ABSTRACT
Background: The study was aimed to study the practices related to breastfeeding among newborns in Aligarh and to assess the determinants of breastfeeding practices.Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in the field practice areas of Department of Community medicine, AMU, Aligarh. All the live births in one-year study duration were included in the study. Verbal consent was obtained prior to the interview. Data was collected by interview technique using semi structured questionnaire and analysed in SPSS 20.Results: A total of 705 newborns were enrolled in the study. 5.3% of the mothers in our study didn't breastfeed their newborns even after 24 hours after the delivery. 6% of the mothers discarded their colostrum and 36.9% of mothers gave prelacteals to their newborns. Almost half of the newborns were exclusively breastfed. There is a significant association between being primiparous and not practicing exclusive breastfeeding (p=0.003). However, no significant association was found between breastfeeding practices and gender, birth order of newborn, age and education of mother.Conclusions: Present study shows that 64.2% of newborns received the right breastfeeding practices which is quite good as per the national average. This study emphasizes the need to address the practices like discarding the colostrum and use of prelacteal feed which are still widely prevalent.
ABSTRACT
Substance abuse in adolescents may also be a marker to other harmful life styles, This study aims to find out the prevalence, pattern and sociodemographic risk factors of substance abuse in male adolescents. This study examined 390 male school children aged 10-19 yrs in the rural and urban areas of district Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Data was analyzed by SPSS -10. Substance abuse was prevalent in 13.3% of adolescents of whom 96.1% were using various forms of tobacco and 3.8% were taking alcohol. While there was statistically significant association between the substance abuse and the age group of adolescents and size of their families, variables such as religion, socioeconomic status, place of residence were not associated with substance use. Most of the students reported initiation of substance use at 14 yrs of age due to peer pressure. Peer educators would be a useful strategy for communication with adolescents to counter peer pressure. The prevention and control measures should be started at primary education level