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Biomedical subjects

A Waterston

Publications and source records attributed to A Waterston.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Anthropological research and the politics of HIV prevention: towards a critique of policy and priorities in the age of AIDS.

This paper is based on the author's ethnographic HIV prevention research at a community-based residence for women in New York City who have a history of homelessness and diagnosis of mental illness. The author presents the human face of this American tragedy, while exploring the ways in which larger social forces circumscribe these women's lives. The author also critically assesses the HIV prevention agenda, including the dominant paradigm in prevention intervention. Despite acceptance by the most prominent players in AIDS prevention in the United States, the most popular prevention theories are theoretically and substantively inadequate. While educational interventions and behavior change efforts may have some impact on inhibiting HIV transmission, the focus on the individual as the sole locus of change tends to obscure the social and material factors in the spread of the disease. An anthropologically informed alternative, integrating social responsibility and social justice, is explored. Also considered are dilemmas in applying anthropology to AIDS prevention research and how to translate theoretical abstractions into humane and pragmatic social programs.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1994

What is a normal rate of weight gain in infancy?

We have retrieved weights from the Child Health records of an annual cohort of 3418 full-term children, aged 18-30 months in order to define a lower limit of normality for weight gain for both clinical and research purposes. There was a strong tendency for children at the extremes of the distribution to move inwards towards the average: only 26% of those below the 3rd centile for weight at six weeks were still below it at one year. We describe a method based on conditional standards to correct for this "regression to the mean" and produce a measure of the discrepancy between a child's predicted and actual growth: the "thrive index". The value of the thrive index below which only a minority of children fell provided a lower threshold for normality. While most children below the 3rd centile for weight at 9-24 months of age also had subnormal weight gain, 41% of those with subnormal weight gain had not fallen below the 3rd centile.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1994

Effect of deprivation on weight gain in infancy.

Weights were retrieved from child health records for an annual cohort of 3418 children, aged 18-30 months, to explore the relationship between deprivation and weight gain. Their level of deprivation was classified, using census data for their area of residence, as affluent (11%), intermediate (69%) or deprived (20%). Children from deprived areas were smaller at all ages with a widening gap: by one year of age, they were three times as likely as affluent children to be below the third centile for weight. The thrive index, a measure of the degree of centile shift, showed a slight gain over the first year in affluent and intermediate children, while in deprived children it decreased (p = 0.001). Deprived children were 2.2 times more likely than intermediate children to have failure to thrive, as manifest by subnormal thrive index values (p = 0.00008). Unexpectedly, children from affluent areas also showed slightly increased rates. We suggest that this may be explained by higher rates of breast feeding in affluent areas.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1993

Comparison of the use of Tanner and Whitehouse, NCHS, and Cambridge standards in infancy.

The British (Tanner and Whitehouse) and American (National Center for Health Statistics, NCHS) growth standards are widely used internationally, although the data are now over 30 years old. Routine weight data was retrieved from the child health records of a complete annual cohort of 3418 children aged 18-30 months to test the validity of these standards for modern infants. Compared with the Tanner and Whitehouse standards, Newcastle children rose initially and then fell a mean of 0.7 SDs between 6 weeks and 18 months, resulting in a threefold difference in the proportion of children below the 3rd centile at different ages. NCHS standards showed a similar pattern. When compared with modern standards from the Cambridge growth study, there was a much closer match, although Newcastle children showed a slight gain by the age of 1 year. Existing standards for weight introduce inaccuracy into the estimation of centile position in the early months of life. As both standards show similar problems this probably represents a real secular change due to changes in infant nutrition. These findings support the need to develop new national growth reference standards.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed1987

Young doctors' views on their undergraduate child health teaching.

Fifty three recently qualified doctors working in various fields of child health were asked to relate their present work to the teaching they received as undergraduates. A rating scale was used that indicated the doctor's perceptions of the present importance of a subject and the previous deficiency in teaching. History taking and examination techniques were thought to have been adequately taught, but the diagnosis and management of 'minor ailments' in children were thought to have been deficient in the course, despite their importance in present work. A greater emphasis on problem based teaching would make up for this deficiency.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗