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Zinc is an important microelement that promotes immunity, proper development and growth of the nervous system and resistance to infection. It is a constituent of more than 200 enzymes involved in digestion, metabolism, synthesis of RNA and DNA, reproduction and is also essential for healthy pregnancy outcomes. An estimated 17.3% of global population is at risk for zinc deficiency due to inadequate dietary supply and bioavailability. Inadequate intake of zinc during pregnancy has been related to adverse pregnancy outcomes including abortion, foetal neural tube defects, membrane rupture, preterm delivery, prolonged labour and stillbirth and risk of maternal and infant mortality. Other risk factors of zinc deficiency are diarrheal disease, malabsorption syndromes, parasitosis, hot and humid climate, rapid multiplicative cell growth (pregnancy, infancy, and adolescence), lactation and genetic disease. Zinc deficiency is primarily related to the poor zinc status of the diet. Animal protein-based diet is a rich source of zinc, whereas vegetable and cereal-based diet is not only poor in zinc content but also interferes with its absorption due to high content of phytates. Zinc supplementation during pregnancy and lactation plays a role in improving both maternal and foetal health. Zinc supplementation reduces the frequency of preterm birth by 14%, decreases respiratory infections and childhood diarrhoea, lowers all-cause mortality and increases growth and weight gain among infants and young children. While there are no separate programmes for zinc supplementation in India, zinc tablets are provided along with oral rehydration solution (ORS) for treatment of diarrhoea as per WHO guidelines. More research is required to assess the benefits of the large-scale zinc intervention programmes during pregnancy. This chapter reviews the importance of zinc in pregnancy and its effect on foetal and infant growth.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus (COVID-19) a worldwide pandemic has significantly affected life of people around the globe. It has also caused various psychological issues among public such as uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and of course stress. Globalization has facilitated it and has added greater complexity to the containment of infection leading to urgent call for public health challenge. Consequently, a multilevel stress coping adjustment process is going on. Hence, it is imperative to explore how people are affected psychologically and how they are coping with it. People are adopting different strategies for coping up from this challenging situation. In this sense, the present study intended to: explore which coping strategies were of relevance for people for adjusting in COVID-19 crises and were sociodemographic factors influencing the coping strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research is descriptive study. For the present study, a sample of 475 participants was asked for coping strategies used by them using valid and reliable scales. RESULTS: Results revealed that positive attitude and trust in God were the most used adaptive coping strategies and sociodemographic variables were playing a significant role in adaptive coping strategies. CONCLUSION: Hence, understanding and identification of coping strategies and their relationship with demographic variables can help health professionals to direct interventions to control stressors related to the pandemics.

The study probed the effect of cognitive and emotional Stroop on the performance of students from different levels of anxiety. Anxiety is a normal and healthy reaction to perceived danger that triggers a variety of physical, mental and behavioral changes in order to facilitate a speedy response (WHO, 2004). Again, anxiety has also been found to have an important role to play in situations of cognitive conflict. The Stroop effect has often been widely used for assessing conflict (Stroop, 1935; MacLeod, 1991). In the present study, a mixed sample of 89 students from the Government schools of Chandigarh in the age range of 14-18 years (mean age= 15.9 years) was taken, for the purpose. The repeated measures ANOVA and other analysis of the data brought out performance differences with regard to how different groups of anxiety perform during cognitive and emotional Stroop task situations. The study revealed that anxiety significantly interacts with Stroop performance. Further, high anxiety damages emotional Stroop performance more than it damages the cognitive Stroop performance i.e., high anxiety individuals show more reactive control (Braver, 2012). On the other hand, low and moderate anxiety seems to lead to more errors on cognitive Stroop as compared to the emotional Stroop.