Public health
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To investigate the physical, social and psychological environment of families with preschool-age children to identify the most significant risk factors for unintentional injury. ⋯ The main carer's educational attainment and socket cover utilization were lower in case families. These risk factors could be used to target families for injury-prevention work. Initiatives to raise educational achievement in the general population could lead to reductions in childhood injuries.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of non-urgent visits and the effect of different characteristics on such visits to one public hospital emergency department located in Catanzaro, Italy. Of 581 patients aged 15 years and older who were registered for care in the emergency department, 40 were excluded from the study as they were too ill or distressed. The survey questionnaire included questions about the patients' demographic and socio-economic characteristics, distance from home to hospital, usual health status and health status at the time of presentation to the emergency department. ⋯ Moreover, the odds of requiring non-urgent care were significantly higher in patients who present to the emergency department without medical referral and in patients who present with problems of longer duration. The most frequent reason given by patients for their visit to the emergency department was that they felt their problem was an emergency. Further investigations are necessary to evaluate the use of primary care since closer co-operation within the healthcare organization system may provide a more responsive service.
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The objectives of this study were to describe the global profile of biomedical research productivity and to examine any improvement seen in it in the developing world during the period 1990-2000. Biomedical research articles published during 1990-2000 were accessed through the Medline database. The number of (journal) articles originating from each of the countries of the world, normalized to number of publications per million population (PPMP) per year, was elicited. ⋯ The total share of publications coming from low-income countries also fell, from 2% in 1990 to 1.7% in 2000. The imbalance between developed and developing countries in terms of biomedical research is significant. Pragmatic policies should be adopted by the World Bank, World Health Organization, other United Nations bodies, and respective governments to encourage biomedical research in the less-developed parts of the world.
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The World Health Organization defines 'a safe injection' as one that does not harm the recipient, does not expose the provider to any avoidable risk, and does not result in any waste that is dangerous to the community. Irrational and unsafe injection practices are rife in developing countries. The objective of the present study was to assess the injection practices in the state of Tamilnadu, India, using the Rapid assessment and response guide of the Safe Injection Global Network of the World Health Organization. ⋯ The annual incidence of needlestick injuries among providers was 23.6, which is extremely high. It is concluded that there are deficiencies in practice such as an excessive, unwarranted usage of injections, a sizeable prevalence of unsafe injection practices, the short supply of injection equipment leading to a high incidence of needlestick injuries, a low proportion of hepatitis B virus immunization among providers, and a lack of adequate sharps containers and disposal facilities in this part of India. It is suggested that immediate and long-term remedial measures, such as the education of prescribers to reduce the number of injections to a bare minimum, an adequate supply of injection equipment, provider protection with immunization for hepatitis B virus, the provision of adequate sharps containers with safe disposal facilities and, not least, community education, be undertaken to avoid the future epidemic of transmissible diseases.