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Introduction: Factors such as age, sex, body surface area, Body mass index (BMI), posture, physical activity, ethnicity etc which can influence Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) as well as vital capacity. This study was aimed to find the influence of gender and anthropometric parameters on PEFR and vital capacity. Material and methods: Healthy medical students (17-23 years) were enrolled in the study. PEFR was recorded using Mini Wight's flow meter and vital capacity was assessed using a wet spirometer. The data were analyzed statistically. Results: The study included 90 students (59 females and 31 males). The study found that males had a significantly higher PEFR and vital capacity compared to females (p=0.0001). A statistically insignificant trend of negative correlation was noted between BMI with PEFR (r =-0.02, p= 0.84) or with vital capacity (r =-0.004, p = 0.97) in females. A significant difference was found between the observed and predicted value for vital capacity in both males and females. Conclusion: Significantly higher PEFR and vital capacity in males could be due to the high stature, muscle build and decreased body fat. This study noted a significant difference between males and females for the observed and predicted value for vital capacity which could be due to the use of inadequate prediction equations for this population. Further studies are needed to derive a better prediction equation to correlate predicted one with the actual vital capacity.

BACKGROUND: Medical Council of India has suggested competency-based curriculum for undergraduate students to make it learner centric. One-month “Foundation course” was introduced at the beginning of the course to promote better adaptation to the new curriculum. A cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze the feedback from students who attended the foundation course. MATERIALS And METHODS: All first-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery students who underwent 1-month foundation course were included in the study. The course was conducted in six modules. All the sessions were handled by efficient resource people and conducted in an interactive manner. A form in which response against each topic/talk was graded as average, good, or excellent was used to obtain the feedback. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences 16 software. Responses among various modules were subjected to Chi-square two-sided test with Yates's correction. RESULTS: A total of 98 students (32 males and 66 females) attended the foundation course of 21 days. Among the modules conducted, basic skill training module was scored excellent (67%) remarks, followed by sports and extracurricular activities (64.6%) ( P = 0.8806). Among the skill training module, both basic life support training and first aid on medicine/pediatrics achieved 92% excellent score. One of the orientation module sessions, research methodology, scored least. The descending order of excellent remarks was skill module > sports and extracurricular activities > field visit to the community and primary health center > orientation modules > enhancement of language. CONCLUSION: Attention should be given to include more topics concerned to the modules of skill training and extracurricular activities in upcoming years. Foundation courses can increase the confidence and better adaptability of the students toward a new environment.

BACKGROUND Medical and paramedical students practice self-medication as they are exposed to information about drugs in their books and from their peers, easier availability of medicines etc. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of self-medication practice among medical and paramedical students. METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted among medical and paramedical students to assess the self-medication practice by administering a structured questionnaire. A total of 265 students (20.56 ± 1.59 years) was enrolled in the study (136 were medical and 129 paramedical students). RESULTS 80.14% medical and 85.3% paramedical students practiced self-medication (p > 0.05). Among the studied group, 89.5% were using self-medication for symptomatic relief and 81.1% accessed the medicines from market followed by obtaining physician's sample. The common indication of self-medication was for fever (76.2%) and the commonly used drug was paracetamol (78.5%). Selfmedication was significantly high in medical students with regard to the use of medications for gastritis (p=0.002), diarrhea (p = 0.002), painkillers (p= 0.0001) and allergy (p=0.0001). Only 60% of subjects were completing full course of treatment. Medical students complete their full course of antibiotic treatment compared to paramedical students (Fisher's exact test=0.001). In the study population, 59.3% were aware of the side effects and no significant difference between medical and paramedical students was seen. In the study population, 75.6% did not recommend self-medication to others. CONCLUSIONS The practice of self-medication was common and comparable between medical and paramedical students. Awareness programmes about hazards of selfmedication need to be conducted to avoid the unsupervised use of drugs.

Introduction: Medical students experience considerable amount of stress related to various domains such as academic related, social related, interpersonal related etc. It is important to look for the levels of stressors among medical students and intervene at appropriate time in order to improve the quality of medical professionals. Material and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted amongst undergraduate medical students by providing a structured Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ 20) to assess the stressors. Stresses related to academic related, social related, interpersonal related data were statistically analyzed. Results: This study included 136 students (73% females and 27% males). The mean age and BMI of the participants were 21.24 ±1.74 years and 21.7 ± 3.3 kg/m 2 respectively. This study showed that medical students experience moderate levels of stress in all the domains of stress and a significant increase is noted in academic related stress (ARS) than other domains (p value <0.0001) followed by group activities related stress and social related stress. Conclusion: ARS is acting as a major stress factor among all the stress domains in medical students of this study population. Appropriate measures should be taken to promote the physical and mental well-being of medical students and thereby ensuring academic excellence and good quality medical professionals.