Search

Background and Aim: The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged coronavirus epidemic as a pandemic and declared the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern. Emerging research has suggested that these various restrictions, as well as the fear of the virus itself, may have caused children to experience negative mental health consequences. Due to increased amounts of time spent at home the parents need to be aware about the changes in the mental and physical health of the children. This study, thus aimed to survey the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on physical and mental health of school-going children. Material and Methods: A cross sectional survey was designed to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the physical and mental health of children. The data is collected with the use of online survey platform. A semi structured questionnaire was developed with several open and close ended questions to examine the effect of lockdown on the mental and physical health of the children from parent-reported changes. Any mental health issues and emotional problems newly emerged or aggravated during lockdown were also enlisted. Another objective was to determine the level of awareness amongst parents about the importance of PA for the child. Results: A total of 200 children were included in the study. When the comparison was done in time from before and after lockdown, it was found that the hours spent on mobile were increased from 2 hours to 5 hours. There was significant decrease in the time spend for physical activity. A total of 65% of the respondents reported that there was change in the behaviour of the children. Around 58% of the children had shown the physical changes like eyestrain, fatigue, neck pain, head ache, lower back pain and major problem with increase in weight of children. Conclusion: More research is needed to improve our understanding of the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health, especially with regards to the identification of protective factors found in children who may have been less affected by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing incidence of obesity in adults and children in the world has drawn the attention of all. India too reports that prevalence of childhood obesity has risen over the past decade. In the recent years, considerable changes in dietary patterns have caught the attention of all along with the concern for the rising incidence of obesity. The consumption of high calorie foods, fats, simple sugar and salt has increased in the diets of adults and children. Mainly due to the wide range of processed and convenience foods available today. In this context, the present study was undertaken to estimate body mass index (BMI) and body fat, and to examine the consumption of snacks of children (N=1500). A food frequency questionnaire was used to record the consumption of snacks with portion sizes per week. Snacks were divided into dry snacks (wafers, chips, sev etc) and freshly prepared ones (wada pav, Frankie etc). A combined snack intake was calculated. Consumption of fried snacks in the school cafeteria (canteen) was also studied. Body Mass Index of the children was calculated. Skin fold measurements were recorded and body fat was assessed. Data were statistically analysed to assess the relation of snack intake with BMI and body fat. A significant positive correlation was observed between BMI and a combined snack intake (r=0.237, p=0.000) and also between consumption of snacks and body fat (r=0.175, p=0.000). The results indicated that consumption of snacks may influence BMI and body fat [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing urbanization, migration from rural areas, disintegration of traditional family and community structure have ushered in changes in socioeconomic scenario which have given rise to new vulnerable group of children in cities residing on streets called 'street children'. The street children phenomenon is an increasing problem in most cosmopolitan cities of the developing countries. The government and NGOs have initiated various food programs for street children. It is therefore important to know their growth status. The present study was undertaken to assay growth status of street children using anthropometric measurements like height, weight and BMI. Second objective of the study was to ascertain the adequacy of the meals provided to street children at these institutes. Study design was exploratory and descriptive. Three hundred and fourteen street children (aged 9 to 18 years) including beneficiaries of school feeding programme (184- Type I), NGO feeding programme (68- type II) and shelter feeding programme (62 -type III ) were selected using purposive sampling from three institutes in Mumbai. Data on the number of consumed meals provided by institutes, meal composition, height, weight and BMI for age was recorded. Data was analyzed using SPSS (16). Measures of centre and measures of variability were computed. One sample t test was used for analysis as an advanced statistical procedure. The results indicated that the street children benefitted from the free food services available at the institutes. All children were given same proportion of food however all basic five food groups were not included in any of the meals. The anthropometric indicators for mean height, weight and BMI for age were below 95th centile. Five percent of boys and 8 % of girls were stunted, 7 % of boys and 9% of girls were under weight, 6 % boys and girls were thin for their age. Approximately one third of subjects suffered from mild under nutrition with regards to height, weight and BMI for age despite of consuming meals and being a beneficiary of food programme. One sample t test indicated significant differences with regards to height, weight and BMI for age when compared with reference standards for both genders(P < 0.01). Currently no dieticians are attached with these institutes hence there is an utmost need for dietician in these institutes, so that quality food is provided in terms of nutrition and thereby improve the growth status of street children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cissus quadrangularis L. is a promising remedy prescribed in the ancient Ayurvedic literature for bone fracture healing properties. As this activity has been extensively investigated and well established, a range of formulations containing C. quadrangularis has been marketed. This work reports the development and validation of a reliable RP-HPLC method for the analysis of phytosterols in the various extracts of the plant. The proposed method utilizes a Cosmosil C8 column (250 x 4.6 mm) with a compatible Phenomenex C8 guard column with isocratic elution of acetonitrile and water (95:5 v/v) at 25°. An effluent flow rate of 2 ml/min and UV detection at 202 nm was used for the analysis of phytosterols. The described method was linear in the range of 1-500 µg/ml, with excellent correlation coefficients. The precision, robustness and ruggedness values were also within the prescribed limits (less than 2%). The recovery values were within the range, which indicates that the accuracy of the analysis was good and that the interference of the matrix with the recovery of phytosterols was low. The phytosterols were found to be stable in a stock solution for 48 h (% RSD was below 2%) and no interfering extra peaks were observed under controlled stress conditions. The proposed method is simple, specific, precise, accurate, and reproducible and thus can be used for routine analysis of C. quadrangularis phytosterols in quality control laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report the molecular characterisation of a novel dsRNA virus isolated from the filamentous, plant pathogenic fungus Leptosphaeria biglobosa and known to cause significant alterations to fungal pigmentation and growth and to result in hypervirulence, as illustrated by comparisons between virus-infected and -cured isogenic fungal strains. The virus forms isometric particles approximately 40–45 nm in diameter and has a quadripartite dsRNA genome structure with size ranges of 4.9 to 4 kbp, each possessing a single ORF. Sequence analysis of the putative proteins encoded by dsRNAs 1–4, termed P1–P4, respectively, revealed modest similarities to the amino acid sequences of equivalent proteins predicted from the nucleotide sequences of known and suspected members of the family Quadriviridae and for that reason the virus was nominated Leptosphaeria biglobosa quadrivirus-1 (LbQV-1). Sequence and phylogenetic analysis using the P3 sequence, which encodes an RdRP, revealed that LbQV-1 was most closely related to known and suspected quadriviruses and monopartite totiviruses rather than other quadripartite mycoviruses including chrysoviruses and alternaviruses. Of the remaining encoded proteins, LbQV-1 P2 and P4 are structural proteins but the function of P1 is unknown. We propose that LbQV-1 is a novel member of the family Quadriviridae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]