Introduction: Many college students suffer from sleep disorders, including insomnia, and sleep deprivation, resulting in a poor sleep quality. Students are at risk for sleep disorders, and those at risk may also be at risk for academic failure. The main aim of the study is to assess the level of sleep quality among college students in Kathmandu, Nepal. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 504 students of class 11 and 12 of any faculties among selected colleges of Kathmandu. Simple random sampling was used for selection of colleges. Ethical approval was taken before data collection. Participants with chronic medical illness and mental disorders were excluded from the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the information related to socio-demography, and Pittsburgh sleep quality index was used to assess the sleep quality in college students. All data extracted from questionnaires were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: Out of 504 students, 40.9% were found to have good sleep quality, whereas, 59.1% were found to have poor sleep quality. 55.21% of male students and 65.78% of female students had poor sleep quality. 58.30% of science students and 59.85 % of management students had poor sleep quality. Conclusions: The quality of sleep among Nepalese college students was found to be poor. Many colleges are unaware of the risks or issues to the students.

Background: Early and late introduction of complementary feeding is associated with increased morbidity and nutritional deficiencies in children. In 2016, the under 5 mortality rate of Nepal was 39 deaths per 1000 live births and around 1 million under 5 children had suffered from chronic malnutrition. The main aim of this study was to identify the level of knowledge and practice regarding complementary feeding among the mothers of children aged group 6 to 24 months in Bhanu Municipality, Tanahu District, Nepal.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 158 mothers of children age group 6 to 24 months from ward number 1 and 2 in Bhanu Municipality, Tanahu District, Nepal. Data collection was done after taking ethical approvalby using a semi-structured questionnaire via face-to-face interviews. Collected data were entered and descriptive analysis was carriedout in Statistical Package for the Social Services version 20. Categorical variables were presented using frequency and percentage. Clopper-pearson method was used to determine 95% confidence interval.Results: Out of 158 respondents, 26.6% (95%CI:19.9,34.2) had inadequate knowledge, whereas 73.4% (95%CI:65.8, 80.1) had adequate knowledge on complementary feeding. Likewise, the study revealed that 51.9%(95%CI: 43.8, 59.9) did the right practice, while 48.1%(95%CI: 40.1,56.2) were involved in the wrong practice on complementary feeding. Only 39 % mothers gained the knowledge about complementary feeding from the health workers. 2.5% of mother had exclusively breastfed their child up to just 3 months. Conclusions: Despite the good level of knowledge about complementary feeding, the wrong practice was prevalent in about half of the mothers. As a result, enhancing existing strategies and developing new intervention measures including capacity building of healthworkers to improve child feeding practices must be mandatory actions for the government and policymakers.Keywords: Complementary feeding; knowledge; Nepal; practice

Introduction:  For the reduction of financial burden and to achieve universal health care, Government of Nepal launched a security program called as Social Health Insurance Program. This study aimed to find the factors associated with the utilization of the social health insurance scheme. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the Bhaktapur Municipality ward no 2. 422 households were chosen using systematic random sampling. Questionnaires were used to measure the factors affecting the utilization. The collected data was entered in Epidata and analyzed in SPSS version 16. The data were presented in the frequency and percentage. Bivariate analysis was done to identify factors utilizing social health insurance. Factors having p value less than 0.05 was taken as significantly associated. Multivariate analysis was done to examine the association between the outcome variables. Results: Almost half of the general population (42.4 %) were utilizing social health insurance scheme and reason for not utilizing includes lack of confidence in the scheme and the services of the scheme, followed by high premium cost. Age (p=0.044), occupation (p= 0.049), wealth quintiles (p=<0.001) were found to be significantly associated with utilization of social health insurance. Logistic regression analysis showed that the odds of enrollment among very rich population group were lower than the medium (AOR 0.550, 95% CI 0.305-0.993) and rich population (AOR 0.557, 95% CI 0.316-0.981). Conclusions: Multiple factors were found to be associated with the utilization of the health insurance scheme which includes age of the household head, occupation of the household head, economic status, availability of the drugs and charge paid during their visit in the health care services, behavior showed by the health care provider, confidence in the scheme, satisfaction in the services that have been providing and source of the information.

Introduction: Anxiety and depression are among the most common mental health problems, and they are highly comorbid with each other. Many college students experience several mental health issues because of academic pressure, family expectations, difficult environment, and controlling people. Hence, the objective of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of anxiety and depression in college students of Kathmandu, Nepal, as very limited studies have been conducted in this area. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 504 students (317 male & 187 female, age range = 15 to 21 years, mean age = 17.12±0.90 years) of grade 11 and 12 studying in nine randomly selected colleges of Kathmandu valley, Nepal. Participants with chronic medical illness and severe mental disorders were excluded from the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain the information related to socio-demography, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to assess the status of anxiety and depression in college students. Data were entered and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Results were presented in frequency and percentage. Results: The prevalence of anxiety in college students was 53.97%. Where, 28.57% students had mild anxiety, 18.85% had moderate anxiety, and 6.55% had severe anxiety. Similarly, the prevalence of depression in college students was found to be 39.88%. Where, 22.42% students had mild depression, 13.69% had moderate depression, and 3.77% had severe depression.  Conclusion: The prevalence of both anxiety and depression among college students in Kathmandu valley, Nepal, was found to be very high. The Government of Nepal and other concerned bodies should pay attention to this area.

Objectives Substance use disorder is a pattern of recurrent use of illicit substances that leads to severe psychosocial imbalance and recurrent relapse. The study was to evaluate the efficacy of a yoga-based intervention as an add-on in enhancing psychological wellbeing, compared with physical exercise among substance abusers. Methods In this randomized controlled study, 96 male participants with substance use disorder from a residential rehabilitation treatment center, Kathmandu, Nepal, were randomly allocated into two groups namely the yoga group (n=48, mean age ± SD=25.18 ± 6.43) and the physical exercise group (n=48, mean age ± SD=25.02 ± 5.02). The participants in the yoga group attended the 90 min yoga sessions for 12 weeks (six days per week) whereas the physical exercise group attended exercise sessions for the same duration. Above mentioned interventions were in addition to standard rehabilitation treatment. The study measured the Self-Control, Anxiety, Depression, Sleep parameters, and Mindfulness at the baseline and after 12 weeks of intervention. Results A significant enhancement in self-control was observed in both the yoga (p<0.033, d=0.33) and the exercise group (p<0.038, d=0.32). Yoga group showed significant improvement in mindfulness score (p<0.017, d=0.37), whereas exercise group did not show any significant changes in mindfulness (p<0.169, d=0.21). The depression and anxiety scores reduced significantly in both yoga (p<0.044, d=0.31; p<0.025, d=0.35 resp.) and exercise (p<0.032, d=0.34. p<0.039, d=0.32. resp.) group. Furthermore, significant reduction was seen in sleep disturbance after yoga (p<0.001, d=0.52) and exercise (p<0.001, d=0.78) intervention. The sleep – somnolence score reduced significantly only in yoga group (p<0.020, d=0.36). The magnitude of improvement was higher in the yoga group than physical exercise group on self-control, mindfulness, depression, anxiety and some sleep parameters, however the between group differences could not reach to the level of significance. Conclusions The 12 week yoga intervention did not appear to be significantly more effective than the 12 week physical exercise program on psychological wellbeing in male participants with substance use disorder. However, greater improvement in psychological wellbeing was observed within the yoga group. In future, a multi-centric study with robust design, larger sample size and longer follow-up is required to conform the present results and to find out the difference between the impacts of yoga and physical exercise on psychological wellbeing in substance abusers.