Anxiety among Faculty Members of Academic Institutions of a Metropolitan City: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Anxiety is one of the common mental disorders frequently occurring in the community. It has been a major contributor to public ill health. Very few studies have been conducted on anxiety among academic professionals working in educational institutions. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of anxiety among faculty members of academic institutions of a metropolitan city. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among university faculties working in academic institutions of a metropolitan city from 22 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 after taking ethical approval from the Ethical Review Board (Reference number: 94). A self-administered structured questionnaire was applied to collect the information. Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to measure anxiety; the anxiety was categorised as normal, mild, moderate, and severe and dichotomized into "present" and "absent". Convenience sampling method was used. Point estimate and 95% Confidence Interval were calculated. Results: Out of 416 respondents, the prevalence of anxiety was found to be 111 (26.68%) (22.44-30.92, 95% Confidence Interval). Among them, 85 (76.58%) were mild, 13 (11.71%) of moderate and 13 (11.71%) of severe type. Among those who had anxiety, 87 (78.37%) were males, and 59 (53.15%) were in the age group of 40 year and above; 37 (33.33%) had chronic health problems. Conclusions: The prevalence of anxiety among faculty members of academic institutions was lower as compared to other studies conducted in similar settings. Keywords: anxiety; faculties; prevalence.

Co-occurrence of Screen Time and Eating Behaviors among Young Children Aged 5 to 9 Years.

BACKGROUND: High screen time, high energy dense food and low fruits and vegetables are important risk factors among children. The study aimed to find out co-occurrence of screen-time and unhealthy eating behavior among young children aged 5 to 9 years in Pokhara Metropolitan. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among children. Face to face interviews were done with 352 parents of the selected children. The study was conducted from March to October, 2020. High screen time was defined as >2 hours screen viewing each day; low fruit vegetable defined as <3 servings a day; and ≥ one serving a day of energy dense food was categorized as high consumption. RESULTS: Out of total, 33.0% did not met recommendation for single health behavior, 38.9% did not meet for two and 23.9% did not for three health behaviors; and 62.8% had two or more risk behaviors. Of total, 19.6% had low fruit vegetable and high energy dense intake, 17.0% had high screen time and low fruit vegetable, 2.3% high screen time and high energy dense and 23.9% had high screen time, high energy dense and low fruit vegetable. Proportion of co-occurrence of multiple risk behaviors was higher among those whose parents had higher screen time, offered screen devices to them; and the children who had television and television cable at home, and had personal screen device (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: About two-third children had multiple risk behaviors; proportion is higher among those who had access to screen devices and higher parental screen time. It may require a combination of efforts to improve healthy behaviors.

Depression and its Associated Factors among Faculties of Academic Institutions.

BACKGROUND: Depression is one of the common mental disorders occurring frequently in the community. The study aimed to find out the prevalence and correlates of depression among faculties of academic institutions in Pokhara Metropolitan, Kaski, Nepal. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 416 faculties selected from six academic institutions of Pokhara Metropolitan. A self-administered structured questionnaire method was applied to assess depression and explanatory variables among respondents. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to measure depression. The BDI score was classified into normal, mild, moderate and severe depression using the standard classification; and the depression levels were dichotomized into "absent" and "present". Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were computed. Level of significance was set at 5%. RESULTS: Of the total, 21.6% of respondents had depression including 6.7% moderate and 2.9% severe type depression. The likelihood of reporting depression was significantly higher among those who had physical health problems (AOR, 2.88; 95% CI, 1.16-7.13), consumed vegetables less than 2 times a day (AOR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.07-5.08), had limited access to teaching aids in workplace (AOR, 2.00; 95% CI 1.19-3.33), had higher job stress and higher COVID-19 fear. Depression did not differ by the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and type of institution. CONCLUSIONS: Improving physical health conditions, promoting vegetable consumption, ensuring access to basic facilities, and creating an enabling environment at workplace may help to address depression among faculties. Regular screening programs may help for timely identification and management of the cases.

Febrile Seizure in Children Attending a Tertiary Care Centre in Western Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Understanding a child with any episode of febrile seizure is important so that special attention could be given. The objective of this study was to find the prevalence of febrile seizure in children attending a tertiary centre in western Nepal. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in a tertiary care centre at the department of Pediatrics after taking approval from the Institutional Review Committee. Study was conducted among the children presented with febrile seizure from 18th October 2017 to 12th April 2020. Patient files were retrospectively reviewed. Convenience sampling method was used. Data and descriptive analysis were done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. RESULTS: Of the total 4701 admitted children during a study period, 217 (4.61%) (3.41-5.81 at 95% Confidence Interval) children had febrile seizure. Out of them, 154 (70.9%) male and 63 (29.1%) female with 168 (77.4%) simple and 49 (22.6%) complex febrile seizure. The mean age of presentation was at 23.2±13.61 months whereas mean age for male and female were 22.99±13.86 months and 23.73±13.09 months respectively. Recurrent febrile seizure noted in 68 (31.3%) children and fever in half the cases 110 (50.7%) was caused by Upper Respiratory Tract Infection. CONCLUSIONS: Simple febrile seizure was more common and the peak age of presentation was in the second year of life and more commonly in male. One third of febrile seizures were recurrent and half the children had upper respiratory tract infection as the most common etiology of fever.

Single-Molecule Dwell-Time Analysis of Restriction Endonuclease-Mediated DNA Cleavage.

This novel total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy-based assay facilitates the simultaneous measurement of the length of the catalytic cycle for hundreds of individual restriction endonuclease (REase) molecules in one experiment. This assay does not require protein labeling and can be carried out with a single imaging channel. In addition, the results of multiple individual experiments can be pooled to generate well-populated dwell-time distributions. Analysis of the resulting dwell-time distributions can help elucidate the DNA cleavage mechanism by revealing the presence of kinetic steps that cannot be directly observed. Example data collected using this assay with the well-studied REase, EcoRV - a dimeric Type IIP restriction endonuclease that cleaves the palindromic sequence GAT↓ATC (where ↓ is the cut site) - are in agreement with prior studies. These results suggest that there are at least three steps in the pathway to DNA cleavage that is initiated by introducing magnesium after EcoRV binds DNA in its absence, with an average rate of 0.17 s-1 for each step.

Assessment of nicotine dependence among smokers in Nepal: a community based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI) are extensively used methods to measure the severity of nicotine dependence among smokers. The primary objective of the study was to assess the nicotine dependence amongst currently smoking Nepalese population. METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted between August and November 2014. Information was collected using semi-structured questionnaire from three districts of Nepal. Data on demographic characteristics, history of tobacco use and level of nicotine dependence were collected from 587 smokers through face to face interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Non-parametric test were used to compare significant differences among different variables. RESULTS: The median age of respondents was 28 (Inter-Quartile Range: 22-40) years and the median duration of smoking was 10 (5-15) years. Similarly, the median age for smoking initiation was 16 (13-20) years and the median smoking pack year was 4.2 (1.5-12). One third of the respondents consumed smokeless tobacco products. Half of the respondents wanted to quit smoking. The median score for FTND and HSI was 4 (2-5) and 2 (0-3) respectively. There was significant difference in median FTND score with place of residence (p = 0.03), year of smoking (p = 0.03), age at smoking initiation (p = 0.02), smoking pack year (p < 0.001) and consumption of smokeless products (p < 0.05). Similarly, there was also significant difference in median HSI score with year of smoking (p = 0.002), age of smoking initiation (p < 0.001), smoking pack year (p < 0.001), and consumption of smokeless products (p < 0.05). As per FTND test score, two in ten current smokers had high nicotine dependence (FTND > 6), and HSI scored that three in ten current smokers had high nicotine dependence (HSI > 3). CONCLUSION: Our finding revealed that nicotine dependence is prevalent among Nepalese smoking population. Further studies are required for assurance of tools through bio-markers. Next, smoking cessation program need to be developed considering level of nicotine dependence and pattern of tobacco use.