Background: Pain during the developmental period may ad versely affect developing neuronal pathways and result in adverse neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and behavioral effects in later life. Immunizations, e.g., hepatitis B vaccine (HBV), administered at birth are painful experiences to which neonates are universally subjected. Purpose: Here we aimed to study and compare the effective ness of various nonpharmacological pain management methods in newborns to enable the development of safe and effective analgesic methods for newborns. Methods: This prospective study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in the Himalayan region. Three hundred term healthy neonates were divided into 6 groups of 50 each. Groups 1-5 were intervention groups, patients of which received a nonpharmacological intervention (breastfeeding, nonnutritive sucking, rocking, 25% sucrose, or distilled water) before the intramuscular HBV, while patients in group 6 received no inter vention. The pain response in each group after the HBV injec tion was assessed and compared using cry duration and Douleur Aigue Nveaune (DAN) score, a behavioral acute pain rating scale for newborns. Results: Cry duration was decreased in all intervention groups, significantly so in the sucrose (19.90 seconds), breastfeeding (31.57 seconds), and nonnutritive sucking (36.93 seconds) groups compared with controls (52.86 seconds). DAN scores decreased significantly (P<0.05) at one or more points i.e. 30, 60, or 120 seconds in the breastfeeding and 25% sucrose intervention groups compared with controls. Conclusion: Oral sucrose and nonnutritive sucking are simple yet underutilized nonpharmacological interventions that effec tively reduce pain in newborns.

Background: Anemia is the most common micronutrient deficiency. Despite repeated efforts taken under the national program, high prevalence of anemia still observed across various life stages of females in India over the past two decades. Methods: This cross-sectional study aimed to discern the prevalence of anemia in the non-pregnant and non-lactating females of Ambala, Haryana, between the ages of 6 months to 49 years using the gold standard cyan-met-hemoglobin method. Results: A total of 1, 21, 202 study subjects, with a mean age of 28.9±19.3 years were tested for hemoglobin across 524 villages, out of which 97,305 (80.1%) females were found to be anemic with mean hemoglobin level of 10.8±1.4 gm% with 53.2% of all females being moderately anemic. Conclusions: This study reported that anemia is extremely prevalent in all walks of life of females. Multipronged strategy is to be followed to curb anemia from various age groups of females.

Knowledge and awareness of health care providers about health care associated infection control measures in neonatal intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital of Himachal Pradesh