BackgroundCommunity pharmacies in Nepal serve as the first point of contact for the public with the health care system and provide many services, including administering injections. However, there is a general lack of documented information on pharmacy practice and injection use in these pharmacies. This study aims to provide information about pharmacy practice in terms of service and drug information sources, and injection use, including the disposal of used injection equipment.MethodsA mixed method, cross-sectional study was conducted in 54 community pharmacies in Pokhara city. Data was collected using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire, and also by the direct observation of pharmacy premises. Interviews with pharmacy supervisors (proprietors) were also conducted to obtain additional information about certain points.ResultsInterviews were carried out with 54 pharmacy supervisors/proprietors (47 males and 7 females) with a mean age and experience of 35.54 and 11.73 years, respectively. Approximately a half of the studied premises were operated by legally recognized pharmaceutical personnel, while the remainder was run by people who did not have the legal authority to operate pharmacies independently. About a quarter of pharmacies were providing services such as the administration of injections, wound dressing, and laboratory and consultation services in addition to medicine dispensing and counseling services. The ‘Current Index of Medical Specialties’ was the most commonly used source for drug information. Almost two-thirds of patients visiting the pharmacies were dispensed medicines without a prescription. Tetanus Toxoid, Depot-Medroxy Progesterone Acetate, and Diclofenac were the most commonly-used/administered injections. Most of the generated waste (including sharps) was disposed of in a municipal dump without adhering to the proper procedures for the disposal of hazardous waste.ConclusionsCommunity pharmacies in Pokhara offer a wide range of services including, but not limited to, drug dispensing, counseling, dressing of wounds, and administering injections. However, the lack of qualified staff and adequate infrastructure may be compromising the quality of the services offered. Therefore, the health authorities should take the necessary measures to upgrade the qualifications of the personnel and to improve the infrastructure for the sake of good pharmacy practice and the safer use of injections.

No abstract

BackgroundFacebook, a popular social networking site, has been used by people of different ages and professions for various purposes. Its use in the field of medical education is increasing dramatically. At the same time, the pros and cons of facebook use among the health science students has attracted the attention of educators. The data regarding its use and the effect on the life of Nepalese health science students has not yet been documented. Therefore, this study is carried out to evaluate the effect of facebook use on social interactions, behaviour, academics, and the health of students in a medical college of Nepal.ResultsA cross-sectional descriptive study conducted among medical, dental, nursing and allied health science students using self-administered questionnaire. The study showed that 98.2 % of participants were facebook users. Among 452 respondents, 224 and 228 were male and female respectively, with a mean age of 20.2 ± 1.2 years. The main reason for using facebook was to remain in contact with family and friend (32 %), while its use for the academic purpose was only 5 %. However, 80.8 % of students acknowledged ease in acquiring academic materials from others, through facebook. One-fourth of the students acknowledged that they are using facebook late at night on a regular basis, while surprisingly 4.2 % of the students admitted accessing facebook during the classroom lectures. Almost two-third of the users, further admitted that facebook has had a negative impact on their studies. Burning eyes (21 %), disturbed sleep (19 %), and headache (16 %) were the most common adverse health effects reported by the facebook users. Many students (71.4 %) tried and most of them (68.7 %) succeeded, in reducing time spent on facebook, to allow for increased time devoted to their studies.ConclusionThe widespread use of facebook among the health science students, was found to have both positive and negative effects on their academics, social life, and health.

Introduction: The outbreak of coronavirus disease in Nepal led medical colleges to suspend in person teaching-learning activities and ultimately online platform was introduced to deliver the contents of medical education. The objective of this study was to describe the perception of medical students towards online teaching-learning introduced during the COVID-19 outbreak in Nepal. Methods: An online survey using a descriptive cross-sectional study design was carried out among 515 undergraduate medical students currently enrolled in medical colleges in Nepal. A semi-structured questionnaire in Google form was utilized to collect data. The link of the Google form was sent to the potential respondents through email and social media. Descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze data in SPSS vs20. Ethical approval was sought from Nepal Health Research Council to conduct this study, and digital informed consent was taken from study respondents. Results: The overall score of perception of online teaching-learning was 17.61±7.19, which indicated many problems in this method of teaching-learning. The mean score of perception of online teaching-learning was found to be different across sex, location of enrolled medical colleges, having a personal electronic device, having an internet connection at residence, having separate room/space for attending online classes, and self-rated computer skills. Moreover, only 28 (5.4%) of respondents had perceived online teaching-learning as a better method of delivering content of medical curricula. Conclusions: Surveyed medical students in Nepal were found to perceive many problems in online teaching-learning. Moreover, management and faculty members need to take the necessary measures for enhancing the online teaching-learning quality.

Background. Adolescent girls in developing countries do not have proper information, and proper information is covered up by sociocultural boundaries resulting in various morbidities. This study aimed to determine level of knowledge and its associated factors regarding menstrual hygiene amongst adolescent school girls in Dang district, Nepal. Methods. Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted between April and October 2019 among 406 adolescent girls studying in grades 8–10 between ages of 10–19 years in Dang district, Nepal. From a total of 10 local units, 5 were selected randomly. Out of the selected 5 units, 10 schools consisting of 5 government and 5 private schools were selected through disproportionate stratified random sampling. A further 406 students were then selected randomly from the 10 selected schools. Bivariate analysis was used primarily to assess the association between dependent and independent variables. Variables which were associated with bivariate analysis were entered into a multivariable logistic regression model to identify associated factors of menstrual hygiene practice. Results. The mean age and family size were 15.13 ± 1.19 and 5.58 ± 1.81, respectively. A total of 87.7% of adolescents had good knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene. Adolescents living in rural area (AOR = 0.27, CI: 0.12–0.61, p ≤ 0.001 ), private schools (AOR = 6.10, CI: 1.58–23.46, p ≤ 0.001 ), mothers who can read and write (AOR = 0.22, CI: 0.07–0.64, p ≤ 0.001 ), fathers who have up-to-grade-10 education (AOR = 5.15, CI: 1.84–14.39, p ≤ 0.001 ), and living only with mothers (AOR = 0.29, CI: 0.12–0.69, p ≤ 0.018 ) were significantly associated with level of knowledge of menstrual hygiene. Conclusions. Though the majority of respondents had a good level of knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene, there was a knowledge gap in specific areas. The level of knowledge was significantly poor among adolescents in rural areas and those living only with mothers. Thus, this study concerns the need for policy makers to focus on specific education regarding menstrual hygiene in rural areas including both parents.

Background: First phase of COVID-19 vaccination was initiated in Nepal in January 2021 tar­geting the frontline health care workers. Vaccine side effects have a significant role in public confidence regarding the vaccine and its uptake. We aimed to determine the acceptability and explore the side effects of first dose of ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 (Covishield) vaccine among the health care workers of Chitwan Medical College. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among the health care workers at Chitwan Medi­cal College. Total enumeration sampling technique was used and a self-constructed questionnaire was circulated among the health care workers to self-report their socio-demographic information and vaccination experience. Chi square test was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sci­ences version 20 for statistical analysis and p-value<0.05 was considered significant. Results: Out of 589 respondents, 537 (91.2%) had received the first dose of Covishield vaccine among which, 424 (78.9%) reported one or more side effects. Majority of them had very mild systemic side effects (55.9%) and injection site related side effects (25.2%). The side effects were more prevalent in <30 years age group than >30 years age group. Conclusions: Most of the vaccine recipients had very mild side effects which showed that Cov­ishield vaccine has a good safety profile.

Introduction: Cardiovascular and other chronic diseases are becoming the major causes of morbidity and mortality in most of the third world countries, including Nepal. Unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and consumption of tobacco, alcohol, drugs etc. are major global determinants of non-communicable diseases and contribute to the excess death and disability among the poor in terms of mortality. This study was done to estimate the prevalence of behavioral risk factors of NCDs among adolescent. Methods: A cross sectional study based on WHO stepwise approach for surveillance of Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs) risk factors was conducted in Chitwan District to assess the risk factors of NCDs. Information was collected on substance abuse, dietary habits and physical activity through personal interview. Results: A bout 50% male and 30% female respondents were currently abusing one or other forms of substance. Male (39%) and female (26%) were using tobacco products. It was found that only 14% of respondents were doing satisfactory level of physical activities. Conclusions: Substantially high levels of the various behavioral risk factors among adolescents in Chitwan District suggest an urgent need for awareness raising programmes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/joim.v34i3.8916 Journal of Institute of Medicine, December, 2012; 34:39-43

Background: A psychosocial problem is a mental illness caused or influenced by life experiences, as well as maladjusted cognitive and behavioral processes. Psychosocial problems i.e. internalizing dis­orders, externalizing disorders and substance abuse are more prevalent among adolescents because of their rapid physical and physiological changes that occur in their body during this stage. The aim of the study was to identify the magnitude of psychosocial problems among school-going adolescents. Methods: Present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in the ward no. 15 of Gho­rahi sub metropolitan city of Dang District, Nepal. A total of 325 adolescents were chosen from multi-staged random sampling. Pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Part I and part II of questionnaire was self-constructed and Part III was adopted from standard tool of Youth Pediatric Symptoms Checklist. Descriptive (percentage, frequency, interquartile range and minimum and maximum values) and inferential analysis (chi-square test) was done through this IBM SPSS soft­ware version 20. Results: The prevalence of psychosocial problems among school going adolescents was 26.8%. Socio-demographic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, occupational status of respondent’s father and mother were found to be significantly associated with psychosocial problems. The relation with teach­er and academic grade of respondent were found to be highly associated with psychosocial problems. Conclusions: The study reported an alarming situation of psychosocial problems among adolescent students in Nepal where more than one quarter of participants found having psychosocial problems. The study may suggest the need of proper parenting and maintenance of an appropriate level of teacher-student relationship.