Introduction:Depression is common in adolescents and especially in high school students and is one of the most frequent mental disorders among teenagers. Depression in adolescents is an under recognized mental health problem because they remain indecisive to disclose their feelings and seldom seek psychiatric help. One of the factors that make depression so difficult to diagnose in adolescents is the common behavioural changes that are normally associated with the hormonal changes of this period. It has only been in recent years that the medical community has acknowledged childhood depression and viewed it as a condition which requires intervention.Materials and Methods:Aschool based cross-sectional study among adolescents was conducted by using self-administered structured "Patient Health Questionnaire-9 modified for Adolescents (PHQ-A) questionnaire" in rural field practice area of A.J.Instituteof Medical Sciences & Research Center, Mangaluru.Results:Total 284 students participated in the study and prevalence of depression was 49%. Prevalence of depression increased with age (p-value:0.001) and was higher among females (p-value:0.02).Discussion:Prevalence of depression in this study matched with other studies conducted in India. Majority of the students suffered from mild depression which indicates early diagnosis is crucial in prevention of progression to moderate and severe forms of depression.Conclusion:Prevalence of depression among adolescents is high. There is an urgent need for incorporation of simple screening methods for depression in school health program.

Background: Sepsis still remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality posing a diagnostic challenge to clinicians across the globe. Lack of a single specific and sensitive test paved the way to many researches. Our study evaluated clinical significance of cell population data (CPD) as biomarkers in sepsis. CPD assesses morphological and functional characteristics of leucocytes using automated hematology analyzer. Methods:The study population consisted of 100 healthy subjects and 100 clinically suspected cases of sepsis with quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score >2. The various cell population data (CPD) were collected using automated hematology analyzer, Sysmex XN1000 during a span of 6 months from January to June 2018 in a tertiary care center and the results were statistically analyzed using Z test. Result:The WBC count and CPD parameters were assessed. Except for neutrophil , monocyte cell size (NE-FSC, MO-Z) and lymphocyte fluorescence intensity(LY-Y) all other CPD parameters show significant difference (p<0.001) in sepsis group compared to healthy controls. Conclusion:This study suggested utility of CPD parameters which provide details of size and internal structure of leucocytes to be considered as an important biomarker for diagnosis and management of sepsis.

Despite improvements in access to health care in India, inequalities related to socioeconomic status, geography and gender continue to exist. This is further compounded ABSTRACT Background: Remedial action that a person takes to treat his or her perceived illnesses, is called health-seeking behaviour. Understanding health seeking behaviour (HSB) in a community and the factors which influence their decision, are crucial for planning a "need based" comprehensive health care programmes for the people, especially for underprovided and rural population. The objective of present study was to determine HSB and its determinants in a defined rural population. Methods: A community based cross -sectional study was conducted in rural field practice area of A. J. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Mangalore (Karnataka) from 1st October 2017 to 31st July 2018. A total of 866 heads of households were included in the study, using universal sampling method. A pre-tested, validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. p values of <0.05 were considered significant. Results: Among 866 participants, almost all (98.03%) heads of families were males, while majority of them (35.68 %) were farmers. Further, majority (48.15%) of the households preferred to visit government hospitals for their ailments, while among those visiting private practitioners, majority of them (55.54%) preferred Allopath system of medicine. Health insurance subscription rates were found to be low (18.93%). Main determinants of HSB were observed to be cost of treatment, convenience of approach, quality of services and life threatening emergencies. Conclusions: Present study brings out higher utilization of government health care facilities among the study subjects, while cost of treatment and life threatening emergencies were the main predictors of HSB.

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Prevalence of over weight (BMI 23-25 kg/m(2)) and obesity (BMI > 25 Kg/m(2)) was found among individuals of 22 years and above. Non smokers had decreased odds (OR = 0.041, CI = 0.015-0.107) and also increase in LDL Cholesterol (OR = 1.05, CI = 1.021-1.055) and BMI (OR = 1.42, CI = 1.244-1.631) were significantly contributing towards the risk of CVD. Localite students had decreased odds of developing CVD in the next 10 years (OR = 0.27, CI = 0.092-0.799) as compared to students residing in hostel or paying guests.

Introduction: Leadership skills among medical students, plays an important role in making them competent and bringing success in their clinical practice. Physician’s professional activities require them to be good team leaders. But there is a leadership crisis among medical doctors in India and leadership skills within their curricula. Objectives: To assess the leadership skills among interns and identify possible influencing factors among them. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among 110 interns in a medical college. Leadership skills were assessed using Modified Leadership Inventory for Medical Education (LIME). Unpaired t test for association of various factors with mean scores of leadership and Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient for correlation between the scores of subcomponents of leadership skills were used. Results: Among the interns, 77.3% had a chance to be a leader during school/college days but only 20% had undergone leadership training. 87.3% of them had their leadership scores above average, suggesting good leadership skills. Interns who had been a leader in school/college, enrolled in Scouts/ Guides/ NCC and those who underwent leadership training had statistically significant higher mean scores. Majority had positive attitude towards leadership. There was a statistically significant, moderate correlation between the components of leadership skills.Conclusion: Participants had good leadership skills and there was significant association between former leadership experience and current leadership scores. Most of them had positive attitude towards leadership.

Background: Breastfeeding has been a universal practice. A number of factors influence the breastfeeding practices of the mothers. This study was conducted to assess the breast-feeding practices and its association with mother’s education and antenatal counselling.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 167 mothers with infants who were residing in field practice area of a medical college. A pretested semi-structured validated questionnaire was administered to assess the breast-feeding practices followed. Towards the end of each interview the investigator observed the mothers as they breast fed their children to assess the appropriateness of positioning and attachment. Chi-square test and Fischer’s exact probability test were used to test the associations.Results: 19.8% of the mothers were illiterate. 64.1% had received antenatal counselling on breast feeding. 62.3% initiated breast feeding within one hour. Colostrum was discarded by 6% of the mothers and 28.7% gave pre-lacteal feeds. 72.3%, 86.1% and 77.3% of them practiced appropriate position of feeding, held their children in the appropriate position and had good attachment to the breast, respectively. Mother’s education had a statistically significant association with pre-lacteal feeds administration, exclusive breastfeeding and breast-feeding position. Antenatal breast-feeding counselling had a statistically significant association with appropriate positioning of the child, attachment and practicing burping.Conclusions: Breast feeding practices in the current study was far from satisfactory. Mother’s education and antenatal breast-feeding counselling had a major role in the feeding practices.

BACKGROUND Clinical experience and research evidence suggests that in India many cancer patients are not informed about their diagnosis and prognosis. Previous studies have demonstrated an increased risk for psychiatric morbidity among cancer patients. Communication with patients and relatives can be complex particularly in filial cultures where families play an important role in terminal illness management. The present study was done to assess the status of awareness of diagnosis among cancer patients with various parameters in our setup. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional descriptive study was done on 100 patients admitted to the oncology ward for a period of 6 months from March 2016 to August 2016. Patients were evaluated by questionnaire method and assessed by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS A total of 100 patients were interviewed, out of which 58 patients (58%) were males and mean age was 51.6yrs. Out of the 100 patients, 60 patients (60%) were aware of diagnosis. The mean anxiety score was 10.05 among those aware of diagnosis and 8.05 among those not aware of diagnosis. The mean depression score was 10.45 among those aware of diagnosis and 8.275 among those not aware of diagnosis. The mean anxiety and depression score was found to be more in the age group of 20-40yrs. Out of the 100 patients, 95 patients said they had the right to know about their illness. CONCLUSION Disclosing the diagnosis is an important aspect in treating patients with cancer. Family and paternalistic relationships play a central role in disclosure of diagnosis. Although, mean anxiety and depression score was found to be more among those who knew the diagnosis of cancer, patients preferred to know the diagnosis. Hence, it is very important to educate physicians regarding issues related to diagnosis disclosure.