Sociodemographic Proforma Research Articles

Antenatal Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder in a Tertiary Hospital in South India.

Background:Antenatal depression is associated with several adverse maternal outcomes, perinatal outcomes, lower academic achievements in adolescence, and future mental health problems for the mothers. Early identification and effective treatment of depression in antenatal women can also improve perinatal outcomes.Aim:This study aims to understand the prevalence of antenatal depression and anxiety disorder, along with associated factors, among antenatal women attending the outpatient clinic of the obstetrics department in a tertiary care hospital.Methods:A cross-sectional design was employed for determining the prevalence, while a case-control framework was used for analysis of the associated factors. Semi-structured sociodemographic pro forma, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Tamil version, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Tamil version were administered to antenatal women after obtaining informed consent. Those who scored above 10 points on the PHQ-9 or above 9 points on the GAD-7 were interviewed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) diagnostic interview schedule, by a psychiatrist, for confirming the diagnosis.Results:In our sample, 22% of the participants were diagnosed with depression, and 23% with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Twenty-eight participants (13.4%) had both depression and GAD. Antenatal depression was associated with alcohol use in the spouse (P < 0.015), physical violence (P < 0.026), low perceived social support from the in-laws (P < 0.039), and pressure to have a male child (0.001). Antenatal GAD was associated with low perceived social support from the in-laws (P < 0.039) and pressure to have a male child (P < 0.041).Conclusion:The occurrence of depression and generalized anxiety disorder is high in antenatal women. Our study identified relevant psychosocial factors that may be potential targets to develop effective interventions.

Self-Directed Learning Readiness among Nursing Students: A Cross Sectional Study

Learning brings about changes in the way we act, think and feel. The changes in method in learning,changes the quality of learning. It may be positive or negative, as in how we adopt it. A descriptive studywas conducted on readiness towards self-directed learning among nursing students, in Sree GokulamNursing College, Venjaramoodu with the objectives; to assess the readiness towards self-directed learningamong nursing students, to compare SDLR score across various streams in nursing and to determine theassociation between readiness towards self-directed learning and selected socio demographic variables. Thestudy used a quantitative approach and was conducted among 200 subjects recruited by total enumerationsampling technique. Data was collected using a socio demographic proforma and Fisher’s self-directedlearning readiness scale with reliability of 0.8, after concerning the ethical considerations. The resultsshow that majority (72.5%) had high SDLR score and 55(27.5) had low SDLR score, there was significantassociation between readiness towards self-directed learning and previous exposure to self-directed learningenhancement program (p=0.010).

Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression amongst Patients presenting with Non-inflammatory Vaginal Discharge.

Background: Abnormal vaginal discharge/leucorrhea amongst women of reproductive age group(15-49) is a frequently encounteredcomplaint especially across South-east Asia. It is commonly associated with tremendous stress, anxiety and depression. The currentstudy was planned to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression amongst such patients.Objective: To stydy, the prevalence of anxiety and depression as a cause of vaginal discharge in young women.Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional studyPlace and duration of study: Combined Military Hospital,Kohat, for a period of 3 months from June 2015 till September 2015.Material and Methods: 62 consecutive patients presenting with non-infectious, chronic, leucorrhea were inducted from GynecologyOutpatient Department, Combined Military Hospital. As per the inclusion criteria for this study, any female aged 1845 years presentingto Gynaecology outpatient services with chronic non-infective vaginal discharge was eligible for the study. Patients with comorbidmental retardation, psychotic disorders, or organic brain syndromes were excluded.Their basic demographic details were recorded through a sociodemographic proforma and then Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scalewas administered orally in the native language to the participants.The data was entered in the computer and analysed using SPSS 22.0. and results interpreted accordingly.Results: 26(42.6%) of cases were normal, 10(16.4%) had borderline anxiety symptoms, and 25(41%) cases had abnormal/severeanxiety; regarding depression, it was found that 34(55.7%) were normal cases, 11(18%) borderline and 16 (26.2%) wereabnormal/severe according to Hospital and anxiety scale.Conclusion: Clinically significant anxiety and depression are frequently reported in patients presenting with chronic leucorrhea.Appropriate and timely management of these could be better health related outcomes.

A Descriptive Study to Assess the Premenstrual Symptoms and Coping Mechanisms among Health Care Professionals

Background: Pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) is described as combination of physiological, behavioural and physical symptoms felt by women during their secretory phase of each menstrual cycle. The need for this study was felt to find out the prevalence and various coping strategies followed during PMS. Design: A cross sectional descriptive study conducted at Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of medical science and research, Mullana using the retrospective method. Method and Materials: Total 493 subjects were enrolled out of 520. Subjects were assessed on 3 scales socio-demographic proforma, pre-menstrual symptoms scale (PMSS) and coping method interview. Categorical variables were analyzed by Chi square test using SPSS v18. Results: 253 (51.3 %) subjects had PMS symptoms and 453 (91.9%) used coping mechanism for PMS symptoms. Age of menarche, occupation, marital status, family history and use of analgesics showed significant association with PMS. On PMSS scale– pelvic discomfort, abdominal cramps, restlessness, mood swings and irritability were the most commonly reported symptoms. Commonly used coping mechanism by the subjects was rest (69.6%) followed by hot packs (62.8%). Conclusion: Proper actions shall be taken to educate and increase the awareness among the women and to provide better coping method to alleviate the symptoms of PMS. Proper pharmacological and psychological treatment should be taken which will improve the quality of life.

Religious Mosque Leaders (Khateebs): Awareness, Perceptions, Practices and Attitude towards Mental Health, Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia

Background: Mosques are the most holy places in the eyes of Allah-Exalted and Glorified, and the religious mosque leaders (Khateebs) who read 15-20 minutes Khutbah prior to Friday Prayers have great knowledge in religion of Islam and are considered the peace-building leaders through delivering the pertinent Friday sermons around the world.&#x0D; Objective: This online consenting cross-sectional survey explored the mental health awareness, perceptions, attitudes and practices of Khateebs of Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia.&#x0D; Methods: This survey used 14-items self-designed culturally competitive questionnaire and sociodemographic proforma to tap religious mosque leaders’ knowledge, perceptions, practices and attitude towards mental health.&#x0D; Results: Majority of mosque leaders were middle aged with higher education and extensive experience as a model of true interlocutor (Khateeb). Their knowledge and practices revealed were replete with religious and spiritual healing approaches but religious mosque leaders did not completely overlook the role of psychiatric medications and mental health professionals in the management of mentally ill persons. However, religious mosque leaders showed some negative attitudes towards patients with mental disorders, and recommended 10 corrective guides including integration of mosques and religious leaders into mental health system.&#x0D; Conclusion: Despite mosque leader’s good mental health literacy, they need further training to plug certain loopholes traced in their mental health literacy. Researchers should conduct further similar research overcoming the caveats of this survey not only in Saudi Arabia but also globally in Muslim world.

Parenting attitudes and dimensions as predictors of adolescent behavioural problems in the Indian context: A community-based study.

Adolescent behavioural problems are a growing public health concern. The authors in this study investigated paternal and maternal reports of parenting attitudes and dimensions as predictors of adolescent behavioural problems in the Indian context. Using stratified sampling at the community level, 640 parents including 419 mothers and 221 fathers participated in the study. Tools included a socio-demographic pro-forma; Parental attitude inventory (PAI) to assess parenting attitudes, Parent Global Report of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) to assess current parenting dimensions, and the parent version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess behavioural problems among adolescents. We examined the prevalence and predictors of total difficulties, externalizing and internalizing behavioural problems among adolescents from paternal and maternal reports. Paternal and maternal reports of total difficulties (11.3 %, 13.6 %), externalizing (2.3 %, 1.9 %) and internalizing behaviours (8.6 %, 7.4 %) among adolescents are reported. Predictors of abnormal behaviours per paternal reports included lower social class and poor paternal control. Being a male adolescent increased the odds of total difficulties and externalizing problems. Favourable maternal attitude, good maternal warmth and control predicted the reduced likelihood of total difficulties and externalizing behaviours per maternal reports. Paternal control and maternal warmth and control were found to reduce the likelihood of internalizing behaviours among adolescents. Maternal attitude, paternal control and maternal warmth and control dimensions emerged as significant predictors of total difficulties, externalizing and internalizing behavioural problems among adolescents.

Effect of ginger tea on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among cancer patients in selected hospitals, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

A quasi-experimental research study (posttest only research design) was conducted to evaluate the effect of ginger tea on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among cancer patients in selected hospitals of Bhubaneswar and to find out the association of level of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting with selected socio-demographic variables. For this study, a quantitative experimental approach and post-test only research design was adopted. 100 patients were selected by convenience sampling technique and categorized into experimental (n=50) and control group (n=50) for this study. Self- structured socio-demographic proforma and self- structured record analysis proforma was used to collect socio-demographic data and modified nausea and vomiting scale was used to measure the level of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among cancer patients. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Science). The post-testt level of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among experimental and control groups was compared by unpaired‘t’ test and the result showed (p=&lt;0.0001) significant difference between both groups. The chi-square analysis shows a statistically significance association between chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and the emetogenic potential of the drug in both groups and in control group age was also significance associated. The ANOVA test revealed the statistically significance of the posttest level of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting within groups of the emetogenic potential of a drug. The present study concluded that the food component, like ginger tea, is an effective home remedy for the reduction of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among cancer patients. Further study can be conducted with a large population, different dose and compositions of ginger and with different adjuvant therapy to manage nausea and vomiting among cancer patients.

Assessment of life skills among early adolescents: A descriptive study

Background: Life skills are the abilities that enable to maintain life in adaptive way and help to deal with the challenges of life. Adolescence is a very crucial stage where various changes take place and during this phase needs special attention. Life skills play a significant role in adolescence and help to cope with the stress and frustration of their life. The present study was conducted with the aim to assess the life skills of among early adolescents. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional survey with descriptive research design was used. The study was conducted in a selected school of Sonitpur, Assam. A total of 122 students from Class VI to VIII were selected using total enumeration technique. Sociodemographic pro forma and translated version of life skills assessment scale were used to collect data after ethical clearance and written permission from concerned authorities. Results: The findings showed that 72% of the participants had average of life skills. There was a statistically significant association between gender (χ2 = 5.40, P = 0.02) and father's education (χ2 = 4.49, P = 0.03) with the global score of life skills of the participants. Creative thinking of early adolescents was found to be significantly associated with religion (χ2 = 5.20, P = 0.03) and critical thinking was found to be significantly associated with mother's education (χ2 = 7.99, P = 0.01). Decision-making of early adolescents was found to be significantly associated with gender (χ2 = 5.11, P = 0.02) and mother's occupation (χ2 = 4.16, P = 0.04). Coping with emotion of early adolescents was found to be significantly associated with gender (χ2 = 3.86, P = 0.04). Coping with stress of early adolescents was found to be significantly associated with gender (χ2 = 4.54, P = 0.03) and mother's occupation (χ2 = 7.07, P = 0.01). Conclusion: Comparative study can be conducted between the students of government and private schools or rural and urban schools. Life skill training could enhance the life skills.

Assessment of brain dominance and its correlation with academic achievement among medical students: A cross-sectional study

Background: Each individual will have a unique way of perceiving, processing, and retrieving information provided, which could have an impact on one's performance. Medical education is undergoing reformation in terms of focusing on skill-based learning. Hence, understanding the pattern of brain dominance could influence the teaching and learning styles. Aims: The aim of this study is to assess brain dominance and its correlation with academic achievement among medical students. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a recently opened medical college in South India. Materials and Methods: The study sample consists of two batches of medical students of 150 each, of which 245 students consented to participate in the study. Sociodemographic pro forma, alert scale of cognitive style and first-year MBBS final examination results were used. Statistical Analysis: Results were interpreted in the form of frequencies, Chi-square test, and Spearman's correlation test. Results: Of the study group, 60% were female students (n = 147) and 40% were male students (n = 98). Left brain, bilateral, and right brain dominance was seen in 37.55%, 33.06%, and 29.39% of the population, respectively. The r- value was correlated with brain dominance and academic achievement; however, it did not differ significantly at 0.05 level and was found to have a negligible relationship between the two. Conclusion: Female students were predominantly left side brain dominant. Brain dominance and academic achievement did not show any correlation. The importance is attributed to implementing the different teaching methods/styles, as it is believed to influence and promote better learning among medical students.

Impact of stressful life events in mood disorders

Background: Life events are defined as discrete experiences that disrupt an individual's usual activities, causing a substantial change and readjustment, such as marriage, physical illness or death in the family. A temporal relationship has been established between such stressful life events and the onset and severity of psychiatric illness in many studies. Aims: To assess the impact of stressful life events in patients with mood disorders. Materials and Methods: 70 patients with an established diagnosis of an affective disorder according to ICD-10 were sampled via consecutive sampling. Sociodemographic proforma and HAM-D or YMRS were applied as relevant to rate the severity of illness. Presumptive stressful life events scale (PSLES) was applied to assess for the number and score of stressful life events during the patient's lifetime and the past one year. Results: Stressful life events were found to have a significant contribution to the illness in the context of the socio-demographic background of the subjects. Significant correlation was also seen between severity of illness and stress scores from PSLES with events occurring over lifetime, desirable events and impersonal events eliciting a more severe illness. Conclusion: Life events can behave as acute and ongoing stressors during the course of an illness. Establishing their impact and addressing coping mechanisms should be done to make for a comprehensive management of any patient diagnosed with a mood disorder.

Psychiatric manifestations of HIV disease

Background: The appearance of AIDS on the medical and social scene in the early 1980 has been followed by worldwide spread of the disease and escalating numbers of persons affected. the first case was detected in 1984. For the first time in a worldwide epidemic, it has been necessary to try to change fundamental aspects of the human behavior by education and the dissemination of knowledge about psychiatric manifestations. Aim: To find out the psychiatric manifestations of HIV disease. Methods & Materials: 37 patients and 20 controls were taken up for evaluation of psychopathology. It’s a prospective study. Sociodemographic proforma, Socioeconomic Scale, Trail making A & B tests, color cancellation test, Raven's progressive matrices, Wechsler scale for memory, Linguistic fluency test were used. Results: Persons with HIV were having psychiatric manifestations like, Adjustment disorders, Depression, suicide, schizophrenia, Mild cognitive impairment to Dementia were noted among HIV and associated illnesses. Conclusion: Proper treatment adherence, counselling, follow up will improve the patient’s wellbeing.

Impact of family-related factors on mental health and adjustment of adolescents

Background: Adolescence is believed to be a period of great stress and storm, as rapid physical and mental changes occur during this period with a lot of problems in adjustment of children. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the impact of family-related factors on mental health and adjustment in adolescents. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving 175 school-going boys and girls of age 14–17 years. The students were administered a sociodemographic pro forma, general health questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), and adjustment inventory for school students (AISS) by one-to-one interview method. Family-related factors such as maternal education and occupation, relationship of the primary caregiver, type of family, and number of siblings were analyzed with the scores of GHQ and AISS by Student’s Mann–Whitney U-test and Kruskal–Wallis test using the SPSS 20.0. Results: Poorer maternal education is associated with greater anxiety and insomnia than those of mothers with better education (p=0.008), while maternal occupation had a negative impact on overall adjustment scores (p&lt;0.0001). Children from nuclear family and children reared by grandparents showed significantly greater social dysfunction (p&lt;0.0001). Emotional adjustment, educational adjustment, and overall adjustment scores were significantly higher in children from nuclear family. Significant increase in the educational adjustment scores is seen in children brought up by parents. Social dysfunction was more among students who had two siblings when compared to children with one sibling (p=0.01). Conclusion: Family-related factors significantly affect the mental health and coping nature of the adjustment-related problems.

Prevalence of emotional, behavioural problems and ego resilience among tea tribe adolescents living in Dibrugarh district of Assam

BackgroundMental health issues are shown to be increasing in the North East part of India. Tea tribes, on the other hand, are known to have low health parameters as a whole while the mental health aspects are rarely reported in this special population. The aim of the study was to examine the emotional, behavioural problems and Ego Resilience among school-going adolescents of tea tribe. MethodologyA Cross-sectional research design was used. Four schools were selected using simple random sampling and total enumeration method was followed for the selection of the respondents. The study includes school going adolescents between the age group of 13–19 years studying in government schools under Tingkhong block of Dibrugarh district. Socio-demographic Proforma, Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, The Ego-Resiliency Scale was administered. The analysis of data was done with the help of the Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 20 (SPSS- 20). ResultsThe prevalence of the emotional problem, conduct problem, hyperactivity, peer problem and pro-social behaviour among tea tribe origin adolescents was 5.9%, 28.2%, 6.5%, 15.3% &12.4% respectively. High resiliency trait was found in 60.0%, 25.9% have the undetermined trait, 12.9% have high resiliency trait; 1.2% have a low level of resiliency in school going adolescents of tea tribe's origin. ConclusionPromotion of mental well-being needs to be initiated at pre-adolescence in the schools. There is a need for intervention at the school level, family level, and community level to tackle the issues and to prevent mental health problems.

A Cross-sectional Study on Quality of Sleep Among College Students in Omar Al-Mukhtar University, El-beida, Libya

The main aims of this current study were to assess the quality of sleep and to find the association between socio-demographic proforma and quality of sleep among college students. The non-experimental cross-sectional study design was adopted. The study included 100 college students studying in two medical colleges in Omar Al-Mukhtar University, El-beida, Libya. The samples were selected by the stratified sampling technique. The data was collected using socio-demographic proforma and the quality of sleep scale prepared by the investigators. The study findings showed that 3% of college students had an excellent sleep, 23% had a good sleep, 73% had fairly bad sleep, and 1% had very poor sleep. There was an association between the number of siblings and the quality of sleep. Based on the study results, it is concluded that the majority of college students had fairly bad sleep, and there is no significant association between socio-demographic proforma and quality of sleep except the number of siblings. The study helped in identifying the quality of sleep among college students. The study may help future investigators to adopt different methods to shape the truth.

A Cross-sectional Study on Quality of Sleep Among College Students in Omar Al-Mukhtar University, El-beida, Libya

Objectives: The main aims of this current study were to assess the quality of sleep and to find the association between socio-demographic proforma and quality of sleep among college students. Methods: The non-experimental cross-sectional study design was adopted. The study included 100 college students studying in two medical colleges in Omar Al-Mukhtar University, El-beida, Libya. The samples were selected by the stratified sampling technique. The data was collected using socio-demographic proforma and the quality of sleep scale prepared by the investigators. Results: The study findings showed that 3% of college students had excellent sleep, 23% had good sleep, 73% had fairly bad sleep, and 1% had very poor sleep. There was an association between the number of siblings and the quality of sleep. Conclusion: Based on the study results, it is concluded that the majority of college students had fairly bad sleep, and there is no significant association between socio-demographic proforma and quality of sleep except the number of siblings. The study helped in identifying the quality of sleep among college students. The study may help future investigators to adapt different methods to shape the truth.

A protocol of a cross sectional study to assess depression in antenatal mothers

Background: Maternal depression is associated with a number of adverse maternal outcomes such as preterm birth, maternal dysfunction, maternal suicide and perinatal outcomes such as low birth weight, lower rates of breastfeeding, increase in diarrheal disease, hospitalisations, poor emotional, social development, lower academic achievements in adolescence and future mental health problems for the children of the mothers. Maternal depression has rightly been identified as a priority mental health condition and large scale community interventions in low and middle income countries (including India) have been shown in RCTs to be effective in not only improving maternal depression but also improve the perinatal outcomes. Given the scale, severity of the problem and strength of evidence available for effective interventions in the Indian context, there is a great opportunity for implementation research in this area. As a first step there is a need to understand the prevalence of the problem and associated risk factors in our context. Aim: Aim of this study to understand the prevalence of maternal depression and associated risk factors among antenatal mothers attending Sri Ramachandra Medical College (SRMC) Obstetrics outpatient department. Methods: A cross-sectional design will be employed for determining the prevalence, while a case control framework will be used for the risk factor analysis. Antenatal mothers will be startified according to the trimester of the pregnancy. Semi-structured socio demographic proforma; Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9 Tamil version), Generalised Anxiety Scale (Tamil Version) and Brief COPE (Tamil version) questionnaire will be administered for antenatal mothers who offer informed consent. Those who score above 10 points on the PHQ scale will be interviewed using the MINI diagnostic interview schedule for clarifying diagnosis. Those who are diagnosed with depression will be referred to the SRMC psychiatry department for treatment &amp; follow up. Analysis: Statistical analysis is to be done using computer software, to assess the prevalence of antenatal depression and the associated risk factors. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the sample. Mean, standard deviation and range will be employed to describe continuous variables, while frequency distributions will obtained for categorical variables. The chi square and fisher’s exact tests will be used to assess the significance of associations between categorical variables. Multivariate analysis will be performed using stepwise backward logistic regression models

Body dissatisfaction and its relation to Big Five personality factors and self-esteem in young adult college women in India.

Introduction:Eating disorders are increasingly becoming common among men and women across the world. Body dissatisfaction is found to be one of the prominent risk factors for the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Research suggests that the internalization of culturally unattainable ideals is in fact mediated by self-esteem and personality factors such as high neuroticism, perfectionism, and impulsiveness. Studies on body image concerns in the cultural context of the Indian population are limited. We aimed to study the prevalence of body image dissatisfaction and its association with self-esteem and personality traits among young Indian women.Materials and Methods:Using a cross-sectional design we studied on 555 female college students of North India. Data was collected using self-reported questionnaires: Sociodemographic pro forma, Body Shape Questionnaire (-8C), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, and Mini-International Personality Item Pool.Results:The mean age of the participants in the study was 22.24 years (±2.75). Twenty-seven percent of the participants had moderate-to-severe body concern. Body shape dissatisfaction significantly correlated with higher body mass index (BMI) (rs = 0.12, P = 0.003) and lower self-esteem (rs = −0.22, P < 0.001). Among the personality traits, only neuroticism (beta = 0.35, P = 0.01) and conscientiousness (beta = 0.29, P = 0.031) significantly predicted body shape dissatisfaction.Conclusion:A significant percentage of young women in this study had a negative body image associated with higher BMI, lower self-esteem, high neuroticism, and high conscientiousness. Thus, consideration of individual variations in personality traits and self-esteem is important understanding body image concerns. This can help in selection of better interventions in the treatment of body image dissatisfaction.

Health-Promoting Behaviors and Menopausal Symptoms: An Interventional Study in Rural India.

Background:Menopausal transition initiates with menstrual cycle length variety and finishes when last menstrual period happens. As life expectancy has increased, a menopausal woman has to spend one-third of her life span with estrogen deprivation stage that leads to major long-term symptomatic and metabolic complications.Methods:This was a quasi-experimental study conducted on 103 menopausal women between 40 and 60 years of age residing in Ambala district, Haryana. In the experimental group, women received lifestyle modification program that includes six domains, i.e., health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management. Intervention was divided into two sessions of total 2-h duration on 2 consecutive days. Sociodemographic pro forma, Menopausal Rating Scale, and Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II were used to collect data from women through face-to-face interview.Results:There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in mean menopausal symptom score and mean health-promoting behavior score in the experimental group after the intervention, but there was no significant difference in the comparison group (P > 0.05). It was revealed that there was no significant difference between the groups with regard to mean menopausal symptom score and mean health-promoting behavior score before intervention (P < 0.05). The mean posttest menopausal symptom score (t = −8.99, P = 0.01**) was significantly low and the mean health-promoting behavior score (t = 8.7, P = 0.01**) was significantly high in the experimental group.Conclusion:Based on the finding of the study, it can be concluded that Lifestyle modification program was significantly effective in reducing menopausal symptoms and improving health-promoting behaviors among women.

A study of attitude towards medication and medical help-seeking among medical and pharmacy students.

Background: Attitude towards medication and medical help-seeking varies among students and has a bearing on keeping optimum health. There is a paucity of studies examining these variables among medical and pharmacy students. Aims: To know the attitude towards medication and medical help-seeking and its relationship in medical and pharmacy students. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and six students (Pharmacy =162, Medical =144) were assessed with socio-demographic and clinical proforma, Hogan Drug Attitude Inventory, and the action/intention sub-scale of Attitudes toward medical help-seeking scale. Results: Mean score on DAI score and ATMHSS were 14.02 and 26.29 respectively. Pharmacy group had statistically significantly lower score (MU=1.012, Z=-2.012, p=.044) on DAI. There was a statistically significant group difference between poor & partial drug attitude (MU=6570.500, Z=-2.425, p=.015), and poor & good drug attitude (MU=1532.000, Z=-2.686, p=.007) on the score of ATMHSS. Conclusion: Pharmacy students tend to have negative attitude towards medication use as compared to medical students. There is negative association between poor attitude towards medication and medical help seeking.

Substance use among outdoor treatment-seeking patients with mental illness: A case-control study from a tertiary care hospital of northern India.

BACKGROUND:Substance abuse and mental disorder often coexist and may cause several consequences in sociooccupational functioning and health care and management. Indian data are sparse in this area.OBJECTIVES:The aim of the study was to examine the sociodemographic profile, pattern, and prevalence of alcohol and substance use among person suffering with mental illness and to compare with those without mental illness.METHODS:A total of 80 treatment-seeking patients with mental illness and 80 nontreatment seeking healthy accompanying persons were assessed for current substance use. Mental illness was screened using Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders and the diagnosis was made as per DSM IV, semi-structured sociodemographic pro forma was also applied. The data collected were analyzed using the Chi-square and Student's t-test.RESULTS:Substance use was found 2.5 times higher among cases (56.2%) than controls (22.5%). Substance-using participants comprised mainly males belonging to rural residence. The substance using cases were more unmarried, less educated, poorer economically, and more nuclear family structures that substance-using controls. When compared with non-substance using cases, cases with substance use had more males than females and lower education. Although both groups were almost similar in term of marital status, family structure, residence, and socioeconomic status. Among both groups, most common substance use was tobacco, followed by alcohol and cannabis. Although all the substances were more prevalent among cases than controls. The prevalence of any substance use was highest among cases with psychotic disorder (77.3%), followed by unipolar depression (62.5%), bipolar affective disorder (41.7%), and anxiety disorders (21.4%). Tobacco and cannabis use was most prevalent among cases suffering with psychotic disorders, whereas alcohol use was most prevalent among cases suffering with unipolar depression.CONCLUSIONS:Mentally ill individuals are vulnerable to develop substance use, thus they are doubly jeopardized. The susceptibility of these individuals stem from lesser insight, need for stimulation, to decrease the anhedonia induced by psychoactive medicines and poor awareness hence this group of individuals has several health and social consequences; therefore, they require due attention. A better care, support, and education are needed for substance using patients with mental illness to improve their prognosis and also help in their appropriate rehabilitation.