Articles: health.
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Bull. World Health Organ. · Jan 1989
Breast-feeding among the urban poor in southern Brazil: reasons for termination in the first 6 months of life.
A study of breast-feeding practices over the first 6 months of life among a cohort of urban poor infants in southern Brazil indicated that the median duration of breast-feeding was 18 weeks, and at 6 months 41% of the infants were still being breast-fed. The duration of breast-feeding was significantly associated with the following: the infant's sex, mother's colour, type of first feed, timing of the first breast-feed, breast-feeding regimen and frequency of breast-feeding at 1 month, and the use of hormonal contraceptives by the mother. ⋯ Also, the mothers' perception that their milk output was inadequate was the most frequent reason expressed for stopping breast-feeding in the first 4 months. The roles of health services and family support in providing favourable conditions for increasing the duration of breast-feeding in the study population are discussed, as well as the possibility of bias being introduced into studies of the relationship between infant feeding and growth by the effect of the infant's rate of growth on the mother's decision to continue breast-feeding.
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Outcome of cardiac arrest (CA) is very much influenced by pre-CPR conditions. To assess the importance of these pre-CPR factors, an analysis of the Belgian CPCR registry was made according to some pre-CPR conditions. In this registry, several variables related to pre-arrest, arrest, CPR and post CPR period have been recorded in 4548 patients. ⋯ In the out-of-hospital setting the type of CA was 25% VF (LTS, 77%), 65% asystole (LTS, 4%) and 10% EMD (LTS, 3%). Outcome of the subgroup out-of-hospital, witnessed, VF is comparable to other reports. This sub-group seems to us the most appropriate for clinical trials.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1989
ReviewWar-related changes in health and health services in Nicaragua.
The low-intensity war against Nicaragua from 1983 to 1987 has had a wide reaching impact on health, health services, and health economics in that country. Beyond the death of individuals and destruction of facilities, economic embargo and contra destruction have cost the health system about 200 billion cordobas between 1981 and 1987. This is approximately equal to the value of 2 years of the entire health budget. ⋯ Nonetheless, the indirect effects of the war have been detrimental to the system. Negative effect include the loss to the system of health professionals and rampant inflation. These forces contribute to the weakening of primary health programs and the reorientation of the national system into hospital based, curative medical services.