Community perceptions of postmortem examination and minimally invasive tissue sampling in neonates:a qualitative study in South India.

BACKGROUND: Postmortem examination is the gold standard for establishing the cause of death. Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling (MITS) of organs is a novel approach that can be used as an alternative to postmortem examination. In this study, the community perceptions in two states in South India towards neonatal postmortem and the acceptance towards the MITS technique is studied. METHODS: In-depth interviews were conducted among the participants from Kerala and Karnataka to understand the perception towards postmortem and the acceptance of the novel MITS technique. The interviews were audio recorded, and a thematic analysis was done to identify the overarching themes and codes. RESULTS: The knowledge and attitude of participants on conventional and MITS postmortem techniques, reasons for refusal, and the need for raising awareness were identified in the study. Participants favored the MITS techniques as it was less disfiguring and less time-consuming. The major concerns for refusal of conventional postmortem were that the procedure was disfiguring, time-consuming, and caused emotional stress to the parents. CONCLUSIONS: Participants favored the MITS approach over conventional postmortem as it caused less disfigurement and was conducive to the religious practice of burial of the body.

Perception of Tobacco Use among School-Going Early Adolescent Children in Udupi District: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: Tobacco use among school-going children is a significant public health concern worldwide. Studies on perception and knowledge about harmful effects of tobacco use among early adolescent children are limited. Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and perception of tobacco use among rural and urban school-going early adolescent children. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. Using mixed method multi-stage sampling, a sample of 218 eighth grade students were selected randomly using the simple random technique from two government schools (rural and urban schools were chosen purposively), Udupi district, Karnataka. Data were collected using the questionnaire method. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey was used for the data collection. Descriptive statistics were used to express the data and Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used to compare the categorical variables. Results: More than one-third (39%) of middle school children have used tobacco in the past. About 44% of boys felt guilty about their tobacco use. About two percent tried using other forms of tobacco products. Less than 1% of them had used tobacco more than once in the past 30 days. Urban children had significantly more knowledge about the harmful effects of tobacco use (p = .001), quitting tobacco (χ2 = 11.6, p = .008), and reasons for quitting tobacco use was, noticing anti-tobacco messages. More urban children think using tobacco makes boys more attractive (χ2 = 9.07, p = .01) and girls more attractive (χ2 = 10.80, p = .004). Conclusion: The prevalence of tobacco use was 1.5% among middle-school children in the last month. Urban school children have significantly more knowledge and awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use than rural students.