Social burden of alcoholism among the wives of alcoholics in tribal area

Social burden of alcoholism among the wives of alcoholics in tribal area

Published in TNNMC Journal of community Health Nursing

ABSTRACT

The paper explores the social burden among wives of alcoholics in a tribal area, Tamil Nadu, India. A qualitative approach using cross sectional phenomological design was selected.Three focus groups were conducted on consecutive days of the same week with 10, 8 and 10 participants.The analysis of the focus group discussion was done by coding the key words and grouping them under various themes and sub themes. The results showed that alcohol is a social burden in families and communities. It is reported that young age, lack of proper education, child labor, peer pressure, family history and accessibility of the alcohol are the contributing factors of the alcoholism. It is showed that financial problems, not able to educate their children, loss of peace in the family and women harassment are the effects of alcoholism on family. The participants suggested preventive measures for reducing social burden on alcoholism are banning child labor, proper education, enforcing strict laws and closing of alcohol shops.
Key words: Social burden, alcoholism, burden on wives of alcoholics and alcoholism in tribal area
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Assessment of occupational safety, hazards and related health problems among quarry workers at work places in India

Assessment of occupational safety, hazards and related health problems among quarry workers at work places in India

Published in International Journal of Nursing Education and Research

ABSTRACT

Introduction: As quarry site is the dangerous place to work in and quarry workers are more likely to be killed in accidents at any time. Therefore, the investigators tried to assess the occupational safety, hazards and related health problems among the quarry workers at work places in India.

Methodology: A cross sectional survey approach was used. The study was conducted in two quarry work sites in Vellore district. The study population consisted of all 72 quarry workers, who worked in the two quarry sites and the investigators selected the subjects by using convenient sampling method. The check list consisted of demographic data and 30 items, which covers the dimensions of occupational safety, hazards and  related health problems among the quarry workers. Data collection was done for a period of two weeks. 

Results: It was showed that the majority of the quarry workers 52.8% were between the age group of 18-45 years. Among them, 76.3%  of the quarry workers were males and 23.7% of them were females. It was observed that none of them were using any of the personal protective equipments, fist aid boxes were not available and there was no ambulance facility available with in 10 kms of diameter. The quarry workers were not covered under any health insurance schemes and were not trained for quarry work such as machine operation, first aid treatment and safety measures. The majority of the workers had frequent respiratory tract infection(88.8%), back ache (65.2%), joint pain (48.8%) and sinusitis (26.3%). Regarding vision and hearing acuity, 12.5% of them had reduced visual acuity and 15.3% of them had negative Weber and Rinne test too.

Conclusion: The study results make an urgent call on authority for job redesigning, scheduling policies, implementation of strict rules and regulations, health protection programmes and insurance schemes for workers who are involved in dangerous work places such as construction sites, quarry, mining and nuclear power plants.

Key words: Quarry, Occupational hazards, Occupational safety, Occupational problems 

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Development and assessment of Adolescent Boys Stress Questionnaire (ABSQ-2015)

Development and assessment of Adolescent Boys Stress Questionnaire (ABSQ-2015)

Published in ICCR-JNR Journal

Abstract:

Aim-The study aim was to develop and assess an instrument to measure stress level among adolescent boys in relation to school, family, personal and social life.

Methods-Before administering the ABSQ-2015 to adolescent boys (N=380), experts from nursing and psychology in research, practice, tool development reviewed it twice, known as two step validation process. Reliability, construct validity assessment such as content, face, contrasting groups and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was done. Out of 26 items, 16 items were selected and loaded as three factors after EFA, deemed to be interpretable and meaningful.

Results-The assessment of ABSQ-2015 supported construct validity (0.93), reliability (0.97) and Factor analysis KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.82 (P<0.01) which is highly significant.

Conclusion-The ABSQ-2015 is found to useful psychologically and statistically to elicit the stress level among adolescent boys effectively in relation to various determinants of life.

Keywords – Adolescence, adolescent boys, Research instrument, Standardized tool, Stress questionnaire, developing tool
  

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