Background: Health insurance as a tool to finance health care has very recently gained popularity in India. While health insurance has a long history, the upsurge in breadth of coverage can be explained by a serious effort by the Government to introduce health insurance for the poor in last four years. Objective of this study is to determine the types of health insurance prevalent in coastal Karnataka and to study its advantages in decreasing out of pocket expenditure.Methods: A cross sectional study was done among 450 patients by administering a validated questionnaire on health insurance with details, coverage amount, presence of APL or BPL card and utilization pattern with advantages to the patient from scheme.Results: Out of the 450 patients have been surveyed, 57% had availed health insurance. 35% of patients were benefited by sampoorna suraksha and 27.5% patients used KSHEMA health card. ESI and kadamba were least used. Unlimited slab was seen with aarogya bhagya and yashaswini schemes. 65% of APL category and only 35% of BPL had health insurance. 92.5% of the patients with health insurance surveyed used private hospitals for health assistance. In 25% of people, hospital visits increased due to health insurance. In 15% of patients the total expenditure on health has increased after obtaining health insurance.Conclusions: 57% of the patients had some form of health insurance. Sampoorna suraksha was the most commonly used scheme and health insurance was most commonly used for in patient care.

Background: The shortage of organ donors is the key rate-limiting factor for organ transplantation in India. Many strategies have been proposed. One of the strategy is by improving awareness of organ donation and transplantation in the population. This study seeks to assess the knowledge and attitude of the medical students toward organ donation and transplantation. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding organ donation and transplantation among medical students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 510 undergraduate medical students of K.S Hegde Medical Academy. A tool with 30 questions was designed and administered to the students, in order to assess their knowledge and attitude regarding organ donation and transplantation. Data collected was analysed using SPSS software.Results: The mean age of the students was (20.21±1.32). When compared to boys, girls reported higher mean scores in knowledge (9.22±1.11); and attitude (7.32±0.81). The first year students had higher scores for their knowledge (9.46±1.28) compared to other years. The third year students showed a higher mean attitude score (1.61±1.07) (p=0.02). Hindus scored significantly higher mean knowledge, and attitude as compared to Christians and Muslims (p=0.03). There was a positive correlation between mean knowledge, and attitude of students regarding organ donation and transplantation.Conclusions: There was adequate knowledge in students but their attitude was poor. The study throws light on their inadequacies of knowledge and attitude of medical students, necessitating the inclusion of the topic in their curriculum.

Introduction: A smartphone is a combination of cellphone and handheld computers that created the greatest tech revolution since the Internet. The official name for smartphone addiction is Nomophobia which is defined as having a fear of not being with your phone. Objective: To assess the smartphone addiction among adolescents and its association with socio demographic factors. Methodology: A cross sectional study among adolescents in a university in Mangalore among students <19yrs of age. Sample size was estimated using the prevalence formula, taking prevalence as 50% and allowable error of 5%. A validated, self-administered questionnaire was used for assessment. Proportion for addiction and Chi Square analysis was done. Results: A total of 426 students were enrolled for the study. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 57% in the study population, females had higher addiction scores than males. There was significant association of family annual income, monthly pocket money and occupation of the father with smartphone addiction. Conclusion: The prevalence of smartphone addiction among adolescents is high. The results of our study showed that smartphone addiction is more prevalent in the families with higher economic status.

Background: Indoor air pollution is typically underreported and less regulated than its counterpart. So this study was to assess the awareness and attitude of the study population towards ill effects of indoor smoke exposure among the study population and to assess the users' perception about other alternative fuels to be used to reduce the ill effects. Objectives of the study were to assess the awareness and attitude of the study population towards ill effects of indoor smoke exposure among the study population and to assess the users' perception about other alternative fuels to be used to reduce the ill effects.Methods: It was a cross- sectional study conducted in the rural field practice area of K.S Hegde Medical Academy among the household women who spend the majority time cooking in their house. The study included 400 household women. Data was collected using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire, and entered into MS Excel and analysed.Results: Most (80.8%) of them were aware that exposure to smoke affects the health of those exposed to it. Also, their perception regarding alternate fuels was good. In the study most of the study participants (92.1%) were willing to change over to a cleaner fuel.Conclusions: By raising their awareness towards the harmful effects of firewood smoke and providing awareness regarding government programmes for using cleaner fuels, the ill-effects on health of those involved in cooking can be reduced in future.

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