Articles: disease.
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Child feeding recommendations include breastfeeding beyond 12 months, however, some researchers have reported increased rates of malnutrition in breastfed toddlers. A negative association between growth and breast-feeding may reflect reverse causality; that is, the outcome (growth) is a determinant of the predictor (breastfeeding), and not vice versa. We examined this question with data from 134 Peruvian toddlers. ⋯ The negative association between breastfeeding and linear growth reflected reverse causality. Increased breastfeeding did not lead to poor growth; children's poor growth and health led to increased breastfeeding. Children's health must be considered when evaluating the association of breastfeeding with anthropometric outcomes.
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Ann Trop Med Parasit · Apr 1997
ReviewIs there a place for traditional midwives in the provision of community-health services?
Traditional midwives (TM) have been involved in delivering babies, and providing a broad range of other services to women, for hundreds of years. They are usually local women with little formal education. As they are well known in their communities they are often called to assist women at the time of delivery. ⋯ Rather, the studies have shown that the success of the programmes depends on the resources available, the people involved in the training and how the training is carried out. Some of the lessons learnt from working with TM apply to any two groups of people working together. If TM are going to be offered training, and this must be a local decision made after consultation and an evaluation of prevailing resources and conditions, the training should be a two-way process, with both parties learning from each other.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A twelve-month comparative clinical investigation of two low-dose oral contraceptives containing 20 micrograms ethinylestradiol/75 micrograms gestodene and 30 micrograms ethinylestradiol/75 micrograms gestodene, with respect to efficacy, cycle control, and tolerance.
The aim of this study was to compare contraceptive reliability, cycle control, and tolerance of an oral contraceptive containing 20 micrograms ethinylestradiol (EE2) and 75 micrograms gestodene (GSD), with a reference preparation containing a similar dose of gestodene but in combination with 30 micrograms ethinylestradiol. A higher incidence of intermenstrual bleeding was apparent under the 20 micrograms EE2 oral contraceptive. For the 20 micrograms EE2 preparation, 47.4% of all women reported spotting at least once over a period of 12 treatment cycles, whereas this figure was 35.5% for the 30 micrograms EE2 pill (p < 0.05). ⋯ The data obtained demonstrate clinically acceptable cycle control, good tolerance, and a high standard of contraceptive reliability for both drugs. Prescription of the 20 micrograms EE2 preparation could be the first-line therapy in order to provide the lowest amount of EE2 possible. In case of persistent cycle control problems, a switch to the 30 micrograms EE2 drug should be considered.
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To identify the predictors of mortality due to acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI). ⋯ Even in settings of high case fatality, predictors of mortality can be identified in under five children suffering from ALRI. In this context, age below 1 year, inability to feed, presence of loose stools and severe malnutrition merit attention for interventional purposes.
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By examining the relationship between the cultural construction of female sexuality and the lack of potential for many young heterosexual women to be truly sexually healthy this paper submits that messages for women within HIV prevention programmes can be confused, confining and at times dangerous to women's health and well-being. It is suggested that these messages also reinforce a traditional, biologically determined medical understanding of female sexuality that does not take note of social or culturally based research or commentary on female experience or female desire, but rather confines many women to sexual restrictions, doing little to empower women to prevent sexual risk-taking. ⋯ This allows for a framework for the study of sexuality that relates it to other social phenomena, particularly economic, political and social structures (Foucault 1979); in other words, a study of the 'social construction' of sexuality. This paper suggests that health care professionals need to develop an awareness of the diversities within female sexuality and gain insight into their own values and assumptions about female sexuality if these are not to inhibit effective approaches and interventions in the areas of HIV and sexual health.