INTRODUCTION Globally, diarrhea accounts for 2 million deaths per year. Health is affected by environmental conditions and economic status. The public health importance of some practices like hand washing and food hygiene are important in reduction of diarrhea. Socioeconomic factors may directly or indirectly affect environmental, behavioral and nutritional risk factors. The prevalence of hand washing practice in Kerala was found to be 35%. 1 Low socioeconomic status, scarcity of potable water, behavioural factors such as unhygienic practices, inadequate sanitation, faulty feeding practices, all may cause diarrhoea in children. 2,3 According to WHO 2012 data, diarrhoeal disease alone amounts to an estimated 3.6 % of the total DALY global burden of disease and is responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million people every year. It is estimated that 58% of that burden, or 842 000 deaths per year, is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene and includes ABSTRACT Background: Diarrhoea remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality among underfive children. Globally it accounts for 2 million deaths per year. Diarrhoea is the third most common cause of death in underfive children, responsible for 13% deaths in India each year. Behaviour can also depend upon the socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic factors affect environmental, behavioral and nutritional risk factors. Proper nutrition, especially exclusive breast feeding is one of the most important interventions for its control .Inadequate personal hygiene along with other environmental factors are responsible for 90% of diarrhea. The objective is to assess behavioral factors of mothers influencing diarrhoea in underfive children. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural area among 103 mothers of underfive children with acute diarrhoea in the past six months. Results: Most mothers were in the higher income 80 (77.6%) group. Those who practised handwashing after toilet and before cooking was 96 (93.2%). Proportion of mothers using boiled water for drinking was 99(96.1%); bottle feeding 77(74.8%); and practised sanitary waste disposal methods 93(90.3%). The practice of using boiled water was statistically significant among higher income group (P =0.047). Occupation of the mother was significantly associated with the habit of child's eatingout (P=0.019). Conclusions: This study shows that the practice of handwashing and use of boiled water for drinking was lower among lower socioeconomic families. This warrants need to create awareness about it among low socioeconomic families in rural areas.

Background: Medical education is inherently demanding and stressful. Stress is an external constraint which upsets an individual both mentally and physically. The postgraduate students suffer from higher stress that definitely affects the mental wellbeing of these students. Stressors faced by post graduate students include time pressure to meet deadlines, large amount of content to be learnt, work overload, unfair assessment by superior, fears of making mistakes that can lead to serious consequences, work demands affecting personal and home life. Objectives of the study were to assess the perception of stress amongst post graduate medical students and to assess various coping strategies employed by them. Methods: Predesigned, pretested, validated, self-administered, structured questionnaires were used for data collection over a period of two months. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used for measuring the perception of stress. Brief COPE inventory was used to assess the various coping strategies medical students use to deal with the stresses in their life. Results: One fourths of the study subjects (25%) were under high stress while 68.3% of the students were under moderate stress. Use of emotional support, self-distraction and venting were the common coping strategies employed. Conclusions: The prevalence of perceived stress seems to be high among post graduate medical students. Review of academics and exam schedules, more leisure time activities, advisory services and peer counseling at the campus could do a lot to reduce the stress.

No abstract

Introduction: Body image perception is the way a person feels about his/her body and these feelings can be positive, negative or both. It is ever changing, and is influenced by individual and environmental factors. It can be both selfperceived or as perceived by others like family, friends, peer group, teachers etc. Objectives: To assess the body image perception of adolescents and the associated factors and to assess the effect of family, friends, peers and others on the body image perception of adolescents. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study. Four divisions from classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 of a private school, Thrissur were randomly selected. There were 179 students in total. A pretested self administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: The proportion of boys (50.3%) and girls (49.7%) were almost equal. In this study 65.4% of the adolescents were having normal BMI for their age.26.2% of the subjects had overweight and 8.4% of the subjects were undernourished. Varying degrees of negative body image perception was seen among 84.91% of subjects. Erroneous body size perception was seen among 36.8% of the subjects. This was statistically significant. A larger proportion of females (40.4%) compared to males (23.4%) was dissatisfied by their body size. Mean BMI was significantly higher in those who were not satisfied with their body size and those who had tried to lose weight in their past. Negative correlation was observed between body image perception and academic performance of the students. Conclusion: A high proportion of adolescents had negative body image perception. Targeted activities have to be carried out to improve their perception.

Coping strategies used by an individual for stress determine its effect on health and the body’s functioning. Academic challenges make the first year medical students disparately susceptible to it. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the first year undergraduate medical students of a private medical college in Thrissur, Kerala to find the prevalence of stress and the coping strategies used with the help of pretested and validated questionnaire containing the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS-10) and Brief COPE Inventory. 73% of the students had moderate stress and, 20% of the students had high-stress scores. Self-distraction and religion {(6.66 ±1.52), (6.55 ±1.58)}were the most common coping strategies used by the boys and girls respectively. The prevalence of stress was high among the first year undergraduate medical students and those with high-stress scores were found to use maladaptive coping strategies.

Introduction: The prevalence of mental illnesses among industrial workers ranged between 14% - 51%, which is more than that of the general population. Individual’s psychosocial functioning has an impact on the work efficiency and hence the current study was undertaken to screen workers in tea plantations.Objective: To document the prevalence of probable mental illness and its associated factors among workers in selected tea estates in South India.Methodology: A cross sectional study was done in two tea estates in Tamil Nadu from March to May 2012.  The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 28 was used to screen for mental health status. Socio-demographic details, work profile and associated risk factors were also documented.Results: Among the 400 subjects interviewed, 75.5% were females. The mean age was 43.21 (±7.47) years and the mean work experience was 21.38 (±9.31) years. In this study 12.8% subjects screened positive for probable mental illness and 1%, 1%, 0.2% and 1.5% screened positive for the domains of somatic symptoms, anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression respectively. Workers who screened positive for probable mental illness had availed significantly greater duration of leave in the previous year. There was no significant association of mental illness with age, gender, marital status, substance abuse, designation, co-morbidity and stressful life events.Conclusion: The prevalence of probable mental illness was similar to other occupational settings. Management of the associated risk factors may improve one’s work efficiency and productivity.

No abstract

Background: The prevalence of mental illnesses among industrial workers is found to be 14% - 51%, which is more than that in the general population. Individual’s psychosocial functioning has an impact on the work efficiency. The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence of probable mental illness and its associated factors among workers in selected tea estates in South India. Methods: A cross sectional study was done in two tea estates in Tamil Nadu from March to May, 2012.  The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 28 was used to screen for probable mental illness. Sociodemographic details, work profile and associated risk factors were also elicited. Results: Among the 400 subjects interviewed, 75.5% were females. The mean age was 43.21 (±7.47) years and the mean work experience was 21.38 (±9.31) years. In our study 12.8% subjects screened positive for probable mental illness and 1%, 1%, 0.2% and 1.5% screened positive in the domains somatic symptoms, anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression respectively. Workers who screened positive for probable mental illness had availed significantly greater duration of leave in the previous year. There was no significant association of mental illness with age, gender, marital status, substance abuse, designation, co-morbidity and stressful life events. Conclusions: There is a need to screen individuals in different occupation for probable mental illness and those screened positive need evaluation by a psychiatrist. There is also a need to explore associated factors in order to improve one’s health and work efficiency.