Articles: health.
-
In the United States, women live longer than men, and they have lower death rates at virtually every age and for most causes of death. The sex differential in mortality has been increasing since the early 1900s, especially for those 15-24 and 55-64 years of age. Since 1970, however, that trend has slowed for persons 45-74, and for the first time, the sex differential among those 55-64 was actually smaller in 1980 than in 1970. ⋯ Women also use more health services than men, and they are institutionalized more frequently in their later years. Future health service planning must take into consideration women's greater health service needs. Future research needs to determine why women have more illness than men and whether women's greater life expectancy is associated with a greater active life expectancy, or if they are merely experiencing more years of disability and dependency.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Trial of an attenuated bovine rotavirus vaccine (RIT 4237) in Gambian infants.
A randomised, controlled trial of bovine rotavirus vaccine was undertaken in Gambian infants. Three doses were administered, from the age of ten weeks, concurrently with oral or killed polio vaccine. Prevaccination rotavirus neutralising antibody levels were high. 84/185 infants (45%) showed an increase in neutralising antibody titre after receiving rotavirus vaccine, compared with 20/91 (22%) unvaccinated infants. ⋯ Most cases (92%) were caused by rotaviruses with short RNA electropherotypes. Serological responses to rotavirus vaccination appeared unaffected by the concurrent administration of oral polio vaccine. Lower types 1 and 3 polio antibody levels were found in children who received oral polio and rotavirus vaccines but the differences were not statistically significant.
-
A survey of deaths in children under the age of 7 years was made over a 1-year period in a rural area of The Gambia with few facilities for curative medicine but with a good record of infant immunizations. One hundred and eighty-four deaths were investigated. Only 12% of deaths occurred in a hospital or health centre but an attempt was made to establish a cause of death by interviewing the family of each dead child and by examining any health records that were available. ⋯ Acute respiratory infections, malaria and chronic diarrhoea with marasmus were the most frequent causes of death after the 1st month of life. Few children died of diseases that could have been prevented by routine immunizations. An effective immunization programme has probably had some effect on deaths in infancy and early childhood but it will be necessary to find ways of preventing deaths from malaria, acute respiratory infections and chronic diarrhoea/marasmus at the primary health care level if infant and childhood mortality are to be reduced further in rural areas of The Gambia.
-
Int J Gynaecol Obstet · Apr 1987
Maternal mortality--a twelve-year survey at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (U.I.T.H.) Ilorin, Nigeria.
This paper concerns an analysis of maternal death at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (U. I. T. ⋯ The main avoidable factors were ineffective and cumbersome blood transfusion services; poor management of the third stage of labor; large number of unbooked patients and poor delivery room structure encouraging sepsis. Suggestions are made for a more integrated type of maternity services in our hospital, health education programs for the public and particularly the expectant women and availability of an effective blood bank service within the maternity hospital premises for prompt treatment of patients requiring emergency blood transfusion. The analysis underlines the great problem of maternal mortality in the developing world.