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Implementing a healthy food retail policy within a health service benefits from dedicated resourcing, investment in relationship building with key stakeholders and introducing changes gradually with a long-term approach.

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Objectives: Sri Lankan family planning progrmme aims to promote modern contraceptives. This study was aimed to assess factors associated with choice of traditional versus modern contraceptives among women in a rural setting in Sri Lanka Methods: Two groups of traditional method (n=217) and modern method (n=217) users were studied using an interviewer-administered questionnaire.Results: Age >35 years (p<0.001), Muslim ethnicity (p=0.045), living with extended families (p<0.001), not having children (p<0.001), youngest child being >6 years (p=0.012), non-receipt of detailed information on modern methods (p<0.001), public health midwife (PHM) not visiting homes (p<0.001), living >1 km from field clinic (p=0.002), nonutilization of field clinic services (p<0.001), negative opinions about PHM's services (p<0.001), negative opinion regarding services at field clinic (p<0.001) and poor knowledge on modern contraceptives (p=0.015) were associated with the choice of traditional methods. Conclusions:Choice of traditional method was associated with personal factors as well as service gaps.

Background Sri Lanka has undergone rapid development during the past few decades, resulting in broad socioeconomic changes including rapid urbanization and industrialization. This has led to a nutrition transition with an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Adolescent obesity is a major problem as it leads to several adult life problems such as non-communicable diseases. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 14 to 15-year-old school children in the Colombo education zone. Method A school-based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among a sample of 1728 students representing all schools in the Colombo education zone selected using a multi stage cluster sampling method. Weight and height of all subjects were measured according to standard procedures using standard equipment. BMI for age was calculated using WHO charts. Results Prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents was revealed as 10.8% (CI 9.3-12.5) and 3.9% (CI 3.1-5.0) respectively, with no gender difference. Studying in semigovernment or international schools was statistically significantly associated with adolescent overweight and obesity (p=0.000). Conclusion Overweight and obesity among adolescents in the Colombo education zone is a significant public health problem.

Information management is among the top priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is a key element in decision-making. This brief report describes the following challenges faced in information handling during the COVID-19 pandemic and the outcome of solutions introduced as a response: telemedicine, disease notification, record keeping, real-time hospital dashboards, recording/reporting hierarchies and clinic drug distribution.