Initiation of the First Preventive Health and Screening Outpatient Department in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital in India

Background The Preventive Health and Screening Outpatient Department (OPD) was started in Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, India with the vision of promoting health (primordial and primary prevention), counseling, screening, early diagnosis, and treatment and referral services (secondary prevention). The objective of the study is to describe the process of establishing the Preventive Health and Screening OPD in a tertiary hospital in Delhi and illustrate the functioning of the newly established OPD. Methodology This study is based on observation of the day-to-day functioning of the OPD, record checking of registers, and reviewing the records of the hospital registration system. Here, we describe the functioning of the OPD from its initiation in October 2021 until December 2022. Results The routine services provided at the OPD include health promotion and education, especially focusing on non-communicable diseases, screening, diagnosis, treatment, lifestyle counseling; general OPD services; growth monitoring and counseling; group discussion for harms of tobacco usage; counseling for tobacco cessation, hepatitis B, and dT vaccination; group counseling for antenatal women; and screening for breast cancer. A few events such as the breast cancer screening camp and the non-communicable disease screening camp were also conducted under the purview of the new OPD. Such OPDs are the need of the hour for the provision of comprehensive healthcare, including promotive and preventive healthcare, along with curative health services, at tertiary healthcare levels. Conclusions Healthcare services are incomplete without the preventive, promotive, and screening components of healthcare. For mainstreaming health promotion and preventive healthcare, Preventive Health and Screening OPDs are essential at hospitals. The benefits of prevention extend beyond managing chronic diseases and longer lives.

Assessment of Nutritional Status of Under-Five Children in an Urban Area of South Delhi, India

Introduction Malnutrition among children continues to be a severe public health problem worldwide, whether in a developing country like India or a developed nation. Correct estimation of the problem is a prerequisite to planning the measures to control it. Objective To estimate the prevalence of undernutrition among children under five years of age by utilizing the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure and the WHO growth charts. Methods From January to March 2020, 1332 children under the age of five years participated in a facility-based, descriptive, cross-sectional study at Fatehpur Beri, Urban Primary Health Center. An anthropometric assessment for each participant was done as per the WHO criteria. The data were entered into a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA) and analyzed with WHO Anthro software (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland) and a licensed version of SPSS 21 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Continuous data were expressed using appropriate measures of central tendency, while categorical data were expressed in either frequency or proportions. Results The mean age of the study participants was 23.04 ± 18.24 months, and males (53.3%) were more than (46.7%) females. The prevalence of being underweight was 24.5% (327/1332), of which 24.1% (79/327) of children were severely underweight. Of the total study participants, 27.3% (362/1332) were stunted, and 17.8% (237/1332) were wasted, of which 29.1% (69/237) were severely wasted. The prevalence of anthropometric failure was 45%. Conclusions According to the findings of this study, the prevalence of undernutrition among the study participants was substantial. Furthermore, considering weight for age as the sole criterion may underestimate the true prevalence of malnutrition. The findings have critical implications for future interventions and initiatives among children in India.