Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 949-951
Safarulla N. V. M. (Research and Development Centre, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore)
Shamsuddin, H., M.D.S. (Ex- Professor and Head, Department of Periodontics Government Dental College, Calicut)

Most of the empirical evidences regarding the association of Salivary Flow and Psychological variables show inconsistent results. Many authors reported concern about the absence of standard mean values and interdependent parameters in Sialometry. The present study conducted a thorough review using electronic data base, and scrutinized various studies of past 50 years. Most of the literature reviewed agreed that Relaxation Responses lead to increased Salivary Flow, which is less viscous and more watery. At the same time, stressful situations, anger, psychoticism and neuroticism lead to decreased Salivary Flow, which is more mucous and viscous. Moreover, the review uncovered empirical evidences showing that Salivary Analysis can be used as biomarkers in the diagnosis of many conditions like stress reactions, pregnancy, smoking and even in HIV. The present study concluded that Salivary Flow decreases in Psychological Stress and other psycho-neurotic conditions and increases in relaxed mental states.

Pages: 956-960
Sharbani Mullick, Nabamita Chakraborty and Sanjukta Das (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata)

The current research explored the relationship between the daily hassles encountered by 30 to 40-year-old working women and the consequent changes in the reported levels of marital satisfaction. The sample size was 80. Self-report instruments, namely, Marital Satisfaction Scale (Amrithraj & Jai Prakash ), the Daily Hassles Scale (Basu, 2005), the Presumptive Stressful Life Event Scale (Singh et al., 1984) and the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hill, 1990) were filled out by the participants to assess the respective domains concerned with the investigation. For methodological and interpretive convenience, the participants were divided into two broad groups by the median-split technique one having high and the other low marital satisfaction. Statistical treatment and analyses of the obtained data reveal lesser daily hassles reported by the high marital satisfaction group in contrast to the low marital satisfaction group. Implications and conclusions of the findings are mentioned.

Pages: 965-967
V. Kavitha and Hemalatha (Department of Psychology, Avinashilingan Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore )
Aditi Gupta (Department of Psychology, Tamanna Nai Disha, New Delhi)

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a progressive, debilitating, chronic illness that affects quality of life, potentially influencing physical and mental health, functional status, independence, general well-being, personal relationships and social functioning. Not only does it cause significant morbidity, but it also has a high mortality. Because of the costs and the complexity of its treatment, very few patients are able to obtain adequate treatment, and CKD places a heavy financial burden on any society. Because it requires life-long treatment in the form of renal replacement therapy, the quality of life (QOL) of patients may significantly impair. Studies have revealed that patient education can play a significant role in improving the QOL in these patients. The aim of the study was to find the influence of Stress on general Well-being in Haemodialysis (HD) patients and to identify the effectiveness of Positive Therapy. Purposive Sampling method was used to collect data from 40 HD Patients using Stress Inventory (Hemalatha and Nandhini, 2004) and General Well-being Index (WHO, 1998). All the patients, who had high Stress and low General Well-being were given psychological intervention called Positive Therapy over a period of 2 weeks followed by reassessment. Patients receiving HD identified limitations in a number of areas including vitality and significantly lower physical functioning. The results revealed that many patients had high stress due to fear, worry and anger about the illness. Positive Therapy helped to bring down the mean stress of the sample from high (22.55) to low (6.22). The result also reveals that 89% of the subjects had an enormous improvement in their General Well-being after undergoing Positive Therapy.

Pages: 971-973
Richa Singh (Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat)
J. Mahto and Deapti Mishra (Department of Clinical Psychology, Postgraduate Institute of Behavioural & Medical Sciences, Manopchar, Raipur)

To see the attention and concentration, intellectual functioning and visuo-spatial functioning of the patient with epilepsy as compared to normal epileptic group. Epilepsy is one of the most commonly encountered organic illnesses in psychiatric set-up. It is the second most common chronic neurological condition seen by neurologists. It is estimated that there are 55, 00,000 persons with epilepsy in India (Shridharan, 2002). Epilepsy is a name of the brain disorder characterized by predominantly by recurrent and unpredictable interruptions of normal brain function called epileptic seizures. The effects of epilepsy are felt in multiple aspects of the person's life, including physical and mental health, cognitive function, educational achievements, vocational prospects, and family and peer relations (Jalava, 1997).Cognition, which includes processes such as intelligent thinking, perceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, expressing, and understanding, has an important role in the inception, evolution, and manifestation of many of these other aspects of function recognized to be compromised in people with epilepsy. To examine these cognitive disturbances and other severity, psychological tests can be regarded as an important instrument.

Pages: 983-985
Masood-ul Hassan and Md. Jasimuddin Khan (Department of Psychology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, UP)

The study was undertaken with a view to investigate the influence of anxiety on aggression among physically challenged adolescents of Aligarh. The sample consists of 60 male and 60 female adolescents whose age ranged from 14 to 22 years. Aggression questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) and Anxiety Scale (Sinha, 1961) were used to measure aggression and anxiety of the subjects. The analysis of data were done by Pearson's Correlation analysis and two way ANOVA and independent t-test was used respectively.

Pages: 987-982
B.K. Punia and Amit Kumar (Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana )

Industrial health and safety has emerged very strongly in the previous years which can be largely attributed to the phenomenal automation. From the last two decades particularly there has been a major boost in the number of studies of construction area, but the research community is scattered between many different disciplines and institutions. The literature review regarding health and safety climate in industrial organizations has been reviewed in order to identify the new area for research in manufacturing sector. The present paper attempts to explore the reasons of accidents, coworker's safety, supervisor's safety, employee's compliance with safety behavior and as a whole health and safety climate and the safety management has a positive influence on performance of firm. After reviewing the various studies, the authors have endeavored directions of future researches in hazardous industries.

Pages: 994-997
Nadia Ayub (Department of Business Psychology, Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan)
Shahid Iqbal (Department of Psychology, Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan)

This study investigates the correlation between personal growth initiatives, psychological distress, and psychological well-being among adolescents. It was assumed that personal growth initiative is significantly associated with psychological well-being, and negatively associated with psychological distress among adolescents. A study consists of 150 (75 males and 75 females) college students of Karachi, Pakistan. A Personal Growth Initiative Scale (Robitschek,1998); Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being (RPWB; Ryff, 1995); & Psychological Distress Scale (K10; Kessler, 1996) were administered. For all statistical analysis, Spearmen's rho was calculated to assess the association among personal growth initiatives, psychological well-being and psychological distress. The findings of the study suggest that personal growth initiative is positively associated with psychological well-being and negatively associated with psychological distress among adolescents. Furthermore, adolescents who are high in personal growth initiative and psychological well-being experience less mental health issues.

Pages: 1007-1009
Nelofar, S. (Department of Physiology, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical College, Lyari General Hospital, Karachi)
Khalida, S., Zeenat, A. and Masood A. Qurashi (Department of Physiology, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan )
Rukhshan Khurshid (Department of Biochemistry, Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan)
Fatima Shad, K. (Institute of Health Sciences, University of Brunei, Darussalam)
Sadaf, A. and Shamoon, N. (Advance Educational Institute & Research Center, Pakistan)

Present study tried to find out the role of midlife, BMI and different stages of hypertension in developing dementia which may lead to Alzheimer's disease in city of Karachi-Pakistan A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2008 and April 2010. Study included 611 hypertensive patients of both males and females gender with age > 50 years. Patients were taken from the local clinic and hospitals of Karachi-Pakistan. Patients were screened for cognitive impairment using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and informants who knew the subjects answered the Informant Questionnaire for Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). BMI and blood pressure of each patient was noted. Patients were considered to hypertensive according to Joint National Committee criteria. Our study observed that the intensity of dementia is directly related especially with hypertension type 2. Study also observed that with the increasing in age the prevalence of all form of dementia was observed. Highest percentage of patients with low BMI and BMI > 25 showed severe form of dementia as compared to normal weight. It is therefore concluded that hypertension type 2 is the major risk factor that will increase the risk of AD in Pakistan; but along with other factors like obesity and aging, it can lead to AD and related pathological conditions in individuals markedly characterized by dementia and cognitive decline.

Pages: 1013-1017
P.S.N. Tiwari and Krishna Sharma (Department of Psychology, DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, UP)

How people feel and think about their lives is essential and integral part of understanding the well-being in a particular society. The present study is an attempt to investigate the well-being of male and female adolescents (N=240) attending government and public schools of Gorakhpur city. All the subjects belonged to the age group of 15 to 17 years. These participants were subjected to 35 items measure of well-being having seven domains. The results revealed that adolescents attending to public school scored higher as compare to government school on dimensions of well-being namely positive affect, family support and achievement expectation, while male adolescents showed higher emotional support, achievement expectation. The implications of the findings have been discussed.

Pages: 1020-1021
Sat Pal (Demonstrator, Department of Physiology, University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana)
Vijay Silan (Senior Resident, Centre for Community Medicine All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi)
Anup Kumar (Deputy Civil Surgeon, Badshah Khan District Hospital, Faridabad, Haryana)
Anuj Sihan (Demonstrator, Department of Biochemistry BPS GMC, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, Haryana)
Archana, S and Karthik L. Balajee (Junior Resident, Centre for Community Medicine All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi)

Three quarter of the neonatal deaths happens in the first week only and the initial 24 hours itself take a toll of 25% to 45% of deaths. The Studies conducted in the South East Asia Regions has shown the impact of home visits by skilled workers and it has reduced deaths of newborns by 30 to 61%. Home visits by a skilled health worker immediately after birth is a health strategy that can increase newborn survival rates. The present cross sectional survey was done among the 54 ASHA s of the Kurali Block of district Faridabad of Haryana. All the ASHAs were assessed on the basis of their skills and knowledge about the component of Home Based Post Natal Care (HBPNC). Conclusions and recommendations: All the ASHAs were well versed with the vital issues in postnatal care. There is still gap in the skills required for proper HBPNC. There is need of continuous on the job training for the Home Based Post Natal Care.

Pages: 1024-1029
Vinod Kumari (CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Campus Kaul, Kaithal, Haryana)

Ageing is a constant, predictable process that involves growth and development of living organisms. The United Nations anticipates that the number of people aged 65 and over will increase to 822 million all over the world by 2025. The increase of ageing population is a major concern to both the family and the government. Developing countries such as China and India have the largest total population, and will continue to have the largest absolute number of elderly people. Nobody grow old merely by living a certain number of years. Years may wrinkle the skin but worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, tension and self disrespect wrinkle the soul. Elderly people are highly prone to mental morbidities due to ageing of the brain, problems associated with physical health and socio-economic factors like break down of family support and decline in economic independence. The issue is more acute for women because they are disadvantaged in the predominantly patriarchal societies in which most of them live. The present study examines the changes in mental health of aged rural women and influence of various socio-economic factors on these changes. A semi-structured questionnaire on socio-demographic and mental health profiles of women was developed to assess their mental health status. Most of the women under study were consuming those food items which were easily available in villages and their diet generally lacked fruits, eggs and meat as only 17.5 per cent women were consuming egg and meat while 21.3 per cent ate fruits occasionally. Majority of aged women reported that they could concentrate on work (82.5%) and pay a useful role in the family (83.7%) provided they were given due respect and health care. It was found that more than half of them (57.5%) remained under stress due to one or the other reason and the magnitude of their mental stress was more than their physical one. Family education had positive impact on mental health status of elder women of the family as the mental health level of aged rural women from families having higher education was somewhat better than those of having lower level of family education. More rural aged women from married class were mentally good (86.0%) than those from widow class (67.6%). Family bonding among its members plays an important role in maintaining their physical and mental health specially those of older persons. More number of aged women from medium size families (84.4%) was having good mental health level as compared to those of small (78.3%) and large size (50.0%) families. It was found that high family income was not a guarantee of good mental health of its elderly women but it is the love and affection of family members that natters to keep the mental health of aged women sound as more women from families having medium annual income were having good mental health level (87.1%). The present study showed some association of socio-economic factors with mental health and functioning of an elderly woman.

Pages: 1035-1040
Shobhita Rani (Freelancer Psychologist, Dehradun, UK)

This study is based on interviews of the 192 visually impaired subjects. 93 males and 99 females above 5yr of age from National Institute for the Visually Handicapped, Dehradun, were interviewed and their dreams and other relevant information were collected. They were divided into two age group age group I i.e. under 12yrs and age group II i.e. above 12 yrs. Considering the contents of the dream of the visually impaired their dreams were divided into 13 categories and then interpreted. Most of the dreams upon interpretation indicated a feeling of insecurity, fear and anxiety in their personality.