Prevalence of cardiovascular health risk behaviors in a remote rural community of Sindhuli district, Nepal

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is emerging as a public health menace among low and middle income countries. It has particularly affected the poorest. However, there is paucity of information about CVD risk factors profile among Nepalese rural communities where the majority of people live in poverty. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the prevalence of cardiovascular health risk behaviors in an outback community of Nepal. METHODS: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study in Tinkanya Village Development Committee (VDC), Sindhuli between January and March, 2014. Total 406 participants of age 20 to 50 years were selected randomly. Data were collected using WHO-NCD STEPwise approach questionnaires and analyzed with SPSS V.16.0 and R i386 2.15.3 software. RESULT: The mean age of participants was 36.2 ± 9 years. Majority of participants (76.3%) were from lower socio-economic class, Adibasi/Janajati (63.1%), and without formal schooling (46.3%). Smoking was present in 28.6%, alcohol consumption in 47.8%, insufficient fruits and vegetables intake in 96.6%, insufficient physical activity in 48.8%; 25.6% had high waist circumference, 37.4% had overweight and obesity. Average daily salt intake per capita was 14.4 grams ±4.89 grams. Hypertension was detected in 12.3%. It had an inverse relationship with education and socio-economic status. In binary logistic regression analysis, age, smoking, body mass index (BMI) and daily salt intake were identified as significant predictors of hypertension. CONCLUSION: Present study showed high prevalence of smoking, alcohol consumption, insufficient fruit and vegetable intake, daily salt intake, overweight and obesity and hypertension among remote rural population suggesting higher risk for developing CVD in future. Nepalese rural communities, therefore, are in need of population-wide comprehensive intervention approaches for reducing CVD health risk behaviors

An innovative strategy for the effective reduction of MDR pathogens from the nosocomial environment

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is currently one of the main concerns for human health. Due to its rapid increase and global diffusion, several common microbial infections might become not curable in the future decades, making it impossible to apply other lifesaver therapies, such as transplant or chemotherapy. AMR is frequently observed in hospital pathogens, due to selective pressure exerted by antibiotic use, and consistently with this, in the recent years many actions have been proposed to limit AMR spread, including hygiene measures for hospital professionals and a wiser antibiotic usage. Indeed, the hospital environment itself represents a reservoir of pathogens, whose control was so far addressed by conventional sanitation procedures, which however cannot prevent recontamination and might further favor the selection of resistant strains. Here we report the results collected by studying an innovative sanitation strategy based on the use probiotic bacteria, capable of reducing in a stable way the surface load of pathogens and their AMR. Collected data suggest that this system might contribute significantly to AMR control and might be thus considered as on of the tools for AMR and infection prevention and control