Kanika Singh

An excerpt from ‘The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture', by Kanika Singh.

A good credit score not only facilitates access to credit but also serves as a comprehensive indicator of an individual's financial behaviour and reliability, effectively functioning as a financial resume.

Mrinalini Venkateswaran argues in her book that collecting ‘tangible history' for museums is a way to articulate a national past.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence and risk factors for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in infants screened at a tertiary level hospital in central India, and to assess the level of ROP awareness among the parents/guardians with the help of a self-designed questionnaire. Methods: A cross-sectional study over 18 months included 252 infants screened for ROP. Risk factors were recorded, and parents/guardians completed a questionnaire. Statistical analysis done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Results: Among the 252 infants screened, 86 (34.1%) were diagnosed with ROP. Of the total cohort, nine (3.6%) had type 1 ROP, 14 (5.6%) had aggressive retinopathy of prematurity (AROP), seven (2.8%) had hybrid ROP, and 10 (4.0%) had advanced stage 4 or 5 disease. The mean gestational age (GA) and birth weight in ROP infants was observed to be 30.59 ± 3.12 weeks and 1215.01 ± 309.54 grams, respectively. Low birth weight (LBW), prematurity, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay >2 weeks, oxygen supplementation >1 week and phototherapy are the significant risk factors for ROP, observed in this study. Out of 252, only 30 guardians/parents had heard of ROP and were aware of its blinding nature (11.9%), 28 knew that prematurity and LBW are the potential risk factors for development of ROP (11.1%), and 27 were aware that it can be treated (10.7%). Conclusion: Due to highly variable neonatal care, regional ROP screening guidelines should be followed for timely diagnosis and management of ROP to achieve optimal outcome. There is a need for specific programs for ROP awareness among parents and healthcare staff to emphasize the need for timely screening, appropriate scheduling, consistent follow-up and the availability and effectiveness of various treatment modalities, in order to prevent this potentially avoidable cause of blindness.