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Introduction: Proper biomedical waste (BMW) disposal and its management are essential among health-care workers as it causes serious health and environmental hazards. Objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding BMW management among health-care providers and to determine the factors associated with, at a tertiary care hospital in Kolkata, India. Material and Methods: A study was done among 256 health-care providers at a tertiary care hospital who were actively involved in handling BMWs. A pretested, self-administered questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding BMW management was used. Structured, nonparticipant observation was carried out using the Kayakalp assessment tool in the 20 BMW handling checkpoints. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). Results: Among 256 health-care workers, 44.9% had adequate knowledge regarding BMW management and the doctors had a higher median score. 37.5% had positive attitudes and the laboratory technologists had higher median scores. 45.3% had satisfactory practice regarding BMW management and both the doctors and nurses had higher median scores. The housekeeping staff had the poorest knowledge, attitude, and practice of BMW management. Conclusion: Regular certified training among health-care staff and intense quality assessment by the waste management committee can improve BMW management overall.

Background: Childhood psychiatric morbidity is a serious issue in middle- and low-income countries. With the increasing prevalence of mental disorders among children, the role of caregivers has become vital. As a result of caregiving, caregivers experience financial difficulties, a reduction in social contact, emotional distress, and poor mental and physical health, which may lead to a low quality of life (QOL) among them. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to explore the QOL of caregivers attending the psychiatry OPD of a tertiary healthcare facility for their child’s treatment and to compare it with that of caregivers of children without psychiatric problems. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational-analytical study was conducted at a tertiary care center in Kolkata. The sample size was estimated to be 75 for each group. The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used for the data collection. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 16. Mann Whitney U test was done to compare the scores between caregiver groups. Results: The QOL scores of caregivers of children with psychiatric illnesses in different domains were physical health (11.69±1.74), psychological (9.78±2.72), social relationships (11.12±2.86), and environmental (11.66±2.13). The overall QOL of caregivers attending psychiatry outpatient departments was found to be significantly affected as compared to caregivers of children without psychiatric illnesses, except for the environment domain. Conclusion: In this study, the most affected QOL domain in the case of caregivers of children attending psychiatry OPD was the psychological domain, followed by the social relationship domain. This finding highlighted the need for socio-psychological support and a better environment for improving QOL.

Background: The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is a community-based program in India for the betterment of health and nutrition of children aged 0-6, pregnant and lactating mothers, and women aged 15-44 years. This study aimed to investigate the pattern of the utilization of services and the level of satisfaction of mothers regarding the services provided to their children in a block of West Bengal, India. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2016 to November 2018, and simple random sampling was used to select ICDS centres. The centres’ were evaluated for determining the rate of utilization of the services. For evaluating satisfaction, a face and content-validated, pre-tested questionnaire was used. The first part of questionnaire was for collecting the socio-demographic profile of mothers. The second part was concerned about determining satisfaction regarding various services provided by centers to children below 6 years of age on a 5-point Likert scale. About 10% of children enrolled in each ICDS centre were selected, and their mothers were surveyed for satisfaction regarding supplementary nutrition services, informal education, immunization, and other health-related services and infrastructures. The data were expressed in number and percentages and the test of association between categorical variables was done using a chi-square test. The GraphPad Prism 6.01 (GraphPad Software, USA) was used for statistical test. Results: Among the surveyed 62 ICDS centres, service utilization rates were 98.04% for immunization, 90.56% for supplementary nutrition, 82.52% for informal education, 40.27% for health check-ups, and 13.32% for referral services regarding different health problems. A total of 89.63% of the mothers were satisfied with the supplementary nutrition, 83.46% with immunization and health-related services, 77.42% with informal education, and 56.5% with infrastructures. Conclusion: Using supplementary nutrition and informal education exceeded expectations, but immunization, other health-related services, and referral services need improvement to achieve the program's goal. ICDS center infrastructure needs improvement, and a holistic approach is necessary to meet the satisfaction of mothers regarding different services.

Background: On January 16, 2021, India rolled out the COVID vaccination drive. A successful and effective vaccination campaign requires much more than the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. This includes identifying vulnerable populations with lower vaccine confidence and identifying the drivers of vaccine hesitancy. Objective: This study aims to find out vaccine hesitancy among the tribal population regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: It was an observational descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted at Manindranagar and Hatinagar gram panchayat of Berhampore Block of Murshidabad district, West Bengal, from June 2021–November 2021, among tribal people aged >18 years. A total of 198 tribal people were selected by applying the probability proportional to size sampling method. Participants were interviewed using predesigned, pretested, and semi-structured schedules. Potential predictors of hesitancy were investigated using the multivariate logistic regression model. Results: Vaccine hesitancy was present among 36.9% of the study participants. Fear of side effects (78.1%) was the most common reason of vaccine hesitancy. Only 30.8% of them received at least one dose of vaccine. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with decreased family income in the last 1 year (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 8.23), knowledge regarding vaccine (AOR = 0.41), adherence to COVID-appropriate behavior (AOR = 0.45), and trust on the local health-care worker (AOR = 0.32). Conclusion: Vaccine hesitancy among the tribal population is driven by a lack of knowledge and awareness. Their economic status, attitudes toward the health system, and accessibility factors may also play a major role in vaccine hesitancy. Extensive information, education, and communication activity, more involvement of health-care workers in the awareness campaign, and establishment of vaccination centers in tribal villages may be helpful.

Background: Similar to developed countries, aging is increasedin India. Because of the epidemiology and demographictransition phase, chronic diseases and disabilitiesalong with health costs are increasing day by day. As socialfactors and chronic diseases are the major reasons for geriatricdisability, the present study was done with the following objectives:to assess and compare the socio-demographic characteristicsamong the disabled and non-disabled geriatric population,and to find out the association between sociodemographicand chronic diseases with functional disabilityamong the study population.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done in a rural communityof West Bengal, India. House to house visit, clinicalexamination, observation, and interview were done with a predesigned,pre-tested proforma. Epi Info and SPSS softwarewere used for statistical analysis.Results: A total of 458 people had chronic conditions and theprevalence of disability was 17.47%. Among the sociodemographicvariables, age, female sex, marital status, literacystatus, and family composition and among the chronic diseases,tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, ischemicheart disease, osteoarthritis, neuropathy, acid peptic disorder,prostatic hypertrophy, and osteoporosis were found as risk factorsof disability in binary logistic regression analysis. 71.2% ofthe disabilities were explained by these risk factors.Conclusion: The data highlighted the different risk factorsassociated with disability. No single measure rather multidimensionalapproach should be the model for the preventionof disability.