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Background & objectives: Demographic attributes of cancer patients are associated with the awareness of diagnosis, the prognosis of cancer and their associated psychological distress. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge of diagnosis, prognosis and psychological distress among patients reporting to the pain and palliative care department in a tertiary cancer hospital, south India. Methods: Data of all patients visiting the palliative care outpatient department of a tertiary cancer centre in south India between January and June 2018 were included in the study (n=754). A structured pro forma was used to collect information on the sociodemographic details and clinical aspects and a distress thermometer was used to assess the level of distress. Information, thus collected, were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results: Around 16.2 per cent of the patients were unaware of their diagnosis while two third (68%) were unaware of the prognosis. More than half of the patients reported significant distress (54.1%). Gender, education, not working and being diagnosed with head-and-neck cancers were associated with knowledge of diagnosis, while educational level predicted the knowledge of prognosis. Younger age group, head-and-neck cancer, haematology cancer, state of being unaware of diagnosis and prognosis were found to be associated with distress. Interpretation & conclusions: Higher educational levels and better socio-economic status increase the likelihood of patients being aware of their diagnosis and prognosis. Being unaware of the prognosis remains associated with the higher level of distress.

Background and Aims: Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is becoming the standard treatment option for peritoneal carcinomatosis but is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Our aim was to retrospectively analyse and evaluate intra-operative factors associated with morbidity and mortality of CRS and HIPEC. Methods: Intra-operative data were collected for cases done over 1 year (24 cases) and analysed for the primary outcome of post-operative ventilation >24 h, and secondary outcome of length of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stay >5 days. Statistical analysis was carried out in STATA 11 software. Results: Higher peritoneal carcinoma index (PCI), (P = 0.0047), longer duration of surgery (P = 0.0016), higher delta temperatures (P = 0.0119), increased estimated blood loss (EBL) (P = 0.0054), high intraoperative fluid requirement (P = 0.0038), lower mean arterial pressure (MAP) (P = 0.0021) and higher blood products requirement were associated with >24 h ventilation. These factors were also associated with longer ICU stay. All these factors associated with >24 h ventilation and prolonged ICU stay are related to the PCI which is an indicator of the extent of surgery. Conclusion: Higher PCI, longer duration of surgery, higher delta temperatures, increased EBL, high intraoperative fluid requirement, lower mean arterial pressure and higher blood products requirement were associated with >24 h postoperative ventilation as well as ICU stay >5 days. All these factors are related to the PCI, which is a major predictor of post-operative morbidity.

In the comparative risk assessment (Lim et al. 2012), performed as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 Project, air pollution ranked as a leading contributor to the burden of disease in South Asia. Estimates of the burden in India show approximately 1.04 million premature deaths and 31.4 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to be attributable to household air pollution (HAP) resulting from solid cooking fuels, and 627,000 premature deaths and nearly 17.8 million DALYs to be attributable to ambient air pollution (AAP) in the form of fine particulate matter 2.5 mm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5). HAP and AAP account for 6% and 3%, respectively, of the total national burden of disease, and together they exceed the burden from any other risk factor of the > 60 examined. This burden, borne disproportionately by poor populations who rely on solid fuels for cooking, poses an enormous challenge for air quality management within public health programs in India. There is a need to integrate research and intervention across HAP and AAP exposures in India in order to reduce disease burdens and to efficiently improve health by using intervention efforts.

Ambient fine particulate matter [PM in aerodynamic diameter ( )] is a major health risk for children, particularly in South Asia, which currently experiences the highest levels globally. Nevertheless, there is comparatively little epidemiological evidence from this region to quantify the effects of on child survival. We estimated the association between exposure and child survival in India. We constructed a large, retrospective, and nationally representative cohort of children , born between 2009-2016, from the publicly available, cross-sectional 2015-2016 Demographic Health Surveys in India. and post-delivery lifetime average ambient exposures were estimated with data from satellite remote sensing, meteorology, and land use information (model 0.82). We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate the association between both average and post-delivery lifetime and all-cause child mortality, controlling for individual- and household-level covariates, seasonality, location, and meteorology. Over 7,447,724 child-months of follow-up, there were 11,559 deaths at reported by the children's mothers. The mean concentrations of 9-month and post-delivery lifetime average ambient exposure were (range: ) and (range: ), respectively. Estimated child mortality adjusted hazard ratios were 1.023 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.008, 1.038] and 1.013 (95% CI: 1.001, 1.026) per increase of and post-delivery lifetime , with both exposures in the model. This study adds to the growing body of evidence about the adverse health effects of by demonstrating the association between exposure, both and post-delivery, on child survival at the national level in India. Strategies to reduce ambient air pollution levels, including steps to minimize and early life exposures, are urgently needed in India and other countries where exposures are above recommended guideline values. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8910.

Nearly 3 billion people worldwide rely on solid fuel combustion to meet basic household energy needs. The resulting exposure to air pollution causes an estimated 4.5% of the global burden of disease. Large variability and a lack of resources for research and development have resulted in highly uncertain exposure estimates. We sought to identify research priorities for exposure assessment that will more accurately and precisely define exposure-response relationships of household air pollution necessary to inform future cleaner-burning cookstove dissemination programs. As part of an international workshop in May 2011, an expert group characterized the state of the science and developed recommendations for exposure assessment of household air pollution. The following priority research areas were identified to explain variability and reduce uncertainty of household air pollution exposure measurements: improved characterization of spatial and temporal variability for studies examining both short- and long-term health effects; development and validation of measurement technology and approaches to conduct complex exposure assessments in resource-limited settings with a large range of pollutant concentrations; and development and validation of biomarkers for estimating dose. Addressing these priority research areas, which will inherently require an increased allocation of resources for cookstove research, will lead to better characterization of exposure-response relationships. Although the type and extent of exposure assessment will necessarily depend on the goal and design of the cookstove study, without improved understanding of exposure-response relationships, the level of air pollution reduction necessary to meet the health targets of cookstove interventions will remain uncertain.

Dental caries is the most prevalent oral disease affecting nearly 70% of children in India and elsewhere. Micro-ecological niche based acidification due to dysbiosis in oral microbiome are crucial for caries onset and progression. Here we report the tooth bacteriome diversity compared in Indian children with caries free (CF), severe early childhood caries (SC) and recurrent caries (RC). High quality V3–V4 amplicon sequencing revealed that SC exhibited high bacterial diversity with unique combination and interrelationship. Gracillibacteria_GN02 and TM7 were unique in CF and SC respectively, while Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria were significantly high in RC. Interestingly, we found Streptococcus oralis subsp. tigurinus clade 071 in all groups with significant abundance in SC and RC. Positive correlation between low and high abundant bacteria as well as with TCS, PTS and ABC transporters were seen from co-occurrence network analysis. This could lead to persistence of SC niche resulting in RC. Comparative in vitro assessment of biofilm formation showed that the standard culture of S. oralis and its phylogenetically similar clinical isolates showed profound biofilm formation and augmented the growth and enhanced biofilm formation in S. mutans in both dual and multispecies cultures.

The effects of weather on diarrhea could influence the health impacts of climate change. Children have the highest diarrhea incidence, especially in India, where many lack safe water and sanitation. In a prospective cohort of 1,284 children under 5 y of age from 900 households across 25 villages in rural Tamil Nadu, India, we examined whether high temperature and heavy rainfall was associated with increased all-cause diarrhea and water contamination. Seven-day prevalence of diarrhea was assessed monthly for up to 12 visits from January 2008 to April 2009, and hydrogen sulfide ([Formula: see text]) presence in drinking water, a fecal contamination indicator, was tested in a subset of households. We estimated associations between temperature and rainfall exposures and diarrhea and [Formula: see text] using binomial regressions, adjusting for potential confounders, random effects for village, and autoregressive-1 error terms for study week. There were 259 cases of diarrhea. The prevalence of diarrhea during the 7 d before visits was 2.95 times higher (95% CI: 1.99, 4.39) when mean temperature in the week before the 7-d recall was in the hottest versus the coolest quartile of weekly mean temperature during 1 December 2007 to 15 April 2009. Diarrhea prevalence was 1.50 times higher when the 3 weeks before the diarrhea recall period included [Formula: see text] (vs. 0 d) with rainfall of [Formula: see text] (95% CI: 1.12, 2.02), and 2.60 times higher (95% CI: 1.55, 4.36) for heavy rain weeks following a 60-d dry period. The [Formula: see text] prevalence in household water was not associated with heavy rain prior to sample collection. The results suggest that, in rural Tamil Nadu, heavy rainfall may wash pathogens that accumulate during dry weather into child contact. Higher temperatures were positively associated with diarrhea 1-3 weeks later. Our findings suggest that diarrhea morbidity could worsen under climate change without interventions to reduce enteric pathogen transmission through multiple pathways. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3711.

Clean cooking has emerged as a major concern for global health and development because of the enormous burden of disease caused by traditional cookstoves and fires. The World Health Organization has developed new indoor air quality guidelines that few homes will be able to achieve without replacing traditional methods with modern clean cooking technologies, including fuels and stoves. However, decades of experience with improved stove programs indicate that the challenge of modernizing cooking in impoverished communities includes a complex, multi-sectoral set of problems that require implementation research. The National Institutes of Health, in partnership with several government agencies and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, has launched the Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network that aims to address this issue. In this article, our focus is on building a knowledge base to accelerate scale-up and sustained use of the cleanest technologies in low- and middle-income countries. Implementation science provides a variety of analytical and planning tools to enhance effectiveness of clinical and public health interventions. These tools are being integrated with a growing body of knowledge and new research projects to yield new methods, consensus tools, and an evidence base to accelerate improvements in health promised by the renewed agenda of clean cooking.

Most studies on upper airway are conducted based on airway measurements in the western population. We set out to find the normal values of upper airway measurements in South Indian population. The aim of this study was to perform various upper airway examinations and to set standards for normal measurements in the South Indian population as well as to analyse the data for predictors of difficult intubation. This prospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary cancer hospital in Southern India. Airway assessment parameters, including modified Mallampati classification (MPC), upper lip bite test (ULBT), sternomental distance, thyromental distance (TMD), and the inter-incisor distance were documented for 2004 patients meeting the inclusion criteria. Laryngoscopic view after induction was graded as per Cormack and Lehane's (CL) classification. Any CL ≥3 was considered to be difficult laryngoscopy. The collected data (2004 cases) was analyed with SPSS software version 17. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to determine cut-offs in the population. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value were computed. MPC, ULBT, and ratio of height to TMD (RHTMD) predicted difficult intubation with sensitivity of 40.86%, 45.53% and 64.60%, respectively and these were statistically significant with < 0.001. Using the area under the curve of the ROC curve and discrimination analysis normal RHTMD in our population had a cut off value of 17.1. The cut off value for RHTMD to predict difficult laryngoscopy in the South Indian population is 17.1.

Households that burn biomass in inefficient open fires—a practice that results in $1.6 trillion in global damages from health impacts and climate-altering emissions yearly—are often unable to access cleaner alternatives, like gas, which is widely available but unaffordable, or electricity, which is unattainable for many due to insufficient supply and reliability of electricity services. Governments are often reluctant to make gas affordable. We argue that condemnation of all fossil fuel subsidies is short-sighted and does not adequately consider subsidizing gas for cooking as a potential strategy to improve public health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.