Background: The health of the child depends on the attainment of the nutritional requirements, which include breast-feeding followed by complementary feeding. The mother’s knowledge on complementary feeding is greatly relied upon health workers. Therefore it is important for the health workers to know the recommended practices for Infant and Young Child Feeding practices so that they can impart the same to mothers.Methods: Cross sectional hospital based questionnaire study conducted among 120 medical interns at Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Mangalore. A score of more than 75% was considered good, 50 -74% moderate, and less than 50% as poor. Statistical Package of social science (SPSS) software was used for analysis of data.Results: Of the 110 respondents, majority of them (88.18%) of them agreed to initiate complementary feeding at 6 months. 82% of them responded that it should be initiated with rice/cereal-based diet. Of the 110 responded 87 of them agreed that for a 6–8 month old breastfed child the frequency of feeds needed to be at least 2 times or higher. Regarding the type of complementary feeding, 89.09% were aware that it should be started with mono-cereals.Conclusions: This study concluded that majority of the medical interns had a good knowledge on the recommended feeding practices for the infant and young child. There were very few medical interns who had to be informed regarding the correct infant and young child feeding practices.

Background: Breast milk is optimum for a neonate as it is a natural food and the best gift a mother can give to her baby. Breast feeding is an art and skill which need to be learnt and mastered by mothers. As health care workers are the first line of contact for lactating mothers, this study was planned to assess their knowledge on breast feeding. Methods: Hospital based cross-sectional study was performed among health care workers at Yenepoya Medical College and Hospital of Mangalore. 100 health care workers consisting of 60 medical interns and 40 staff nurses were enrolled in the study. Health care workers were given a questionnaire that sought responses pertaining to the knowledge on breastfeeding and its techniques. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Access and Excel software. Results: The present study showed 92% of medical interns and 95% of nursing staff had correct knowledge about initiation of breastfeeding. Knowledge on contents of colostrums and its advantage was more among medical interns (85%) as compared to nursing staffs (30%). Knowledge on prelacteal feeds was good among medical interns as compared to nurses. Both medical interns and nursing have poor knowledge on breastfeeding during maternal illness. Knowledge on correct feeding position and good breast attachment was good among nursing staffs. Conclusions: Study showed there is some substantial knowledge gap on breastfeeding among health care workers. Enhancing their knowledge on breastfeeding and the problems associated with it will be useful for the nurturing mothers as well as themselves.

Background: Antibiotic resistance has become an emerging issue worldwide due to the rampant and excessive use of antibiotics for any and every condition. At present, antibiotics are the most commonly sold drugs in the developing countries which have been the cause for escalation of antibiotic resistance. Lack of knowledge, awareness and practice among parents regarding antibiotics use is the most important cause for antibiotic misuse.Methods: Cross sectional hospital based questionnaire study conducted among 200 parents of children attending the outpatient or inpatient department at Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Mangalore; using personal interview method. Parents were asked to answer the statements on a 5-point Likert scale (“strongly agree”, “agree”, “uncertain”, “disagree”, “strongly disagree” or “never”, “sometimes”, “often”, “most of the time”, “always”). Statistical Package of social science (SPSS) software was used for analysis of data.Results: Out of the 200 parent’s majority of the respondents (69%) were mothers. There was very little difference in percentage of respondents that disagreed with notion that antibiotics must be administered in any case of fever (43.3%). 42.3% mentioned that antibiotics were always necessary in ARI. Most common symptoms to visit pediatrician included cough (23.4%), followed by ear pain (18.1%) and nasal discharge (12.9%). 17.5% of parents never questioned the pediatricians if antibiotic administration was necessary and more than 2/3rd of the parents declared that pediatricians provided sufficient information regarding diagnosis and therapy.Conclusions: Majority of parents admitted to self-administration of antibiotics. There is a need of intervention to increase awareness regarding judicious use of antibiotics and to check un-prescribed dispensing of antibiotics. Strategies for effective communication with patients and prudent prescription of antibiotics should be included in physician education to ensure patients’ adherence to advice and consequently to reduce self-medication with antibiotics.

Background: HIV an abbreviation of human immunodeficiency virus, infection of which in most advanced stage leads to AIDS. HIV/AIDS is both global public health problem and young people are at the centre of global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Lack of information and understanding about HIV/AIDS, increases their susceptibility towards the disease. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the knowledge of HIV/AIDS among the X grade students as well as to know the differences in knowledge across gender.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 250 students studying in X grade of 3 private schools located in Mangalore city, selected by multistage cluster sampling. The study was conducted for duration of 2 weeks using a predesigned and pre-structured questionnaire. Ethical approval from the institution and necessary permission from school authority was obtained prior to initiation of study. Results: Mean age of the study participants was 15.40±0.615. Females were predominant in the age group of 14 and 16 years (100.0% and 53.40% respectively). Majority of them had adequate knowledge of full form of HIV (94.4%), virus as causative agent (85.6%), awareness symbol of HIV/AIDS (86.8%), modes of transmission of HIV (871.6%). Poor knowledge was observed in areas of prevention (60.4%), actions that does not transmit HIV infection (58.0%), availability of blood tests (58.0%) and drugs (42.4%). Males had better knowledge in various areas when compared to females.Conclusions: Stringent efforts are required to improve the knowledge of HIV/AIDS by health education camps and school teachers need to be trained to enhance the knowledge of students.