Thalassaemia is a disease of abnormal development of red blood cells which manifests as anaemia. This chronic disease may cause mental, social, financial burdens on the families, care givers and also on health care system.To assess the quality of life (QOL) of the caregivers of thalassaemic children and to identify the predictors of quality of their physical and mental health.Institution based descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in the Thalassaemia Control Unit (TCU) of North Bengal Medical College (NBMC) from December 2018 to April 2019. Total 136 caregivers of children (≤12 years) with thalassaemia were included by complete enumeration method. Physical and mental health of the caregivers were reported in Short Form-36 (SF-36) Health Survey. Collected data were entered into MS-Excel, analysed with the help of SPSS (Version 22).Mean age of caregivers was 34.3 (SD ± 1.4 years). Most of caregivers were female (89%) and had educational qualification up to Primary school (45.6%). Majority (70.6%) of the caregivers were the mothers of the children. Most of the study participants (60.3%) had favourable Physical health Component Summary (PCS) but 64.7% of the caregivers had unfavourable Mental health component Summary (MCS). Educational status was found to be the predictor for PCS but age and relationship with the child were the predictors for MCS.Counselling, psychotherapy, social support for family members or caregivers of the thalassaemic children and community involvement with their full participation should be emphasized to reduce stigma related to thalassaemia.

Background: Properly constructed single best-answer multiple choice questions (MCQs) or items assess higher-order cognitive processing of Bloom's taxonomy and accurately discriminate between high and low achievers. However, guidelines for writing good test items are rarely followed, leading to generation and application of faulty MCQs. Materials and Methods: During lockdown period in 2020, internal assessment was taken through online mode using Google Forms. There were 60 'single response type' MCQs, each consisting of single stem and four options including one correct answer and three distractors. Each item was analyzed for difficulty index (Dif I), discrimination index (DI), and distractor efficiency (DE). Results: The mean of achieved marks was 42.92± (standard deviation [SD], 5.07). Dif I, DI, and DE were 47.95± (SD 16.39) in percentage, 0.12± (SD 0.10), and 18.42± (SD 15.35), respectively. 46.67% of the items were easy and 21.66% were of acceptable discrimination. Very weak negative correlation was found between Dif I and DI. Out of total 180 distractors, 51.66% were nonfunctional one. Conclusion: Item analysis and storage of MCQs with their indices provides opportunity for an examiner to select MCQs of appropriate difficulty level as per the need of assessment and decide their placement in the question paper.

Background: Malnutrition affects physical growth, morbidity, and mortality of the under-five children. It is an underlying factor in many diseases for children and is particularly prevalent in developing countries, where it affects one out of every three preschool-age children. Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were to find out the relationship between protein-energy malnutrition and other morbidities among under-five children. Materials and Methods: Community-based prospective longitudinal study was conducted in 1 year duration in a rural area of Hooghly District, West Bengal. By adopting sample size calculation formula 4 pq/L2, total 108 children were participated in the study. With the help of pre-design, pre-tested schedule data were collected by interviewing the care giver, by clinical and anthropometry examination of the children and by record review. Results: Among the study population under-weight, stunted, and wasted were 52%, 37%, and 28%, respectively, whereas malnutrition by all types of classification was 61%. Episode of diarrhea, acute respiratory infections (ARI), and worm infestation were 3.50, 4.12, and 1.38/child/year, respectively. Study shows that rate of total morbidities and prevalence of malnutrition was very much interrelated. Conclusion: Prevalence of malnutrition along with diarrhea, ARI, and worm infestations is common ailments among rural population. Special emphasis should be given for provision of health-care services and promotion and protection of optimal infant feeding practices for the improvement of nutritional as well as health status of the children.

Background of Study: Caregivers of the children with thalassemia often experienced a life with varied degree of anxiety and depression due the chronic illness like of their children. Mothers as the main caregivers for most of the thalassemic children suffers with different forms of psychological problems. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the levels of anxiety and depression of the caregivers of children with Thalassemia and also to find out sociodemographic factors associated with their anxiety and depression. Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Thalassemia Control Unit (TCU) of North Bengal Medical College (NBMC) from December 2018 to April 2019. Complete enumeration method was used to include 136 caregivers of children (≤12 years) with thalassemia. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess the levels of anxiety and depression. Collected data were entered into MS-Excel and analyzed by using SPSS software program, version 22.0. Results: Mean age of caregivers was 34.3 (SD ± 1.4 years). Most of caregivers were female (89%) and had educational qualification up to primary school (45.6%). Majority (70.6%) of the caregivers were the mothers of the children. Most of the study participants (54.4%) had moderate depression followed by 30.1% with mild mood disturbances. Majority (69.9%) of the study participants had mild anxiety and 30.1% moderate anxiety. The median (IQR) of BDI score was 21(23–18) and median (IQR) of BAI score was 20(22–18). Conclusions: Early counseling, psychotherapy, appropriate treatment should be prioritized. Social support, community involvement with their full participation should be emphasized.