HIV-1 seroprevalence and awareness of mother-to-child transmission issues among women seeking antenatal care in Tamil Nadu, India.

Background: Despite increasing availability of HIV-1 testing, education, and methods to prevent transmission, Indian women and their children remain at risk of acquiring HIV. We assessed the seroprevalence and awareness about HIV among pregnant women presenting to a private tertiary care hospital in South India.

Methods: Seroprevalence was determined via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing, and questionnaires were analyzed using chi-square statistics and odds ratios to look for factors associated with HIV positivity.

The effect of community based daycare on mental health and quality of life of elderly in rural south India: a community intervention study.

Background: Sustainable cost-effective interventions to improve psychiatric morbidity and quality of life among the elderly have not been systematically evaluated in developing countries.

Method: The most vulnerable elderly living in Pennathur, Vellore district, India, in terms of socioeconomic status and social supports, were invited to participate in a day-care program. Baseline assessments were done using the Mini Mental Status Examination, the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule and the World Health Organisation Quality of Life- Bref.

A community health programme in rural Tamil Nadu, India: the need for gender justice for women.

This article highlights the efforts of the Community Health and Development (CHAD) Programme of Christian Medical College to address the issues of gender discrimination and improve the status of women in the Kaniyambadi Block, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. The many schemes that are specifically for women and general projects for the community from which women can also benefit represent a multi-pronged approach whose aim is the improvement of women's health, education and employment in the context of community development. However, despite five decades of work with a clear bias in favour of women, the improvement in health and the empowerment of women has lagged behind that achieved by men.

Reproductive tract infections among young married women in Tamil Nadu, India.

Context: Women often suffer silently with reproductive tract infections (RTIs). Studies of the prevalence of these infections in South Asia have been hindered by low participation rates, and little is known about rates among the youngest married women.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study of RTIs was conducted in 1996-1997 among married women 16-22 years of age in Tamil Nadu, India.

Post-partum depression in a cohort of women from a rural area of Tamil Nadu, India. Incidence and risk factors.

Background: Community-based epidemiological data on post-partum depression from developing countries are scarce.

Aims: To determine the incidence of and risk factors for developing post-partum depression in a cohort of women living in rural south India.

Method: We assessed 359 women in the last trimester of pregnancy and 6-12 weeks after delivery for depression and for putative risk factors.

Medico-social dimensions of menopause: a cross-sectional study from rural south India.

Background: The quality of life of the increasing ageing population is becoming an important issue in India. There are very little data on the effect of menopause on women, especially from rural India.

Method: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted on perceptions regarding menopause, prevalence of menopausal symptoms and association of family environmental factors with menopausal symptoms among 100 postmenopausal and 100 premenopausal rural women in south India.