Prevalence of hypercholesterolaemia among adults aged over 30 years in a rural area of north Kerala, India: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in India. In order to reduce the burden of the disease, it is important to know the level of modifiable risk factors in the population. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of hypercholesterolaemia and associated factors among the population aged over 30 years in a rural area in north Kerala, India.

Developing a fully integrated tobacco curriculum in medical colleges in India.

Background: This paper describes a pioneering effort to introduce tobacco cessation into India's undergraduate medical college curriculum. This is the first ever attempt to fully integrate tobacco control across all years of medical college in any low and middle income country. The development, pretesting, and piloting of an innovative modular tobacco curriculum are discussed as well as challenges that face implementation and steps taken to address them and to advocate for adoption by the Medical Council of India.

What does the informal caregiver of a terminally ill cancer patient need? A study from a cancer centre.

Aims: To assess the needs of informal caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients.

Materials And Methods: Fifty four informal caregivers of patients registered in our palliative care service were interviewed 3-6 months after the death of the patient with the help of a semistructured questionnaire covering the physical, medical, psychological, social, and information domains.

Results: Most of the caregivers were middle aged and had no prior experience of care giving.