Aims and Objectives:Mother and child together form the majority of the population in developing countries. Though they have maximum number of health services attributed to them, morbidity and mortality rates for antenatal women and children are very high. Lack of comprehension of preventive services is one of the important reasons for this. This study was planned with the aim of assessing the knowledge and awareness levels among pregnant women about antenatal care and regarding various aspects of new born and infant care among mothers of under three. Materials and Methods: This is a community based cross-sectional study involving beneficiaries attending the Rural Health Centre of a teaching Medical College, in Tamil Nadu. Results: Awareness about routine antenatal care, danger signs of pregnancy and preparation for emergency labour were observed to be poor among antenatal women. Knowledge about new born care, infant feeding practices, immunization, newborn and childhood illnesses were all found inadequate among mothers of under three. All the aspects were better in antenatal women who were educated, could read Tamil, and belonged to joint family. But these factors had no effect of mothers of under three. Health workers and family members were the major source of information for both the groups. Conclusion: Knowledge is observed to be poor, in spite of all the participants being beneficiaries of Rural Health Centre and the majority of them being educated upto secondary standard. Efficient use of existing health services, giving health education sessions with precise messages will help to increase awareness.

Background: Organ donation to date remains a sensitive issue among the general public and medical community. In both group's lack of awareness persists despite the significance of organ shortage faced by the health care system. The constant demand for organs must be dealt by increasing the donor pool by generating a positive attitude of public towards donation while curbing illegal activities by stricter laws. This can be brought about by Medical professionals whose opinion makes a significant impact on the prospective belief of public. Objective: To explore the knowledge and attitude regarding organ donation among undergraduate medical students and to assess the change in variables post intervention. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional interventional study was conducted among 382 medical students. Data was collected pre and post intervention using a pre-validated self-administered questionnaire, in a lecture hall setting. Results: Knowledge regarding organ donation practices was poor but showed good improvement post intervention. Only 3.93% students possessed donor card, but more than 60% were willing for donation in future with preference to deceased donation, though only 37.96% were willing to receive organs; and 48.63% showed distrust against doctors and majority agreed that religion was not against organ donation. Media was stated as the most popular source of information and poor knowledge was claimed to be the major reason for unpopularity. Conclusion: Intervention does improve knowledge; however positive change in attitude will require a different approach. Appropriate changes in the curriculum are thus indicated to generate well-informed physicians with an optimistic outlook to change the organ donation scenario.

Locomotor disability is one of the most commonly prevailing type of disability in India. This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the severity and to study the factors affecting progress of locomotor disability. A community based cross-sectional observation study was conducted in an urban slum of Mumbai. Total sample of 3665 individuals were screened; 205 were identified with locomotor disabilities who were subjected to a structured questionnaire and physical examination. The prevalence of locomotor disabilities is found to be 5.59 %. Females are affected more than the males and unemployment was observed to be very high. Awareness about rehabilitative services was found to be very low and very few individuals had ever taken any treatment. Majority of the individuals detected with locomotor disability were ambulatory, showed good IADL score and muscle power as well as single joint involvement. Advancing age and longer duration of disability have been associated with low scores of IADL, low muscular power, multiple joint involvement and increased duration of disability. Treatment started at young age, on immediate diagnosis will halt the progress of the disease. Availability and awareness of rehabilitation facilities will go a long way in improving the quality of life of individuals with locomotor disabilities.

Background: Under nutrition is a major problem among Indian schoolchildren. Yet, routine height and weight measurements in schools are nor used for growth monitoring. This study attempts to evaluate mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC) as a quick assessment tool against body mass index (BMI) in schoolchildren. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate MUAC against BMI, height, and average skin fold thickness (ASFT) parameters and to estimate MUAC values across age, sex, and social categories. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted in 2017–2018 in four randomly selected Ashram schools and an urban school in Nashik district. Girls (1187) and boys (1083) from age 6–18 were included, and height, weight, skinfold thickness, and MUAC were measured. MUAC was done on the left arm with Shakir's tape and tailor's tape (for MUAC >25 cm). Epi Info 7.1 and Excel were used for the data analysis. Results: MUAC had a consistently high correlation with BMI at all ages for boys ( r = 0.8786, P < 0.0001) and girls ( r = 0.8586, P < 0.0001). ASFT too was strongly correlated with MUAC ( r = 0.5945, P < 0.0001). MUAC had strong but nonlinear correlation with heights in girls ( r = 0.7751, P < 0.0001) and boys ( r = 0.8267, P < 0.0001). MUAC was higher for girls than boys at all ages. MUAC values for scheduled tribe (ST) children were highly significantly lower than non-ST students. Conclusion: MUAC is a good and quick proxy tool for BMI and can serve as a sensitive nutritional indicator for school ages across socioeconomic categories. However, it is necessary to construct age-wise cutoff points and bandwidths using multicentric studies across income quintiles.

Context:In Ashram schools, scheduled tribes (ST) children from age 6 to 17 years belonging to various ethnic groups stay under common living and dietary provisions. However, there are scant reports on ethnotribal height differences.Aims:The aims of the study are to (a) estimate height differences between schoolchildren of three major local STs, (b) compare heights and average skinfold thickness (SFT) of ST with non-ST and urban schoolchildren, and (c) compare median heights and weights of ST and non-ST schoolchildren with the Indian Academy of Pediatrics standards.Settings and Design:Four Ashram schools and one urban school in Northwest Maharashtra.Subjects and Methods:All children from age 6 to 17 years were included for height, weight, and mid-arm circumference (n = 2106). Data were processed with Excel and Epi info software for quantitative comparisons.Statistical Analysis Used:Quantitative methods including ANOVA were used for statistical comparison of heights.Results:There were no differences among heights between ST students (ANOVA P > 0.05). However, there were significant differences between heights of boys and girls between ST and non-ST students across age groups (ANOVA P < 0.0001). ST boys and girls were mostly below 3rd or 10th percentile of IAP height and weight charts while non-ST children were between 25th and 50th percentiles. The average SFT values for prepubertal age groups were significantly lower in ST schoolchildren.Conclusions:ST students showed a significant growth disadvantage against general and other backward classes categories, although no intertribal anthropometry differences were observed.