No abstract

Background: Tobacco use is the leading cause of Preventable death, Tobacco use during adolescence increases the risk of persistent addiction, leading to regular and sustained tobacco use in adulthood. Objective: To assess the prevalence and practice of tobacco use among the school going adolescents in a block of Vadodara district, Gujarat. Material & Methods: Multiphase sampling was done to select the sample students (13 to 17 years) from private and government schools in a selected block of Vadodara. A cross-sectional study including 1045 students was carried out using a pre-designed and pre-tested proforma. Results: Out of 1045 students, 3% (n=32) tried cigarette smoking ever, one or two puffs and 1.8% (19 students) of students were current cigarette or beedi smokers. Around 27.9% students and 23% students admitted that at least one of their parents and friends smoked cigarettes, respectively. About 24% and 44% of the students were exposed to passive smoking at home and outside home, respectively. Conclusions: Present study provides the baseline information of prevalence of smoking and attitude of school going adolescents towards smoking in Gujarat. The result gives an alarm to work upon tobacco control among adolescents and make them aware about the hazards.

Objectives: To estimate the knowledge of "Immunization of Health Care Workers" in field practice area of Jamdoli, Jaipur among paramedical staff regarding Hepatitis B, Polio, Meningitis, Influenza, Measles, Diphtheria, Rubella, Varicella and to assess the factor associated with the knowledge about immunization among the paramedical staff. Materials and Methods: It was a Cross sectional study conducted in conducted in field practice area of Jamdoli, Jaipur among paramedical staff from October 2018 to December 2018. The sample Size was calculated from Prevalence of adequate knowledge of Polio Vaccination is 91% which was 131 so total sample size is 135. Convenience sampling method was adopted and Pretested predesigned structured interview schedule was conducted as study tool. Results: The majority (40%) paramedical staff enrolled in this study were in the age group of 20-30 yrs. The male and female respondents were 14.1% and 85.9% respectively, 63% respondent belongs to general category. The majority (91.1%) of the respondent qualified up to GNM with serive duration (45.9%) more than 10 years. Regading Route of transmission, for Hep B (78.5%) answered parenteral, Polio (49.5%) answered faecooral, Diptheria (81.5%) droplet etc. The highest knowledge was about Hepatitis B 91.9% and the poorest was regarding rubella 33.3%. Satisfactory knowledge among the respondents were 55.6% depending upon mean score (26.7). The satisfactory knowledge significantly associated with the caste of the respondents (P= 0.02). Conclusion:Education and Communication strategies for improving the level of knowledge and for the immunization uptake regarding Hepatitis B, Polio, Meningitis, Influenza, Measles, Diphtheria, Rubella, Varicella among health care workers are strongly needed.

Background: Breastfeeding is the best preventive intervention and has potential impact on child morbidity and mortality. In spite of these demonstrated benefit of breastfeeding, the duration and prevalence are still low in first six months of life. The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of the practices of breast feeding among those mother who have children < 2 years of age and to study the significance of association of risk factors with breast feeding among mothers of rural health training centre of JNUIMSRC, Jaipur. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in field practice areas of rural health training centre, JNUIMSRC, Jaipur. 204 mothers having children between 0-2 years age group were included by Purposive sampling method. Pretested Predesigned questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: Majority of the mothers were in age group of 18-22 years, Iliterate mothers were 20.6%, Primary level of education 57.4%. Awareness regarding exclusive breastfeeding was more among literates than illiterates (p<0.05). Pre lacteal feeds were practiced among 30.9% of mothers before initiation of breast feeding. Conclusions. Exclusive breastfeeding upto 0-6 months was practiced by 26.9% of mothers.