Background: Family planning services have the potential to improve the quality of the lives of people. Family planning deals with reproductive health of mother, having adequate birth spacing, avoiding undesired pregnancies and abortions, preventing sexually transmitted diseases and improving the quality of life of mother, fetus and family as a whole. This study was conducted in the field practice area to learn about various family planning practices and reasons for non-use.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out amongst women of reproductive age group in the field practice area of Rural Health Training Centre of Dept. of Community Medicine of a Government Medical College, Miraj Dist- Sangli, Maharashtra during the period of January to March 2018. Total of 2964 eligible couples were interviewed by the trained staff using the pre-tested questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using appropriate test whenever necessary.Results: The contraceptive prevalence was found to be 80.8%. Majority 92.8% couples who had two children were using one of the contraceptive methods. Among 2396 contraceptive users, 76% of couples had followed permanent method of sterilization. The permanent method opted by majority of couples was female sterilization i.e. 75.8%, whereas male sterilization was carried out by only 0.2% partners. Among the couples who were using temporary methods, majority partners were using Nirodh.Conclusions: Promotion of contraceptive usage should be done through intense awareness campaigns and continuous motivation should be carried in the current contraceptive users.

Background: Modern life is full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations and demands. Mental stress or psychosocial stress is one of the major risk factor for hypertension which itself is the risk factor for various other cardiovascular diseases.

Background: India has one of the highest numbers of cases of rabies in world. Animal bites in humans are an important public health problem. Dog bites in humans are a complex problem embracing public health and animal welfare, both in developed and developing nations.Methods: Cross-sectional record based study carried out in anti rabies clinic of Government Medical College, Miraj (1 November – 31 December, 2016).Results: Majority of victims were males and age of patient was 15-65 years, major site of bite was lower limb (58.6%). Numbers of cases were of category III bite (81.3%) and (16.4%) were of category II bite, (2.3%) cases were of category I.Conclusions: The persistence of dog bites as public health problem in Miraj and data entered into the case records of the patients was complete.

Background: Climatic factors may influence the dengue cases in the given geographical area indicating the need of research on it. The research in India, especially Maharashtra is however scarce. Thus a study on climatic factors and dengue cases was planned in metropolitan city of Maharashtra. Objective was to study the effect of climatic factors like rainfall, humidity and temperature on the dengue incidence.Methods: Retrospective study design was commissioned at tertiary care hospital in the city. The reported DF/DHF cases during January 2009 to December 2018 were mobilised from Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) of Epidemiology cell, Mumbai. Climate records were gathered from meteorology department of the city. Data were entered on the Excel sheet. The analysis was done with SPSS version 22.0.Results: The dengue incidence was high in monsoon and post monsoon season. Both rainfall and humidity were positively and temperature was negatively associated with dengue incidence.Conclusions: Climatic factors are the best predictors of dengue cases in near future. Weather factors based early warning systems may be incorporated in the routine surveillance system for dengue for preventing the epidemic.

Background: Adolescence is recognized as the period for onset of behaviors and conditions that not only affect health limited to that time but also lead to adulthood disorders. Unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use often begin during adolescence. Behavior patterns that influence health in adulthood have their origin in adolescence. The habit of substance use comes either from the peer groups or it may be generated within the family because the elders are resorting to one or the other form of substance use. Considering such factors, the present study had been undertaken with the objectives to study socio-economic class wise prevalence of substance use in study population; to study knowledge, attitude and practices of study population regarding substance use; to study various determinants that affect substance use.Methods: Cross sectional, descriptive study was being conducted in selected High schools and Junior Colleges in the Miraj Town. The method of data collection was the pre-designed, pre-tested proforma.Results: Various forms of tobacco, alcohol and pan masala were used by 58.9% of the family members/friends/peer groups of the study participants. Overall use [ever use + regular use] of tobacco products was observed in 9.0%, alcohol in 4.6% and pan masala in 33.3% of the study participants.Conclusions: Several factors can enhance the risk for initiating or continuing substance use including socioeconomic status, substance use by family members or friends and peer group influence.