Preventive medicine
-
Preventive medicine · Jul 1998
Comparative StudyToombak use and cigarette smoking in the Sudan: estimates of prevalence in the Nile state.
Survey data on the prevalence of use of oral snuff (toombak) and cigarette consumption according to various demographic factors are needed in the Sudan. ⋯ In view of the high prevalence of tobacco use, especially of toombak, among the population surveyed, there is an urgent need to educate the public on the health consequences of these habits.
-
Preventive medicine · May 1998
Smoking status and relative weight by educational level in Finland, 1978-1995.
The aim of the present study was to examine the association between smoking status and relative body weight at different educational levels in Finland during 1978-1995. ⋯ The association between smoking status and relative weight varied according to educational level. The finding suggests that the association between smoking status and relative weight is modified by social and behavioral factors.
-
Preventive medicine · May 1998
Determinants of exercise among children. II. A longitudinal analysis.
Research has demonstrated that physical activity serves an important preventive function against the development of cardiovascular disease. The recognition that U.S. children are often sedentary, coupled with the observation that physical activity habits tend to persist into adulthood, has prompted the investigation of exercise determinants consistent with social learning theory. The purposes of the present study were to identify social learning variables relevant to children's exercise and to explore the longitudinal predictive value of the determinants. ⋯ Socialization in the family unit exerts a tremendous influence on health-related behaviors such as exercise. The relative importance of determinants seems to differ for girls and boys and the pattern of these determinants appears to change over time.
-
Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
ReviewMaternal depression effects on infants and early interventions.
Our recent research suggests that: (1) maternal depression negatively affects infants as early as the neonatal period, implicating prenatal effects of maternal depression; (2) as early as birth the infants show a profile of "dysregulation" in their behavior, physiology, and biochemistry which probably derives from prenatal exposure to a biochemical imbalance in their mothers; (3) these effects are compounded by the disorganizing influence of the mother's interaction behavior; (4) depressed mothers have two predominant interaction styles, withdrawn or intrusive, which seem to have differential, negative effects on their infants related to inadequate stimulation and arousal modulation; (5) nondepressed caregivers such as fathers may buffer these effects because they provide more optimal stimulation and arousal modulation; and (6) interventions that are mood altering for the mothers (e.g., music and massage therapy) and arousal reducing for the infants (e.g., the same therapies) make the mothers and infants more responsive to interaction coaching and improve their interactions.
-
Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
ReviewA critical period of brain development: studies of cerebral glucose utilization with PET.
Studies with positron emission tomography indicate that the human brain undergoes a period of postnatal maturation that is much more protracted than previously suspected. In the newborn, the highest degree of glucose metabolism (representative of functional activity) is in primary sensory and motor cortex, cingulate cortex, thalamus, brain stem, cerebellar vermis, and hippocampal region. At 2 to 3 months of age, glucose utilization increases in the parietal, temporal, and primary visual cortex; basal ganglia; and cerebellar hemispheres. ⋯ Initially, there is a rise in the rates of glucose utilization from birth until about age 4 years, at which time the child's cerebral cortex uses over twice as much glucose as that of adults. From age 4 to 10 years, these very high rates of glucose consumption are maintained, and only after then is there a gradual decline of glucose metabolic rates to reach adult values by age 16-18 years. Correlations between glucose utilization rates and synaptogenesis are discussed, and the argument is made that these findings have important implications with respect to human brain plasticity following injury as well as to "critical periods" of maximal learning capacity.