Introduction In order to achieve health for all, it is essential to attract and retain health workers in rural India, a need recognised by the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a flagship programme of government of India. Since the majority of allopathic doctors aspire to do specialisation, making it easier for doctors serving in rural areas to get admission to specialist medical postgradua...

Indian economy is rural in character. This is evident from the fact that a very high proportion of the population is living in rural areas. Further two-thirds of its workforce is engaged in agricultural and allied activities, which contribute about 27% of India’s gross domestic product. In a predominantly agrarian country like India, rural development is a sine qua non for national development....

Indian diets derive almost 60 % of their protein from cereals with relatively low digestibility and quality. There have been several surveys of diets and protein intakes in India by the National Nutrition Monitoring Board (NNMB) over the last 25 years, in urban and rural, as well as in slum dwellers and tribal populations. Data of disadvantaged populations from slums, tribals and sedentary rura...

Very few computer systems that have ever been deployed in rural areas in developing regions have been operational and sustainable in the long term — most such systems have not gone beyond the pilot phase. This paper describes our experiences in deploying and maintaining two rural WiFi-based long-distance networks over the last three years: (a) the Aravind network interconnecting rural eye hospi...

BACKGROUND Diabetes and its related microvascular complications like diabetic retinopathy (DR) are showing increased prevalence in India. However, the magnitude of DR in rural population with diabetes needs exploration. AIM To estimate the prevalence and risk factors for the presence and severity of diabetic retinopathy in the self-reported rural population with diabetes. SETTINGS AND DESIG...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Postnatal depression, with an estimated prevalence of 13-19%, causes significant impairment of mental health among women worldwide and has long term consequences. However, more than half of all cases are not detected by healthcare providers. Screening for postnatal depression has not been given importance in maternal health programs in India. Our objective was to screen...

BACKGROUND Years-of-life-lost (YLL) contribute nearly two-thirds of the disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) worldwide and are especially Important for India where infant and child mortality is still high. These were estimated for India under the Global Burden of Disease study for the year 1990. No estimates are available for the different states of India. We aimed to prepare state-wise estim...

Anaemia is a major public health problem in India. Although nearly three quarters of the Indian population live in rural areas, the epidemiology of anaemia in rural settings is not well known. We performed a retrospective observational study using routine clinical data from patients attending the out-patient clinics of a rural hospital in India from June 2011 to August 2014. The study included ...

OBJECTIVE to develop a measure of activities of daily living appropriate for use in assessing the presence of dementia in illiterate rural elderly people in India. DESIGN identification of relevant items, pre-testing of items and refinement of administrative procedures and scoring in four successive groups of 30 subjects each, pilot testing in a group of 100 subjects comparable to those for w...

As Indian economy gets integrated to the global economy and strives to improve in terms of human development indicators, a special role exists for information and communication technologies (ICT) in this process. The strategic metamorphoses and the resultant expansion of ICT linked telecommunication services in India have favorably influenced the effort to accelerate the pace of human developme...