Renuka Manjunath

Burgeoning menopausal symptoms: An urgent public health concern.

Introduction: Demographic and epidemiological transitions have increased the life expectancy of people in India. This has resulted in higher burden of morbidities related to aging. The National Health programmes have focused mainly on the health of women in reproductive age groups and neglected their health thereafter. Thus, there is a need to explore the bio-social correlates of menopausal symptoms among women, which can influence their quality of life. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional community-based study was conducted in the urban slum of Mysore for 3 months. A total of 100 postmenopausal women in the age group of 40–65 years residing in the field practice area of Urban Health Training Centre were selected by simple random sampling method from the database of households. Details regarding socio-demographic characteristics, postmenopausal symptoms, and factors associated with them were collected in a pretested structured pro forma by interview technique. Results: Among 100 women included in the present study, mean age at menarche and menopause was 13.45 ± 1.72 and 46.7 ± 5.2 years, respectively. The most common postmenopausal symptom was joint pain (92%) followed by physical and mental exhaustion (84%), depression (76%), irritability (73%), hot flushes, and night sweats (65%). There was a significant positive correlation between age of the women, duration of life after menopause, and postmenopausal symptoms. Conclusion: There is a high burden of postmenopausal symptoms which have shown an increasing trend with advancement of age. This calls for establishment of specific health interventions for postmenopausal women in the health-care settings.

Malnutrition among under-five children of Kadukuruba tribe: need to reach the unreached

INTRODUCTION Poor nutritional status of tribal children observed in different parts of India, calls for introspection into various factors influencing it, in order to seek remedial measures. OBJECTIVES To assess the prevalence of malnutrition among under-five children of Kadukuruba tribe and socio-demographic factors associated with it. MATERIALS AND METHODS Community based cross-sectional study was done in Kadukuruba tribes of Mysore district over a period of one year among 101 under-five children. Socio-demographic information and anthropometric measurements were obtained by using standard techniques. Height and weight of each child was compared with World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standards-2006 for that particular age and sex to get W/A, H/A and W/H Indices and below 2SD of the reference median on these indices were considered as underweight, stunted and wasted respectively. RESULTS Prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 60.4 %, 55.4% and 43% respectively which was significantly associated with respect to age, presence of ration card in thefamily and egg in the childs diet. CONCLUSION Significantly higher prevalence of under-nutrition was noted among under-five children in this community. This calls for educating mothers and other caretakers in the family regarding increased nutritional requirements with increasing age, strengthening Public Distribution System (PDS) and ensuring egg made available in the regular weekly Menu at all Anganwadis.

Bottle fed child with severe stunting: A case report on practice in Jenukuruba tribe from Southern India

Bottle feeding, in vogue, was evidenced by a Jenukuruba tribal daily-wage working mother of 2-year-old male child who was bottle fed the baby from 2 nd day onward with poor bottle hygiene and using a rat bitten nipple. On examination, the child was found to be stunted. This observation calls for strengthening the national programs to educate the tribal community about feeding infants and young children and its implication on their overall health and nutritional status.