Browsing by Author "Subba, SH"
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Publication Infant feeding practices of mothers in an urban area in Nepal(Kathmandu University, 2007) Subba, SH; Chandrashekhar, TS; Binu, VS; Joshi, HS; Rana, MS; Dixit, SBBackground: Child health in developing countries including Nepal is a matter of serious concern as the prevalence of malnutrition among children continues to be high with 48.6% of children under five in Nepal being underweight. Since infant feeding practices adopted by mothers play a major role in influencing health of these children, there is a need to study the infant feeding practices prevalent in different areas in order to have pragmatic approaches to solve this problem. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among mothers who attended the immunization clinics of 18 wards of Pokhara municipality area. They were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire on various aspects of infant feeding. Result: A total of 168 mothers were interviewed and prevalence of breastfeeding was 99.4% (167). Only 43.5% of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth and 60.5% were practicing exclusive breastfeeding at 5 months. Almost 40% of the mothers started complementary feeding before the recommended age of 6 months and 22.5 % delayed introduction of complementary feeding beyond the recommended age. Conclusion: Breast feeding practices adopted by mothers of Pokhara urban area are still lacking in terms of late initiation of and early starting of complementary feeding. There is a need to educate the mothers regarding proper infant feeding practices. Key words: infant feeding, breastfeeding, weaningPublication Prevalence and Factors Associated with Current Smoking Among Medical Students in Coastal South India(Kathmandu University, 2011) Ganesh Kumar, S; Subba, SH; Unnikrishnan, B; Jain, A; Badiger, SABSTRACT Background Smoking among health care personnel such as medical students is an important public health issue. More effective measures to reduce tobacco smoking among medical students are needed worldwide. Very few studies had been conducted in past in India and other developing countries to understand the magnitude of problem. Objectives To determine the prevalence and associated factors of current smoking among medical students. Methods Cross sectional study was conducted during January and February 2009 among 333 study subjects selected randomly from four batches of a teaching institution. Subjects were administered a self administered pre tested questionnaire and smoking status was assessed as per the criteria laid down by WHO. Proportion, chi square test and multiple logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results The prevalence of current smoking was found to be 22.4% (67). There were widespread deficiencies in knowledge of smoking among students of different classes, as an important causal factor in many diseases like gastro intestinal malignancy, heart problems, asthma, and emphysema. It was found that only half of them were willing to quit smoking (33). Fourth year students (OR=2.54) and presence of peer pressure (OR=21.91) had independent significant association with current smoking. Conclusion Prevalence of smoking among medical students is high that warrants adoption of comprehensive smoking control interventions among them. KEYWORDS Knowledge, Peer pressure, Prevalence, Smoking,