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BackgroundEducation of mothers may improve child health. We investigated whether maternal health literacy, a rapidly modifiable factor related to mother's education, was associated with children's receipt of vaccines in two underserved Indian communities.MethodsCross-sectional surveys in an urban and a rural site. We assessed health literacy using Indian child health promotion materials. The outcome was receipt of three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine. We used multivariate logistic regression to investigate the relationship between maternal health literacy and vaccination status independently in each site. For both sites, adjusted models considered maternal age, maternal and paternal education, child sex, birth order, household religion and wealth quintile. Rural analyses used multilevel models adjusted for service delivery characteristics. Urban analyses represented cluster characteristics through fixed effects.ResultsThe rural analysis included 1170 women from 60 villages. The urban analysis included 670 women from nine slum clusters. In each site, crude and adjusted models revealed a positive association between maternal health literacy and DTP3. In the rural site, the adjusted OR was 1.57 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.21, p=0.010) for those with medium health literacy, and OR=1.30 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.91, p=0.172) for those with high health literacy. In the urban site, the adjusted OR was 1.10 (95% CI 0.65 to 1.88, p=0.705) for those with medium health literacy, and OR=2.06 (95% CI 1.06 to 3.99, p=0.032) for those with high health literacy.ConclusionsIn these study settings, maternal health literacy is independently associated with child vaccination. Initiatives targeting health literacy could improve vaccination coverage.

Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants after angiosperms. There is very less knowledge available about medicinal properties of these plants. Bryophytes are popular remedy among the tribal people of different parts of the world. Tribal people use these plants to cure various ailments in their daily lives. Bryophytes are used to cure hepatic disorders, skin diseases, cardiovascular diseases, used as antipyretic, antimicrobial, wound healing and many more other ailments by different tribal communities of Africa, America, Europe, Poland, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan, China, Nepal and different parts of South, North and Eastern India. Apart from ethno-medicinal uses some bryophytes possesses antitumor activities against different cancer cell lines and this property of bryophytes needs to be more focused in the future. Compile information about medicinal properties and anticancer properties of bryophytes is lacking till date. In the present review, the authors tried to compile all the ethno-medicinal and other related information of bryophytes and fill the knowledge lacuna in this particular field. Some published reviews are available but the information is segregated. This manuscript will help people doing research in the bryophytes.

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