Articles: disease.
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A pilot survey was recently undertaken among 301 married women below 50 years of age and having been pregnant at least once. These women lived in a rural environment: the first group in a peri-urban area which is developing rapidly, and the second in a traditional rural area. The survey elicited information on various aspects of the 1,476 pregnancies reported by the women in the sample, including infant mortality, complications in pregnancy, abortions, as well as the number of medical consultations. ⋯ It is evident that health care is equated with curative treatment and that the positive dimensions of prevention and health maintenance are not properly perceived. The fact that in the more conservative areas 98.1% of births take place at home shows the existence of a traditional health system which is not sufficiently taken into account by health planners. In fact, local birth attendants and midwives represent for the health services untapped manpower which, if adequately trained, could help to eliminate the risks currently associated with home births.
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Blood pressure (BP) and weight were measured on 2676 black women attending a large southeastern family planning clinic. Repeat measurements were made after a minimum of six and upt to 24 months on 673 women who continuously used nonhormonal contraceptive (OC) therapy, and 1390 women who continuously used OCs. The mean change in systolic blood pressure (SBP) adjusted for initial BP and change in per cent ideal body weight is +1.44 mmHg in the new users of OC. ⋯ The adjusted mean rise in mean arterial BP does not differ significantly between new OC users and the control group. The proportion of women developing a DBP greater than or equal to 90 mmHg during the average follow-up interval of one year is 2.4% in the control group, 1.0% in the new OC users and 0.2% in the continued OC users. These results provide evidence that OC use has no significant effect on the level of mean arterial BP in black women followed for 6-24 months; and fail to support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between OC use and elevated BP in black women.