EMOTIONAL DISQUIET
Spousal feuds affect women’s health: Study
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: Spousal violence is an independent risk factor for two adverse health problems – sexually transmitted infections and attempted suicide – in Goan women, reveals a latest study on the effect of spousal violence on women’s health.
Besides, there is also an association between violence and a range of self-reported gynaecological complaints, low Body Mass Index and depressive disorders in women.
The study, “Effect of spousal violence on women’s health: Findings from the Stree Arogya Shodh in Goa,” which was conducted by an NGO Sangath and published recently in a medical journal, is based on a population-based longitudinal study of women’s health in Goa and aimed at exploring the relationship between psychosocial factors and reproductive and sexual health.
The study, which is a population-based cohort study of women living in the catchment area of a primary health center in north Goa, is a community-based study of common health problems affecting women aged between 18 to 50 years, conducted over a period of four years.
The overall aim of the study was to describe the burden and determinants of common health problems in women of reproductive age and in doing so to test the hypothesis that social and psychological factors increased the risk of reproductive and sexual health problems.
About 2494 of 3000 randomly selected women were recruited, of whom 1750 married women were included for the study. While out of the 1750 married women, 290 (16.6%) women reported lifetime spousal violence; recent violence was reported by 230 (13%) and the cross-sectional data showed an association between violence and a range of self-reported gynaecological complaints, low Body Mass Index, depressive disorder and attempted suicide. The longitudinal analyses confirmed these associations only for STI and attempted suicide. Majority of them were literate homemakers.
Each participant was assessed at baseline with a structured interview for the assessment of exposure to spousal violence (verbal, p hy s i c a l , sexual) over two time periods: lifetime and recent in the past three months. The interview collected data on gynaecological complaints and the revised clinical interview schedule was used for the diagnosis of depressive disorder. Laboratory tests for anemia and sexually transmitted infections (STI) were carried out.
Longitudinal data was collected after six and 12 months on these outcomes. In addition, baseline measures for nutritional status and menstrual health were also obtained.
Lifetime exposure to any type of violence was associated with increased risk of a range of self-reported gynaecological complaints at baseline, though associations were not consistent with all outcomes. Thus, for example, dysmenorrhea was only associated with lifetime sexual violence and verbal and sexual violence (lifetime and recent) were associated with non-menstrual lower abdominal pain and abnormal vaginal discharge, the report states.
January 5, 2009, The Times of India,Goa edition
Rico put this up in Goajourno and Goanet
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg28416.html
Thu, 08 May 2008 04:34:50 -0700
No mystery to Russians death: cops
>From Devika Sequeira,DH News Service,Panaji:
Five months after he was found dead in Mandrem, questions have been
raised about Russian cop Evgeny Kuzmins visit to Goa last year.
Was he sent here as an undercover agent on the trail of a drug
operation, or was he just a cop out on a regular Goa holiday?
The media, obsessed with incidents related to foreign tourists since
the Scarlett Keeling case, has given a new spin to the Russian's death
when the case was hardly suspicious, say the Goa police.
Russian authorities on the other hand, who have asked the Goa police
for details of the investigations into Kuzmin's death, have been
evasive, neither confirming nor denying if he was deputed here on
work.
Inspector General of Police Kishan Kumar told Deccan Herald that
Kuzmin, 35, had arrived in Goa from Moscow with a friend on November 9
last. There was nothing on record to show that he was a police or
enforcement officer.
On December 8, Kuzmin went out to dinner with a Russian woman friend
in Calangute. He spent the night at the woman's house in Mandrem. Late
next morning he was found dead in his sleep.
No injuries
"The post-mortem inquest showed there were no injuries on his body,"
Kumar said, but since the exact cause of death had not been
established the viscera were sent to the Central Forensic Science
Laboratory in Hyderabad. The Goa police are still to get the results
of the forensic tests. Lawyer Vikram Verma, retained by the Russian
Consulate in Mumbai, says Kuzmin was a Russian law enforcement
officer.
"Since there is lack of clarity on the cause of death, the Russian
Ministry of Interior has asked for details of the police inquiry. All
we've been told is that he went for a party, came back and died," says
Verma.
* * *
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Death_of_Russian_detective_bares_drug_sex_trade_in_Goa/rssarticleshow/3017333.cms
Death of Russian detective bares drug, sex trade in Goa
7 May 2008, 0817 hrs IST,Preetu Nair,TNN
PANAJI: The mystery surrounding the death of the Russian law
enforcement officer in Goa has exposed another tale of drugs and sex,
even as TOI investigations have confirmed that Eugeny Kuzmin (25) was
in the state specifically to check whether the drug trade had any
Russian links.
Kuzmin was on a secret mission to investigate if there is any
involvement of Russian nationals in the drug trade in Goa.
Moscow was concerned with several allegations of Russians being
involved in the drug trade, and had sent Kuzmin to Goa for an
undercover investigation.
He was found dead in his hotel room in Mandrem on December 9, 2007.
The enforcement officer's sudden death had created a furore in Russia.
The Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation had written a
letter to the Goa chief minister and chief secretary on February 15,
2008, raising concerns about his demise.
TOI investigations also reveal that an Assagao-based Russian is a
kingpin in the drug trade.
"The Russian brain behind the drug trade in Goa is a Disc Jockey (DJ)
who resides in North Goa. He operates in the coastal areas of Morjim,
Arambol and Ashvem in Pernem taluka with the help of locals," a shack
owner from Anjuna told TOI.
It is alleged that the DJ supplies narcotics, especially MDMA, at rave
parties and women are used as runners to sell drugs.
However, the Russian authorities refused to divulge any further
information . "Kuzmin's death remains shrouded in mystery."
A scrutiny of the viscera report would greatly help in bringing some
clarity to the cause of death. However, the circumstances preceding
his death must be investigated and recorded to assist justice," said
Vikram Varma, counsel for Consul general of Russian Federation,
Mumbai. However, the Goa police has ruled out foul play.
"The inquiry conducted so far has revealed that there is no foul play
in the death of Kuzmin," said SP Bosco George.