Adolescence is a phase of rapid growth and development during which physical, physiological and behavioural changes occur. They constitute more than 1.2 billion worldwide, and about 21% of Indian population. Morbidity and mortality occurring in this age group is mostly due to preventable causes. Young and growing children have poor knowledge and lack of awareness about physical and psychological changes that occurs during adolescence and the ill health affecting them. Existing Adolescent health programmes focus on rendering services like immunization, health education for sexual and reproductive health, nutritional education and supplementation, anemia control measures and counseling. Adolescent health programmes are fragmentary at present and there is no comprehensive programme addressing all the needs of adolescents. Access and availability of health care services are severely limited. Lack of accurate information, absence of proper guidance, parent's ignorance, lack of skills and insufficient services from health care delivery system are the major barriers. Interventions should focus on providing psychological and mental health services and behaviour change communication towards leading a healthy lifestyle, restricting advertisement related to junk food products, awareness creation about reproductive and sexual health, educating parents to prevent early marriage, teenage pregnancy and to counsel their children on nutrition and reproductive health. Universal coverage of Adolescent friendly clinics is highly recommended. To be cost effective, all health services addressing adolescent should come under single programme. This review is intended to create awareness among the stakeholders about the importance of strengthening adolescent health services in order to meet their felt needs.

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Background: Hepatitis B is a serious, global, public health problem nearly two billion people in the world have been infected with HBV. Medical students represent a population that is at high‑risk group for acquiring and spreading hepatitis B infection (HBV). Despite increasing prevalence of HBV, there is paucity of information on knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) HBV among medical students. Objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practices of hepatitis B infection among medical students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out from June 2017 to August 2017 on medical students at Sree Balaji Medical College, Chennai. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect the data from 200 undergraduate medical students.Results: In the present study 82.5% of medical students had correct knowledge that vaccine is available for hepatitis B .Regarding spread of Hepatitis B, 92.5% said that hepatitis B spreads by blood, 91.0% said that is spread by sexual contact, 97% revealed that vaccination can prevent the hepatitis B infection. With respect to the risk factors 95.5% said that shared needle is a risk factor for hepatitis B, Regarding the vaccination status of the students for hepatitis B only 32% are fully vaccinated, 30% are partially vaccinated and 38% are unvaccinated.Conclusions: This study showed that the knowledge and attitude of medical students are good, but practice was not sufficient only 32% of the medical students are fully vaccinated for Hepatitis B.

Introduction: In India, though the prevalence of alcohol consumption is low, nearly half of the alcoholic consumers fall into the category of hazardous drinking. There have been rapid changes in the trends and pattern of alcohol use in India. Aims: The study was carried to find out the pattern of alcohol consumption, associated morbidities, and its association with related factors in an urban area of Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done among adult males >18 years of age in Kancheepuram district Tamil Nadu. Among the 400 study participants selected by simple random sampling, 156 were found to be alcohol consumers. A pre-tested structured questionnaire and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to identify the pattern of alcohol consumption and the associated health morbidities. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 22. Results: It was found that 67% of alcohol consumers had a problematic drinking pattern with 52.5% having a hazardous/harmful drinking pattern and 14.7% were found to be dependent alcoholics. The associated factors of problem drinking among the alcohol consumers were illiteracy, having a history of tobacco use, being unmarried/divorced and consuming alcohol in wine shops. The health morbidities that were found to be associated with alcohol consumption were hypertension, gastritis/peptic ulcer disease, and psychiatric illnesses. Conclusion: More than half of the alcohol consumers had a problematic drinking pattern, which is an alarming public health problem. All the current drinkers in a community have to be screened for problematic drinking pattern and it has to be supplemented with referral services, health promotion, behavioral change communication to the alcohol consumer, and his family members.

Background: Diabetes and hypertension are among the most common non-communicable diseases affecting our population. They are the important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The aims and objectives of the study were to determine the burden of diabetes and hypertension among people attending health camps in an urban area of Kancheepuram district. Formulation of suitable preventive measures based on the inferences from the study.Methods: A cross- sectional record based study was done on 825 people attending medical camps conducted by Sree Balaji Medical College & Hospital, in Anakaputhur area of Kancheepuram district. The data regarding Random Blood Sugar (RBS) level, blood pressure level, age, and gender were collected from the camp register (January and February, 2017). A random blood sugar (RBS) value of >200 mg/dl in a patient with classic symptoms of hyperglycaemia or hyperglycaemic crisis was defined as having diabetes. Blood pressure level equal to or greater than 140/90mm Hg was defined as having hypertension. Descriptive analysis and Chi square test was done to see the statistical association between various parameters. Results: Of the total study population of 825 people, 215 were males and 610 were females. The overall burden of diabetes and hypertension among the study population was 10.7% and 6.4% respectively. Co-existence of both diabetes and hypertension was seen in 5.7% of people. Conclusions: To reduce the disease burden due to diabetes and hypertension, primary prevention measures such as health education regarding adoption of healthy lifestyle should be instituted. Interventions such as screening and early initiation of treatment should also be made for controlling the diseases and preventing its complications.