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Background: According to United Nation Children's Fund, it has been estimated that worldwide about 165 million children were stunted in 2012 and India alone accounts for 38 % of global burden of stunting. This study aims to examine the effect of pregnancy intention and maternal postnatal depressive symptoms on early childhood stunting in India. We hypothesized that effect of pregnancy intention and postnatal depressive symptoms were mediated by social support.Methods: We used data from the first wave of Young Lives Study India. Multivariate logistic regression models (using generalized estimation equation) were used to examine the effect of pregnancy intention and postnatal depressive symptoms on early childhood stunting among children aged 5-21 months. The analysis included 1833 children (out of 2011 sample children) that had complete information on pregnancy intention, maternal depression and other variables.Results: Bivariate results indicate that a higher percent of children born after unintended pregnancy (40 %) were stunted than children of intended pregnancy (26 %). Likewise, the proportion of stunted children was also higher among women with high postnatal depressive symptoms (35 %) than the low level of depression (24 %). Results of multivariate logistic regression model indicate that children born after unintended pregnancy were significantly more likely to be stunted than children born after intended pregnancy (AOR: 1.76, CI: 1.25, 2.48). Similarly, early childhood stunting was also associated with maternal postnatal depressive symptoms (AOR: 1.53, CI: 1.21, 1.92). Moreover, the effect of pregnancy intention and postnatal depressive symptoms on early childhood stunting were not mediated by social support.Conclusions: The findings of this study provide conclusive evidence regarding consequences of pregnancy intention and postnatal depressive symptoms on early childhood stunting in India. Therefore, there is a need to identify the women with unintended pregnancy and incorporate the promotion of mental health into their national reproductive and child health programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nearly 275 million adults (15 years and above) use tobacco in India, which contributes substantially to potentially preventable morbidity and mortality. There is good evidence from developed country settings that use of tobacco cessation services influences intention to quit, with a higher proportion of attempts being successful in fully quitting. There is little evidence about cessation and quitting behaviour in the Indian context. This study assesses the socio-demographic characteristics and cessation services used by adults i) who attempted to quit smoked and smokeless tobacco and ii) who were successful in quitting. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional secondary data analysis of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, India, 2009-10. There were 25,175 ever tobacco users aged 21 years and above included in the study. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to determine associations between socio-demographic variables and cessation services utilized with attempts to quit tobacco and successful quitting. Results: Of the ever tobacco users, 10,513 (42%) made an attempt to quit tobacco, and of these 4,395 (42%) were successful. Significant associations were demonstrated between male gender, increasing educational attainment and higher asset quintiles for both those who attempted to quit and those who were successful. Younger age groups had higher odds of quit attempts than all except the oldest age group, but also had the lowest odds of successful quitting. Heath care provider advice was positively associated with attempts to quit, but both advice and use of cessation aids were not associated with successful quitting. Conclusions: This study provides the first national evidence on the relationships between quitting attempts and successful quitting with socio-demographic characteristics, health care provider advice and use of cessation services. The findings of the study have important implications for scaling up tobacco cessation services in India, and indicate a need to re-examine in greater detail the effects of socio-demographic factors, type of tobacco product used and levels of dependency on quitting. Health system factors such as coverage and accessibility of cessation services, type of service, and its duration and follow up also have to be examined in detail to ascertain effects on quitting behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]