Journal of Integrative Medicine and Public Health

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One of the most key determinant of a person’s nutritional condition, health, illness, and death is their socioeconomic level. When conducting community-based studies, it is vital to determine the socio-economic level of the study participants, as this determines the incidence and prevalence of numerous health disorders. Modified BG Prasad socioeconomic classification is most widely used scale to determine the socioeconomic status of study subjects in health studies in India. This scale is based on the per capita income of an individual and has to be constantly updated by taking into account the inflation and depreciation of rupee, because the rupee’s value will depreciate owing to inflation, and economic variables will lose their significance. It is calculated by using the consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers (IW). The monthly updated values of Consumer Price Index are available at the Labour Bureau of India website on the last day of every month.

INTRODUCTION: Children born today see a totally changed world. They are well experienced and exposed to technology. They have a lot of dependencies and needs on the Internet and technology in the form of educational help, recreational, or even entertainment. This kind of predisposition to digital screens has recently increased with lockdown all over the world, leading to many complications in different spheres of health like mental, physical, social, and others. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. The data collection was done using an online questionnaire, which was pretested in a pilot study and then later was done through Google forms. The parents of children using mobile phones and having access to the Internet were contacted and included in the study population. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPPS version 20. RESULTS: Approximately 307 parents participated in the study. Positive association was seen between increase screen time and children having personal device (P = 0.001), with increase of age (P = 0.000), where parents felt that the child was addicted (P = 0.032), with children having impact on physical heath (P = 0.000), maximum screen time allowed without causing health concern (P = 0.000), and preference of online educational app (P = 0.011). CONCLUSION: Though the digital medium can be beneficial in many ways, providing access to quality education even during these unclear times, however increased exposure to the screen can be harmful to a child’s health in many ways.

CONTEXT: India is one of the top three tobacco burden countries in the world. Tobacco intake causes loss of health, environment and increases financial burden of an individual. AIMS: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and distribution of tobacco intake among individuals of more than 15 years of age in union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: District wise data from National Health Survey-5, Ministry of Health and Family welfare 2019–2020 was analyzed and measuredSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Mean, median and mode. RESULTS: Out of all the 20 districts in J&K, prevalence of tobacco smoking was highest in Kupwara district (56.6%) and lowest in Jammu district (26.6%). CONCLUSIONS: People should be made more aware about the ill effects of tobacco usage. Although, the Government of India enacted various legislations to control tobacco use, its reduction lies in our hands and same should be discussed with general masses my making them aware about the menace of tobacco on mental, environmental and health of individual.

BACKGROUND: The interaction between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry through their sales representatives influences physicians’ attitudes and prescribing behaviors. In this regard, physicians’ attitudes towards pharmaceutical promotions and their trustworthiness towards pharmaceutical representatives’ information on new drugs were explored in this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was an analysis of a cross-sectional survey of 183 physicians with different job and education designations and from various clinical settings in Erbil-Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2018. The physicians were invited from the public sector, comprising a general, emergency, and pediatric hospital. The information was collected through a standardized anonymous, self-administered close-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire included exposure to marketing activities, motivations to contact pharmaceutical representatives, attitudes towards promotional practices, and trustworthiness of the pharmaceutical representatives’ information on new drugs. RESULTS: The majority of the physicians reported that the information provided by pharmaceutical representatives assisted them in staying up to date or learning about new products (76.5%), but 55.7% of them trusted their medical information. In addition, most of them reported that pharmaceutical representatives prioritized the promotion of their products over patients’ benefits (70.5%). They reported that receiving promotional material and participating in promotional practices affect doctors’ behaviors to prescribe a new drug, including promotional materials (55.2%); medical samples (67.8%); funding of registration costs to conferences (60.1%); participation in industry-funded researches (69.9%); and continuing medical education (69.4%). Receiving promotional materials and participating in promotional activities were considered to be ethical. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that doctors approved that receiving promotional material and participating in promotional practices affect doctors’ behaviors to prescribe a new drug. The present study showed that most of the physicians reported the role of promotional materials and activities on physicians’ behaviors to prescribe new drugs.

BACKGROUND: Infant mortality rate is the best indicator of effectiveness of maternal and child health services in general. Seventy percent of total infant deaths fall in neonatal period that is the neonatal mortality rate. The neonatal mortality is not uniform across the country. Substantial variations are observed in survival rates between the states and between districts within states. Focusing on local changes using local data can lead to improved outcomes. Health facility-based interventions can reduce neonatal mortality by 23%–50% in different settings. OBJECTIVES: This research article provides an overview of the causes of neonatal mortality and the relative public health importance of different causes that will help in reorganization and strengthening of neonatal services in our setup. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a record-based observational study of all the neonatal deaths in the neonatal unit over a period of 2 months from November 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. Details of each neonatal death were analyzed. RESULTS: Most common cause of death was prematurity (56.44%) followed by neonatal sepsis (37.62%), birth anoxia (30%), and respiratory distress syndrome (26.73%). Seventy percent (71.29%) of deaths were inborn, whereas 24.75% and 3.96% were outborn and home-delivered, respectively. Sixty-seven percent (67.32%) were less than 2.5 kg among which 36.63% were less than 1.5 kg. Median weight was 2 kg. Fifty-seven (57%) of deaths occurred within 48 h after birth and median age at admission was 2 h and median hospital stay was 1.5 days. CONCLUSIONS: Improvement in female literacy rate, nutritional status of mother, providing good and essential antenatal care will reduce endogenous factors (prematurity and birth injuries) of neonatal mortality. Improving level 2 special newborn care and level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) beds, upgrading and operationalizing the newborn stabilization unit beds along with quality improvement and a functional back-referral system will substantially bring down neonatal mortality

Online since 12^th March 2021