The director at IPH, Dr. Upendra Bhojani, gave a public lecture at IIHS in the ‘Publics’ lecture series. The talk was on Dr. Bhojani’s long standing work on the role of local health systems in poor urban neighbourhoods in Bangalore. The talk emphasised that there is an urgent need to strengthen local health systems to provide affordable and quality care to a large number of people, particularly to the urban poor, living with chronic conditions. It unpacked the complex dynamics of local health system. Dr. Bhojani also highlighted the need to go beyond just improving the health systems – to further address other social determinants of chronic conditions such as poverty, age- and gender-based social norms, family structure, and inadequate social care provision.
A video recording of the talk can be watched here.
The MPOWER package
is a package introduced by WHO, comprising of six measures to assist in country-level
implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. One of the
six components of the MPOWER package is “Offer help to quit tobacco use.”
Often, tobacco
users are aware of the risks, but require support to overcome addiction or dependence
on the substance. It is recommended that support for tobacco cessation should
also lie with health-systems, where programs for tobacco cessation should be
incorporated and embedded into primary health care services, with health care
providers acting as advocates for tobacco control.
Dr. Upendra Bhojani serves as a guide for Rachana Shah (Government Dental College and Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India) on her work on how to integrate tobacco cessation support with the help of health professionals as a part of routine primary care. This project shifts the focus from tobacco cessation centres to healthcare providers as playing an important role in delivering such services.
Rachana Shah’s
doctoral proposal examines the role of oral health professionals (OHP) and the
experiences and expectations of dental patients in the context of tobacco
cessation (TC) services. The protocol of her doctoral study titled “Integrating
tobacco cessation into routine dental practice: protocol for a qualitative
study” was recently published in
BMJ Open, linked here.
IPH Faculty and Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance research fellows Upendra Bhojani and Pragati Hebbar attended the 9th Annual Fellows’ Meet in Bengaluru from June 13 – 15th 2019. The annual fellows meet serves as a platform to bring together India Alliance Fellows and other grant recipients from prestigious research institutes together to foster collaboration, support and exchange of ideas across a wide range of research areas.
Both Pragati and Upendra presented their work during the first year of their fellowships through scientific poster sessions. Upendra Bhojani was invited to present his work and research supported by India Alliance during this meet. Upendra gave a talk titled “Commercial Determinants of health: the political economy of tobacco in India”, available for viewinghere.
Given the present focus on and the growing concern of
the role of corporations in promoting products and choices that are mass produced
and are in general detrimental to health, Upendra’s talk was relevant and well-received.
At the Fellows meet, new committee members were introduced. Wellcome Trust and DBT India Alliance also launched new grant opportunities such as the Team Science Grants and grants to establish virtual Clinical/Public Health Research Centres, in order to provide a platform for collaborating and strengthening important research initiatives in India.
Dr. Prashanth N S, who heads our health equity cluster has co-written several chapters in the book.
The book launch and interactive discussion is on 23 February 2018, at 6.30 PM, at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru.
Dr. Upendra Bhojani (Faculty, Institute of Public Health & External Consultant, IIHS), will be in conversation with the editors and contributors of the book:
1. Dr. T K Sundari Ravindran, Professor, Shree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum
2. Dr. Rakhal Gaitonde, Centre for Technology and Policy (CTaP), Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India
3. Dr. C Priyadarshini, Assistant Professor, M S Ramaih Medical College, Bangalore
4. Dr. Sudharshini Subramaniam, Assistant Professor, Madras Medical College, Chennai
5. Dr. Chitra Grace, Independent Researcher, Trivandrum
The book brings together a vast expanse of research on health inequities in India, identifies research gaps, proposes areas for future research on the subject, and discusses all the major documented axes of marginalisation.
PublicTexts is a series of conversations with authors about their work, using particular texts as starting points for dynamic, contemporary and free-ranging conversations about the present. These conversations are part of Publics, a series of interactions, seminars, events, exhibitions and talks held at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru.
This programme is free and open to public. All are welcome.
IIHS Bengaluru City CampusNo. 197/36, 2nd Main Road, SadashivanagarBengaluru 560 080. India
Chronic conditions are on rise globally and in India. Prevailing intra-urban inequities in access to healthcare services compounds the problems faced by urban poor
This research paper reports trends in prevalence of chronic conditions and health seeking pattern among the urban poor neighbourhood in South India.
ABSTRACT
Background
Chronic conditions are on rise globally and in India. Prevailing intra-urban inequities in access to healthcare services compounds the problems faced by urban poor. This paper reports the trends in self-reported prevalence of chronic conditions and health-seeking pattern among residents of a poor urban neighborhood in south India.
Methods
A cross sectional survey of 1099 households (5340 individuals) was conducted using a structured questionnaire. The prevalence and health-seeking pattern for chronic conditions in general and for hypertension and diabetes in particular were assessed and compared with a survey conducted in the same community three years ago. The predictors of prevalence and health-seeking pattern were analyzed through a multivariable logistic regression analysis.
Results
The overall self-reported prevalence of chronic conditions was 12 %, with hypertension (7 %) and diabetes (5.8 %) being the common conditions. The self-reported prevalence of chronic conditions increased by 3.8 percentage point over a period of three years (OR: 1.5). Older people, women and people living below the poverty line had greater odds of having chronic conditions across the two studies compared. Majority of patients (89.3 %) sought care from private health facilities indicating a decrease by 8.7 percentage points in use of government health facility compared to the earlier study (OR: 0.5). Patients seeking care from super specialty hospitals and those living below the poverty line were more likely to seek care from government health facilities.
Conclusion
There is need to strengthen health services with a preferential focus on government services to assure affordable care for chronic conditions to urban poor
The social sciences, more specifically medical sociology/anthropology have extensively probed issues related to the body,illness and pain.However, issues surrounding death and dying,more specifically, euthanasia are relatively conspicuous by their absence.
This article seeks to show up the contexts that define euthanasia as a “just” option. It attempts to unravel other issues like the quality of end-of-life care, familial support, degree of dependency, agency in decision-making, ethical dilemma and related discourses that help us understand euthanasia in cross-cultural contexts.
