Background: Addressing the determinants of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) among children remains a challenge in Nepal. This study investigated the effect of maternal and social determinants of SAM among under-five children of Nepal. Methods: We conducted a hospital-based unmatched case-control study with 256 under-five children (128 cases and 128 controls). The children aged 6-59 months were taken, and the cases and controls were defined based on mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). Results: Backward Stepwise logistic regression analysis of 6-59 months children showed that the odds of SAM were lower among male children (AOR ¼ 0.50, 95% CI ¼ 0.27-0.92), mothers from high socioeconomic status (AOR ¼ 0.469, 95% CI ¼ 0.26-0.83), breastfeeding 6-12 months (AOR ¼ 0.21, 95% CI ¼ 0.05-0.68), breastfeeding !13 months (AOR ¼ 0.18, 95% CI ¼ 0.05-0.54) and optimal complementary feeding (AOR ¼ 0.40, 95% CI ¼ 0.22-0.70). SAM was significantly higher among children of the age group 6-24 months (AOR ¼ 2.57, 95% CI ¼ 1.30-5.22) and children with a history of diarrhea (AOR ¼ 1.75, 95% CI ¼ 0.92-3.39). Conclusions: In order to reduce the children's SAM, it is necessary to scale up services to improve the socioeconomic status which includes the education, occupation, and monthly income of the mother. Girls of age group 6-24 months were more likely to develop SAM. Two contributing factors to decrease SAM are the importance of exclusive breastfeeding practices and the availability and usage of soap in hand washing, which are ideal for low cost interventions. To reduce SAM in Nepal, a focus on enhancing complementary feeding through increased affordability of nutritious foods is also needed.

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Background: Nursing is a highly stressful occupation, and nurses have job-related stressors. There are limited data regarding stress among nurses of intensive care unit in Bangladeshi hospitals. Objective: This study aimed to identify the prevalence of stress among staff nurses working in ICU and factors influencing stress in the past 12 months. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among 50 Staff Nurse of intensive care unit in Square Hospital Ltd. from 1 st September, 2012 to 30 th January, 2013. Data were collected by face to face interview using semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Majority of nurses (90%) had experienced stress. Most of nurses (72%) had experienced back pain as physical stress. Majority of nurses (64%) had experienced boredom as psychological stress. Most of nurses (62%) had experienced common mistakes or errors during work. 74% nurses used prayers and 88% nurses used sharing problems with others in coping stress. Majority (86%) of nurses were having diploma in nursing. Most of nurses (68%) had been working experience of more than three years. 100% nurses feel much stressed when one nurse give care to the more than one patient. There is no association between stress and work stressors (work experiences, ratio of nurse to patient, working relationship with doctors, and working relationship with nurse manager). Conclusion: High stressful among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses in Square Hospital Ltd. had been identified and impact on the health and well-being of critical care nurses due to stress. Large scales should be conducted for study.

Healthcare systems contribute a major role in maintaining good health. The study was conducted to analyze the prevalence, belief and awareness of preferring traditional healthcare systems in urban and rural people of Noakhali district of Bangladesh. Data were collected randomly from 400 respondents aging 20 to 60 years by personal interviewing with a well structured questionnaire during October 20, 2011 to December 20, 2011. Study stated that, overall 79% of the respondents were found to feel comfortable in using traditional healthcare system whereas only 21% prefer the modern system. Urban people showed their belief mostly in homeopathy (23%), ayurvedic/unani (18%) and herbal medicine (17%) of traditional healthcare system whereas Kaviraji (27%), herbal medicine (18%) and spiritual healing (11%) were the systems on which rural people showed their much faith and belief for the treatment of different ailments. Jaundice and sexual problems were the two dominant disease conditions for which traditional healthcare systems were most preferred by the respondents. Beside these 68% of urban and 88% of rural as well as 57.64% of educated and 97.82% of uneducated respondents were not aware about the appropriate healthcare system for different diseases. Belief in no side effect and safe remedy, mass population of the study area preferred different traditional healthcare systems but most of them were not aware about the exact therapy.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v1i9.11611 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal 2012, 1(9): 229-234