Background: Organ transplantation is one of the greatest scientific advances and remains one of the most challenging and complex field of modern medicine. In the USA and UK, the organ donation rate is 26 and 14 per million, whereas in India, it is only 0.34 per million population. Healthcare professionals act as the critical link in the organ procurement process because they are the first individuals to establish relationship with the potential donors' family.Methods: An institution based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among first year undergraduate medical students during November 2017. Convenient sampling method was used to obtain the sample size. Out of 150 students in first year, 136 students fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were studied.Results: Out of 136 students who participated in the study, 58 (42.6%) were boys and 78 (57.4%) were girls. All the 136 (100%) students had heard about organ donation, but only 24 (17.6%) of them were aware of organ donation associations. Very few students (5, 3.6%) know about any law related to organ donation in India. Mass media like TV, Internet and Newspapers have played a major role in imparting awareness regarding organ donation among students besides relatives and friends. Majority of the students i.e. 104 (76.4%) were ready to donate their organs if need comes and two third of them accepted that they would allow organ donation from a member of their family after Brainstem death.Conclusions: There is a positive attitude of medical students towards organ donation but there is lack of sufficient knowledge on the topic. Improving their knowledge by including organ donation topic in medical curriculum can help to reduce this gap.

Background: Low birth weight babies have less chances of survival during first year of life.Appropriate and timely care of a newborn especially if he is born with low birth weight is important but this is difficult in developing countries. There is a need to develop simple, inexpensive and practical methods to identify low birth weight newborns soon after birth.Methods: A hospital based Cross sectional study was carried out on 965 live born neonates who were born during one year period. All the anthropometric measurements are taken within 24 hours of birth. Pearson’s correlation was done to assess correlation of various anthropometric parameters with birth weight.Results: Out of 965 live born neonates, 510 (52.8%) were male babies and 455 (47.2%) were female babies. 289 (29.9%) babies had birth weight less than 2500 gms. The highest correlation among all measurements was observed between birth weight and mid arm circumference while the least correlation was between birth weight and crown heel length. AUC value for ROC curves is highest for Mid arm circumference (0.917) which shows that it is a better surrogate predictor of low birth weight (<2500 gms) in our study as compared to other anthropometric parameters.Conclusions: Measurement of mid arm circumference is easier, convenient and statistically superior to other anthropometrical parameters in detection of low birth weight newborn babies.

Background: The benefits of breastfeeding for the health and wellbeing of the mother and babies are well documented. A recent trial has shown that early initiation of breastfeeding could reduce neonatal mortality, which would contribute to the achievement of the Millennium development goals. The positive effects of breastfeeding on the new-born’s health can be attributed to the components of breast milk, as well as the contact between mother and baby.Methods: This is a hospital based, cross sectional study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at a tertiary care hospital in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Study period was one year between March 2018 to February 2019. 310 healthy term new-born babies of singleton pregnancy were included.Results: The prevalence of initiation of breast breastfeeding within one hour in this study is 48.7% (151 neonates). Hindu religion, literacy, urban residence, vaginal delivery, male child, breast feeding advice during antenatal period, birth spacing <2 years, not giving prelacteal feeds, absence of breast-feeding problems and maternal illness were found to have a significant association with initiation of breast feeding within 1 hour after delivery (p value <0.05).Conclusions: Innovative strategies like provision of breastfeeding counsellors in the hospital setup; constant counselling to mothers and their immediate relatives who take care of baby and mothers can increase early initiation of breast feeding.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is the most widespread condition affecting the health of children. Children constitute a large and "vulnerable" or special risk group, as 50% of all deaths were occurring during the first 5 years of life in the developing world.48%, 43%, and 20% of children under 5 years of age stunted, underweight, and wasted, respectively. The proportion of children who are severely undernourished is also notable-24%, severely stunted and 16%, severely underweight. AIM: To assess the nutritional status of under 5 children residing in the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh and to identify the factors influencing their nutritional status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh during 2014-15. A total of 236 under 5 children were studied from the three selected villages. Data was collected through a semi structured questionnaire. Anthropometry measurements like height/length and weight were measured. Waterlow's classification was used to grade stunting and wasting. Gomez classification was used to grade underweight for age. Every effort was made to get high order of accuracy in measurements. The data were compiled and statistical analysis was done using percentage and chi-square test. RESULTS: Out of the 236 children, 122(51.7%) were boys and 114(48.3%) were girls. Overall prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting was found to be 60.2%, 27.1%, and 31.3%, respectively. Severe underweight, stunting, and wasting was found in 12.7%, 2.5%, and 9.3%, respectively. Girls were found to be undernourished than boys for all forms i.e., stunting, wasting and underweight. CONCLUSION: The under nutrition rates reported in this study is still high which may have significant negative impact on health, education and productivity of the children. The problem of under nutrition amongst tribal children needs to be addressed through comprehensive preventive, promotive and curative measures. Appropriate nutritional programmes should be designed to meet the requirements.

Background: Hypertension in women of reproductive age group is of special concern because of the vulnerability of women to pregnancy-induced hypertension apart from socio-cultural vulnerability. Aim: The objective of the study was to identify the predictors for hypertension among Indian women and to develop a risk score which would provide an opportunity for early detection and appropriate action. Material and Methods: This study was based on the data collected in National Family Health Survey in 2015–2016. Women in India of 15–49 years were the study population. Data were analysed using SPSS v17. Logistic regression analysis was carried and expressed as odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals to identify predictors of hypertension. The risk score for hypertension was developed after shrinkage of variables and by using regression coefficients obtained by standard Logistic Regression Model. Results: Among 6,87,230 women between 15 and 49 years, 77,788 (11.3%) were hypertensive. The study results revealed that there was an increasing trend in the prevalence of hypertension (26.5%) with increasing age, and with increasing weight (23.4%). Urban areas (12.3% vs 10.9%), alcoholics (19.2%) and various forms of tobacco users (14.8%) had more prevalence of hypertension. Conclusion: Age, residing in urban area, consuming tobacco products, consumption of alcohol, non-vegetarian diet and overweight, were found to be the significant predictor variables, and were used to develop the Risk Prediction score using logistic regression model.