Sociocultural aspects of delays in diagnosis among tuberculosis-diabetes comorbid patients in Satara, India: Its implications for the implementation of the national framework for joint tuberculosis-diabetes collaborative activities.

Background: Tuberculosis(TB) and Diabetes comorbidity is an emerging public health problem in India. Delays in diagnosing TB or Diabetes would lead to adverse outcomes among comorbid patients, and attempts must be made to reduce these delays. Against this background, the study has been undertaken to clarify the role of sociocultural factors in determining diagnostic delays for TB and Diabetes among comorbid patients.

Predicting over-the-counter antibiotic use in rural Pune, India, using machine learning methods.

Objectives: Over-the-counter (OTC) antibiotic use can cause antibiotic resistance, threatening global public health gains. To counter OTC use, this study used machine learning (ML) methods to identify predictors of OTC antibiotic use in rural Pune, India.

Methods: The features of OTC antibiotic use were selected using stepwise logistic, lasso, random forest, XGBoost, and Boruta algorithms.

Socio-cultural features and help-seeking preferences for leprosy and turbeculosis: a cultural epidemiological study in a tribal district of Maharashtra, India.

Background: India is a major contributor to the global burden of leprosy and tuberculosis (TB), which adversely affects the poorest tribal communities. Despite prioritisation by disease control programmes, programme performance for leprosy and TB in tribal communities continues to be a challenge. In addition to access to services and infrastructural limitations, socio-cultural concepts of illness causation and related help seeking (HS) rooted in distinct features of tribal culture need to be addressed to improve programme outcomes.