Articles: health.
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In 1976 a programme which integrated nutritional, health, and educational services for children, mothers, and pregnant women was set up in India, and these services were delivered to the local people mainly through members of their own community. After 21 months the programme achieved improvements in nutritional status of the children that were not attained by decades of many other separate nutritional, health, and educational programmes. ⋯ The programme was first implemented in 33 communities (blocks). Because of its success its gradually being extended to other blocks.
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The pediatrician's role in teenage pregnancy is multifaceted. The problem is a sociologic phenomenon with medical consequences. The pregnant teenager actually represents three patients: the mother, the baby, and the adolescent herself. ⋯ Pediatricians should work to gain acceptance of laws modeled after the American Academy of Pediatrics' health care for minors policy. Lastly, support services to promote proper parenthood and establishment of families can be developed with pediatric input. The entire problem must be viewed in the context of current social patterns, an understanding of adolescent development, the significance of peer pressures, and the biological changes that make it possible for children to bear children.
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This study investigates the relationship between the health beliefs of mothers in a Botswana village and their utilization of available maternal and child health resources, specifically immunizations, antenatal care, and clinic delivery. The two-pronged methodology includes (1) a household survey of 620 mothers of children under the age of five and (2) a series of intensive but informal, loosely structured interviews with 19 village women. Results show that a majority of the children had received one immunization but that few had ever had more. ⋯ They were responding to their perception of the clinic as a place that cures, rather than prevents, illness. This was consistent with the finding that few used the clinic delivery service: most women saw no reason to seek professional help in the absence of perceived problems. The authors point out implications of this study for community-centred, in contrast to disease-centred, health education.
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Senior citizens, particularly those aged 75 or older, are the fastest growing group in the US today. 25 million strong, the elderly make up 11% of the total population, the proportion ranging from 18.1% in Florida to 2.6% in Alaska. 1/4 of the federal budget, $155 billion in 1980, now goes to their support yet many face difficulty in gaining access to the programs designed to benefit them. The elderly, especially those who rely solely on Social Security, comprise a disproportionate share of all poor households. The retirement system itself is facing financing challenges that promise to grow as the baby boom generation swells the number of senior citizens to 55 million in 2030. Plans to coordinate government programs and improve the method of financing the retirement system are receiving increasing attention. Financing Social Security from revenue funds, or with actuarial reserves, are 2 alternatives to the present pay-as-you-go system. Another area of concern to policymakers is America's health care system, which is now crisis oriented and heavily biased toward institutionalization. Health care must be made more responsive to the long-term needs of the oldest segment of the population, many of whom suffer from chronic illnesses. Impaired elderly receive most of their care from family or friends, and private organizations, but this natural support network largely has been ignored by government. New program initiatives might emphasize homemaker services, geriatric day care, compensation for families that provide for the needs of an elderly relative, and the strengthening of the informal partnership between the elderly themselves, their families and friends, community groups, private organizations, and government at the state and local as well as the federal level.