No abstract

Background: India saw one of the stringent lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of this period, the normal functioning of medical services was affected. People were reluctant to seek medical attention and notification of Tuberculosis dipped. The aim of the study was to estimate the proportion of non-adherence to anti-tubercular treatment and to identify the factors affecting the non-adherence to treatment. Methods: A retrospective community-based study was conducted among 284 tuberculosis patients. They were interviewed using a pre-designed questionnaire consisting of WHO dimensions of non-adherence and lockdown related questions. Results: The proportion of non-adherence to treatment was found to be 5.3%. Factors like chronic diseases, depression, without knowledge on how the disease is transmitted and that medication can be discontinued once the symptoms subsided, alcohol consumption, and trouble accessing medicine were found to be the determining factors in non-adherence to the treatment. Conclusions: Non-adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment in our study was low but the various dimensions of adherence along with lockdown related factors had significant impact on it. To further minimize non-adherence during emergency like the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, corrective measures must be explored and implemented.

No abstract

Background: Once a device for telecommunication, now a powerful device bringing the whole world in one's palm, smartphones are increasingly becoming a common commodity among the medical students. Smartphones foster social interaction and facilitate multitasking and learning, but they also have some adverse effects. Young people, especially students, who are always inquisitive towards new technology, are likely to be affected by both these positive and negative impacts. Objective: To assess smartphone use and its association with the quality of life (QOL) of medical students. Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the undergraduate medical students of Government Medical College (GMC), Haldwani. All the students enrolled in MBBS course in GMC, Haldwani, who gave consent for participation and were present on the day of questionnaire administration, were included in the study. Smartphone addiction scale (SAS-SV), and WHO-BREF questionnaires for QOL were used for assessing smartphone use, and QOL of the medical students, respectively. Results: A total of 395 medical students were included in the study; out of them, 42% considered themselves addicted to the smartphone. According to SAS-SV, smartphone addiction was found among 43.8% medical students. It was seen that the junior-most and senior-most batches were significantly less addicted to the smartphone (p-value < 0.001). Male students were more addicted (OR = 1.45, CI = 0.962–2.174) to the smartphone as compared to females. The QOL of the students was significantly affected by smartphone use in all domains assessed (p-value ranging from < 0.001 to 0.002). Conclusions: Smartphone addiction is high among medical students and it has a significant negative impact on their QOL.

Background: Medical students are future health care providers and experience a lot of stress during their training years. They are more likely to suffer depressive disorders than the general population and have a poorer quality of life. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of depressive disorder, its correlates and quality of life of medical students studying at a medical college in North India. Methods and material: It was a cross sectional study which included all the students enrolled at the study medical college. Data was collected using pre-validated questionnaires namely - 20 item ‘Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)’, WHO Quality of life (QoL) – BREF questionnaire and ‘Smartphone Addition Scale - Short version’ (SAS-SV) questionnaire to assess for depression, quality of life and smartphone addiction respectively which was distributed in the classroom to be filled. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to ascertain association between depression and the other variables. Results: The study had an effective response rate of 79%. Using a score of 16 or above as cut-off on CES-D scale145 study participants (36.7%) were found to be depressed. Participants who negatively compared themselves with their peers/friends and also those who were addicted to smartphone were significantly more likely to be depressed [1.85(1.12-3.05) and 1.96 (1.29-2.97) respectively]. We report a statistically significant negative relationship between physical domain score [0.97(0.95-0.99)], psychological domain score [0.95(0.93-0.97)] and social relationship domain score [0.97(0.95-0.99)] on BREF Quality of life questionnaire and the presence of depression among the study participants. Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among medical students was high and those with depression have significantly poor quality of life.