Introduction: India is home to a large number of under-five deaths and underweight children in the world, which is mainly because of improper breastfeeding practices. Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. Lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life contributes to over a million avoidable child deaths each year. Materials and methods: An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in PubMed, Medline, World Health Organization website, and Google Scholar search engines. Keywords used in the search included breastfeeding, colostrum, and infant. Overall, 30 articles were selected and analyzed. Results: Parameters like educational status, socioeconomic status, occupation, mode of delivery, the place of delivery, and exclusive breastfeeding had a significant impact on the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusion:The study participants had good knowledge about breastfeeding however, some gaps were observed with respect to their practices. The study concluded that the importance of increasing awareness among pregnant women about breastfeeding, and even gave impetus on the necessity of family support to aid mothers in showing adherence to the breastfeeding for the recommended duration.

Background: Quality of life in elderly is more relevant towards an ageing society. In India, the awareness is very little about the special needs of the elderly and their care takers (physical and mental health, psychological and social support).  Furthermore, among elderly there is a variation between those living in old age homes (OAHs) and those living in general population. Hence the present study was undertaken to assess and compare the quality of life of elderly living in OAHs and community.Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among elderly in old age homes and family set up of Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu. QOL of elderly was assessed using WHO QOL - brief questionnaire after taking informed consent from the participants. Data was analyzed using SPSS 23.Results: A total of 106 elders from each group old age home and family setup were the study participants. Quality of life was good 72.5% in family and in OAHs it was only 56.2%. The main reason for residing in OAHs was no family, lack of care takers. All the four domains were found to be highly statistically significant.Conclusions: From this study we are able to find out that quality of life in family setup is better than OAHs, psychologically many people were depressed as they live separately from their family and relatives, friends and the community they lived.

Introduction: Chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension, are often associated with psychiatric comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, and somatization. Approximately, one-fourth of the adults were diagnosed with hypertension, and the proportion will reach about one-third by 2025. The prevalence of hypertension throughout India is 29.8% and the burden of hypertension in a rural area of Tamil Nadu is 25.2%. The compliance of drug intake depends on the mental health of the patient and this study intends to take care of patients with chronic illnesses. This study is designed to assess the mental health of hypertensive patients and its association with their blood pressure. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among hypertensive patients in the field practice of a tertiary care medical college in the Kancheepuram district for a period of 3 months using a semi-structured validated schedule after obtaining the informed consent. The depression anxiety stress scale (DASS) scale was used to assess the mental health of hypertensive patients. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Results: Most hypertensive patients were found in the age group of 40 to 60 years. About 53.4% of hypertensive patients with normal blood pressure were suffering from depression. In addition, about 44.6% of pre-hypertensive patients and 44.6% of stage II hypertensive patients were found to have severe depression. Conclusion: Overall, pre-hypertensive patients were suffering from depression when compared to other hypertensive patients. Family history and tobacco and alcohol intake were other factors associated with depression in hypertensive patients.

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