Background: Smart phones have become an integral part of youth. But at the same time addiction towards its use have become a serious concern among them. The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of smart phone usage among medical college students and their demographic characteristics.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 192 medical students. A self administered SAS scale has been used to assess the level of smart phone addiction. Subjects were classified into smart phone non-user group, a low smart phone user group and a high smart phone user group.Results: Out of 192 subjects who completed the questionnaires 85.40% (n=164) had smart phone addiction. Out of the total 192 students 28 students (14.60%) were low smart phone users, of which 9 were boys (14.30%) and 19 were girls (14.70%). Among 164 (85.40%) high smart phone users 54 students were boys (85.70%) and 110 were girls (85.30%) which was not statistically significant at 5% level (chi square=0.007, p=0.935).Conclusions: Medical college students in Andaman and Nicobar Islands are more vulnerable for smart phone addiction.

Background: Stunting or low height-for-age is failure to reach linear growth potential, and is a key indicator of chronic under nutrition. The objectives of the study were to assess the status of stunting among children attending outpatient department and to evaluate the demographic profile of such children.Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study conducted over a period 6 months from August 2015 to January 2016 among children within age group of 2 to 12 years attending outpatient department of GB Pant Hospital, Port Blair. Height-for-age z-scores (HFAz) was generated using the WHO Anthro software (version 3.2.2).Results: Overall 444 students’ were included in the study which included 213 male children (48%) and 231 female children (52.0%). Out of this 21.70% children were stunted and 6.3% children were severely stunted. Among the socio demographic factors shunting and severe stunting is seen among lower/upper lower class (82.14%) followed by middle/lower middle class.Conclusions: Collective effort by government, non-government organizations is required to plan long term and short term strategies addressing the risk factors.

Background: Malaria is an important vector borne disease persisting to be a major public health problem in India. The objective of this study is to find the present scenario of malaria in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.Methods: Retrospective data mining of records from the year January 2010 to December 2016 from 35 primary and community health centres existing across Andaman and Nicobar Islands.Results: A total of 517303 samples were examined from 2010 to 2016 out of which this 8397 samples were found microscopically positive of which P. vivax cases were 5631 (67.06%) and P. falciparum cases were 2766 ( 32.94%).Conclusions: There is gradual decrease in number of positive malarial cases as well as decrease in API.