To estimate the ABO blood groups from saliva samples and to correlate with the secretor status. Materials and methodsA sample size of 300 individuals was selected from the outpatient department of Surendera Dental College & Research Institute, Sriganganagar, India, and from dental camps organized by the college in the near vicinity. Informed consent was obtained from selected individuals to collect their blood and saliva samples. Salivary samples were evaluated for ABO blood groups by the absorption-inhibition method. The indicator erythrocytes were prepared after blood group confirmation from serum. It was used to identify the blood group antigens in saliva to confirm the secretor status. The results were tabulated and the Pearson's chisquared test was performed for statistical analysis using SPSS 15.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). ResultsThe present study showed that 282 subjects (94%) were Rhesus positive and 18 subjects (6%) were Rhesus negative. Two-hundred-and-fifty subjects (83.3%) were secretors of antigens in saliva. Non-secretors were 50 subjects (16.7%). We identified that 250/300 were secretors and the majority were in AB & A group. ConclusionBlood groups could not be detected from the saliva of subjects who were non-secretors. In contrast, blood types could be accurately identified from the saliva of those subjects who were secretors of antigen.

Background: Depression is a common mental health disorder that is characterized by loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration, insomnia or hypersomnia, and occasionally suicidal thoughts. Apart from biological factors, sociocultural factors also play a key role in development of depression Objectives: To determine the prevalence of depression in the study population and to study various socio-demographic correlates of depression in the study population. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out in an urban slum area of Rohtak city during 2016-2017. A total of 600 study participants were selected and interviewed by using PHQ-9 depression scale. The collected data were entered in MS Excel spread sheet and analysed using SPSS software version 20.0. Results: Mean age of the study participants was 37.91 ± 11.75 years. Almost all (97.5 %) study subjects were Hindu. Majority (52 %) belonged to General category. Overall prevalence of depression was found to be 16.2%. The distribution for factors like gender, marital status, education, occupation, socioeconomic status, type of family, living arrangement, smoking habit and death of close relatives were found to be statistically significant with depression (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that female gender, divorce/separation, illiteracy, unemployment, lower socioeconomic class nuclear family living alone, smoking habit, presence of chronic morbidity and death of close relative in past one year, as independent predictors of depression. Conclusions: The prevalence of depression among adults in an urban slum of north India was found to be 16.2%. Our findings indicate that depression in urban slum is significantly associated with determinants such as gender marital status, education, occupation, SE class, family type, smoking, living arrangement, death of close relative, chronic morbidities like neurological disorders, diabetes and hypertension.

Background: Bullying is a problem which is commonly faced by so many school going children and adolescents usually in the form of nasty teasing, name-calling, threatening, physically hurting, exclusion from group, spreading false rumors etc. A victim of bullying is at increased risk of behavioural and emotional problems, depression, psychotic symptoms including anxiety, insecurity and poor school performance. The objectives of the study were to measure the prevalence of bullying behaviours among adolescents and to determine the effects of bullying and being bullied on psychosocial adjustment.Methods: Cross-sectional study was carried out from August, 2016 to February, 2017 among school going adolescents 11-18 yrs of age. A total of 300 students were chosen using multi stage sampling from ten schools of five community development blocks of Rohtak.Results: Out of 300 participants 176 (58.7%) were male, 124 (41.3%) were female. 21.6% (65) students bullied other students, 19% (57) were being bullied. More boys reported bullying others and being victims of bullying.Conclusions: The effects of being bullied are direct, pleiotropic and long- lasting with the worst effects for those who are both victims and bullies.