Evaluation of the parental perceptions on Swarnaprashana in and around Mysuru city

Background: Proper nutrition and specialised care should be given to children in comparison to adults to combat their special health needs related to growth and development, immune status, digestive variations, habits and psychological status. Such a special practice which is a unique contribution of Ayurveda is 'Swarnaprashana' (SP) where the administration of pure gold in children for multifold benefits; specially related to improving immunity, metabolism and intellect has been advised. The present work was planned to collect the in-person perceptional data of parents whose children were being benefited by Swarnaprashana, retrospectively. Methodology: All the classical Ayurveda and contemporary literature along with e-journals and online databases were reviewed thoroughly for the preparation of the questionnaire both in English and Kannada languages for the survey which was validated by the experts in the subject. A cross-sectional survey of 200 samples was conducted who were complying with informed consent and inclusion criteria during the period of 3 months at the OPD & IPD of the teaching hospital and peripheral centres of the hospital in and around Mysuru city. The parents were personally interviewed to collect the data. Results & Discussion: All the children of enrolled parents was consuming SP continuously for a period of 6 months and more. Most of the parents got to know about SP from friends, family, school and hospitals and reported to have less recurrent infective disorders, better physical strength, concentration and memory in their children. All the parents wanted to recommend SP to their family and friends and opined that it should be propagated as a public programme. A few parents were not sure about the consultation of an Ayurveda Doctor for administering SP and did not observe any adverse drug reactions in their children after giving SP. The study revealed the real time perception of parents regarding SP which is encouraging regarding this practice. The study recommend orientation about this practice to public by Ayurveda experts in the field. Large scale studies would gather better data in these objectives.