INTRODUCTIONMenstruation, that starts with the onset of puberty, is a physiological process in females.1 Nepali society has viewed it as a religiously impure and culturally shameful occurrence.2 " Chhaupadi" is a traditional practice in which females are forbidden to touch anything and are forced to live in isolation (shed) during menstruation. 3The situation is not different in Far West region, with reported incidents of rapes and physical assaults while in Chhaupadi.4 Such practices have caused adverse effect on females' capacity to manage their periods. 5-6These problems are further exacerbated by insufficient access to clean toilets, water and soap. 7,8 These are vital factors leading to absenteeism as high as 53% of girls in Nepal. [8][9][10][11] Also, comprehensive awareness raising at schools is vital for promoting Menstrual hygiene management (MHM).12,13 The main purpose of the study was to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practices of school adolescents regarding MHM in Doti district. METHODSDoti district in Nepal is reported to have high prevalence of "Chhaupadi" and significantly low access to and use of MHM services. Thus, a cross-sectional study was carried out from October to December 2016 at seven village development committees (VDCs) in Doti district, Nepal. The sample size of 276 was obtained with the assumption that the practice should be about 53% in our population of respondents. Students were selected randomly from grade seven and eight of 11 schools.Respondents' KAP were measured by using a set of nine knowledge related questions, 12 practice related Background: Menstrual hygiene management remains a taboo in many communities in Nepal. Cultural beliefs about menstruation such as food taboos and untouchability have negative impact on dignity, health and education of adolescent girls. The objective of the study was to assess the current knowledge, attitude and practice of school adolescents on menstrual hygiene management in Doti District in Far-Western Nepal. Methods:This cross-sectional study was carried out from October to December 2016 at seven village development committees in Doti district, Nepal. This study was done among 276 students from grade seven and eight of 11 schools. Self-administered structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from school students. Descriptive analysis was done to analyse the knowledge, attitude and practice of school adolescents on menstrual hygiene management.Results: 67.4% respondents had fair knowledge and 26.4% respondents had good knowledge on menstrual hygiene management. However, out of 141 female adolescent respondents, only 56 (40%) were engaged in good menstrual hygiene practices. Around half of the respondents had positive attitude towards menstrual hygiene management related issues. Conclusions:Although knowledge on menstrual hygiene management among school adolescents is fair, still attitude and practice need to improve. Findings indicate the need of behavior change communication campaigns along with frequent reinforcement o...

Aim: This study aimed to assess anxiety and depression among health sciences students at home quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in selected provinces of Nepal.Methods: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 409 health science students enrolled at graduate and post-graduate levels in selected universities and their affiliated colleges. Students from selected colleges were asked to fill out a survey, that was made available through email and social media outlets such as Facebook and Viber. The data were downloaded in Excel and imported to SPSS version 16 for analysis.Results : The prevalence of anxiety and depression was 15.7 and 10.7%, respectively. The study showed significant associations between (i) place of province and anxiety; (ii) sleep per day and depression; (iii) hours spent on the internet per day for education and depression; (iv) postponement of final exams and depression. There were no significant associations with the socio-demographic variables.Conclusion: Anxiety and depression in health science students showed correlation with the province, internet use for education, and postponement of exams. These correlations could be common among students in other fields as well. A large-scale study covering a wider geographical area and various fields of education is necessary to further evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on (health sciences) students. The integration of mental health programs both as an intervention and a curriculum level among students is critical to ensure the health of the students.

Background: COVID-19, an emerging contagious disease had affected all over the world and become a global health threat. Lockdown and restriction had made the life of the health care workers troublesome and psychosocial problems are exaggerated. Moreover, health care workers are the frontline workers to deal with the COVID-19 patients; they are at high risk. Due to social stigma and hectic schedule of work had made their life more stressful. The study aimed to assess anxiety and depression and its associated factors among COVID-19 positive frontline health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 323 COVID-19 positive health care workers working in different provinces of Nepal. The Google form was made by adopting GAD-7 for anxiety and PHQ-9 for depression and made available to study population through various social media. Results: The prevalence of anxiety and depression among the COVID-19 positive frontline health care worker was 39% and 35.5% respectively. The study showed significant association between staying with friend during pandemic (p 0.015), daily meditation (p 0.020), duty in isolation ward (p 0.027), unaware of incentives provision (p 0.034), stigma (p <0.001) with anxiety and education status (p 0.023), fear of dying from COVID-19 (p 0.045) and stigma (p 0.05) with depression in multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusions: In the pandemic, COVID-19 positive frontline health workers had developed anxiety and depression symptoms. Training and sufficient preventive practice need to be implemented to control consequences of COVID 19 pandemic. Key words: Anxiety; Coronavirus; Depression; Frontline health workers, Nepal

Background: The health risks was reported in the cement industry in various study conducted in different settings. This study aimed to assess the occupational health risks among cement factory workers of Dang district of Nepal. Methods: A cross-sectional study in 212 workers was conducted in Samrat Cement Company and Sonapur Minerals and Oils of Dang district in between July, 2019 to January 2020 using structured questionnaire. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used for participant selection. The collected information was entered in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed. Results: Of 212 workers, the respiratory and musculoskeletal health risks were reported by 13.2% and 22.2% of factory workers, respectively. About 29.2% were smokers. Two-third (66%) had poor knowledge of Occupational Health and Safety related questions and 17.9% had poor practice to prevent respiratory problems. Smokers (p=0.004) and access to safety measures (p=0.008) were significantly associated with respiratory problems. Educational status (p=0.021), work shift (p=0.022) and first aid availability (p=0.009) were statistically significant with musculoskeletal health risk. Conclusion: Low occupational health risk and low knowledge was reported by cement factory workers. Special protection to workers above 40 years and declaring the cement factory as smoking restricted area could minimize respiratory risk. Access to and condition of safety devices need to be monitored by factory administration. Behavior change communication and safety orientation could help the workers use safety devices. Key words: Occupational health risk, respiratory health risk, musculoskeletal health risk, knowledge, practice, cement factory workers.

Background: Hypertension among cardiovascular disease is one of the major components of non-communicable disease emerging as a global public health problem leading the risk for disability and death globally impairing health related quality of life (HRQoL). The objective of study was to find out the health related quality of life of hypertensive clients attending a tertiary level hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center among 153 hypertensive clients attending outpatient department. Simple random sampling technique was used to collect data. Face to face interview was done for data collection, using structured questionnaire that included socio-demographic variables, health related variables, lifestyle related variables and RAND Short Form (SF)-36 questionnaire. Data analysis was done by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Results: More than half of respondents (61.4%) had good level of health related quality of life in physical component score while 86.3% had good level of health related quality of life in mental component score. The level of HRQoL was significantly associated with health related variables such as comorbidities, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and lifestyle related variables such as sleeping pattern, type of exercise in physical component and sleeping pattern in the mental component. Conclusion: The level of HRQoL of hypertensive clients is found to be good. Hypertensive clients could improve HRQoL through prevention and treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.