A prospective study was conducted to determine the magnitude of morbidity and mortality caused by acute respiratory infections (ARI) among children under 5 years of age and to assess the feasibility of reducing mortality owing to ARI by the use of community health workers. Villages selected for this study were situated on the south-west edge of Kathmandu Valley, about 24 km from the city centre. The study group consisted of 1019 children under the age of 5 years at the beginning of the study and followed for 3 years. During the 1st year, baseline information was collected. During the 2nd and 3rd years, intervention measures (health education, immunization and antibiotics for children with signs suggesting pneumonia) were taken and their effect assessed. There was a 59% reduction in the ARI-specific death rate among study children between surveillance year and intervention year I and a further 25% reduction in the ARI-specific death rate between intervention years I and II. Despite a substantial reduction in ARI mortality with the interventions, there was still an unacceptably high mortality from chronic diarrhoea, malnutrition and other factors. This implies that the programme to control ARI, diarrhoea, malnutrition and immunizable diseases should be integrated into one, within the framework of a primary health care strategy.
This study, designed to examine adult smoking behaviour, attitudes and norms was carried out in the hill villages of Alapot and Bhadrabas, Nepal, using the WHO standardized survey questionnaire. Some 1506 adults were interviewed. The overall prevalence of daily smokers is 73.7%. The majority of people, though aware of hazards of smoking, are not concerned with its possible effects on their own or other people's health. More males than females endorse public action against smoking. Both the endorsement of public action against smoking and awareness of social norms discouraging smoking increase with educational attainment. The motives for not smoking and endorsement of public actions against smoking have been ranked. Based on these findings strategies for a national smoking control programme have been recommended.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.