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Background and Objectives: Though 24hours BP monitoring is a useful tool that provide insights in masked and white coat hypertension as well as can be used as a marker of allostatic load (by monitoring circadian variations) and applicable in chronotherapy, is still sparingly used clinically. Hence, the objective of present study is to explore the pattern of circadian variation of blood pressure in normotensive and hypertensive Indians to pave the way for future chronobiological research and predictive medicine. Materials and Methods:In this cross-sectional study, total 125 volunteers, referred from the medicine OPD/IPD, enrolled. All the volunteers underwent 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. BP recording of 100 participants (37 female and 63 male, mean age = 43.15±14.47 years) was used for final analysis. On the basis of guidelines provided for diagnosis of hypertension by European Society of Heart, individuals were grouped as i) normotensives (n=37) and ii) hypertensives (n=63). For descriptive analysis, different blood pressure parameters from three segments viz. overall, awake period and asleep period were used. Between groups comparison was done using Mann-Whitney and ANNOVA test. P-value < 0.05 had been considered as significant. Observation and Results: A significance difference in circadian systolic, diastolic and mean arterial BP was observed between groups. Although a higher percentage of non-dippers (65%) was observed in hypertensives but 38% of normotensives have also shown non-dipping status that indicates altered circadian rhythm or allostatic load. Conclusion:We observed altered circadian blood pressure pattern in both groups though higher percentage of non-dipping status in hypertensive patients. In normotensives it could subserve as an early marker of disease process, in hypertensives, it may be useful for application of Chronopharmacology.

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Introduction: The topics related to sexual attitude and reproductive health are not commonly and openly discussed. The scarcity of having open discussions especially with parents results in lack of awareness among adolescents about contraception, sexual values, beliefs and behaviour. First year medical students are usually in their last years of adolescence. In future, they are going to communicate with their patients on sexual health matters. Hence, it becomes essential to understand their own perspective regarding this. Aim: To understand the attitude of first year medical students towards gender, sexuality, sexual health needs and their information seeking behaviour. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire.The study population comprised of 314 1st year medical students aged between 17- 20 years, at Smt. Kashibai Navale Medical College and General Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India.The questionnaire included sections on communication within family and friends, personal attitude towards sexuality and gender and information seeking behaviour. Statistical analysis was done by Chi-square test using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results: Total 314 first year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) students (135 males, 179 females, mean age=18.35 years) participated in the study. More than 90% of students were interested to be in a relationship with opposite sex, yet more than 50% of them did not want to be involved in premarital sex as it was against their religious beliefs. More number of boys (65.93%), as compared to girls (38.55%), agreed that it’s ok to have sex before marriage with proper contraceptive measures. Maintenance of virginity until marriage was important for girls (56.98%) as compared to boys (37.04%) which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Students lacked communication with their parents on the topics of sexuality. A 95.86% used ‘internet’ to seek information on sexual health matters. Sexual problems (72.61%) and genital hygiene (73.89%) were the maximally searched topics on internet. 64.33% of students were interested in attending a formal course regarding sexual/reproductive health. Conclusion: Adolescents’ attitude about sexual matters is guided by their religious beliefs. There is a dearth of communication between the adolescents and their parents on sexual health matters. Majority preferred seeking information from friends and/ or via internet which can be unreliable at times.