Background: Junk food consumption and its consequences has become a major public health concern globally because of its deteriorating health consequences and surging prevalence. Though its adverse health consequences are widely prevalent in all age groups, children and adolescents are more at risk. It may lead to obesity and act as a risk factor for different non-communicable diseases (NCD's) like heart diseases, cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, etc. This study was carried out to explore the junk food consumption and its associated factors among adolescent students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 538 adolescent students of Kaski district, Nepal. We used a stratified proportionate sampling technique to recruit the participants. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and bivariate statistical analysis was performed. The odds ratio was computed to test the association.Results: The study found that more than half of the participants (60.30%) consumed junk foods over the last 30 days, more prevalent among public school participants (65.1%) followed by participants of private school (56.3%). More than half of the participants consumed salty snacks (58.7%) followed by sweets (57.5%). The time of consumption was found to be higher together with friends (83.9%). Similarly, it was consumed more while the participants were on a trip (70.1%). Consumption of junk foods was significantly associated with public school (OR: 1.44, CI = 1.01–2.06), single family (OR: 1.46, CI = 1.01–2.10), living with parents (OR: 1.64, CI = 1.03–2.63), while on travel (OR: 1.99, CI = 1.33–2.98), while reading (OR: 2.01, CI = 1.16–3.47), at home (OR: 2.20, CI = 1.53–3.16), at school (OR: 2.86, CI = 1.98–4.12), friends' influence (OR: 2.01, CI = 1.37–2.94), and junk food availability at home (OR: 1.92, CI = 1.33–2.76).Conclusion: Consumption of junk foods among adolescent students was remarkably high in both public school and private school adolescents. Regardless of adequate knowledge on harmful consequences of junk foods, school-going adolescents are consuming junk foods due to its easy availability and ready-to-use packaging. The government of Nepal should strictly standardize and regulate advertising policies and extravagant health claims advertised by junk food manufacturers. An appropriate intervention targeted to adolescents to improve food behaviors is recommended.

Background: Despite continuous efforts to increase the utilization of institutional delivery care services nearly two-fifths women deliver their babies at home without the assistance of skilled birth attendants (SBA) in Nepal. The skilled care at birth can reduce the high maternal and neonatal mortality. This study explored childbirth practices and women’s perceptions of childbirth and its associated factors.Methods: An exploratory study was conducted in three purposively selected remote villages of Kapilvastu district, from March to May 2017. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with women who had an under-one year child. We performed a thematic analysis to draw the findings of the study. Results: Women sought institutional delivery care either for long labor-pain or obstructed-delivery. Despite various incentives, people still preferred home for normal deliveries. There was also practiced skilled birth attendant (SBA) assisted home delivery care. Some of the local health workers also advised pregnant-women for assisted home delivery care. People considered childbirth as a normal process. Due to cultural beliefs and norms, people were also reluctant to pursue institutional delivery care services. Financial constraints, poor access to services and expensive transportation services were other underlining causes of home delivery practices. Conclusions: Despite various incentives for institutional delivery care; the study did not spectacle an encouraging reaction. It pointed to the very basic and strong relationship between women’s position in the household and the society and education with childbirth practices. There were limits to how far financial incentives can overcome these obstacles. So, the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the women would be the viable way-out of the problem.Keywords: Childbirth practices; home delivery; institutional delivery; women’s perception

Introduction: In Nepal, Intimate partner violence (IPV) is quite common among women. Several factors can play a role for the incidence of intimate partner violence. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of lifetime IPV and last 12 months and associated factors among Nepalese women of reproductive age. Methods: The Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016 data was used for secondary data analysis. In the study, a total of 3,826 women of reproductive age were included. Intimate partner violence was measured as reporting of physical and/ or sexual and/or emotional violence ever experienced in her lifetime as well as in the last 12 months. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were computed. Results: Overall, 25.7% women have experienced lifetime intimate partner violence, with 22.1% physical, 7.8% sexual and 12.7% emotional violence. Findings from multivariate logistic regression showed that women belonging to lower caste (Adjusted Odds Ratio(AOR):1.41, 95% Cofidence Interval(CI)=1.07-1.85), with no education (AOR:1.95, 95%CI=1.36- 2.79), with 3-5 number of children (AOR:1.57,95%CI=1.04-2.35), whose husband had no education (AOR:1.84,95% CI=1.27-2.66), whose husbands drank alcohol (AOR:2.54,95%CI=2.14-3.02) and the women who witness fathers beating their mothers (AOR:2.25,95%CI=1.81-2.78) were more likely suffering from intimate partner violence. Conclusion: Intimate partner violence has been linked to socio-demographic factors, substance abuse, and previous experience of witnessing fathers beating their mothers. In Nepal, equal access to education for both men and women, prohibition of caste-based discrimination and prevention of substance abuse may be effective strategies for reducing intimate partner violence.

INTRODUCTION: The government supported SHI is the largest health insurance schemes ever launched in the country since 2016 by Health Insurance Board. Prior to UHI program, small scale community health insurance programs are running in fragmented structure The paper aims to examine the association between the potential policyholder's paying willingness for the social health insurance their characteristics, and tries to predict the willingness to pay for social health insurance schemes and their expected benefits from the SHI run by Government of Nepal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out during Jan-July 2018 in Pokhara Metropolitan city 29, Kaski District, Nepal. RESULTS: Among the 5,000 households residing in the study area 360 households who have not purchased social health insurance schemes till the survey period but interested to buy within one year were selected for the study. Respondents were selected with purposive sampling method. The association between respondents' characteristics and their willingness to pay for SHI and expected benefits from SHI has been explore using the chi square test and found that association is significant with the family size and education. The predictors variables are identified using the hierarchical regression model. The study reveals that among seven demographic characteristics of respondents (gender, age group, household head, family size, ethnicity, qualification, and occupation), family size and profession are good predictors for willingness to pay SHI and family size and family head are the good predictors for the expected benefits. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes family size is most influential factors while deciding the premium and sum assured for social health insurance, however, family head influences expected benefits while profession influences amount of premium.

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is one of the key elements for the overall improvement of health service management. Patient satisfaction in the health care organization is popularly used for benchmark and accreditation purposes. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among the 164 patients who got their at least one type of eye surgery done following at least three OPD visits at Himalaya Eye Hospital from January 2019 to July 2019. A systematic random sampling technique was used to enroll the study subjects. Face to face interview was done with a semi-structured interview schedule to gather the data from the subject. Data were entered into Epi-Data and transfered to SPSS 20 for analysis. A Chi-square test was applied to find out the association between dependent and independent variables. Results: The average satisfaction score was (4.061±0.26). Overall 48.2% of respondents were satisfied with the physical environment, 59.1% were satisfied with eye care service, 67.1% were satisfied with a health care provider, and 59.1% satisfied with a financial cost, and 88.4% respondents were satisfied with the outcome of care. Conclusion: The majority of respondents were satisfied with the cleanliness and health care providers of the hospital. The main dissatisfaction was on the lack of provision of safe drinking water, insufficient space for caretakers, lengthy time for ticketing system, long waiting time, and waiting area. Concerned authorities are recommended for considering the need of people in the community which may further increase their satisfaction towards services and institutions.