Undernutrition remains a key public health burden in Nepal. This study aimed to measure knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about nutritious food amongst mothers of 3 – 5-year-olds from rural and urban areas. A cross-sectional mixed-methods approach comprised a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups. The community-based survey included 524 mothers of children who are no longer breastfed. Open-ended and structured questions investigated knowledge, beliefs and attitudes about nutritious food, child feeding patterns, and major barriers, food insecurity, and health-seeking behaviours. Focus groups were held with key informants, a thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative data. Results: Major barriers to recommending nutritious foods included: lack of knowledge (19%); cost (21%); and culture/beliefs (7%). Nearly 55% children were given fruit once a week. Almost 37% of mothers never gave meat, fish and egg regularly to their children and 34% did not choose healthy food from stores, and 12% lacked food. Most children (57%) had been taken at least once to a spiritual healer and 16% had been taken more than once. The qualitative analysis suggested that important factors of knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about healthy diet are poverty, education, strong cultural beliefs, family size, household income, time and a growing preference for fast food. Conclusion: Knowledge of and attitudes towards nutritious food is still poor. Beliefs about food practice are strongly embedded in Nepal. Thus, this study shows that policymakers should consider a public health intervention and approach based around changing these largely cultural beliefs and behaviours.

Objectives: Measure the level of knowledge, attitudes & beliefs about nutritious food for children amongst poor rural and urban mothers. Methods: Quantitative questionnaire study. Results: The study included more urban mothers (56%) than rural mothers (44%). Major barriers to recommending nutritious foods included: lack of knowledge (15%); high market prices (19%); and cultural influences or beliefs (6%). The study shows nearly 55% children are providing fruits once in week. Similarly nearly 15% of families never give salad to their children. Nearly 16% of mothers cannot choose nutritious food from the grocery store. Likewise 12% respondents lacked food. Nearly 57% children had been taken at least once to a spiritual healer and 16% on multiple occasions for the treatment. Nearly 20% of mother believed eating green leafy vegetables and fruits during illness affect child health. Nearly 8% respondent feed meat, fish, egg and milk during times of illness to their children but 92% do not. Conclusions: Knowledge and attitudes towards nutritious food of rural and urban mothers are still poor in both societies. Beliefs about food practice are still strongly embedded in Nepal. Urban mother had better food recommendation, whereas rural mother experienced huge barriers. Meat, fish, egg and dairy products are not provided to children due to cultural influences. Mothers from both communities have high faith in spiritual healers.

Evidence shows that the seasonal migrants returned from India have been a source of COVID-19, which helped spread it across Nepal. This cross-sectional study, guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM) model, that people's underlying believes in this case around COVID-19, is determined by a large extend their subsequent behaviors. This study aimed to examine the association between personal characteristics and perceived threats regarding COVID-19 among 384 seasonal migrants who had returned from India and were staying in a quarantine center in Surkhet, Nepal. A questionnaire was used with the help of three health workers working in the Quarantine Center. A five-point sequential grade Likert scale was constructed based on two HBM constructs, like 'perceived susceptibility' and ‘severity.' A score ≥ of 50% was designated as high, and ≤ 50% as a perceived low level of threat. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed to interpret the data using SPSS 20 version. Generally, participants regarded the threat of COVID-19 as low. The severity of COVID-19 was thought to be greater than the vulnerability of the subjects. Gender, age, caste, education, health status, and perceived susceptibility did not correlate with perceived susceptibility. However, the participants’ demographic characteristics were associated with their perceived level of severity. Therefore, this study calls for proper risk communication to people who returned from abroad, as this is essential in promoting protective behavior during a pandemic outbreak.

Regular handwashing with soap and running water is one of the effective ways to stop spreading of germs that protects us from the disease. The aim of this study is to assess the handwashing knowledge and practice among the selected school students of Bardiya district in Nepal. To address this objective, the school-based descriptive cross-sectional design was applied. A total of 327 students including 9 to 12 grades were taken from four secondary schools using the multistage sampling technique. The validated self-administrated questionnaires were used to collect the data from the selected students. Similarly, the univariate (frequencies and percentage) and bivariate analyses (chi-square test for association) were performed to analyse the data, using the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) 26 versions. Out of the total participants, 29.7% were between the ages of 15-16 years, 60.9% were male, and the majority (95.7%) were from Hindu. The study showed that 36.9% participants had the poor knowledge relating to handwashing. In contrast, it was found that 43.42% participants were found with the low practice of handwashing, which was higher than the knowledge level of handwashing. So having a good knowledge is not associated with good practices as regards to handwashing. It was noticed that the poor handwashing practice level remains higher as compared to the poor handwashing knowledge level. The study suggests that the schools have the responsibilities to give handwashing education to their students to raise the knowledge as well as the practice level of handwashing.

Child under-nutrition has effects which last a lifetime. The consequences can be both short term and long term. Malnourished children tend to be physically, emotionally and intellectually less productive and suffer more from chronic illnesses and disabilities compared to healthy children. The objective of this study was to determine prevalence of under-nutrition and investigate association between early childhood malnutrition and deciduous tooth eruption in children aged 0-59 months in Mugu district of Nepal. A structured questionnaire based on Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2011 questionnaire was used. Weight and height of 246 children, aged 0-59 months were measured. Dental caries status and eruption sequence were noted. Among the total, 14 .1% had moderate/severe wasting of muscles, 25.2% were moderately stunted and 36.6% were severely stunted. From the total, 30 .5% were moderately underweight and 18.3% were severely underweight. A significantly higher proportion with wasting presented with delayed eruption sequence than those without wasting (p <0.05). From the total, 25.4% who presented with delayed eruption also had at least one decayed tooth (p><0.05). From this study, it was concluded that malnutrition causes delayed tooth eruption, affects the oral health of the child, and results in an increased caries experience.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered microorganism called corona virus, a pandemic. Knowledge, attitudes and practices are prime components that play a crucial role in spreading the disease. These elements would support focusing on the people with underlying medical problems, and old-aged people, including children, are more likely to be susceptible. The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices amongst the students, teachers, and health workers, including staff members of the NGOs/INGOs. This cross-sectional study was done, including 224 respondents. A self-administered-structured questionnaire comprised of nineteen structured questions exploring the pandemic’s knowledge, attitudes and practices was done. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 25.0. Of the total, 67.4% were males, and 32.6% were females. Nearly 50% of the respondents were with M-Phil/PhD degrees, while 4.9% had a secondary level. The study revealed that 28.0% of the participants knew about the pandemic, 41.0% had positive attitudes, and 54.0% experienced good practices. The knowledge level on the pandemic was statistically significant where attitudes and practices were poor. This study suggests that public health approaches such as awareness, masseducation campaigns, etc., are urgently required to control the outbreaks strongly associated with the community’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours.

Background: The literature has identified gaps in adolescent health literacy (AHL) measurements, as well as how the health literacy (HL) level is related to health promotion (HP) aspects. This study aimed to examine the tools used to measure HL and determine its relation with HP among adolescents. Methods: Three online databases (HINARI, PubMed, and DOAJ) were searched to conduct a systematic assessment of papers published between January 1, 2016, and January 1, 2021. In this review, 373 articles were identified from these databases. After removing duplicates and screening titles and abstracts of articles, 49 full texts were selected for full-text reading. After comprehensive reading, 23 papers were appraised for qualitative synthesis. Results: Of the 23 reviewed papers, 21 focused on assessing AHL measures, and 15 addressed the association between AHL and HP. Seven studies used the HL School-Aged Children instrument. The findings suggested that the methodological and conceptual underpinnings of HL measures are insufficient. Furthermore, HL acts as an independent and positive mediator for many facets of HP. Conclusion: This review offers a warning to practitioners and educationists interested in measuring HL as the number of measurement tools is quite huge with different tools applying different scales.

Nepal has a high Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR) in the South Asian region, partly due to the poor utilization of maternal and child healthcare services. The study aims to explore the influencing factors of maternal and child healthcare services among Nepalese women. Eighteen women, who had seven-days-old-children and those recently accessed maternal and child healthcare practices, were purposively selected. The face-to-face, In-depth-Interview (IDI) was applied to collect the information. The data were thematically analyzed, where Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) was applied as a theoretical framework. The study showed that the factors such as the knowledge of women, perception, and decision-making-autonomy at individual levels influenced maternal and child healthcare-seeking behaviors. Likewise, mothers-in-law and the role of husbands at intrapersonal levels, employment at institutional levels, peers and role of neighbors at community levels, and safe motherhood program at policy levels were significant factors for the utilization of maternal and child healthcare-seeking-behaviors. The negligence of women concerning pregnancy, inadequate health facilities, lack of specialist health workers with advanced equipment, and cultural taboos and beliefs were observed as score barriers for utilization of maternal and child health-seeking behaviors. The research strongly recommends that all women be aware of maternal and child healthcare and health-seeking behaviors at their initial ages.