Assessment of Lead Exposure and Associated Risk Through Human Biomonitoring Among Urban Communities in Chennai, Southern India.

Background: Lead exposure is a widely acknowledged risk to public health for children and adults. However, despite efforts to phase out major sources over the last several decades, estimates of the prevalence of blood lead exposures and associated risks remain poorly characterized in many low- and middle-income countries.

Objectives:  This study aimed to determine blood lead levels (BLLs) and assess potential sources of lead exposure among urban communities in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Cooking with liquefied petroleum gas or biomass and fetal growth outcomes: a multi-country randomised controlled trial.

Background: Household air pollution might lead to fetal growth restriction during pregnancy. We aimed to investigate whether a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) intervention to reduce personal exposures to household air pollution during pregnancy would alter fetal growth.

Methods: The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial was an open-label randomised controlled trial conducted in ten resource-limited settings across Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda.

Heat Exposure among Adult Women in Rural Tamil Nadu, India.

Exposure to heat is associated with a substantial burden of disease and is an emerging issue in the context of climate change. Heat is of particular concern in India, which is one of the world's hottest countries and also most populous, where relatively little is known about personal heat exposure, particularly in rural areas. Here, we leverage data collected as part of a randomized controlled trial to describe personal temperature exposures of adult women (40-79 years of age) in rural Tamil Nadu.

Exposure-response relationships for personal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide, and black carbon and birthweight: an observational analysis of the multicountry Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial.

Background: Household air pollution (HAP) from solid fuel use is associated with adverse birth outcomes, but data for exposure-response relationships are scarce. We examined associations between HAP exposures and birthweight in rural Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda during the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial.

Methods: The HAPIN trial recruited pregnant women (9-<20 weeks of gestation) in rural Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda and randomly allocated them to receive a liquefied petroleum gas stove or not (ie, and continue to use biomass fuel).

Liquefied Petroleum Gas or Biomass for Cooking and Effects on Birth Weight.

Background: Exposure during pregnancy to household air pollution caused by the burning of solid biomass fuel is associated with adverse health outcomes, including low birth weight. Whether the replacement of a biomass cookstove with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookstove would result in an increase in birth weight is unclear.

Methods: We performed a randomized, controlled trial involving pregnant women (18 to <35 years of age and at 9 to <20 weeks' gestation as confirmed on ultrasonography) in Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda.

Exposure contrasts associated with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) intervention at potential field sites for the multi-country household air pollution intervention network (HAPIN) trial in India: results from pilot phase activities in rural Tamil Nadu.

Background: The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial aims to assess health benefits of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookfuel and stove intervention among women and children across four low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We measured exposure contrasts for women, achievable under alternative conditions of biomass or LPG cookfuel use, at potential HAPIN field sites in India, to aid in site selection for the main trial.

Methods: We recruited participants from potential field sites within Villupuram and Nagapattinam districts in Tamil Nadu, India, that were identified during a feasibility assessment.

Risk of diabetes in subjects with sedentary profession and the synergistic effect of positive family history of diabetes.

Background: Sedentarism in the workplace, which accelerates risk of diabetes, is least explored in the Indian population. The primary objective of this study was to assess whether prolonged sitting hours in work place predisposes individuals to risk of diabetes and also to estimate risk of diabetes in sedentary workers with a positive family history of diabetes (FHD).

Subjects And Methods: Data of age-matched 514 subjects previously undiagnosed with diabetes from two different occupational groups (bank employees and schoolteachers) in Chennai, India from opportunistic screening were taken for analysis.

Evaluation of performance of A1c and FPG tests for screening newly diagnosed diabetes defined by an OGTT among tuberculosis patients-a study from India.

Aim: The methods used for diagnosis of diabetes have limitations particularly in situations associated with stress hyperglycemia. Aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of A1c and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) tests for screening newly diagnosed diabetes (NDD) defined by OGTT among tuberculosis (TB) cases in India.

Methods: A total of 983 subjects aged ≥18 years with TB were selected from 7 TB units - 4 urban, 2 rural and 1 semi-urban areas of Tamil Nadu, India, during August 2010-March 2011.

Association of diabetes and tuberculosis--a major public health challenge.

The burden of tuberculosis and diabetes is remarkably high in India. There is an increased risk for diabetic subjects to have active form of tuberculosis compared to their normal counterparts. The chance of reactivation of past tuberculosis infection is also common among the people with diabetes.

Prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes and associated risk factors among tuberculosis patients in India.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is recognised as an important risk factor to tuberculosis (TB). India has high TB burden, along with rising DM prevalence. There are inadequate data on prevalence of DM and pre-diabetes among TB cases in India.