Research questions: 1. What are the infant feeding practices in a rural area? 2. What are the reasons underlying the harmful infant feeding practices? Objectives: 1. To study feeding practices among infants. 2. To find out the factors underlying various harmful practices. 3. To find out the sources of information/advice for the prevailing practices. 4. To determine Whether the Practice of giving diluted animal milk to infants is associated with type of family, caste or educational status of mother. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Rural field practice center of a Medical College in Delhi. Participants: Mothers of infants 6-9 Months of age, attending immunization clinic. Statistical analysis: Percentage, chi square test. Results: Water was commonly given to breast fed babies and top feeds introduced early. Consequently exclusive breast-feeding was uncommon. Semisolids were started late and diluted animal milk was commonly given to infants; as mothers often thought that child can not digest semisolids or undiluted milk. Milk was also diluted for economic reasons. Insufficient breast milk, illness of mother or child were cited as main reasons for early introduction of top milk.

Research questions: Is employment during pregnancy a risk factor for perinatal mortality? Objective: To study the occurrence of perinatal mortality in working women and compare the results with those of non-working women taken as controls and also between the experience of working women before and after joining service. Study design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Jute mills in Hooghly district of West Bengal. Participants: 100 women workers of the mills under study as study population and 100 non-working wives of male workers of the same mills as control population. Statistical analysis: Mortalitz rates, Z test of proportion, x2 test of significance. Results: Stillbirth occurred more often joining service than before (p<0.05) and more in working women in general than controls, but the latter was not statistically significant. Early neonatal death rate was more among controls than the workingwomen and within the latter group, more before joining service than after. On controlling for gravidity and comparing stillbirth in working women after joining service, with controls, it showed high rates in study group till 5th gravida, but only for 1st and 2nd gravida differences were significant (p<0.05). Perinatal mortality also occurred mainly in first 3-4 orders of birth after joining service. Still birth rate in the control group was higher with birth spacing <2years than with spacing>2 years, but in the study group it was lower in case of the former than the latter. Early neonatal death was more in pregnancies with spacing <2 years in both the groups. Conclusion: There is some risk of perinatal loss, especially stillbirth, existing in the working women.

Research questions: What is the prevalence of morbidity of reproductive tract among women in a rural area of Rajasthan? Objectives: 1. To assess the load of reproductive morbidity among the rural women. 2. To study the association of potential risk factors with reproductive tract infection. Study design: Cross-sectional. Setting: A village of Bikaner (rural western Rajasthan). Participants: 1044 rural women aged 15-45. Study period: June 2000 to October 2000. Statistical analysis: Percentages and Chi square test. Results: The prevalence of self reported morbidity related to reproductive tracts was 31.8% and reproductive tract infections (RTIs) was 22.3%. Only 12.5% of symptomatic women consulted health personnel for their illness before this survey. Prevalence of RTIs was significantly associated with age, married life, gravida status, invasive contraceptives, gynaecological surgical interventions and type of family. Conclusion: There was a moderately high prevalence of self reported morbidity of reproductive tract, whereas, treatment seeking behavior was low. Many factors were found to be associated with RTIs.

Research questions: (1) What is the prevalence of Tuberculosis is slums of Ahmedabad? (2) What is the relation of age, sex and occupation with the prevalence of Tuberculosis? (3) What is the relapse rate? Objective: To study Prevalence of tuberculosis in urban slums of Ahmedabad city and to find out relevant epidemiological factors playing important role. Study design: Cross-sectional. Setting: 30 clusters from slums of the slums and 51 cases of Tuberculosis from this population were taken for detailed study. Study variables: Caste, age, sex, occupation etc, Statistical analysis: Chi-square test, proportions. Results: Overall point prevalence of tuberculosis was found to be 4.69/1000. Higher prevalence was observed among males (5.44/1000) in comparison to females (3.81/1000). Rise in the prevalence with increase in age was seen with highest prevalence in the age group of 60+ (4.81/1000). Retired persons reported high prevalence (25.21/1000). Unemployed and service people were having prevalence of 4.41/1000 and 4.14/1000 respectively. 59.4% of the studied cases had suffered from tuberculosis more than once.

Research questions: (1) What is the level of awareness of a slum community regarding injection safety. Objectives: To study the awareness and knowledge of the community regarding safe injection use. Study design: Cross-sectional, community-based. Participants: Adults above 18 years of age in a slum community of Delhi. Sample size: 363 families. Statistical analysis: Done using Epi info 6.x2 test of proportions was used to find the difference between the two proportions Results: A total of 363 families were interviewed. About 11.4% received one injection in the last three months. In children below 5 years. 72.8% of injections were preventive. The major proportion (66%) of therapeutic injections was provided by unqualified practitioners. In 52% of injection use, disposable syringes were used. Average cost per injection was found to be Rs. 22.60. Conclusion: It is important to create awareness among the slum dwellers and the local practitioners about the importance of disposable syringes and injectables.

Research questions: Is there any difference in the level of perceptions and practices among parents of thalassemic children attending govt. and non-govt. institutions? Objectives: (1) To assess the financial burden imposed by thalassemic patients on their families. (2) To compare the level of awareness among the parents of thalassemic children regarding causation of the disease. (3) To compare the measures adopted by these parents to prevent birth of an affected child in future. (4) To compare the requirement and procurement practices of blood by these parents for their affected children. Study design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Pediatric ward of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH), Kolkata and the Thalassemia Society of India (TSI), Kolkata. Participants: All accompanying parents of thalassemia children admitted in the pediatric ward of RGKMCH and of those attending TSI during the study period. Statistical analysis: Chi square test, t test. Results: Compared to the thalassemic children attending govt. hospital, those attending the NGO were of higher age group, were under treatment for longer duration and required blood transfusions more frequently; most of their parents were literate (96% mothers attending TSI Vs. 47.1% mothers attending RGKMCH), more aware about the hereditary nature of the disease (90% Vs. 64.5%), donated blood more frequently (76% Vs. 50%), spent more for their children (2/3rd Vs. 1/5th) and underwent screening tests for carrier state detection in more numbers (78.6% Vs. 45.7%). Adoption of birth control measures by the parents in both the groups, however, showed no significant difference.

Research questions: What is the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among 6 to 14 years old children? Objectives: 1. To study the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children of 6-14 years of age in rural and urban areas. 2. To study the pattern of psychiatric disorders and associated socio-demographic variables. Study design: Cross-sectional. Setting and Participants: 400 children each from urban and rural field practice areas under the department of Social and Preventive Medicine, PGIMS, Rohtak. Statistical analysis: Percentages, Chi-square test. Results: Prevalence of Psychiatric disorders in children was found to be 16.5%. Conduct disorder was the most common psychiatric disorder observed (4.5%) in these children followed by mental retardation (3.25%). Prevalence was more in male children (18.37%) than in female children (14.44%), more common among scheduled caste children (18.4%), also in children who belonged to nuclear families (17.35%).

Research questions: What is the advantage of Randomized Response Technique (RRT) over the conventional Direct Interview (DI) and Anonymous Questionnaire (AQ) in the assessment of culturally sensitive variables? Objectives: To compare the efficacy of the three methods, namely RRT, DI and AQ in the measurement of prevalence of Pre/Extra marital sex. Study design: Cross sectional study, using the three methods. Setting: A pilot study in a given community in Pondicherry. Statistical analysis: Probability equations. Results: The prevalence of pre/extra marital sex in the study population by the DI, AQ and RRT methods were 0%, 6% and 10% respectively in this pilot study. Conclusion: RRT improves validity of measurement of culturally sensitive variables both by ensuring a high participation in the study and by enabling a true response by assuring full confidentiality of information.