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Biomedical subjects

C C Verzosa

Publications and source records attributed to C C Verzosa.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Improving vaccination coverage in urban areas through a health communication campaign: the 1990 Philippine experience.

From March to September 1990 the Philippine Department of Health, with the assistance of the HEALTHCOM Project, carried out a national mass-media communication campaign to support routine vaccination services. The essential elements of the campaign strategy were as follows: focusing on measles as a way to get mothers to bring their children to the health centre; emphasizing logistic knowledge in the mass-media messages, in particular popularizing a single day of the week as "vaccination day" and giving clear information about the age for measles vaccination; and focusing on urban areas, which had lower vaccination rates than rural areas. Evaluation of the effects of the campaign indicates an increase in vaccination coverage and a substantial increase in the timeliness of vaccination that can be attributed to improvement in carers' knowledge about vaccination. Furthermore, most of the observed increase in knowledge was related to exposure to the mass-media campaign. There was no evidence of any programmatic change that could account for the increase in vaccination or evidence that increased health education efforts at health centres could account for the change in knowledge. These results indicate that when countries meet certain conditions--a high level of access to the media, sufficient expertise and funds available to develop and produce high-quality radio and television advertisements, and a routine system that is able to serve the increased demand--a mass communication campaign can significantly improve vaccination coverage.

Communication↗
PubMed1991

Development of a nutritionally adequate and culturally appropriate weaning food in Kwara State, Nigeria: an interdisciplinary approach.

A nutrition education program was undertaken in Kwara State, Nigeria to improve infant feeding practices and nutritional status of weaning-aged children. A series of ethnographic, market survey, epidemiological, dietary, clinical, and communications research studies were implemented to develop a culturally acceptable, yet nutritionally adequate, weaning food. A premise of the project was that the development and introduction of any new weaning food should be based upon ingredients available in the community and to households, at a low cost and with minimum preparation time, and that would be culturally acceptable by mothers for feeding young children. Initially, research was conducted to define the problem in both nutritional and anthropological terms. Data was collected to describe: (1) present patterns of infant feeding and their determinants; and (2) dietary intake and nutritional status of infants in the intervention area. This paper focuses on the process of defining the problem and developing an intervention from an interdisciplinary perspective. The development of the new weaning food, Eko-Ilera, a fortified pap based on the traditional weaning food, is described.

Breast Feeding↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Attitudes toward the rhythm method in the Philippines.

Two sets of focus group discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of the rhythm method were carried out in the Philippines in 1980 and 1981. The first discussions were held among 30 women and nine men 21-40 years of age, and the second among eight women 25-35 years of age who had voluntary pregnancy terminations after the method had failed. Among the perceived advantages of rhythm were that it permits spontaneous intercourse on the safe days and has no bad side effects. Among the perceived disadvantages were that it is ineffective, especially for women with irregular periods, and it requires abstinence. The women who had had voluntary pregnancy terminations discussed their motivations and rationales and the methods that they had used. The information obtained from the discussions formed the basis for support materials that are now used throughout the country.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗