1st International Conference on Occupational and Environmental Health

1st International Conference on Occupational and Environmental Health with apt theme of “International Collaboration and Capacity Building” scheduled on 1- 2 March, 2013 in New Delhi, the National Capital of India. The theme of the ICOEH 2013 is based on the deliberation that there is a need for enhanced International participation to know and mitigate the gaps in the academia (e.g. research and training), profession (e.g. medical, safety, industrial hygiene, engineering), regulators and service providers and to build the contemporary capacity of all the stakeholder. The aim of this conference is to provide the stepping stone in reducing the disparities among the developed nations who have taken care of many of the Occupational and Environmental Health issues and the developing countries like India, where much is yet required to be done.

This conference will be the appropriate platform to deal with the following topics sketched for the two days of the conference:
• Epidemiology of Occupational and Environmental Conditions and Diseases
• Technology and Infrastructure for Assessment and Diagnosis of Diseases
• Technology and Infrastructure for Health Hazards / Risk Assessment and Management
• Preventive and Promotive Methodologies in Occupational Health
• Polices, Legal Framework and Standard Operating Procedures
• Occupational Health in Informal sector

Panel Discussion:
Prioritizing opportunities for International collaboration & Capacity Building

Pre-conference workshops:
The conference is hinged by two pre-conference workshops, which will be rewarding to the participants for the topics covered, and the contents delivered by the International faculties.

1. STOFFENMANAGER: Management of Chemical Exposures, Simple and Cost Effective Solutions (By NIOH, South African Faculty)

2. On-site, Off-site Disaster Preparedness (By First Response, Australian Faculty and National Institute of Disaster Management, India)

FOR SUBMITTING THE ABSTRACT CONTACT 

Dr. Jugal Kishore
Chairman, Scientific CommitteeConference Secretariat, 
Room No. 337, Pathology Block, Dept of Community Medicine, 
Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi Gate, New Delhi
Mobile: +91-9582792331
email: abstracts@conferenceoeh.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Dr. Ashish Mittal,
Organizing Secretary, ICOEH 2013
Mobile: +91-9313054881, +91-9910045636
email: secretariat@conferenceoeh.com

Determinants of Current Smoking Behaviour among Third Year Nursing Students in India: Results from Global Health Professional Student Survey (India)

Health professionals serve as role models to their patients and public at large. Smoking among health
professional would have negative impact on community members. Global Health Professional Student
Survey (GHPSS) indicates health professional students including nursing students do smoke. But the
factors affecting smoking behaviour are yet to be explored. This study examined GHPSS (2007) to identify
factors encouraging smoking among nursing students. Results suggest that male gender, higher age, non
teaching about smoking hazards were major determinants of smoking. The study suggested that the
teaching about smoking hazards should be made mandatory in nursing schools.

Keywords: GHPSS, Nursing student, India, Smoking

Authors: Jugal Kishore, Pratap Kumar Jena, Sagarika Das, Chandan Bandyopadhyay, Indrani Banerjee

http://stmjournals.com/index.php?journal=JoNSP&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=3078

IMMUNIZATION IN ELDERLY

Immunization is one of the key components of preventive health care strategies worldwide. However, which vaccine should be administered by the state in socialized medicine and which vaccine should be advocated to the individuals who can afford the expenditure should be discussed among health practitioners. This article addresses issues pertaining to vaccination among elderly from public health point of view, a largely neglected area in developing countries like India. From the review of literature it is concluded that vaccination against pneumococcal infection, influenza, tetanus and herpes zoster can be considered in older persons. 

Source: Ravneet Kaur, Jugal Kishore. Immunization in Geriatric Population of India: A Critical review. Research and review: A Journal of Immunology 2012; 2 (1).

Concern, Expectation and Satisfaction of Medical tourists in New Delhi, India

Delhi the capital of India, has largest number of hospitals providing medical services to the neighboring states and abroad. On one hand it generates revenue to government and on the the other hand big profit to private hospitals. This demands constant improvement of quality of care to remain competitive with other medical tourism destinations. Assessment of concerns, expectation and satisfaction level of medical tourists about their medical treatment is an important issue, although subjective, but one of the important methods to improve the quality of medical services. There is evidence which suggests that care, which is less than satisfactory to the patients, is also less effective and may reflect a failure to answer patients’ needs, their expectations, or acceptable standard of service. From this study it is concluded that medical tourists were found to be satisfied with services provided in tertiary care hospitals of Delhi. Yet to address their overall concerns and issues, health sector needs to take some steps such as developing/strengthening facilities for follow up, in each country from where medical tourists were coming.

Indu Grewal, JK Das, Jugal Kishore. Concern, Expectation and Satisfaction of medical tourists attending tertiary care hospitals in New Delhi, India. JIMSA July-Sept 2012; 25 (3): 151-154.

How to make India Healthy: Narrowing of streets and expending illegal colonies

Highways and express roads are becoming wider and wider but streets and gallis in each village and colonies are becoming smaller and smaller. Therefore people are interested to move out and their cars to feel the wideness of road and open space. Public space outside one's house is considered one's property and he feel proud to block it or extend the pavement of his/her house to narrow it down. Neighbors will not object or complaint because this help them to capture the space in front of their houses. This greedy nature of humans is promoted by corrupt municipal and police officers. When someone come forward to object such public land capturing then this further help the officers to get more money from the grabber and nothing concrete action against the culprit. Streets are so much narrow in villages that no fire extinguisher can reach to interior of village if any fire broke. Similarly no ambulance can reach to the house if any emergency happened. People are dying due to their own greed and system is helping them to suffer. Who is going to stop this illegal activities. Illegal Colonies are approved for votes without improving basic civic structure of the colony. First municipal, police and other authorities will ignore them deliberately when poor people are settling at public place and then they keep threatening and stopping people for any construction or letting them to improve their housing conditions. For money and votes everything is allowed in the end. System is meant for politicians and officers to exploit the poor.         

What is Public Health?

MEDICINE

·         Primary concerns is an individual

·         Doctor-Patient relationship and ethics reolved around individual 

·         Emphasis on disease diagnosis, treatment, and care for the individual patient

·         Medical paradigm places predominant emphasis on medical care

·         Uniform system for certifying specialists beyond professional medical degree

·         Lines of specialization organized, for example, by: 

-organ system (ophthalmology, neurology, cardiology, etc)

-patient group (obstetrics, pediatrics, Internists)

-etiology and pathophysiology (infectious disease, oncology)

-technical skill (radiology, surgery)

·         Biological sciences central, stimulated by needs of patients; research moves between laboratory and bedside

·         Numerical sciences increasing in prominence, though still a relatively minor part of training

·         Social sciences tend to be an elective part of medical education and teaches to integrate recovered person to his/her family or community

PUBLIC HEALTH

·         Main focus is on populations and groups
·         Comprehensive, broad and holistic in nature and much more cost effective approach to deliver healthcare to people

·         Public and health department relationship, social and public responsibility

·         Emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion for the whole community

·         Public health paradigm employs a spectrum of interventions aimed at the environment, human behavior and lifestyle, and medical care; designing, implementation and evaluation of health programs 

·         Variable certification of specialists beyond professional public health degree

·         Lines of specialization organized, for example, by: 

- analytical method (epidemiology, biostatistics, toxicology)

- setting and population (occupational health, school health, global health)

-substantive health problem (environmental health, nutrition)

-management (Planning, monitoring and evaluation)

-enforcement and advocacy (Public health legislations and politics)

-communication (Behavior change communication, health informations)

·         Life sciences central, with a prime focus on major threats to the health of populations; research moves between laboratory and field

·         Population sciences and quantitative disciplines essential features of analysis and training

·         Social and public policy disciplines an integral part of public health education and health promotion
·         Focus is more on dealing with Social and psychological Determinants of health 

·         Integral component of human development and human rights
·         It is a science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promote health through organizing committee efforts handling all possible determinants of health of the people.

SUICIDAL IDEATION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS OF DELHI

Background

Suicide is becoming a public health problem and this act starts with suicidal ideation that is increasing amongst the younger age group, particularly students. However, little is known about this problem amongst medical students in India

Method 

A cross sectional study was carried out on 265 undergraduate students of a medical college in Delhi using pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire consist of socio-demographic profile, risk factors for suicide, and a validated scale to assess suicidal ideation and thought. Analysis was done using Microsoft Excel and WHO EPI-INFO 2005.

Results

The prevalence of suicidal ideation amongst medical students was 53.6%. Although everybody was aware of the meaning of suicide and the damage that it could cause to the individual and family, still 4.9% students seriously contemplated suicide and 2.6% have attempted suicide at least once in their life. Suicidal ideation was highest in first professional year medical students (64.4%) and lowest among the third professional year students (40.4%). Suicidal ideation was significantly associated with “impulsive or reckless behaviour in difficult situations” with 70.9% of the students showing reckless behaviour also having suicidal ideation compared to 30.7% not having such behaviour. Also, a significant association between the feeling of “it’s all too much to manage” and suicidal ideation was observed, with 78% of the students having this feeling also found to be having suicidal ideation as compared to 4.5% of those without this feeling.  A significant association was found between gender suicidal ideation. Also a significant association was found between the feeling of being “better off dead” and “non-working mothers”.  However, no association of suicidal ideation or attempted suicides was found with age, father’s education, and father’s occupation.

Conclusion

High prevalence of suicidal ideation amongst medical students suggests that there is an urgent need for a mental health program for medical students that provides counseling services and creates more opportunities for recreational activities.

Authors: Abhinav Goyal, Jugal Kishore, Tanu Anand, Akanksha Rathi

Journal of Mental health and human behavior 2012; 17 (1): 60-69; ipsnz.org/journal%20march_2012/8_org_article3.pdf