Household Air Pollution and Adult Lung Function Change, Respiratory Disease, and Mortality across Eleven Low- and Middle-Income Countries from the PURE Study.

Background: Globally, household air pollution (HAP) is a major environmental hazard that affects respiratory health. However, few studies have examined associations between HAP and lung function decline and respiratory disease and mortality.

Methods: We used data from the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study and examined adults residing in 240 rural communities in 11 low- and middle-income countries where HAP from cooking with solid fuels is common.

Effects of repeated exposures to experimental cold pain stimulus on pain perception in healthy young Indian men.

Background: The influence of repeated exposures to cold pain stimulus, a surrogate of clinical pain, has remained largely unexplored. The study was planned to test the effect of repeated exposures to cold pain through cold pressor task on pain sensitivity and vascular reactivity.

Methods: Single-group experimental study.

Reflective narratives on unfolding ethics case vignettes: integration into the physiology course of first-year medical students.

Reflective narrative writing on unfolding ethics case vignettes has the potential to promote values like empathy among medical students, which will prove useful in their future. The objective of this study was to explore the scope of guided reflective narratives on unfolding ethics case vignettes integrated into physiology teaching to promote empathy among first-year medical students. First-year medical students ( = 150) were presented with unfolding case vignettes exploring ethical issues, as part of their physiology curriculum, with questions and prompts for a guided reflective narrative.

Introducing reflective narrative for first-year medical students to promote empathy as an integral part of physiology curriculum.

Guided reflective narratives facilitate deeper understanding and learning. The study was aimed at exploring the scope of guided reflective narratives on early clinical exposure, for first-year medical students, in promoting empathy. Strengths and limitations of the process of reflective narratives were also explored.

Integrating Ethics into the Physiology curriculum: a scale-up study in three medical colleges in Karnataka, South India.

A published pilot study showed the feasibility of integrating ethics into physiology in a single medical college. However, questions were raised about feasibility of scale-up and acceptance across different colleges. To assess feasibility of integrating ethics into Physiology, first year MBBS students of three medical colleges (n=449, College A=149; 59M, 90F; College B=150; 78M, 72F; College C=150; 48M, 102F) were exposed to the integrated ethics programme.