Background: The past decade has witnessed a marked increase in elderly population of India. This rapid ageing will substantially increase the number of elderly individuals, who are affected by cognitive impairment. Recent studies suggest the association between malnutrition and cognitive impairment in elderly. This study aims to describe the nutritional status and cognitive impairment in elderly population in a rural area of Thrissur district, Kerala.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in 100 elderly residents of Adat Panchayat, Thrissur, from January to April 2016. Data was collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, which included socio-demographic variables, self-reported physical morbidities, mini mental state examination (MMSE) scale and mini nutritional assessment (MNA) scale.Results: The prevalence of cognitive impairment and malnutrition in elderly was noted to be 55% and 12% respectively. Factors showing significant association with MMSE score included older age groups, female gender, elderly belonging to BPL families, financial dependence, single/widowed status and sleep difficulties. The association between cognitive impairment and nutritional status was found to be statistically significant with a p value of <0.001. A moderate to strong correlation was observed between MNA score and MMSE score (r=0.623).Conclusions: There is an association between cognitive impairment and nutritional deficit. Therefore it is essential to screen elderly for nutritional status while assessing cognitive impairment.

Introduction: Adequate Nutrition during infancy is required to ensure health, growth and development of children. Inappropriate feeding practices and infectious diseases are the main causes of malnutrition during the two years of life. The second half of an infant's first year is a vulnerable time, when breast milk alone cannot meet his/ her nutritional requirements and complementary feeding (CF) should be initiated. Safe preparation and hygiene practices are important determinants of proper CF practices. Objective: To compare the hygiene practices related to complementary feeding among mothers in rural and urban areas in Thrissur district; and to determine the factors influencing this. Materials and Methods: A comparative descriptive study was conducted among mothers of children in the age group of 1 to 2 years in the urban and rural field practice areas of Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur from January 2016 to June 2017. House to house visits were done and data on hygiene practices related to complementary feeding was collected using pretested questionnaire through interview method.Results: Before food preparation, 55%and 22.8% mothers in the urban and rural areas always wash their hands with soap. Before feeding, 45% mothers in the urban area always wash their hands with soap as compared to and 20 (9.9%) in the rural area. The difference in the hygiene practices before food preparation, before and after feeding, use of boiled water and the use of separate utensils in the rural and urban area was found to be statistically significant (P=0.001).There is significant statistical difference between mothers' education, socioeconomic status and hygiene practices. Conclusion: Hygiene practices in the urban area were generally more satisfactory than in the rural areas.

Background: Menarche is one important milestone in during adolescence. Many of girls experience menarche even before they are considered as adolescents. Unfortunately, many parents do not provide adequate information to the girls prior to menarche, because they consider it culturally inappropriate.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 432 adolescent girls in high school classes of Thrissur educational district. The participants were selected from six schools, two each of government, private and aided schools. A Self-Administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection after validation by pilot study. Data was collected on socio-demographic variables and awareness and practices regarding menarche Statistical analysis was done using SPSS statistical software version 23.Results: The age of attaining menarche ranged 7 to 14 years, with the mean age being 12.06 years SD=0.972.More than one-fourth of the girls 28.7% did not have prior knowledge about menstruation at the time of menarche. The major source of information about menstruation was the mother 68.8%, followed by friends 19.2%. Majority 61.3% of the subjects had correct knowledge regarding the cause of menstruation. More than half of the respondents 53.7% missed school days during menarche.Conclusions: The knowledge regarding menstruation was good for adolescent girls when compared to other studies in India. Awareness programs on adolescent girls must be developed and promoted at an early age prior to menarche. Mothers should be educated as they are an important source of information to their daughters.

Background: Dengue is one of the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral diseases in the world. Aedes aegypti mosquito is the main vector of dengue and Chikungunya. Entomological surveillance on Aedes mosquito has been standardized on different indices like House index, Container index, Breteau index. Larval indices are important predictors of outbreaks and are valuable in taking preventive measures. The objectives of the present study was to study the trend of larval indices over four months in selected wards of Kaiparambu Panchayat, Thrissur, Kerala, India and to identify the major breeding sources.Methods: A series of surveys were conducted from May to August of 2017 in Kaiparambu Panchayat under the field practice area of Amala Institute of Medical Sciences Thrissur. Houses were selected serially from 4, 5 and 6 wards with roughly 120 houses being covered each month.Results: A total of 489 houses were surveyed over 4 months. Overall, positive containers (with larvae) were present in 375 of 4055 potential containers showing a calculated House index (HI) is 44.4%, Container index (CI) is 11.5% and the Breteau Index is 76.7%. All three indices increased from May to June, peaked in July and dropped by August. Plastic containers were the most common source of breeding.Conclusions: The indices indicate risk even in the pre-monsoon season and there is a marked rise during monsoon. Hence, control measures need to be adopted during the pre-monsoon season so as to reduce the impact of the impending outbreak.

Background: The second half of an infant's first year is a vulnerable time when breast milk alone cannot meet the nutritional requirements and complementary feeding (CF) should be initiated. CF needs to be nutritionally adequate and appropriate. Objective: To study and compare the complementary feeding practices among mothers in selected rural and urban areas in Thrissur district. Methods: A comparative descriptive study was conducted among mothers of children in the age group of one to two years. The house-to-house survey was conducted in field practice area of Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur from January 2016 to June 2017. Data was collected using pretested questionnaire using interview method and analysed. Results: All the care givers interviewed were the mothers of the children.71.2% of mothers in urban areas started weaning at 6 months as compared to 66.8% in urban areas. The most common weaning food was Banana powder in both groups, followed by Ragi. 53% mother started early weaning due to insufficient breast milk. Conclusion: A significant number of infants are initiated on complementary feeds prior to 6 months of age. There is a significant difference in the most of the feeding practices among mothers in the urban and rural area. Intense health education is required to improve the complementary feeding practices.