Publications by authors named "Thapar Rekha"
Introduction: The Joint National Committee (JNC 7) report on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of Hypertension, defined "prehypertension," as individuals with a Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) in the range of 120-139 mmHg and a (diastolic blood pressure) DBP of 80-89 mmHg. Prehypertension is directly linked with hypertension which is a precursor of CVDs. Owing to its high conversion rate to hypertension, it is important to identify individuals with blood pressures in this category and bring about lifestyle modifications in them that can prevent them from being hypertensive and from developing cardiovascular diseases later in life.
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- HIV/AIDS remains a significant public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, with current efforts falling short of global targets for eradication set by UNAIDS and the SDGs.
- The study utilized extensive data from various HIV prevalence surveys to estimate localized HIV infection rates across 43 African countries, focusing on specific age and sex groups from 2000 to 2018.
- Findings revealed wide disparities in HIV prevalence within countries and districts, indicating that age and sex stratification provides more nuanced insights into the epidemic, which can help tailor prevention and treatment efforts more effectively.
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- The GBD 2019 study systematically estimated the global cancer burden, providing data on incidence, mortality, and disability to help address cancer worldwide.
- In 2019, an estimated 23.6 million new cancer cases and 10 million cancer deaths occurred globally, marking significant increases in rates since 2010, with cancer becoming a leading cause of both death and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
- The impact of cancer varied across sociodemographic index (SDI) quintiles, with higher SDI areas seeing more new cases, while middle SDI areas experienced more deaths and DALYs, highlighting disparities in cancer burden.
Vaccine hesitancy (VH) has been identified by the World Health Organization as one among the top ten threats to global public health. There is limited literature regarding VH from developing countries like India. In this facility based cross-sectional study, 172 mothers of under-five children were assessed regarding VH using the parental attitude towards childhood vaccination questionnaire (PACV).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: The major determinant to the well-being of infants and young children (IYC) is their feeding practices. These practices are the responsibility of both parents, meaning that fathers have an equal role to mothers. Fathers' involvement can have an impact on the overall health of the children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To estimate the adherence to treatment among type 2 diabetic patients.
Background: Treatment adherence is a complex process that is controlled by multiple factors. Lack of treatment adherence is common with patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes and is becoming a very prevalent problem especially with the patients who suffer from non-communicable diseases (NCD) worldwide.
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of school-based interventions in promoting child safety and reducing unintentional childhood injuries.
Methods: This cluster randomized trial with 1:1 allocation of clusters to intervention and control arm was conducted in the public and private schools of Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, over a period of 10 months. Study participants included children from standard 5-7 in schools selected for the study.
Background: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria.
Methods: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation.
Background: Diabetes mellitus is a serious chronic condition affecting millions of people globally. The focus of our future health care providers should not lie primarily on increasing the "quantity" of life but also on improving the Quality of Life of the patient. There is a serious lack of awareness and adherence regarding self-care for Diabetes in countries like India.
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- Injuries significantly impact global health, with the number of injury deaths rising from approximately 4.26 million in 1990 to about 4.48 million in 2017, despite a decline in age-standardized mortality rates.
- The Global Burden of Disease study measured both fatal and non-fatal injuries through years of life lost (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs), which were combined into disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
- While overall injury incidence increased, age-standardized DALYs decreased, indicating a need for ongoing research focused on injury prevention, better data collection, and improving access to medical care in high-burden areas.
Background: HIV/AIDS has a greater impact on children. Besides being orphaned by the untimely demise of one or both parents due to the disease, these children are more prone for discrimination by the society.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study 86 children orphaned by AIDS residing in care giving institutions for HIV positive children in Mangalore were assessed for their clinico-epidemiological profile and nutritional status.
Context: Cancer is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. The psychological factors that significantly affect the functioning of the cancer patients are anxiety, depressive disorders, and somatization.
Aims: To find out the spectrum of psychological disorders in cancer patients, also to find the association between sociodemographic variables and stage of tumor, treatment modality with the various psychological problems among cancer patients.
Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the common cancers affecting both genders. Although the incidence of CRC is low in India there has been an increase in the past few decades.
Objective: To assess the awareness regarding colorectal cancer and its screening among medical students and interns.
Background: Leptospirosis is a major neglected public health problem and is highly underreported in India. The spectrum of clinical features ranges from subclinical infection to multiorgan failure. The burden of leptospirosis is more in developing countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Consumption of snacks in between the regular meals is a poor snacking behaviour. It is an established risk factor for several lifestyle-related disorders and has long-term effects among the younger individuals.
Objectives: To study the snacking behaviour and to assess their determinants among college-going students.
Background: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has envisioned a change in the undergraduate medical curriculum by encouraging integrated teaching and Problem Based Learning (PBL).
Methods: In this cross-sectional study 110 medical teachers of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore were assessed regarding their perception on PBL. Independent -test was applied to find out the difference in the mean perception scores regarding PBL among the teachers in pre/para-clinical and clinical departments and < 0.
Background: Adequate knowledge about HIV/AIDS among people living with HIV (PLHIV) is essential for the prevention of HIV transmission.
Methods: A cross-sectional study consisting of 409 PLHIV aged ≥18 years were interviewed regarding their HIV-related knowledge, from April 2014 to April 2015. HIV-related knowledge was assessed using the HIV knowledge questionnaire 18 .
Background: Rabies, a 100% fatal disease claims more than 59,000 human lives every year globally. One human life is lost every 15 minutes due to this deadly preventable disease. Timely initiation of post exposure prophylaxis following an animal exposure can result in 100% preventability of this fatal disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Distress can bring about an unfavorable attitude among the patients toward tackling their disease which can affect adherence to medications. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of distress on adherence to medication among patients with diabetes.
Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, 124 type 2 diabetes patients above 18 years, attending the hospitals affiliated to Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, selected using nonprobability sampling were interviewed to assess the presence of diabetes-related distress (DRD) and their level of adherence to medications.
Objectives: To describe the sociodemographic characteristics and clinical profile of women presenting with cervical carcinoma and to identify factors associated with the timing of presentation and prognosis.
Materials And Methods: A record-based descriptive study was carried out from 1 February to 31 March 2014 at Tertiary Care Hospitals of Mangalore. The study population included women who were diagnosed with cervical carcinoma from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2013.
Background: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has transformed life threatening HIV/AIDS scenario into chronic manageable disease.
Methodology: In this cross-sectional, 409 People Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) aged ≥ 18 years, who were on ART, were assessed regarding the adherence to ART and factors affecting adherence using semi-structured questionnaire. The association between factors affecting adherence and the level of adherence were analyzed using multiple logistic regression model and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported.
Respecting patients' rights is a fundamental aspect of providing quality healthcare. The present investigation attempts to explore the awareness among patients about their rights in a coastal township in India. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 215 patients admitted to the wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Mangalore.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Among the manifold uses of mobile phones, mobile-health (mHealth) has been an important one, which is the practice of public health initiatives by awareness raising and communication campaigns. Optimum utilization of mHealth is possible only through adequate awareness. Hence, we aimed to study the perceptions and knowledge about mHealth among college going students in Mangalore, India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study was conducted to assess the clinic-epidemiological profile of snakebite cases admitted at a Tertiary Care Centre in South India.
Materials And Methods: A record based retrospective study was carried out at Kasturbha Medical College affiliated hospitals in Mangalore. All the snakebite cases admitted to the hospitals from January 2007 to December 2011 were included in the study.
Prehypertension is one of the most common conditions affecting human beings worldwide. It is associated with several complications including hypertension. The blood pressure between normal and hypertension is prehypertension as per the Seventh Report Joint National Committee (JNC-7) classification.
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