Health profile of government aided private school children in urban slum of Solapur, Southern Maharashtra, India

Background: Malnutrition is a silent emergency and its prevalence is high among children under five years of age. The school children in present study belongs to lower middle income families and their parents are working in unorganised sectors like handloom textile mills, construction sites worker, domestic bidi worker. Hence the study was planned to understand their health profile including morbidity pattern and sociodemographic profile and their nutritional status and grade of malnutrition according to World Health Organisation (WHO) growth reference standards.Methods: The present descriptive cross sectional Study was carried out among 767 students from class Lower Kindergarten to 7th standard of government aided private school. A pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to interview and examine all the participated students. Grading of malnutrition was carried out using WHO reference tables. Chi square test of significance was applied.Results: A total of 767 students participated in this study. Boys were 513 (66%) and girls were 254 (33%).Most common morbidity found to be dental caries 55% .Out of 537 children 339 (63%) were underweight. Out of 767 children 302 (39%) had stunting, 272 (35%) had thinness and 26 (3%) were found to be obese. Two (0.32%) study subjects had suspect cardiac problems.Conclusions: The present study shows pattern of morbidities and malnutrition among school children. Comprehensive periodic health check-up should be carried out for early diagnosis and treatment of the common morbidities. Further studies should be carried out to assess the impact of health education.

A cross-sectional study of antenatal care services utilization, delivery practices and factors affecting them in urban slum area of India in 2015

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the important factors in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality has wide regional variation. The present study was carried out in an urban slum area to determine the pattern of utilization of ANC services, awareness regarding Janani suraksha yojana (JSY) national programme and MEMS (Maharashtra emergency medical services) toll free helpline number (108 and 102).Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in urban slum area of India in the month of October 2015. Probability proportion to size sampling was used to select 256 mothers who had delivered within last 1 year. After obtaining written informed consent, the participants were interviewed using a predesigned, semi-structured questionnaire and the information was cross-checked with the available antenatal cards to minimize recall bias. The data were analysed considering the level of significance at 95%.Results: The utilization of the ANC services by the respondents was 86.33%. 43.36% were aware of JSY program while only 17.19% were aware of MEMS toll free helpline numbers.Conclusions: Utilization of ANC services was significantly associated with mother’s education and parity status of mother (Chi square=8.349; p<0.05). The main reasons for inadequate utilization of ANC services were non acceptability and inaccessibility of hospital services, inappropriate advice from health workers, and lack of awareness about ANC services and toll-free helpline numbers.

A hospital based exploratory study to assess the reasons and timings of seeking abortion services in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai

Background: The adoption of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act has allowed for abortion on the grounds of medical and social reasons since 1972.The aim of the present study is to establish the demographic of women seeking abortion care services and to determine the role of different factors in the timing of seeking an abortion.Methods: A retrospective hospital record-based study was carried out among pregnant women seeking an MTP in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai. The records of women seeking MTP over a 5-year period from January 2012 to December 2016 were accessed and data pertaining to their demographic and obstetric history was recorded. Statistical tests of significance and analysis were done.Results: A total of 803 women underwent an MTP from January 2012 to December 2016. The number of deliveries during the same time period was 13735. The most common age group was 25-30 years. Stratification in terms of the educational backgrounds showed that 45.7% had received only secondary school education while 12.7% had no schooling. Majority of the women (74.8%) availed an MTP in the first trimester, out of which, most of them (36.9%) had 2 previous pregnancies. Most women coming in the second trimester (43.6%) hadn’t conceived before.Conclusions: Education didn’t seem to be a significant factor in determining the timing of seeking an MTP. School education did not necessarily include exposure to sexual education. Experience in terms of parity was more relevant in identifying signs of pregnancy and seeking appropriate services in a timely manner.</jats:p

Health problems among migrant construction workers: A unique public–private partnership project

Background: Construction sector is a booming industry and involves many hazardous activities. Migrant labor in the industry is susceptible to various health and occupational hazards. In a unique public-private partnership project, a medical team from a public sector teaching hospital in Mumbai provided comprehensive on-site health care services to the construction workers of a private construction company. Objective: To study socio-demographic profile and morbidity pattern of construction workers. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional study at construction site Vidyavihar (West), Mumbai, was carried out over the period of May to November 2010. Materials and Methods: A medical team provided comprehensive on-site health care services, and a Health Card was devised to maintain the record of socio-demographic, occupational details, and complete physical examination findings of the workers who participated in the study. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 15.0. Results: Of the 1337 workers (all males) examined, 1289 (96.4%) belonged to 15-45 years age group. The mean age of the workers was 26.25 ± 8.49 years. A third of the migrants belonged to West Bengal. The average number of health problems in the workers was 1.41. Regular consumers of tobacco and alcohol were 50.48 and 14.65%, respectively. Nearly one-fifth of the workers had febrile illness, of which 20.71% had suspected malaria; 12.6% had respiratory infections, while 3.4% were found to have hypertension. There was a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between type of occupation and morbidity status

Health problems among migrant construction workers: A unique public-private partnership project

Background: Construction sector is a booming industry and involves many hazardous activities. Migrant labor in the industry is susceptible to various health and occupational hazards. In a unique public-private partnership project, a medical team from a public sector teaching hospital in Mumbai provided comprehensive on-site health care services to the construction workers of a private construction company. Objective: To study socio-demographic profile and morbidity pattern of construction workers. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional study at construction site Vidyavihar (West), Mumbai, was carried out over the period of May to November 2010. Materials and Methods: A medical team provided comprehensive on-site health care services, and a Health Card was devised to maintain the record of socio-demographic, occupational details, and complete physical examination findings of the workers who participated in the study. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 15.0. Results: Of the 1337 workers (all males) examined, 1289 (96.4%) belonged to 15-45 years age group. The mean age of the workers was 26.25 ± 8.49 years. A third of the migrants belonged to West Bengal. The average number of health problems in the workers was 1.41. Regular consumers of tobacco and alcohol were 50.48 and 14.65%, respectively. Nearly one-fifth of the workers had febrile illness, of which 20.71% had suspected malaria; 12.6% had respiratory infections, while 3.4% were found to have hypertension. There was a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between type of occupation and morbidity status

Protocol for a prospective, hospital-based registry of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection in India: PregCovid Registry study

IntroductionPregnant women are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 due to several factors and therefore require special attention. However, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women and their newborns remain uncharted. The PregCovid registry aims to document the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on pregnant, postpartum women and their newborns. The aim of the registry is also to determine mother-to-child transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in India.Methods and analysisPregCovid is a hospital-based registry for capturing information of pregnant, postpartum women with COVID-19 and their newborns in India. Medical case records of pregnant and postpartum women with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 will be captured in real-time using an online electronic patient record software. The data analysis will be carried out for symptoms, the severity of COVID-19, pregnancy complications, maternal morbidity and mortality, neonatal complications, mother-to-child transmission, etc. Data analysis will be carried out for different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic for rapid response and developing strategies well in advance to manage pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2. The evidence generated from the registry will be regularly shared with the appropriate authorities for policy decisions. Thus, the registry data may be useful for planning the strategies for better management of pregnant women with COVID-19.Ethics and disseminationThe study has been approved by the Institutional Ethics Committees of all the participating study sites under the Medical Education and Drugs Department, Government of Maharashtra, Topiwala National Medical College &amp; BYL Nair Charitable Hospital, Mumbai and ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health, Mumbai, India. The results from this study will be disseminated with local, state, and national health authorities, collaborators and the general population on the study website (https://pregcovid.com) as well as dissemination through scientific meetings and publications.Trial registration numberCTRI/2020/05/025423.</jats:sec

Protocol for a prospective, hospital-based registry of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection in India: PregCovid Registry study

ABSTRACTIntroductionPregnant women are at increased risk of contracting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to several factors and therefore require special attention. However, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women and their newborns remain uncharted. The PregCovid registry aims to document the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on pregnant, post-partum women and their newborns. The aim of the registry is also to determine mother-to-child transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in India.Methods and analysisPregCovid is a hospital-based registry for capturing information of pregnant, post-partum women with COVID-19 and their newborns in India. Medical case records of pregnant and post-partum women with laboratory-confirmed diagnoses of COVID-19 will be captured in real-time using an online electronic patient record (EPR) software. The frequency of each symptom will be calculated. The laboratory data will be analyzed for calculating the frequency of laboratory parameters consistently higher in women with COVID- The adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes will be analyzed and their frequency will be calculated. Response to treatment will be analyzed for frequency calculation (number of women treated with different treatment regimens). The mother-to-child transmission data will be analyzed from the RT-PCR and/ antibody data of neonatal and maternal samples tested wherever the information is available. The registry data will be crucial for developing strategies for reducing the adverse impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women and their new-born.Ethics and disseminationThe study is approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (#55/2020), BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India (# 63/2020); and all the 18 participating study sites under Medical Education and Drugs Department of Government of Maharashtra. The Institutional Ethics Committees granted a waiver of consent as the data is collected from the medical case records.Trial registration numberCTRI/2020/05/025423Article summaryStrengths and limitations of this studyThe PregCovid registry is a hospital-based registry at dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in India. The registry will help to identify new epidemiological, clinical characteristics, obstetrics outcomes associated with pregnant women and/post-partum women with COVID-19 in India. The study will also generate information on clinical presentations and outcomes of neonatal born to mothers with COVID-19 in India.PregCovid registry will provide evidence of mother to child transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Indian womenThe evidence on unusual presentations of COVID-19 in pregnant and post-partum women will be generated.The follow-up of participants is only till the discharge from the hospital. Long-term follow-up is not included in the study.</jats:sec