Are Anti-Tobacco Messages Delivered through Different Mass-Media Channels Effective in India? Results from GATS-II Survey.

Background: Anti-tobacco mass-media campaigns are an integral part of tobacco control. There is still a need to understand which mode of mass-media channels aids in promoting tobacco cessation. This study aimed to examine if exposure to anti-tobacco messages delivered through different media channels is associated with tobacco user's thoughts and attempts to quit.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes shuttle microRNAs to endometrial stromal fibroblasts that promote tissue proliferation /regeneration/ and inhibit differentiation.

Background: Human bone marrow-derived stem cells (hBMDSCs) are well characterized mediators of tissue repair and regeneration. An increasing body of evidence indicates that these cells exert their therapeutic effects largely through their paracrine actions rather than clonal expansion and differentiation. Here we studied the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) present in extracellular vesicles (EVs) from hBMDSCs in tissue regeneration and cell differentiation targeting endometrial stromal fibroblasts (eSF).

Determinants of Quit Attempts and Short-Term Abstinence among Smokeless Tobacco Users in India: Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2016-17.

Objective: Smokeless tobacco is the preponderant form of tobacco in India. The cessation indicators are weaker for smokeless tobacco users than smokers. There is a dearth of literature on the effectiveness of the interventions that motivate and assist smokeless tobacco users in quitting in program settings.

Caregivers' experiences of accessing HIV Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) services and its barriers and facilitators, India.

Background: India has rolled out Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) program for HIV infection in all states. EID program consists of testing of Infants exposed to HIV periodically over 18 months of age which is a multi-step complex testing cascade. Caregivers represent the primary beneficiary of EID program i.

Social Determinants and the Prevalence of Paan Masala Use among Adults in India: Results from Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2016-17.

Background: Gutkha or Paan masala with tobacco is commonly used smokeless tobacco product in India. Given the restrictions on advertisement and promotion of Gutkha and the necessity of warning labels on tobacco products, the tobacco industry has popularised paan masala without tobacco as a surrogate product. Paan masala itself is harmful for health but remains beyond scope of current tobacco control policies.

Determinants of Quit Attempts and Short-Term Abstinence among Smokers in India: Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2016-17.

Objective: The objective was to study the determinants of quit attempts and abstinence among smokers in India using nationally representative data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS-2).

Methods: Data from GATS-India, (2016-17) was analysed. Key outcome variables included quitting attempts in the previous 12 months among smokers and duration of abstinence among those who attempted quitting.

Access, timeliness and retention for HIV testing under early infant diagnosis (EID) program, India.

Early Infant Diagnosis of HIV infection services are crucial for managing the perinatally acquired HIV infection. Assessing the performance of the EID services and its underlying determinants is important for the National AIDS Control Program, India. The objectives of this study were to find out access to HIV testing, the timeliness of the testing cascade, and the proportion of HIV exposed infants who are followed up to 18 months for a definitive diagnosis of HIV.

Determinants of Turn-Around-Time for Early Infant Diagnosis of HIV Testing: Retrospective Analysis of National Level PCR Testing Data.

India has been implementing one of the biggest Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV intervention globally. The turn-around-time (TAT) for EID test is one of the major factors for success of the program. This study was to assess the turnaround time and its determinants.

Therapeutic drug monitoring of levetiracetam: Method validation using high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detector technique and usefulness in patient care setting.

Objectives: To develop and validate a modified HPLC-UV method for the estimation of serum levetiracetam levels and to assess the usefulness of serum levetiracetam estimation in epileptic patients.

Materials And Methods: Modification of a previously existing HPLC-UV method was performed using liquid- liquid phase extraction and processing using reverse phase analytic HPLC-UV detector technique followed by method validation. Serum samples of patients attending our hospital's Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Outpatient Department services were analyzed for levetiracetam levels using the study method.

Loss to follow-up of HIV-exposed infants for confirmatory HIV test under Early Infant Diagnosis program in India: analysis of national-level data from reference laboratories.

Background: Early Infant Diagnosis was launched in India in 2010 and its effect on the diagnosis of HIV-exposed infants needs to be assessed. The present study was done to find out the median age at DBS sample collection for early infant diagnosis and its trend over years, the median age at diagnosis of HIV among the HIV-exposed infants with DNA PCR tests, and the proportion of infants who completed testing cascades after detection of HIV-1 in a sample.

Methods: DNA PCR data (from 2013 to 2017) maintained at all regional reference laboratories in India was collated with each infant identified by a unique code.

Idioms of resilience: Mental health and migration in India.

Background: Resilience has proved to be a versatile notion to explain why people are not defeated by hardship and adversity, yet so far, we know little of how it might apply to communities and cultures in low to middle income countries.

Aim: This paper aims to explore the notion of resilience in cross-cultural context through considering the lived experience of internal migration.

Methods: A sample of 30 participants with experience of migration was recruited from a low-income slum dwelling neighbourhood in the city of Pune, India.

Unpacking the implementation blackbox using 'actor interface analysis': how did actor relations and practices of power influence delivery of a free entitlement health policy in India?

Exploring the implementation blackbox from a perspective that considers embedded practices of power is critical to understand the policy process. However, the literature is scarce on this subject. To address the paucity of explicit analyses of everyday politics and power in health policy implementation, this article presents the experience of implementing a flagship health policy in India.

Sometimes Resigned, Sometimes Conflicted, and Mostly Risk Averse: Primary Care Doctors in India as Street Level Bureaucrats.

Background: In this study, we use the case of medical doctors in the public health system in rural India to illustrate the nuances of how and why gaps in policy implementation occur at the frontline. Drawing on Lipsky's Street Level Bureaucracy (SLB) theory, we consider doctors not as mechanical implementors of policies, but as having agency to implement modified policies that are better suited to their contexts.

Methods: We collected data from primary care doctors who worked in the public health system in rural Maharashtra, India between April and September 2018 (including 21 facility visits, 29 in depth interviews and several informal discussions).

Application of "Actor Interface Analysis" to Examine Practices of Power in Health Policy Implementation: An Interpretive Synthesis and Guiding Steps.

Background: The difference between 'policy as promised' and 'policy as practiced' can be attributed to implementation gaps. Actor relationships and power struggles are central to these gaps but have been studied using only a handful of theoretical and analytical frameworks. Actor interface analysis provides a methodological entry point to examine policy implementation and practices of power.

Current Asbestos Exposure and Future Need for Palliative Care in India.

Asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) are incurable but entirely preventable. Due to India's continuing use of asbestos, ARD patients will increase to a high number in the next three to four decades. This will increase the burden on palliative care system which is in nascent stage presently.

Beyond 'cure' and 'treatment success': quality of life of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Setting: Two drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) sites (MSF Clinic, Jupiter Hospital) in Mumbai, India.

Objective: To assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and associated factors among DR-TB patients and explore their perspectives about HRQoL.

Design: We used a mixed-methods design: a quantitative cross-sectional questionnaire (the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Brief Questionnaire [WHOQoL-BREF]); and qualitative in-depth interviews for purposively selected patients.

Discordant HIV DNA PCR results among infants diagnosed with HIV infection and initiated on ART: a case series.

This case series reports three infants diagnosed with HIV-1 infection using DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. The three children were initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at ten, four and six months of age. Their serological tests at 18 months of age were negative for HIV-1.

Chronic disease risk factors among hotel workers.

Context: Non-communicable diseases have emerged as a global health issue. Role of occupation in pathogenesis of non-communicable diseases has not been explored much especially in the hospitality industry.

Aims: Objectives of this study include finding risk factor prevalence among hotel workers and studying relationship between occupational group and chronic disease risk factors chiefly high body mass index.

UTILIZATION OF MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES AMONG INTERNAL MIGRANTS IN MUMBAI, INDIA.

This study aimed to understand access to maternal health care and the factors shaping it amongst poor migrants in Mumbai, India. A cross-sectional mixed methods approach was used. It included multistage cluster sampling and face-to-face interviews, through structured interview schedules, of 234 migrant women who had delivered in the two years previous to the date they were interviewed.

Early infant diagnosis and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV- exposed infants.

Recent scientific evidence suggests that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among infants exposed perinatally to HIV has beneficial effects on their health and survival, and may even induce remission. This has led to the roll-out of early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV and early treatment. Also, there is talk of using ART as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

Building Partnership to Improve Migrants' Access to Healthcare in Mumbai.

Objectives: An intervention to improve migrants' access to healthcare was piloted in Mumbai with purpose of informing health policy and planning. This paper aims to describe the process of building partnership for improving migrants' access to healthcare of the pilot intervention, including the role played by different stakeholders and the contextual factors affecting the intervention.

Methods: The process evaluation was based on Baranowski and Stables' framework.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Childhood Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Cross-Sectional Study of Practices among Paediatricians in Private Sector, Mumbai.

Majority of children with tuberculosis are treated in private sector in India with no available data on management practices. The study assessed diagnostic and treatment practices related to childhood pulmonary tuberculosis among paediatricians in Mumbai's private sector in comparison with International Standards for Tuberculosis Care (ISTC) 2009. In this cross-sectional study, 64 paediatricians from private sector filled self-administered questionnaires.

Effect of type II diabetes mellitus on treatment outcomes of tuberculosis.

Context: There is conflicting evidence of effect of diabetes on treatment of tuberculosis (TB). There is a need to investigate effect of diabetes on outcomes of TB treatment under field conditions in India.

Aims: To compare treatment outcomes among TB patients with diabetes with those without diabetes.

Psychiatric morbidity in an urban slum of Mumbai: cross sectional study.

Objective: To find out prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in urban slum community in Mumbai.

Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted in a health post area of Dharavi, a large slum in Asia. Systematic random sampling was employed to select households, the sampling unit in this study.