Community Education Challenges in Young Adults of South Western Uganda

The aim of this study was to identify the major challenges to community education and any health problem in Bushenyi district of South Western Uganda. Data collection was done through questionnaire and participants were randomly selected. This was a cross-sectional study carried out for a period of three months in 2012. A questionnaire was used to collect data and using onsite observations the responses were validated. A total of 260 participants from 65 homesteads were included in the study from 52 households. 144 were females and 116 males, of which 52.4% of the children were female and the rest male. The mean ± SEM age of females and males was 36 ± 8.6 and 29 ± 8.6 years respectively. In all the homesteads, 71% were headed by an adult male and only 29% were found to be headed by an adult female while none was headed by children. Inferential analysis showed (P = 0.02) that there are more females than male in the homesteads. Majority of the homesteads are being taken care of by women instead of men probably as a result of the high mortalities due to HIV/AIDS in the past decade and above all the movement of most men to urban centers in search of better sources of employment to support their families. Among school going age participant’s i.e. children and adolescents, only 59.6% were found to be attending school. There was no statistical significance (P = 0.16) between school attendance and age. Family responsibilities such as cooking for younger siblings by female participants, obligations on open market days are thought to be secondary limiting factors for community development and livelihood amongst young persons;thus a follow up study would be conducted to assess their associations in this community as this would raise major child abuse concerns which would need to be reported to the legal authorities for follow up.

Training medical undergraduates in the core disciplines of community medicine through community postings-an experience from India

Objective:Family medicine,epidemiology,health management and health promotion are the core disciplines of community medicine.In this paper,we discuss the development of a commu-nity posting program within the framework of community medicine core disciplines at a primary health centre attached to a teaching hospital in Puducherry,India.Methods:This is a process documentation of our experience.Results:There were some shortcomings which revolved around the central theme that post-ings were conducted with department in the teaching hospital as the focal point,not the primary health centre(PHC).To address the shortcomings,we made some changes in the existing com-munity posting program in 2013.Student feedback aimed at Kirkpatrick level 1(satisfaction)evaluation revealed that they appreciated the benefits of having the posting with PHC as the focal point.Feedback recommended some further changes in the community posting which could be addressed through complete administrative control of the primary health centre as urban health and training center of the teaching hospital;and also through practice of core disciplines of com-munity medicine by faculty of community medicine.Conclusion:It is important to introduce the medical undergraduates to the core disciplines of community medicine early through community postings.Community postings should be con-ducted with primary health centre or urban health and training centre as the focal point.