Anees Ahmad

Role models and occupational ambitions of in-school male adolescents.

Background: A role model is perceived as worthy of imitation, their selection can indicate significant elements of psychosocial health and self-projection in adolescents. Patterns of behavior and lifestyle choices established during adolescence can have immediate and lasting effects on health. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study was undertaken in the schools of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. The sample frame was 2347, out of which a sample of 390 students was studied. Data collected were entered and analyzed by SPSS for Windows version 10%). Results: Majority (62.7%) of adolescents revealed that their role models were Film Star (34.8%) and their Teachers (27.9%), Parents (14.3%), Sportsman (12.0%). Politicians as the role models were opted by least proportion (1.2%). Desire of future occupation was Businessmen (27.9%), Doctor (18.6), and Engineer (14.4%). Conclusion: Nearly all adolescents had a role model. There is greater impact of cinema on the minds of adolescents, which resulted in choosing film actors as their role model. Aspiration of future occupation was not related to the characteristics of the role model.

Adverse eating behavior and its association with obesity in Indian adolescents: Evidence from a nonmetropolitan city in India

Introduction: With the so-called modernization, the epidemiological and sociocultural context of adolescents in developing countries is rapidly changing and is affecting their eating behavior and dietary choices. The objective of our study is twofold. First, our study seeks to find whether there is a prevalence of the adverse eating behaviors among the adolescents. Second, our study seeks to examine whether the prevalence of the adverse eating behavior is related to obesity and quantifies their association of with body mass index (BMI) status. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted in 13–15-year-old adolescents from schools of Aligarh, India, with prevalidated study tools and standardized anthropometric measures. The Z-scores were found by the WHO recommended AnthroPlus. Results: The results indicate a high prevalence of different adverse eating behaviors. The dietary behavior was found to be poor in 19.3%, fair in 54.4%, and good in only 26.3% of the study population. The mean BMI for age Z-score was found to be 0.87 and 0.02 in poor and fair dietary behavior. The odds of being overweight and obese were high (1.82 [1.20–2.78]) in those with poor dietary behavior. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that more research and timely intervention in adverse eating behaviors are much needed in India before this widely neglected problem acquires even more alarming and gigantic proportions.

Existence of Rule of Halves in Hypertension: an Exploratory Analysis in an Indian Village -

Introduction: India is a country in transition, the population is graying and the non communicable diseases are rising. In the rural areas of India, the detection of hypertension is poor because of limited healthcare facilities and poor awareness among the people. In one such village, Mirzapur, adopted by the Aligarh Muslim University, there is a planned project to control hypertension in the villages through some innovative approaches. This study was the assessment phase of this project for mass management of hypertension to steer and guide the next phase of the project. Aim: The main objectives of this study were: to determine the prevalence of hypertension in residents ≥ 40 years in Mirzapur village, Aligarh, and, to assess the presence of rule of halves in hypertension Results and Discussion: The present study in residents more than 40 years of age in the Mirzapur village in Aligarh found that the prevalence of hypertension in the study population was 41.9%, with a higher prevalence in older age groups. The mean blood pressure of the study population was found to be 100.03±13.17 mm Hg. The high prevalence reported in the present study reflects and reaffirms the increasing trend of hypertension in not only the urban, but also rural India, at least in the older age group. The problem of hypertension, due to its silent and asymptomatic nature, frequently depicts a rule of halves in places with weaker health system and an equally weaker health awareness and information among populations and the same is true for this village. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to conduct similar researches in other adopted villages of the country for the sake of inclusive development to find the exact burden of this silent and asymptomatic killer. More importantly, there is a need to find innovative solutions to combat the problem of hypertension detection and management.

Health problems among the aged: a community based study from urban Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: Old age is associated with decline in physical, physiological & cognitive function affecting the quality of life of the elderly population. The robust increase in proportion of elderly has resulted in demographic burden in a developing country like India. To cope up with this burden appropriate & timely intervention is required based on the situational analysis of the health problems faced by the aged population. The objective was to study the prevalence of health problems among elderly population and to find out the relationship of health problems with gender. Methods: This community based observational cross- sectional study was done among 225 individuals aged 60 years & above residing at field practice area of Urban Health Training Centre, JN Medical College, AMU, Aligarh. The data was obtained through pretested & predesigned questionnaire by selecting individuals using systematic random sampling with PPS. Data was entered & analysed by SPSS 20. Test of proportions & Chi square test were applied. P value <0.05 was taken as significant. Results: The present study revealed that the most prevalent problem was cataract (78.2%), followed by depression (35.6%), refractive error (27.6%), locomotor problem (21.3%) and hearing loss (13.8%). The prevalence of hearing loss was significantly related to gender. Conclusions: The study shows that elderly suffers from various physical and mental health problems which shows the need of comprehensive health service to address these problems.

Robotic Brain Development: Automation and navigation

Robotic Brain Development is a term that relates the ‘Development’ to both the ‘Robotics’ and the ‘Brain’. It includes the areas that try to find answers to a number of things related to brain including how brain decides, controls actions, remembers and likes or dislikes things. There are two different views — Robotics for Brain Development and Brain Development for Robotics. In the first view fall mostly the studies that are related to the field of Medicine, Rehabilitation and Surgery. In the second view, are included the studies that are being done to form the brain of Robotic Systems. There are two different approaches, one to make fully automatic robotic systems and the other to make semi-automatic robotic systems where the brain control is provided to the robot externally. These studies are categorized into three types: (1.) where Robot is controlled by the Real Brain, (2.) where Artificial Brain is developed for the Robot and (3.) where Animal Brain is integrated with the Robotic System. This paper presents a review of different studies related to Robotic Brain Development.