To evaluate the impact of a school-based health behavior intervention known as Planet Health on obesity among boys and girls in grades 6 to 8. Design: Randomized, controlled field trial with 5 intervention and 5 control schools. Outcomes were assessed using preintervention (fall 1995) and follow-up measures (spring 1997), including prevalence, incidence, and remission of obesity.Participants: A group of 1295 ethnically diverse grade 6 and 7 students from public schools in 4 Massachusetts communities.Intervention: Students participated in a school-based interdisciplinary intervention over 2 school years. Planet Health sessions were included within existing curricula using classroom teachers in 4 major subjects and physical education. Sessions focused on decreasing television viewing, decreasing consumption of high-fat foods, increasing fruit and vegetable intake, and increasing moderate and vigorous physical activity.Main Outcome Measures: Obesity was defined as a composite indicator based on both a body mass index and a triceps skinfold value greater than or equal to age-and sex-specific 85th percentiles. Because schools were randomized, rather than students, the generalized estimating equation method was used to adjust for individuallevel covariates under cluster randomization.Results: The prevalence of obesity among girls in intervention schools was reduced compared with controls, controlling for baseline obesity (odds ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.24-0.93; P = .03), with no differences found among boys. There was greater remission of obesity among intervention girls vs control girls (odds ratio, 2.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-4.35; P = .04). The intervention reduced television hours among both girls and boys, and increased fruit and vegetable consumption and resulted in a smaller increment in total energy intake among girls. Reductions in television viewing predicted obesity change and mediated the intervention effect. Among girls, each hour of reduction in television viewing predicted reduced obesity prevalence (odds ratio, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-0.97; P = .02). Conclusion:Planet Health decreased obesity among female students, indicating a promising school-based approach to reducing obesity among youth.

Objective: To evaluate the association between stunting in children and maternal short stature, controlling for potential environmental confounders. Design: 1988 Mexico National Nutrition Survey. Setting: Mexico Subjects: The ®nal sample size was 4663 pairs of children (`5 y) and their mothers (12 ± 49 y) from a total of 13 236 surveyed houses. Main outcome measures: Stunting (height-for-age Z-scores`7 2). Results: The prevalence of stunting in children was 19%, and 10% of the mothers exhibited short stature (`145 cm). In the crude analysis, mothers with short stature were signi®cantly more likely to have stunted children (odds ratio (OR) 4.0; 95% con®dence interval (CI) 3.2 ± 4.8; P-value`0.001). In a multiple logistic regression model the OR for child stunting was reduced, but remained signi®cant OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.6 ± 2.6; P-value`0.001) after adjustment for region, urbanarural residence, socio-economic status, household size, child age and presence of infection in the past 14 d, and maternal age, body mass index (BMI), and educational level. Adjusted ORs varied between regions (Mexico City, OR 3.9; North Mexico, OR 3.1; Central Mexico, OR 2.0; South Mexico, OR 1.6. Comparison of crude vs adjusted estimates pointed to regional differences in the proportion of association between maternal and child short statures explained by environmental determinants. Conclusions: Maternal stature, re¯ecting her potential height and early environment, appeared to contribute to child height independently of the shared risk factors that could affect stature. Nonetheless, we could explain much of the association between stunting in children and maternal short stature by environmental factors, and part of the residual variability may be due to unmeasured determinants. Regional differences pointed to a predominance of environmental factors in explaining child stunting in poorer regions.

This study reports clinico-epidemiological features and viral agents causing acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in the eastern Indian region through hospital-based case enrolment during April 2011 to July 2012. Blood and CSF samples of 526 AES cases were investigated by serology and/or PCR. Viral aetiology was identified in 91 (17·2%) cases. Herpes simplex virus (HSV; types I or II) was most common (16·1%), followed by measles (2·6%), Japanese encephalitis virus (1·5%), dengue virus (0·57%), varicella zoster virus (0·38%) and enteroviruses (0·19%). Rash, paresis and cranial nerve palsies were significantly higher (P < 0·05) with viral AES. Case-fatality rates were 10·9% and 6·2% in AES cases with and without viral aetiology, respectively. Simultaneous infection of HSV I and measles was observed in seven cases. This report provides the first evidence on viral aetiology of AES viruses from eastern India showing dominance of HSV that will be useful in informing the public health system.

Epidemic of flu is highly contagious and it spreads through air. In 2009 H1N1 influenza virus emerged after reassortment of North American TRIG and Eurasia Avian like virus of swine and started epidemic in Mexico. The first cases were reported from Hyderabad city on 16th May 2009 in India that spread rapidly within a short span of time. During this period large population of Odisha situated at the eastern side of India was also affected and incidences of H1N1 cases were recorded through state Government surveillance system. In this study real time RT-PCR based diagnosis was conducted for the throat swabs collected from suspected H1N1 cases in Odisha during 2009–2017. A total of 2872 throat swabs were received from 23 different Government and private hospitals and 21.1% positivity was confirmed. The disease affected mostly 46–60 years age group, males (50.6%) being more affected. The clinical features had shown that fever with cough (89.6%) was the most common symptom followed by shortness of breath (72.7%). Post monsoon was the peak season in which most of the cases were reported. Neurological signs, pregnancy, diabetes and hypertension were found to be risk factors for H1N1. The case fatality rate (CFR) was 15%.