ABSTRACT

Though adequate knowledge is essential for management of an emergency, outside hospital settings, at the site of the accident or emergency, most schools and colleges do not have formal first aid preparation in the curriculum. This Pre-experimental study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire to assess the college students’ knowledge and skills on selected first aid measures. The results illustrated that the overall pre-test mean knowledge on first aid management among college students was 9.14±5.77 and the post-test mean score was 19.85±4.9 which was found to be statistically significant at p<0.001. There was a significant positive correlation at p=0.001 between knowledge and skills, which indicates that when knowledge increases, their skills also increase. The demographic variables such as age and academic performance had shown statistically significant association with level of knowledge (p<0.05) and skills (p<0.01, p<0.001) respectively. Thus, the study concludes that the level of knowledge and skills about first aid management was not good among the majority of the students during pre-test which increased significantly after the video teaching program. So, there is a need for formal first aid training to be introduced in the college curriculum to enable the younger generation to efficiently handle emergencies and save valuable lives.

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 is a global health menace and a worldwide public health emergency that is inflicting extraordinary morbidity and mortality. The behaviour of the people will certainly have a significant impact on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As human behaviour is influenced by people's knowledge and perceptions, this study was undertaken to assess the rural population's knowledge and practices regarding the disease. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted with 300 participants living in selected rural areas of Tamil Nadu. The results showed that television (44.8%) and WhatsApp (35.2%) were the most prevalent sources of information for them. Males were more aware of the pandemic and practiced preventive measures than females in our survey which is statistically significant. There was also a statistically significant association between knowledge and practice of the rural population at p=0.001. The study concludes that the knowledge and practice of COVID-19 is low among rural population and mass health education measures to reach them to be implemented especially on importance of vaccination.

The insulin-sensitizing medication rosiglitazone (RSG) is used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to the A Diabetes Outcome Progression Trial (ADOPT), women who took RSG had more fractures than those who took other type 2 diabetes medications. The fractures were not osteoporotic spinal fractures, but rather limb fractures. The goal of this study was to see if geraniin could help prevent bone loss caused by the drug Rosiglitazone. For diabetes induction, streptozotocin was used. For eight weeks, diabetic rats were given orally Rosiglitazone (10mg/kg) and geraniin (40mg/kg) alone or in combination. At the end of the experiment, BMD of the femur and lumbar vertebrae was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Glycosylated Haemoglobin serum and serum glucose were also examined. Rosiglitazone and geraniin, both alone and in combination, dramatically lowered high blood glucose levels. When compared to the positive control, rosiglitazone therapy dramatically reduced HBA1C levels. The combination of geraniin and rosiglitazone reduced blood glucose and HBA1C levels considerably. The combination of geraniin and rosiglitazone reduced blood glucose and HBA1C levels considerably. Rosiglitazone had negative effects on BMD in the femur and lumbar vertebrae, while geraniin therapy significantly improved these effects. This study demonstrates that geraniin supplementation in diabetic patients taking Rosiglitazone could be an effective technique for reducing bone loss caused by the drug.

In vivomodels were used to test the effects of Terminalia arjuna, β-glucan, and the combination of Terminalia arjuna + β-glucan on the healing of rat cutaneous wounds. When compared to control, the combination increased the tensile strength of incision wounds and the % epithelialization of excision wounds by a statistically significant amount (p<0.05). Combination wounds had the fastest rate of epithelialization, even when compared to excision wounds. These findings support the hypothesis that the Terminalia arjuna + β-glucans accelerates the healing process.

The novel drug delivery systems where a combination of two or more drugs in a single unit having different release profiles which improves patient compliance and prolongs the drug action. Bilayered matrix tablets composed of two layers, one is immediate release and a second layer is extended release layers. The In vitro studies have shown more than 80% of pioglitazone was released within 60 min. Drug release mechanism exponent (n) was determined for all formulations (0.679-0.799). The release of pioglitazone were found to follow a first order release and glimepiride was found to be zero order release model.