Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 835-845
Sangeeta Trama and Baldeep Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala)

Emotional eating occurs when an individual eats to soothe hurt emotions or deals with a stressful situation. Emotional eating may also take place after a rough day at work, an argument with a loved one, or when the kids are running around the house screaming. The present study was a small step in this direction. It attempted to examine the role of perceived stress, anger and coping towards emotional eating in adolescents. The sample of the present study comprised 200 participants (103 males and 97 females). They were selected from various government and private schools and colleges of Patiala district. For studying the role of perceived stress, anger and coping towards emotional eating, the following tools were administered: Perceived Stress Scale [PSS-10; Cohen, 1994], State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2; Spielberger; 1999), Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ; Folkman & Lazarus, 1988), and the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire Resvised-21 (TFEQ-R21; Karlsson, 2000).In order to analyze the role of perceived stress, anger and coping towards emotional eating in adolescents, product-moment correlations were computed, and stepwise multiple regression analyses were applied. The results revealed that two aspects of coping, viz., self-controlling and escape-avoidance emerged as (negative and positive) predictors of emotional eating in girls. “Self-controlling” aspect of coping accounted for 70% of the variance in female emotional eaters whereas, an additional 5% of the variance in emotional eating was being explained by escape-avoidance. Seeking social support emerged as the main positive predictor of emotional eating in adolescent boys (which explained 72 % of the variance) whereas, two other subscales of coping, viz., self-controlling and accepting responsibility emerged as negative predictors. It was interesting to note that trait anger emerged as a positive predictor of emotional eating in case of adolescent boys (though none of the varied aspects of anger emerged as significant predictors in case of adolescent females). These predictors together accounted for 77% of the variance in emotional eating for adolescent boys. Emotional eating was positively linked with perceived stress, trait anger, and diverse aspects of coping, viz., confronting coping, distancing, seeking social support, escape-avoidance and positive reappraisal. On the other hand, emotional eating was negatively related with anger expression index, two subscales of coping, viz., self-controlling, and accepting responsibility. State anger and planful problem solving were unrelated with all the variables considered in the present investigation, viz., perceived stress, trait anger, anger expression index, all subscales of coping and emotional eating for adolescent girls as well as boys.In sum, the findings indicate that different aspects of anger and/or coping may differentially predict emotional eating in adolescent boys and girls.

Pages: 852-858
C. N. Ram Gopal (Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Chennai)
V. D. Swaminathan (Department of Psychology, University of Madras, Chennai )

The objectives of the present study were to identify the factors that contribute to dysthymia and to study the effectiveness of cognitive-behaviour therapy (C.B.T.) in the treatment of dysthymia. In the present study two approaches were followed namely, Ex-post-facto approach and Experimental approach. The sample consisted of three groups of 15 dysthymic patients in each group. The findings revealed that, locality, marital status, family history, intelligence and major value factors love and approval were the contributors to the Cognitive Dimension of Dysthymia, C.B.T. was found to be effective in the treatment of dysthymia, and craving for love, autonomy and perfectionism were the predictors of dysthymia.

Pages: 866-870
Priyanka, Promila Batra and Sarvdeep Kohli (Department of Psychology, M. D. University, Rohtak, Haryana)

In the present era, health has become a serious concern, particularly due to the stress and the consequent faulty health habits and sedentary life styles. These lead to extreme weights. BMI is an indicator of the weight status. The weight related problems are quite frequent in India and the teenagers are also quite vulnerable. Therefore, the present paper attempted to assess the self concept and health related quality of life amongst teenagers as a consequence of BMI/weight status. A sample of 300 students, studying in class IX and XI in various public schools were contacted and 120 subjects in the age range of 14-17 years were selected to form three groups on the basis of BMI/ weight status. These were underweight, normal weight and overweight subjects, these subjects were given self concept questionnaire by Saraswat and SF-36 health related quality of life scale by Ware and Sherbourne. The obtained scores were analyzed by using ANOVA followed by DRT. The results indicate that self concept and health related quality of life were poor in both the underweight and the overweight subjects. The mental health however, was affected only in the overweight subjects.

Pages: 878-881
Sobia Malik, Naima, Ayesha Javed and Sadaf Ahmed (Department of Physiology, University of Karachi, Pakistan)

Body Mass Index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR) and Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are frequently used indices to categorize underweight, overweight & obesity along with the characteristics like basal body conditions, and the proportion of fat stored on the body. Blood pressure within the arteries can be altered with the changes in these indices that may be an alarm of Hypertension or other cardiovascular harms. The purpose of this study is to observe the effect of BMI, BMR, Waist circumference and Waist to hip ratio on Blood pressure. How these parameters alter the blood pressure of normal human subjects. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study involving 100 respondents (93% non-married) selected from Karachi and sample type is stratified random sampling, stratum is based on age i.e. 20-30 years. The respondent's demographic information and physical information; age, sex, marital status, level of education, weight, height, BMI, Waist circumferences, hip circumferences, blood pressure, BMR and waist/hip ratio was recorded. Data entries & data analysis was done using SPSS 16.0. BMI has a profound effect on WHR, waist circumference, and BMR and it was observed that an increase in the value of BMI results in increase WHR, waist circumference, and BMR, hence establishing direct relation. However, increased BMI raises the systolic pressure & diastolic pressure; the same results are obtained for WHR, Waist circumference and BMR, as these are directly related to BMI.

Pages: 887-890
Vinod Kumar and Pardeep Khanna (Department of Community, Medicine, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)
Manju Rani (Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)
Garima Shivhare (MD Anatomy, PGIMS, Rohtak)
Pooja (Medical Officer, HCMS)
Pramod Kumar Saharan (College of Nursing, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)

Tuberculosis (TB) is contagious and airborne bacterial diseases. It is a disease of poverty affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years. MDR-TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have more side-effects. XDR-TB can develop when these second-line drugs are also misused or mismanaged and therefore also become ineffective.

Pages: 894-896
Smita Pandey (Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat)
S.H. Nizamie (Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand)

To see the effect of behavioral intervention like relaxation, stress management, cognitive behavior therapy and countermeasures in the treatment of epilepsy as individually tailored psycho-social approach in adjunct with the medications and its effects on the frequency of seizures, the Quality of life ( QOLIE-10), Subjective well-being scales (SUBI) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-5) of the patients. Twenty-two patients , between the age range of 14 to 41 years gave the informed consent for the treatment, from the Epilepsy Clinic of Central Institute of Psychiatry, out of which 14 patients could only follow up for the treatment. A daily seizure diary was maintained to obtain the frequency of seizures along with the pre-assessment of the QOLIE-10, SUBI , GHQ-5 and their post intervention effects, that were analyzed using the student't' test., after the intervention of six weeks. The results indicated significant improvement on all of the above measures.

Pages: 899-900
Ramesh Verma (Medical Officer I/C Rural Health Training Centre CHC, Chiri)
Meenakshi Kharb (BAMS, MBA (MH), S.M.U )
Pramod Kumar Saharan (College of Nursing, PGIMS, Rohtak)
Sonu (Department of Medicine, PGIMS, Rohtak)
Pooja Singla (Department of Microbiology, PGIMS, Rohtak)
Sat Pal (Demonstrator, PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana)

What is the level of awareness regarding various aspects of HIV/AIDS among rural school going adolescents of Rohtak? To assess the level of awareness regarding HIV/AIDS in rural school going adolescents of Rohtak. Study Cross sectional. Senior secondary schools under CHC Chiri, Block Lakhanmajra, Rohtak. Adolescents (15-19yrs) studying in class 9th to 12th. All the students studying in 9th-12thstd in the three schools under CHC Chiri were selected (N=369). A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was administered to them after obtaining informed consent. Simple proportions, Chi square test. All the students had heard about HIV/AIDS. 77.3% of boys and 78% of girls knew that it is caused by a micro-organism. Only 6.8% boys and 16% girls knew all the modes of transmission of this disease. About 22% students had various misconceptions regarding the mode of spread. Television (50.1%) was observed as the most common source of information regarding HIV/AIDS.

Pages: 904-906
Meena Devi (Department of Applied Science, GTB Khalsa Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chhapianwali, Malout)
B.P. Garg (GTB Khalsa Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chhapianwali, Malout, Punjab)

An attempt has been made in this investigation to study the life satisfaction of the female teachers in relation to marital status, community, the type of school and locality of the school. Life Satisfaction scale by Alam and Srivasatava (1983) was administered on a sample of 280 high school teachers selected through random cluster sampling from 70 government school of 3 districts of Punjab. The result shows that life satisfaction had the main effect on marital status, type and locality of school. Married teachers were reported more tolerant, able to understand their students and having lower level of depression than unmarried teachers. The communities of teachers do not have any influence on their life satisfaction.

Pages: 915-918
Sadaf Ahmed, Madiha Shaukat, Aleena Hasni and Shamoon Noushad (Advance Educational Institute & Research Center(AEIRC), Karachi, Pakistan)

There are various neuro-philosophical views that can be considered to evaluate the effects of the psychological factors on the brain and its functions. The cognitive functions can be best assessed by using various tools that can depict most notably how depression induces a cascade of changes to neuronal system. As these psychological problems directly affect the central nervous system, the mind changes into a distorted state that induces cognitive impairments. We took a random study including 50 university girls (non-married) and 50 house wives, a self assessing Subjective Memory Questionnaire was the tool used to analyze their current memory status by scoring. Where average normal university going girls score 158 that indicate their subjective memory difficulties are minimal and they can Move onto more advanced memory skills training to further improvement in cognitive skills. While the house wives who are on the whole looking stress free but they score 133 and we noticed a moderate degree of memory challenge in them. It indicated that these women must spend more time on developing their basic memory skills before moving to the advanced memory skills training. Our study showed that young educated females have better cognitive function than the middle aged women who are housewives and are consciously maintaining the awareness of surrounding input. We have found an unwavering relation between the life style and the diminutive acts of daily routine. It is suggested that as working memory has a direct relation with stress and depression that may cause memory impairments.

Pages: 925-928
Vinod Kumar, Pardeep Khanna and Huchchannavar Raghavendra (Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)
Garima Shivhare (MD Anatomy)
Pooja (Medical Officer, HCMS)
Pramod Kumar Saharan (College of Nursing, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)

There is large variation in occurrence of various diseases, their incidence, prevalence, associated complications. Not only is there a difference from one region to another, from north to south, east to west, rural to urban, a contrasting scenario can be seen even within the same city between the posh buildings of the city and the urban slum, between the rich and the poor. The rich and affluent society generally suffers from the non-communicable diseases while the poor are the victims of communicable diseases. The study was carried out in an urban slum of Rohtak district of Haryana. It was an interview based descriptive type of epidemiological study and design adopted was cross sectional. The interview was carried out by conducting house to house survey. All the houses where any family is residing were eligible to participate in the study.Total 400 houses were visited and 1928 subjects were studied.The data hence collected was analyzed using proportions, percentages and chi-square test, wherever applicable using SPSS version 18. Semi-skilled and skilled labourers constituted 19%. Out of total study subjects 51% were labourer or unemployed. A substantial proportion, 16.5% were unemployed. According to Kuppuswamy socio-economic status scale 57% families belonged to upper lower class and 30.5% were in lower middle class. In upper lower class two third individuals fell ill in last one year. In 39.5% families at least one member fell ill and in 24.5% families' two members fell ill in last one year. Most common substance of abuse was tobacco (smoking) 20.5%. In 21% study subjects the duration of use of substance of abuse was more than 10 years. To conclude, the diseases were more common in upper middle class in urban slum and there was also a high prevalence of substance abuse. There is need for massive IEC activities for health promotion, disease prevention and de-addiction services against various substance of abuse.

Pages: 935-937
Gurminder Sokhey and Gurpreet Kaur (Department of Psychology Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

The present investigation aimed to study the Automatic Thought Processes of both male and female OCD patients in comparison to male and female Normal controls. For this purpose 80 OCD patients (Males=40; Females=40) were randomly selected from Psychiatric Department of Rajindra Hospital Patiala, attending OPD in the age group of 25-35 years. 80 Normal controls (Males=40; Females=40) were also randomly selected on the basis of a screening measure in the same age group from general population such as attendants and friends. OCD Patients and Normals were administered Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (Hollon & Kendall, 1980) and a Screening measure (Harding et al., 1980) only for normals. A Two-Way Analysis of Variance with equal numbers was applied with 2 levels of disease (OCD and Normals) and 2 levels of gender (Males /Females). The obtained results revealed significant main effects of disease and gender indicating that OCD male and female patients are higher on negative Automatic Thoughts than male and female Normal controls. Further, OCD females exhibited more negative Automatic Thoughts as compared to OCD males.

Pages: 941-944
Roomana N. Siddiqui (Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh)
Shabana Mazhar (Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Allahabad)

Spatial density may be related to the experience of crowding but it is argued that spatial density will result in crowding only when this density starts interfering the activities of people. Hostel accommodations in educational institutions are overcrowded where students have to share rooms and other facilities. This has implications for interpersonal relations. To explore this aspect an attempts is made to find out the extent to which spatial density in hostels affect interpersonal relations amongst inmates. It also tries to investigate the role of coping in ameliorating the impact of crowding. Data was collected on 200 students residing in hostels. The crowding experience scale (Nagar & Paulus, 1997) along with items related to four coping strategy namely direct action, avoidance, acceptance and social support was administered. The findings revealed that spatial density did affect interpersonal relations but it was not a direct impact. Its affect on positive relations was mediated by social support but it was uncontrolled disturbance that mediated the impact of density and negative relations.