Background: Unmet need for family planning is a crucial indicator to assess demand for family planning programme. It was reported that women from the world’s poorest countries have a high unmet need for contraception. Unmet need is particularly high among immigrants, urban slum dwellers, and women in the post-partum period. The objective of this study was to assess the unmet need and factors influencing the unmet need for contraception among urban slum dwellers in Chennai, South India.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study of 375 married women was conducted among 50 urban slums of Chennai. Multistage random sampling was employed. About 6-9 women from each slum were interviewed. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data.Results: The mean age of the participants was 32.1±7.3 years. The total unmet need was 13.8%, which included 9.3% for limiting and 4.5% spacing. The major reasons for contraception non-use among women with unmet need were no preference to use modern contraceptives (30.8%) and preference to get sterilized soon (21.2%). Age, education, religion, and number of living children were the factors associated with unmet need.Conclusions: It was noted that unmet need reduced with age and increased number of living children. Though the unmet need is considerably low compared to other studies it is evident that women are still uncertain to use modern contraceptive methods for spacing and are more likely to undergo sterilization after their desired family size is achieved.

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is well-known for causing wasting. Patients on treatment gain weight and weight loss is associated with unfavorable treatment outcomes. There is limited description of weight loss and its predictors during intensive treatment phase. The objective of this study was to assess the predictors of weight loss during intensive phase and to see if there is any association exists with sputum conversion at the end of intensive phase of treatment. Methods Data collected as a part of the prospective TB cohort (Regional Prospective Observational Research for TB India Phase 1) conducted in Pondicherry, Cuddalore and Viluppuram districts of Tamil Nadu were used for this study. Sputum smear and body weight comparison were made in the baseline and at the end of second month of treatment. Results In all, 726 participants had weight measurements at the two time points and 18.7% had weight loss; mean weight lost being 2.3 kg (SD 3.05). Mean weight loss was more among males (2.4 kg, SD 3.2), diabetics (2.8 kg, SD 3.9) and alcoholics (2.1 kg, SD 2.4). Alcohol consumption was the only predictor of weight loss after adjusting for age, diabetes, marital status and BMI (aRR 1.52, P 0.02). Weight loss was not associated with sputum conversion at the end of second month. Conclusions Alcohol use emerged as the major predictor for weight loss during intensive phase.

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