Background: Occupational hazards involving the respiratory system, musculoskeletal system, skin and eyes are very commonly seen in the workers involved in the brick kiln industry. This study was designed to assess health profile of the brick kiln workers and to discuss sociodemographic profile affecting their health.Methods: This was a cross sectional study. 420 workers falling into the eligibility criteria, were selected from the 65 brick kiln factories in the study area. Multi-stage cluster sampling method was used to select the brick kiln factories and the participants of the study. The responses given by the participants were entered in Microsoft Excel 2010 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Chi Square test was used to determine the association between the morbidities and sociodemographic variables.Results: Mean age of the workers was 35.34±10.96 years. 96.7% of the respondents were suffering from some or the other complaints, while 3.3% were not suffering from any complaints. Addiction was seen in 37.9% of the participants. Musculoskeletal complaints were the most common complaints followed by respiratory and skin complaints.Conclusions: Health of workers is affected due to conditions they work under. The older age group had more respiratory, dermatological and ophthalmic complaints. The group of workers employed as bigaaris as well as those who were working for more than 10 years had more respiratory and dermatological complaints.

Background: Diabetes Mellitus has become a major public health problem in India and also the major cause of disability through complications such as blindness, renal failure, lower limb gangrene etc. People suffering from Diabetes related complications are many times unaware about the measures to curb the onset of the complications. The aim of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices about diabetes and its complications in the diabetic patientsMethods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted at an Urban Health Centre attached to the parent medical college in Mumbai. The knowledge, attitude and practices of the 116 participants who were registered at the non-communicable disease (NCD) OPD were assessed via a pre-designed, pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire. Statistical analysis used: SPSS version 20.Results: Majority belonged the age groups of 40-60 years (69%), 63.8% were women, 91.4% were married and 44.4% were illiterate. 13.8% of the respondents had correct knowledge about the causes of diabetes and 62.9% could correctly identify the symptoms of diabetes. Knowledge regarding the complications in diabetics was found to be quite low with only 52.6% correctly identifying one or more complications. The most commonly known complication was neuropathy (83.6%) followed by nephropathy (57.3%). The attitude of the patients with respect to screening of complications was found to be poor and the same reflected in their practicesConclusions: There is a lack of understanding of the basics of the disease, its prevention as well as prevention of complications in those suffering from the disease.

Background: This study was designed to assess the factors associated with the health seeking behaviour of brick kiln workers and to acquire an in depth understanding of their health.Methods: 420 brick kiln workers who were eligible for the study were interviewed using a semi structured, pre-designed, pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire. Statistical analysis used: SPSS version 20.Results: 48.9% showed good health seeking behavior while 51.1% showed poor health seeking behavior. 69.4% more than 40 years, 38.2% in the age group of 26-40 years and 40.2% in the age group of 18-25 years showed good health seeking behaviour.Conclusions: Good health seeking behavior was seen in older age groups, females and bigaaris.

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The term 'son preference' refers to the attitude that sons are more important and valuable than daughters. Son preference is found almost in all parts of India and is reflected in the attitude and behavior of people and is an important indicator of sexual inequality and status of women in society. Son preference is thus almost a universal phenomenon, leaving apart a few developed areas. In India couples have been observed to have a strong preference for sons, over daughters. Gender preference for children is widely prevalent in societies of South, East and West Asia and North Africa and Middle East. 1 A number of studies have documented a preference for sons in Indian society and degree of this preference is very strong in the northern, north central and western regions of India. 2 Looking at Indian society and going through the demographic and social literature it is observed that a son is valued more than daughter for multiple reasons. Son is desired for religious, cultural, social economic and psychological reasons, sons not only ABSTRACT Background: India a vast country has left behind a number of stigmas and prejudices to move ahead as one nation. Still in a number of states, villages, cities and towns, gender bias is persistent leading to female discrimination. Objective: To study the difference in child rearing practices based on sex of child among married women of reproductive age group in urban slum of Mumbai. Methods: A community based, cross-sectional study was carried out among 900 married women of reproductive age group during a period of Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2008 at Shivajinagar urban health centre, which is field practice area of T. N. medical college, Mumbai. Participants were selected by systematic random sampling in an urban slum of Mumbai, Maharashtra. Results: In present study, a total of 900 married women with their children below five year are 1158 (male: 632 & female: 526) were analyzed. There was statistically significant difference between child rearing practices like breast feeding initiation, complimentary feeding, immunization status, nutritional status, and treatment seeking behavior. Conclusion: The findings in the present study confirm that sex based difference in child rearing practices persist in urban slum area of Mumbai.