Biomedical subjects

J VanDerslice

Publications and source records attributed to J VanDerslice.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Hepatitis A among schoolchildren in a US-Mexico border community.

OBJECTIVES: A cross-sectional study investigated the association of hepatitis A seropositivity with environmental and personal risk factors among children in a United States-Mexico border community. METHODS: Hepatitis A serological markers and a questionnaire identifying risk factors were evaluated for 523 primary school children. RESULTS: Of the children studied, 16.9% tested positive for total antihepatitis A virus. Risk factors included being in the first grade, low maternal educational attainment, living in Mexico for more than 6 months, household crowding, and inadequate excreta disposal systems. CONCLUSIONS: To decrease enteric disease, improvements in excreta disposal infrastructures and educational programs are needed. Hepatitis A vaccine should be administered before school age.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Environmental interventions in developing countries: interactions and their implications.

This study assesses the effect of drinking water quality on diarrheal disease in good and poor sanitary conditions using a random sample of 2,355 Filipino infants over the first year of life. The study provides powerful confirmation of the importance of environmental factors on diarrhea: The effects of water quality, household sanitation, and community sanitation are strong, consistent, and statistically significant. The positive impact of improved water quality is greatest for families living under good sanitary conditions, with the effect statistically significant when sanitation is measured at the community level but not significant when sanitation is measured at the household level. Improving drinking water quality would have no effect in neighborhoods with very poor environmental sanitation; however, in areas with better community sanitation, reducing the concentration of fecal coliforms by two orders of magnitude would lead to a 40 percent reduction in diarrhea. Providing private excreta disposal would be expected to reduce diarrhea by 42 percent, while eliminating excreta around the house would lead to a 30 percent reduction in diarrhea. The findings suggest that improvements in both water supply and sanitation are necessary if infant health in developing countries is to be improved. They also imply that it is not epidemiologic but behavioral, institutional, and economic factors that should correctly determine the priority of interventions.

Developing Countries↗

PubMed1994

Drinking-water quality, sanitation, and breast-feeding: their interactive effects on infant health.

The promotion of proper infant feeding practices and the improvement of environmental sanitation have been two important strategies in the effort to reduce diarrhoeal morbidity among infants. Breast-feeding protects infants by decreasing their exposure to water- and foodborne pathogens and by improving their resistance to infection; good sanitation isolates faecal material from the human environment, reducing exposures to enteric pathogens. Taken together, breast-feeding and good sanitation form a set of sequential barriers that protect infants from diarrhoeal pathogens. As a result, breast-feeding may be most important if the sanitation barrier is not in place. This issue is explored using data from a prospective study of 2355 urban Filipino infants during the first 6 months of life. Longitudinal multivariate analyses are used to estimate the effects of full breast-feeding and mixed feeding on diarrhoeal disease at different levels of sanitation. Breast-feeding provides significant protection against diarrhoeal disease for infants in all environments. Administration of even small portions of contaminated water supplements to fully breast-fed infants nearly doubles their risk of diarrhoea. Mixed-fed and weaned infants consume much greater quantities of supplemental liquids, and as a result, the protective effect of full breast-feeding is greatest when drinking-water is contaminated. Similarly, full breast-feeding has stronger protective effects among infants living in crowded, highly contaminated settings.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Growth dynamics during the first two years of life: a prospective study in the Philippines.

This study examines determinants of growth from birth to 24 months in a sample of approximately 3000 urban and rural Filipino children. Individual, household, and community data were collected bimonthly during the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey. Separate longitudinal, multivariate models were used to identify determinants of weight in children from birth to 6 months and 6-24 months of age. Previous weight, male gender, mother's height, and season of the year showed significant positive associations with weight in all models. Full and mixed breast-feeding significantly increased weight, but the effects of breast-feeding declined as children got older. Breast-feeding had a direct growth-enhancing effect in addition to its indirect effect through the prevention of diarrheal morbidity. Detrimental effects of recent diarrheal morbidity were particularly important in the older age group, but these effects were mitigated by breast-feeding. Since infant feeding variables are included in the models, the results strongly suggest an effect of diarrheal morbidity on growth independent of its known effects on infant feeding and dietary intake. Febrile respiratory infections had important detrimental effects on weight in both age groups.

Body Height↗