Introduction: Although various measures are taken to create awareness about the epidemiological features of leprosy and encourage health-seeking behavior, they have seldom been able to tackle the high incidence of new leprosy cases in India. Objective: To determine Leprosy-related knowledge, attitude, and health seeking behavior among the urban population in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample size of 640 people above 18 years of age residing in the study area, selected by multistage random sampling. A structured pretested questionnaire was used for data collection, and the data analysis was done using SPSS version 22. Results: Among the study participants, 54.7% of the participants had adequate knowledge and 23.3% had favorable attitude towards leprosy. With regard to knowledge, 66% of the participants believe that leprosy is a serious disease, and 71.2% of them were aware of transmission of leprosy from person to person. With regard to attitude, 57.7% were afraid of being diagnosed with leprosy, and 57% felt compassion and desire to help those diagnosed with leprosy. With regard to health-seeking behavior, around 83% preferred treatment from government hospitals and allopathic treatment. Male sex, occupation, education, and marital status were found to be having statistically significant association with knowledge, while the latter two were found to be associated with favorable attitude towards leprosy. Conclusion: Unfavorable attitude and inadequate knowledge regarding leprosy was found among the study participants. Behavior change communication programs have to be enhanced at community level to improve the knowledge and attitude regarding leprosy among the population.

Introduction: One of the most important indicators of health and well being of the elderly is the quality of life they live in. Owing to the rise in elderly population due to the demographic transition, there is growing need to address the health concerns of this population. Aims: The study was undertaken to find out the Quality of Life among the elderly and the associated factors. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross sectional study done in urban area of Thiruvallur district Tamil Nadu. To arrive at the required sample of 199, elderly people above 60 years were selected by probability proportionate to size sampling. Semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection regarding sociodemographic details and related factors. Katz scale was used to assess activities of daily living and Quality of life (QOL) was assessed using WHO quality of life BREF (WHOQOL BREF) questionnaire. Results: Moderate score in QOL was obtained in all the 4 domains with highest in Psychological and environmental domains. Nearly 99% of had full activity in Katz scale. All the three QOL domains were found to have statistical significant association with age and education. Gender and marital status were found to be associated with psychological domain, and employment/pensioner status with physical domain. Conclusion: Measures like Health education have to be targeted for the elderly in ways to improve their physical and psychological wellbeing which can imporove the quality of life they live in. Primary care and family physicians have to be made aware and empowered to identify the various domains of QOL in elderly and to identify in which domain the person needs to take care the most.

Introduction:Reproductive health of women is of special concern, especially during their reproductive years where the reproductive morbidity is very high, especially in countries like India.Aims:This study was carried out to find the reproductive health status of rural married women and identify those suffering from reproductive morbidity to provide appropriate guidance and treatment.Methodology:This community-based cross-sectional descriptive study was carried among rural married women above 18 years of age in the field practice areas of a medical college. By simple random sampling method, the required sample size of 650 was identified. Data collected by female investigators using a pretested structured questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS version 22.Results:Most of the study participants were in the age group of 21–40 years. About 32% of married women delivered by cesarean section and exclusive breastfeeding was followed by 88.9% of the mothers. Around 78% of the participants used contraceptive methods and the major reason given was for economic reasons (48%). About 67% of study participants suffered from one or more gynecological problems such as menorrhagia, lower abdominal pain, dysmenorrhea, and abnormal vaginal discharge. UTI (14%) and RTI (11.6%) were the most commonly diagnosed gynecological morbidity. Pallor was present in 45.5% of the study participants and 6.9% had clinical goiter.Conclusion:High prevalence of gynecological morbidity in this study shows that there is a dire need to plan and implement health education and awareness creation programs to complement the existing programs targeting women.

Introduction: Many frontline workers including doctors and nurses have succumbed to the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID19) pandemic. In the COVID-19 pandemic, medical postgraduate (PG) aspirants had to deal with a variety of problems, including an increased workload, delay in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) PG test and counselling. Aim: To assess the effect of COVID-19 pandemic and various factors influencing career choice among medical PG aspirants in Chennai. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India from August 2021 to September 2021 among 272 medical Postgraduate (PG) aspirants. A Google form questionnaire was sent to students who were in an internship in the past six months or had completed their internship in the past one year. There were 28 multiple choice questions comprising of socio-demographic details (with exception of age) and various factors related to career choice. Five questions were scored yes/no, and 15 questions were scored using 5-point Likert scale. Results: The mean age of the participants was 24.41±1.81 years and there were 129 males and 143 females in total among the study participants. Change in career choice was observed in 39.33% of the participants. The top two choices prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic was General Surgery and General Medicine. Among the participants who had a change in career choice, the mean score of four questions in COVID-19 pandemic domain was higher when compared with participants who had no change. Conclusion: Most of the participants believed that the COVID-19 pandemic limited the learning opportunities for postgraduates and the violence against doctors had an impact on their decision to pursue a particular career. Due to the present pandemic, participants interest in community medicine and infectious diseases has increased.

Introduction: Semen parameters, especially sperm count, concentration, progressive motility and volume have been said to be diminishing over time among men in developing countries like India. Aim: To compare the semen parameters (semen concentration, normal forms, progressive motility and defects) of sub-fertile males visiting ARC fertility Centre in Chennai. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Advanced Reproductive Care, Inc. (ARC) International Fertility and Research Centre located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, from the period of January 2015 to December 2019. Total 50 semen samples were selected randomly each year bringing the total to 250 samples which were included in the study. Masturbation was the major method of semen collection. The semen was analysed for the various semen parameters like semen concentration, normal forms, progressive motility and defects in the laboratory under microscope on wet preparation of slides as per the standard guidelines. The various semen parameters along with the age of the participants were entered in Microsoft excel and analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Results: Total 250 semen reports were included in the study. They belong to age group of persons between 20 to 60 years. More than half of them were 30 to 40 year for all the five years. It was found that there was a statistically significant mean difference among progressive motility (25.14±16.37 in 2015 to 17.30±11.41 in 2019; p-value=0.009), semen concentration (78.1±61.15 in 2015 to 65.96±57.85 in 2019; p-value=0.001) among the semen samples over the years. There was a decreasing trend with the semen parameters being lower than optimal over the years. Conclusion: The study findings suggested that there is a decrease in semen parameters over the years and further studies have to be carried out to find the various environmental and lifestyle factors which could be responsible for the same.