Showing papers by "Girdhar G. Agarwal published in 2019"

Post-stroke Visual Gait Measure for Developing Countries: A Reliability and Validity Study.

Abstract: Background: Visual gait assessment is a cost-effective clinical method to assess post-stroke gait deviations. The Rivermead Visual Gait Assessment (RVGA) is a one such measure that assesses the kinematic aspect of the gait deviations in stroke. However, the available information on psycho-clinocometric properties of the measure is not adequate. Objective: To establish reliability and validity of RVGA using walking-videos of the post-stroke subjects. Methods: Design: Observational study. Setting: A rehabilitation institute Participants: A convenience sample of 40 chronic stroke patients. Outcome Measures: RVGA, Fugl–Meyer assessment (lower extremity), 10-m walk test, Time up and go test, and Berg balance scale (BBS). Procedure: Walking was video-taped from the anterior aspect, posterior aspect, affected side, and less-affected side. After coding the tapes, a research staff member provided them to four different raters in a random order. Each rater scored the coded video on the RVGA data collection sheet twice: one at the baseline and another after 1 month to eliminate any recollection of the initial assessment. Results: The findings exhibit that there was good-to-excellent agreement between the scores of the raters and also between the assessments (correlation coefficient = 0.94 to 0.95; P Conclusion: Video-based RVGA is a reliable and valid tool to assess gait-related impairment in post-stroke hemiparesis. This cost-effective measure may be incorporated in the clinical and research practice to discern and quantify complex phenomenon of the gait deviation. RVGA may be considered as a useful tool, especially in developing countries where expensive gait analyzer is usually not available.

Study on prevalence and sociocultural aspects of tobacco use in India

Abstract: Aim: The present study focuses on the prevalence of tobacco use and aims to determine various sociocultural aspects of tobacco use in Indian population. Materials and Methods: The study sample comprised 384 participants. There were three study groups, and in each study group, there were 128 participants. Group A was tobacco users without oral precancer, Group B was tobacco users with oral precancer, and Group C was healthy individuals with no history of tobacco or areca nut use and oral precancer. Both male and female adults in the age group of 18 years and above visiting the Outpatient Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at King George's Medical University were recruited for the study. The study participants were explained in detail about the study, and informed consent was obtained through them. Data have been collected using a standard structured predesigned questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of the details of the demographic profile of the study participants, details of tobacco use, and the major social and cultural reasons which motivated them to consume tobacco. Data were extracted from the case sheet, and the data were entered into a worksheet for the purpose of analysis. The analysis was performed using the commercially available Statistical Package SPSS. Conclusion: The rate of tobacco prevalence is very high among the Indian population, and a number of social and cultural factors are responsible for its use. To curb this problem, more studies could be done to find the causes responsible for its use.