Meenakshi Khapre

• Professor (Assistant) at All India Institute of Medical Sciences Rishikesh

Essential hypertension, a common multifactorial condition, is a significant public health concern. In India, the prevalence of hypertension is high, with estimates indicating a rising trend. Shirodhara, an Ayurvedic therapy, has exhibited the potential for stress reduction and relaxation. Thus, the review investigates the effect of Shirodhara on sy...

A BSTRACT Introduction Schools provide an ideal setting for teaching first-aid skills. A concern is who should train these students when medical doctors and paramedics are busy in hospitals. School teachers can be enabled with instructors’ skills for delivering first-aid training to students under the supervision of one lead instructor. We aimed t...

Background Health workers were at higher risk for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic due to occupational risk factors. This study aimed to characterize these risk factors as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Unity Studies initiative. Methods This...

Introduction Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have a significant impact on health concerns. The transition from school to college coincides with various stressors, affecting student health. The objective was to assess the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles among college-going students and examine the association of composite lifestyle scores with s...

Background Breast cancer represents the most common cause of cancer death among women globally. Early cancer detection in low-income countries is difficult because of the relatively expensive mammographic screening. Intelligent Breast Exam [iBE] is a portable device that is available at low cost and provides electronic documentation for additional...

Diabetes-related distress is the emotional burden and worries while managing chronic disease like diabetes. It remains mostly undetected because most patients do not realize their emotional problems. Diabetes distress affects glycemic control and makes the patient more prone to complications. Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS-17) developed by Polonsky i...

Background Menstruation is a natural, physiological process experienced by all adolescent girls and women. The reproductive age group is the largest and most susceptible to various health and illness-related risk factors. This study aims to find the prevalence of satisfactory menstrual hygiene management (MHM) among women of reproductive age group...

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is prevalent during pregnancy. If it goes undetected, it can lead to urinary tract infection with severe maternal and neonatal complications. Until date, India does not have any guidelines to test for ASB during pregnancy. Objective: To estimate the pooled prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant wo...

Background Diabetic cardiomyopathy, which involves both the right and left ventricles, progresses from a preclinical stage to overt heart failure. Detection of this entity at a preclinical stage could be crucial in intervening to halt its progression to overt heart failure. There is a paucity of literature on subclinical RV dysfunction in diabetic...

Background It is pertinent to objectively assess the severity of diabetic gastroparesis and tailor treatment accordingly. The current study was planned to document gastroparesis by gastric emptying scintigraphy (GES) objectively and see the effect of medications and diet control on clinical and GES after four weeks. Methods A prospective, open-lab...

Introduction: Foot ulceration is a frequent diabetic complication with potentially fatal consequences. The pathophysiology of neuropathic ulcers in the diabetic foot is thought to be influenced by abnormal plantar pressures. Aim: This study aimed to compare the maximum peak pressures among diabetic patients with and without neuropathy. The secondar...

Introduction The interrelationship of diabetes with mental illness has increased in recent years. Diabetes-related distress is the emotional burden, stress, and worries associated with diabetes, which does not reach the threshold for depressive disorder. A diabetes self-management education (DSME) is a structured educational approach to improve gly...

Background Acute chest discomfort is a common presenting complaint in the emergency department. There is a paucity of studies related to clinico-epidemiological profile of patients with acute chest discomfort in the emergency department (ED). Hence, we intended to conduct the study to address the dearth of research in this field. Aims and objective...

Introduction: COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in 2020. It has had a devastating effect on human life and the global economy. To date, there is no proven therapy for COVID-19, even though rigorous research is ongoing to test multiple compounds across all systems of medicine. A need was felt to systematically explore the Indian system of medicine t...

Background Antenatal care (ANC) is the essential regular care of women that prevents potential health problems during pregnancy. In India, the proportion of women who received four or more antenatal visits was only 51% (National Family Health Survey, 2015–2016). An even worse situation prevails in urban areas where women from poor communities face...

Objective: To determine the proportion of women having four or more antenatal care (ANC) visits and to assess associated factors (utilization of ANC services) in poor urban settlements in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. Material and Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study. The study population included females who delivered during the las...

Introduction: Diabetes adversely affects sexual health with its negative consequences on well-being in both males and females. Literature is scanty regarding female sexual dysfunction (FSD) in diabetic women, furthermore reported literature is lacking regarding the differential impact on different domains of sexual health, especially in Indian fem...

Objectives: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) disease has overwhelmed the healthcare infrastructure worldwide. The shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds leads to longer waiting times and higher mortality for patients. High crowding leads to an increase in mortality, length of hospital stays, and hospital costs for patients. Through an appro...

Background- Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram was launched in 2013, to reduce mortality and morbidity in children due to prevalent birth defects, diseases, deficiencies, and developmental delays. The strategy employed is early detection and management of health conditions. Mobile health teams (MHTs) and District early intervention centers (DEIC) are...

Background: Due to the significant role of male in decision making in India, they may decide if, when and where a woman may access antenatal, delivery and postnatal care; and whether or not to provide financial resources to travel to these services. Men's involvement in maternity care is recognized as a key strategy in improving maternal health an...

Objectives: India introduced BBV152/Covaxin and AZD1222/Covishield vaccines in January 2021. We estimated the effectiveness of these vaccines against severe COVID-19 among individuals aged ≥45 years. Methods: We did a multi-centric, hospital-based, case-control study between May and July 2021. Cases were severe COVID-19 patients, and controls were...

Background India introduced BBV152/Covaxin and AZD1222/Covishield vaccines from January 2021. We estimated effectiveness of these vaccines against severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among individuals aged ≥45 years. Methods We did a multi-centric, hospital-based, case–control study between May and July 2021. Cases were severe COVID-19 pati...

Introduction: Healthcare providers are vulnerable to occupational health hazards. However, they do not appropriately apprehend the serious health consequences of occupational exposures. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of "Occupational health hazards and vaccination" workshop organized periodically in institute. Material and m...

Background- ‘Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services’ Program or Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram is an effort under the National Health Mission to improve survival and decrease morbidity among under 18 year children. Methods- A checklist was prepared for on-site observation of the DEICs. Records of the referral were collected from...

Objectives: Due to the long-lasting pandemic measures, such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on higher education. In this study, we aimed to determine sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and sleep hygiene, and their association with anxiety, and their correlation in preclinical medical st...

There is an increasing incidence of breast cancer in India, especially among younger women. The study's main objective was to create awareness related to breast cancer and breast self-examination by community health workers and assess the effectiveness of improving knowledge and practice. Secondary objective was to conduct clinical breast examinati...

Introduction Diabetic foot ulcers are a common diabetic complication that can be lethal. Abnormal plantar pressures are hypothesized to influence the pathogenesis of neuropathic ulcers in the diabetic foot. Aim To analyze the maximum plantar pressures and average plantar pressures in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods The study used 62 diab...

Introduction Diabetes mellitus (DM) adversely affects the skeletal system and is associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of quantitative computed tomography (QCT) in osteoporosis detection in patients with DM. Methods A cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study wa...

BACKGROUND: To reduce the likelihood of transmission of infection to health-care workers (HCWs), personal protective equipment is used. However, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) increases the risk of heat stress and loss of dexterity, leads to poor compliance to PPE. To address the issues of poor compliance to PPE, it was necessary to ga...

Background: Endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and hypercoagulability are hallmarks of severe COVID-19 related disease. Endothelial function can be measured non-invasively by flow-mediated dilatation in the brachial artery. We planned a study to measure it as a marker of the severity of COVID-19 disease. Objective: To evaluate the associatio...

Despite many efforts, the utilization of full antenatal and postnatal care remains a significant concern in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We planned to retrieve the relevant literature and pooled the data for meta-analysis to evaluate the impact of mobile health (mHealth) intervention on antenatal and postnatal care utilization in low-...

Kuppuswamy scale

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder in the progenitive age group and the leading cause of infertility. The worldwide prevalence of PCOS in women varies between 2.2% to 26%. Due to limited literature on burden of PCOS among adolescent girls, its significance is still unfathomed as a research is few and far be...

Background: Online platforms are the most popular mode of entertainment, simultaneously imparting knowledge and education. During COVID pandemic, there was a sudden influx of educational videos on social media/websites with a purpose of spreading the information about hand hygiene (HH) practices. The aim of this study was to explore and assess the...

Background To maintain physical distancing for reducing the spread of COVID-19, online learning appears to be a viable option to carry on teaching and learning. Aim The aim of study was to assess the effectiveness of integrated flipped classroom and reciprocal peer teaching (RPT) using Google Classroom as a learning management system (LMS) for teac...

Diabetes self-management education (DSME), considered as the cornerstone of treatment for all people with diabetes, helps people with diabetes, or newly diagnosed diabetics, learn how to successfully manage their disease. The goal of DSME is to help people practice diabetes self-care behaviors daily and be as healthy as possible.

Background: Occupational health hazard pertaining to health care providers is one of the neglected areas that need serious attention. Any compromise in their safety would result in reduction in workforce, which may affect patient care, keeping in mind the wide gap between the required number and actual health care workers (HCWs) available in the wo...

Background Changing healthcare and social scenarios are reducing the learning opportunities of surgical postgraduates in our country. Majority of surgical training centers in the developed world use laboratory training as an integral part of their curricula. However, in India, most of surgical residents are still trained by traditional apprenticesh...

Second-hand smoke is a neglected public health issue. Every year 1.2 million people die due to this exposure. Second-hand smoke is also related to various other diseases like cardiovascular diseases, lung diseases, low birth weight, maternal depression, etc. The purpose of this review is to look over various studies and to gain an understanding of...

The rapid emergence of rural agglomeration in urban areas has resulted in increased number of slum areas, which are highly vulnerable to food insecurity. There is a dearth of literature and evidence on food insecurity in such areas. The present study was thus aimed to determine the prevalence of food insecurity at household level in urban poor sett...

This systematic review and meta-analysis will evaluate the comparative efficacy and safety of different treatment approaches to COVID 19.

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of mHealth interventions on antenatal and postnatal care utilization in low and middle-income countries. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis Setting Studies from low and middle-income countries were included for analysis. Participants We searched the literature through major electronic databases suc...

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder with a source of associated microvascular and macrovascular complications with it. Globally, 463 million people are living with diabetes, out of that 88 million people are from Southeast Asian regions. Diabetes also affects nearly 8.9% adult population in India. As insulin resistance is a feature of type-2...

Objective The primary objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of sub-clinical left ventricular dysfunction among asymptomatic diabetic patients, while the secondary objectives were to determine its association with microvascular complications and to find correlation with the baseline clinical and demographic parameters. Material and...

Background: Depression is prevalent in the diabetic population. Primary care physician is busy in treating diabetes and depression among them goes unnoticed. According to the American Diabetic Association, two out of three are not able to achieve glycaemic control. Diabetes and depression both share complex cause-effect relationship. Objectives:...

Introduction: Tobacco is the most common form of substance abuse. Commonest evil of modern society is use of tobacco, though alcohol is equally harmful as tobacco but the accessibility of tobacco and its product are far easier for any individua. Aim & Objective: To determine the prevalence of tobacco abuse in the community and its association with...

Masks play a role in the protection of health-care workers (HCWs) from acquiring respiratory infections, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in health-care settings. This observational study was conducted among 382 HCWs in a tertiary care setting over a period of 1 month. Descriptive analysis was done to assess the rational and recommende...

Context: Since the implementation of Weekly Iron and Folic acid Supplementation (WIFS) program in India in 2013, little effort has been made to comprehensively evaluate the program. Aims: This study was carried out to assess the coverage of WIFS among adolescent girls, explore implementation barriers, and suggest solutions to improve WIFS throug...

Background: India is at the nascent stage of competency-based medical education. Faculties trained in medical education are the main driving force for change. The present study explores the perception of faculties about the current practices and problems in medical/dental/nursing undergraduate assessment, barriers to adoption of best practices, an...

Introduction: There are various problem which have harmful impact on health, these problem are mainly behavioural with multifunctional causation. Amongst such problem, addiction of substance abuse is on rising trend, overall globally. The study conducted to determine the prevalence of substance abuse in the community. Methods: A community based cro...

Background: Our country is adding to one-fifth of live births globally and an enormous number of neonatal deaths (<25%). In India, although the number of new-born stabilization units (NBSU) reported operational is increasing but there is lack of clarity of the role of NBSUs as well as suboptimal utilization and quality of services in these units. M...

Context: Adolescent girls are at higher risk of mortality and morbidity due to childbirth. Government of India therefore initiated Adolescent girls' scheme since year 2000. However, since its inception program received various setbacks. Aims: This study was carried out to assess the utilization of ICDS program for adolescent girls through Anganw...

India is experiencing epidemiologic transition with sharp increase in coronary heart disease. Fatality rate of CHD is alarmingly high leading to most common cause of premature mortality in year 2016. There is growing burden of coronary risk factors owing to rapid urbanization and changes in lifestyle including diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (...

Background Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is recognized as an emerging threat and interest of public health because the factors defining syndrome are associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity. Hypertension further adds to risk factor leading to target organ damage. Recognizing the MetS in patients with hypertension provides a great oppor...

p> Background: The prevalence of diabetes in India has reached alarming levels with 8.7% of population affected as of 2015, which is expected to double in the future. The reasons for the rapid increase in prevalence of diabetes include genetic predilection of Indian population, economic boom, sedentary lifestyle, inadequate follow up and lack of di...

Journal of Ayurveda and Holistic Medicine (JAHM)

Journal of Ayurveda and Holistic Medicine

With the advent of latest technologies and rapid industrialization human beings have made advancement to a great extent, in the materialistic world. He has mechanized his instruments in such a sophisticated way so as to carry out complicated and heavy tasks in comparatively lesser time and utilizing lesser manpower. In this pursuit of progress, he...

Background: Second hand smoke (SHS) released from the burning end of cigarette and exhaled mainstream smoke. When inhaled by pregnant mothers, it can cross the placenta and increased risk of neonatal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. On literature search we could not find out data on exposure to SHS during pregnancy in India which seems to be...

Medical officers are the backbone of medical services in our country and bulk of medico-legal work is done by them who are just medical graduates with no formal training in medico-legal work. The compulsory one year rural Govt. Service has created large turnover of new doctors that created large many issues related to medico-legal problems. Governm...

Background: Breastfeeding practices play pivotal role in determining the nutritional status and survival of children. The 'Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding' by WHO/UNICEF recommended that children should be breastfed exclusively for the first six months of life. Objective: To study breastfeeding practices among mothers of rural co...

Introduction: Food adulteration in India includes both willful adulteration and substandard food which do not confirm to prescribe food standard. There is striking paucity of reliable data with regard to extent of adulteration and documentation of food borne illnesses reflecting lack of attention and focus on this problem. Objectives: To find the p...