Exposure to Household Air Pollution During Pregnancy and Birthweight

This case-control, hospital-based study aimed to study the role ofhousehold air pollution in adverse birth outcomes like low birthweight. 200 newborn babies weighing <2500 g were included inthe study along with 200 matched controls. After adjusting forconfounders, it was found that exposure to second hand smoke(adjusted OR 1.72, 95% CI 0.85, 3.50, P=0.13) or indoor airpollution due to cooking fuel (adjusted OR 1.63, 95% CI 0.71,3.72, P=0.25) were not significantly associated with birth weight.

Impact of a school-based hand washing promotion program on knowledge and hand washing behavior of girl students in a middle school of Delhi.

The intervention study was conducted in a school of New Delhi to assess the effect of a school based hand-washing promotion program on knowledge and hand-washing behavior among school children and extent of information sharing with parents. Intervention was carried out on randomly selected 300 students (100 each from 6th class to 8th class) with 281 students being part of the final analysis. Tools of the study were hand-washing questionnaire and household survey performa; essay, poster, slogan writing competition; classroom interactions. Data were analyzed in the SPSS 16.0 software and Mcnemar test and Student paired t-test were used. After the program, 95% felt that hand should be washed frequently. Overall, there was a significant improvement in the knowledge regarding hand-washing and frequency of hand-washing practices after the intervention. 42% children shared this information with their parents. The intervention proved effective in improving awareness and highlights the potential of school for hand-washing promotion activities.