoidable adverse outcome despite timely presentation is related to the concept of quality of care. Respectful maternity care also is an integral aspect of good quality ANC. Objectives: (1) To assess the quality of ANC received by women living in the newly formed urban slums of Aligarh (

Introduction: Refractive errors are the commonest cause of visual impairment in school children worldwide. They are correctible and after screening, spectacles can easily enhance vision. This can be achieved only when spectacles are used regularly. Objective: This study was conducted to study the compliance of spectacles wear among children and to determine the reasons associated with non-compliance. Methodology: 400 children in the age group of 5-15 years with refractive errors attending the eye OPD, using spectacles for more than three months were included. Spectacle wear and reasons of noncompliance were enquired. Data was analyzed to determine the factors associated with spectacle wear compliance. Results: Among 232 boys and 168 girls 142 were from rural and 258 from urban areas. 244(61%) children were compliant. Compliance was better in older children and those from urban areas. Children of educated parents and with power more than -1.0 D were more likely to be compliant. Main reason for not wearing spectacles was ‘lost or broken spectacles’ and dislike for spectacle. Conclusion: Counselling of parents, teachers and peers will be an effective step towards improvement of compliance of spectacles use.