Background:The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is increasing in India and there is a need to study the prevalence of COPD, particularly in the rural areas, which may be most affected due to their lifestyle.Materials and Methods:First stage: Validation of the questionnaire–105 consecutive patients underwent administration of the structured questionnaire and spirometry was used as a gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD. Second stage: Adults above 40 years (n = 900) in two villages of Mysore district were administered with the validated questionnaire, Knowledge and Attitude questionnaire and Fagerstorm questionnaire, to assess nicotine dependency.Results:The questionnaire was found to have a sensitivity of 62.5% and specificity of 87.6% to diagnose COPD. Of the total 900 adults surveyed (Males: 453, Females: 447), the total prevalence of COPD was 7.1%. Males had a higher prevalence (11.1%) compared to females (4.5%). The prevalence of smoking was very high among men at 71.9% and all the women were nonsmokers. The prevalence of COPD was 14.7% in smokers, 19.3% had mild to moderate nicotine dependency and 12.8% were highly dependent. Of the women exposed to regular biomass fuels, the prevalence of COPD was 3.9%, which increased to 4.8% on addition of regular passive smoking. In smoking, male gender and age were significantly associated with COPD (P < 0.05).Conclusion:The structured questionnaire is a useful tool for the screening of COPD in field studies. Smoking and biomass fuel exposure are important risk factors for COPD.

This paper comprises 261 low birth weight infants who were divided into four groups with different feeding schedules. Group I--expressed human milk for all the feeds; Group II--human milk for half the feeds and the nursery formula for the rest; Group III--colostrum, 20 ml three times a day along with the nursery formula; and Group IV--control--only the nursery formula. The groups were matched by means of a randomized block design for identifiable factors which could predispose to the occurrence of infection. Infections were found to be significantly less in the groups which received human milk (p less than 0.001).

Efforts must be made to recognize type 2 diabetes in the asymptomatic prediabetes state.