In many developing countries, poor women have multiple roles, and often their time constraints are so severe that their participation in income‐generating activities results in reduced childcare time, which in turn affects child health. Previous studies have tended to investigate how childcare support influences nutrition of children with working mothers' based on comparisons with non‐working mothers. However, non‐working mothers are not a homogeneous group, and we therefore need to distinguish between those who need not work and those who wish to but cannot, for example, due to a lack of substitute caregivers. We examined the association between availability of childcare support and the nutritional status of children of both non‐working and working mothers in poor areas of Pokhara, a submetropolitan city in Nepal. We recruited 150 children of age 10–24 months from the waiting lists of 17 daycare centers and measured their weights and heights. Those with height‐for‐age and weight‐for‐age Z scores of less than −2 were defined as stunted and underweight, respectively. To collect information on childcare practices and socioeconomic characteristics, mothers were interviewed using a pre‐tested structured questionnaire. Unavailability of adult childcare support was associated with increased risk of malnutrition among children of both non‐working and working mothers. Peer childcare was not significantly associated with child malnutrition among children of non‐working mothers, but it was associated with an increased risk of malnutrition among children of working mothers. Although further longitudinal research is required, we suggest that childcare support from adult substitute caregivers is essential for children of non‐working mothers with limited resources. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:169–181, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Immobility is a condition in which a person is unable to move freely or is restricted for therapeutic reasons. Immobility affects all systems of the body leading to complications. The objective of the study is to find out the knowledge on prevention of complications related to immobility among caregivers of orthopedic patients admitted on orthopedic ward of Chitwan Medical College Teaching Hospital (CMCTH), College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (CMSTH) and Bharatpur Hospital, Chitwan. The study design was descriptive, cross sectional and 133 caregivers were interviewed by using semi structured interview schedule. Data was analyzed by using SPSS and various tests such as frequency distribution, chisquare and odds ratio. The study findings revealed that 45.9% of respondents were from adjacent districts of Chitwan, 45.9% were between age group 16-30 years, 56.4% were female, 84.2% were married and 70.7% were literate. The highest mean knowledge score of caregivers was in the area of joint contracture (44.4%) followed by bedsore (39.3%), hypostatic pneumonia (37.6%), urinary tract infection (32.1%) and least mean knowledge score was in the area of deep vein thrombosis (25.2%) and constipation (25.1%) respectively. The level of knowledge is statistically significant with area of residence (p=0.038), marital status (p=0.020) and educational status (p=0.001) of respondents. The study concluded that caregivers had poor knowledge regarding preventive measures. Awareness programme need to be planned and implemented.

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The quality of life (QOL) needs to be regularly assessed in hemodialysis patients. Hemodialysis patients suffer from average quality of life and survival. A descriptive research design was used, 96 respondents who had received haemodialysis treatment after completion of 1 month duration of hemodialysis in two different teaching hospital at Bharatpur, Chitwan. Data was collected by using standard tool Short Form-36 version2 through face to face structure interview schedule. The objective of study is to find out the quality of life (QOL) of haemodialysis patients. Various test such as one sample t-test, ANOVA test, independent t-test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whittney U test, Pearson's correlation was applied. The findings showed that higher proportion of respondents were from 40-59 years (41.0%) and male (62.2%). The mean±SD was 57.45±16.25, 55.72±22.41 and 60.04±11.50 in overall QOL, physical and mental component summary respectively which was slightly above the average. All dimention and sub scale was satistically significant. Younger respondents had statistically significant with overall QOL (p<0.001) and physical component summary (p<0.001). Non diabetics had better in overall QOL (p=0.040) and physical component summary (p=0.033). Level of educational had also positive impact in overall QOL(p=0.010), physical (p=0.006) and mental component summary (p<0.001). Employment status (p=0.020) and sex (p=0.037) was also statistically significant with mental component summary. There was correlation between physical and mental component summary with overall QOL 0.970(p<0.001) and 0.698(p<0.001), and between the physical and mental component summary was 0.502(p<0.001). Below average score were seen in the general health (32.86±25.74) and vitality (41.53±13.98) sub scale. In order to improve quality of life family, physician, nurses and policy makers can use this finding.