Background: The lockdown strategy adopted to contain the spread of current pandemic of coronavirus disease has affected all sectors of life globally. Nepal also instructed all the educational institutions to shut down, medical colleges being no exception. One month into the lockdown all the medical colleges in Nepal started online classes to keep pace with the academic calendar. This preliminary survey analyses the students’ perspective on newly introduced online medical education system. Methods: This cross-sectional survey used an online questionnaire typed in Google forms. The link to the survey was then emailed to the student representative of each semester of Lumbini Medical College, Palpa, Nepal, who were then instructed to forward it to their classmates. The questionnaire consisted of demographic variables and perspective of medical undergraduates towards online classes and also a space to comment or opine their perspective on current medical education. Results: A total of 226 students responded the survey. Almost one-third of the students (n=173, 76.5%) admitted of never having attended the online classes. Most of the students used smartphones to attend online classes; broadband internet service being the source of internet in 65.5%. Two-third of the students rated online classes to be poorer than the traditional classroom teaching and 77.8% of the students preferred traditional classroom teaching in future. Conclusions: Medical students did not find online classes as effective as the traditional classroom teachings; it could be made more interactive and productive by introducing interactive and brainstorming sessions complementing the conventional face?to?face education. Keywords: COVID-19; medical education, Nepal; online education; virtual education

Background: Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of deaths worldwide among children and young adults aged between 5 to 29 years. The risk of road traffic accident-related death is higher in low-income countries. Thus, we aim to evaluate the epidemiology of road traffic accidents in Nepal during the fiscal years from 2009/10 to 2019/20.Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis of the published police records publicly available on the official webpage of Nepal Police. A study was carried out after written permission from Nepal Police. The data obtained were analysed using Microsoft Excel-13.Results: Analysing available data about reported road traffic accidents events showed an increasing trend in road traffic accidents from the fiscal years 2011/12 till 2019/20, with a steeper increase in the number of road traffic accidents in fiscal years 2017/18 and 2019/20. In fiscal years 2009/10, 11,747 vehicles collided; which rose to 25,788 in the fiscal years 2019/20. More cases of road traffic accidents were reported to occur from 12 noon-6 pm in a day. Among reported road traffic accidents commonest predispositions behind road traffic accidents was the negligence of driver followed by over speed. Among those individuals who died due to road traffic accidents, most of them were male.Conclusions: We found an increasing trend of road traffic accidents, vehicle collisions, and injuries in Nepal over the past ten years especially among two-wheelers and four-wheelers like the car, bus, and autorickshaw.Keywords: Accidents; automobiles; Nepal; traffic

Aims: To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) from 2000-2020 in various parts of Nepal. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched using the appropriate keywords. All Nepalese studies mentioning the prevalence of T2DM and/or details such as risk factors were included. Studies were screened using Covidence. Two reviewers independently selected studies based on the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Software v.3. Results: Total 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of T2DM, pre-diabetes, and impaired glucose tolerance in Nepal in the last two decades was 10% (CI, 7.1%- 13.9%), 19.4% (CI, 11.2%- 31.3%), and 11.0% (CI, 4.3%- 25.4%) respectively. The prevalence of T2DM in the year 2010-15 was 7.75% (CI, 3.67-15.61), and it increased to 11.24% between 2015-2020 (CI, 7.89-15.77). There were 2.19 times higher odds of having T2DM if the body mass index was ≥24.9 kg/m 2 . Analysis showed normal waist circumference, normal blood pressure, and no history of T2DM in a family has 64.1%, 62.1%, and 67.3% lower odds of having T2DM, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of T2DM, pre-diabetes, and impaired glucose tolerance in Nepal was estimated to be 10%, 19.4%, and 11% respectively.