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Biomedical subjects

P D Ferrinho

Publications and source records attributed to P D Ferrinho.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Botshabelo's vaccination survey.

This community-based survey evaluates vaccination coverage of small children and socio-economic status of their households in a randomly selected sample of a black South African township. It reveals a poverty-stricken community, where only 19% of the children surveyed were fully vaccinated. It is suggested that expansion of health infrastructures together with a co-ordinated strategy of immunisation would result in a spectacular increase in vaccination coverage.

Diphtheria Toxoid↗
PubMed1991

Reproductive health care in the Gelukspan Health Ward.

Reproductive health care, namely family planning, antenatal care (ANC), labour care and postnatal care, was studied in the Gelukspan health ward of Bophuthatswana in 1985-1986. Only a minority of the women interviewed (20%) had planned their last pregnancy, but most had attended for ANC (93%) and had had supervised deliveries in a hospital or clinic (80%). Most (97%) knew of modern methods of fertility control but only a minority (37%) were using them. Planned pregnancies were more likely to be reported by married women (73% of 37 v. 9% of 173; P = 0.0000) who left school at an earlier age (16.0 +/- 5.9 years v. 17.0 +/- 3.9 years; P = 0.0462). If unmarried, women who had planned their pregnancy were more likely to be maintained by the father of the child (15% v. 4%; P = 0.0134). They were also less likely to have left school because of the pregnancy (20% v. 50%; P = 0.0001). Unmarried women with supervised deliveries are more likely to have financial support from the father of the child. Maternal school education is positively related to attendance for ANC, attendance for supervised labour and utilisation of modern methods of fertility control. There seems to be an intricate relationship between the different outcomes measured. ANC attenders were more likely to have supervised deliveries. Both groups were more likely to start attending for child health care earlier and more frequently. Our results are discussed.

Family Planning Services↗
PubMed1991

Early life nutrition in the Gelukspan Health Ward.

Breast-feeding, supplementary feeding and weaning practices as well as nutrition during the second year of life were studied in 210 black primiparas, who had cared for their own children through the first year, in a poor, one-crop (maize) rural area in Bophuthatswana. The sampling strategy was similar to the one recommended by UNICEF for assessment of vaccination coverage. Only 1 child had never been breast-fed and 60% were still breast-fed at the time of the interview during the second year of life. A number of factors were detected that seem important determinants of breast-feeding behaviour, e.g. marital status and level of formal education. Early supplementary feeding and early weaning were identified as major problems. Children were weaned onto commercial feeds or low-energy-dense staples, and there was also an obvious lack of energy-dense foods (e.g. butter, coconut oil) during the second year of life. Some determinants of these practices were recorded. The data have implications for the health services and should influence social and educational policy for the area. If properly implemented, the recommendations could result in significant financial saving for the study population. The health services should promote appropriate nutritional education, starting with antenatal care, early and frequent attendance at child health services should be encouraged and education concerning nutrition should be strengthened, and health education should encourage prolonged breast-feeding, discourage the use of commercial weaning foods, and encourage the use of natural multimixes (e.g. bananas, beans, cooking oil) for weaning. The importance of energy-dense foods should be emphasised to mothers and to health workers.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

A profile of Alexandra.

In this article publications on the demography and environmental and health status of Alexandra Township are reviewed and a demographic survey carried out in 1990 is reported. The demographic data presented in the article describe the age, sex and ethnic profile of the population. It also describes the health and disease status, provides some vital statistics, describes the health services and discusses the implications for the development of appropriate health care strategies. Approximately 19% of the population live in informal dwellings or shelters, 14% in the newly upgraded areas and 67% in old Alexandra. Mean household occupancy was 4.04 with a male/female (m/f) ratio of 0.86. It was 3.08 in informal dwellings (m/f = 1.11), 4.30 in the newly upgraded areas (m/f = 0.74) and 4.28 for Old Alex (m/f = 0.82). Old Alex had the highest proportion of inhabitants aged over 60 years. On average females have been resident in Alexandra for 16.8 years and males for 14.9 years.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Immunisation coverage and reasons associated with non-immunisation in Alexandra township, September 1988.

Regular annual measles outbreaks in Alexandra prompted a revision of immunisation strategies at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic (AHC) and an immunisation coverage survey in September 1988. Forty-five clusters of 7 children aged 12-23 months were studied. Eighty-two per cent of mothers were in possession of a 'Road to Health' card, 12% said they had the card elsewhere, 3% reported it lost and 3% had never had a card. Thirty-three per cent of the children completed the immunisation schedule on time, 50% by 1 year of age and 61% by the time of the interview. The influence of sociodemographic, immunisation knowledge, and health service access variables on immunisation rates were analysed. Those children with a non-AHC 'Road to Health' card (P less than 0.01), the squatters (P less than 0.05), and those living farthest away from the clinic (P less than 0.05) were the only groups with a statistically significant lower on-time immunisation rate. Those children with a non-AHC 'Road to Health' card (P less than 0.01) and those whose caregivers could not or had difficulty reading a simple message in English (P less than 0.01 and P less than 0.05, respectively) had a significantly lower immunisation rate by 1 year of age and by interview. A child health outreach programme, started immediately after the survey, has begun to address some of the determinants of immunisation uptake described in this survey.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Evaluation of blood pressure screening at the Alexandra Health Centre.

A review of patient registers and records at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic (AHC) revealed that less than 10% of the expected number of hypertensive subjects in Alexandra are attending the twice a week hypertension clinic. In the adult outpatient department most patients are not screened for hypertension. Patients are more likely to be screened if they have symptoms suggestive of high blood pressure and are seen in the morning by a primary health care nurse. Age and sex of patients are not important determinants of hypertension screening. It is thus apparent that primary care consultations at the AHC are not used as opportunities for screening for a serious and common illness for which there is ready treatment. However, before the AHC embarks on a massive case-finding programme there is a need to develop efficient and affordable treatment programmes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Patients with sexually transmitted diseases at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic.

The profile of patients with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) attending a sex health education programme at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic for the period 1 August 1989 - 31 July 1990 is reported. During the study period 5.195 (10%) of the total of 51,858 patients seen in the adult outpatients department were referred to the sex health education unit with an STD. Data on 5,017 STD patients (97%) are available and also information on a further 505 contacts of STD patients. A practice profile on all patients attending the adult outpatients departments was also collected. Data for the month of August 1990 were analysed and stratified according to either a STD diagnosis or any other diagnosis. Groups were then compared according to age, socio-economic classification, numbers of sexual partners, presence of ulcers, etc.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Costs of primary health care at the Alexandra Health Centre.

This study provides a detailed analysis of costs and expenditure patterns at a primary health care centre serving an impoverished community of about 200,000 people. Data were collected on costs and utilisation of services at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic (AHC) for the financial year ending March 1990. Capital and running costs were kept separate. The sources of data collection were statistics routinely collected in the different sections of the clinic, the accounting records, staff duty rosters and a prospective study done to collect information to apportion drug costs and to calculate the cost of a prescription. The audited operating expenditure at AHC for the 1990 financial year was R3.9 million, or R4,45 million with donations (mainly drugs and staff). Sixty-three per cent of total costs went on staff, 16% on drugs and supplies, 9% on buildings, furniture and transport, 3% on laboratory services, 2% on security and 8% on other items. The outpatients department accounted for 57% of expenditure, the 24-hour unit 37% and the outreach section 6%. Looked at another way, 66% went on curative services, 32% on preventive and promotive (including 13% on maternity costs) services, and 2% on rehabilitation services. The average cost per visit to each of 14 services is presented. The cost of a visit to casualty is R38.85, to the antenatal clinic R18.65 and to the child health outreach programme for immunisation R6.67. The component costs of each visit are analysed. The major cost component of a consultation is usually clinical staff, and detailed staff allocations for each section are given.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Budgets↗
PubMed1991

Developing a health information system for a primary health care centre in Alexandra, Johannesburg.

The development of a health information system, which went through 6 overlapping phases, appropriate for a primary health care centre at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic (AHC) is reviewed. The three essential concepts were data, information and indicators. The system at the AHC moved from unused data to unused information and to operational indicators. It also moved from a concern with data and information to one concerned with communication of information. The way a health information system evolves is, to a large extent, a reflection of the information needed by the group that is planning the system. In the AHC information needs were initially felt by senior management and attempts to involve other staff failed because of lack of timely feedback and a lack of management skills at all levels. In the process of trying to involve people and of getting to the correct type and amount of information, it became obvious that a health information system is complex and involves data as the major outputs, with people being the common thread of the system.

Community Health Centers↗
PubMed1991

Measuring environmental health status in Oukasie, 1987.

This article reports on some aspects of the physical environment and on environmental health services at Oukasie. The data were collected over a weekend in August 1987 by an interview and by direct inspection of the environment using a standard schedule. We had a 100% response rate on the interviews. There was a mean of 2.2 +/- 1.6 persons per room in the households, with brick houses being less crowded than non-brick houses. Private yards were generally kept very clean. Bucket latrines were unhygienic and used by an average of 4 families. No latrine was built to accepted standards. Garbage collection and emptying of the bucket latrines by the municipality seemed to be unsatisfactory. Our overall impression was that where responsibility for maintenance of hygiene is either undefined, such as the collection chambers of bucket latrines, or a responsibility of the public authorities, such as garbage collection and water drainage, there is an unsatisfactory state of hygiene. Where maintenance of cleanliness is clearly a private responsibility, such as the maintenance of the cleanliness of private yards, the general status of hygiene is good.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1991

Community health survey of Oukasie, 1987.

A series of surveys were conducted at the request of the community of Oukasie to determine certain public health information in the township, a peri-urban black community. This article describes two of these surveys. The first, a census and partial demographic survey, showed that the total black population was around 6,300 with a mean household occupancy of 4.1. Some of the estimated vital statistics calculated were an infant mortality rate of 36.6/1,000, a crude birth rate of 28.0/1,000, a crude death rate of 6.5/1,000, and a general fertility rate of 99.3/1,000. The second survey into the nutritional and immunisation status of children aged under 5 years showed that 20% of children were underweight and nearly half were incompletely immunised at 1 year of age. These studies, involving local community and student volunteers, were rapidly and inexpensively done and provide basic public health information.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Survey of oral fluid therapy practices in South Africa.

The objectives of this study were to document the official oral fluid therapy (OFT) policies of all the ministries of health in South Africa and of the four provincial authorities, to determine what methods of OFT are used in hospitals providing paediatric care, to determine the OFT methods recommended by hospital staff for use at home, to establish the level of support for the idea of one national policy for OFT and to determine what senior academic paediatricians think about these issues. We conducted structured telephonic interviews of professional staff in charge of paediatric wards in 159 randomly selected hospitals providing general inpatient care. The hospitals were stratified as private, provincial and 'homeland'. We also interviewed the directors-general or the secretaries or their deputies in each ministry of health as well as directors of hospital services or their deputies in each one of the four provinces of the Republic. Lastly, we spoke to the academic heads of paediatric departments in each of the country's eight medical schools. The results show that the use of OFT for inpatient care of diarrhoeal disease is far from universal, and that the picture with regard to promotion of home OFT is even less favourable. We identified an unacceptable diversity in the OFT methods being promoted as well as a degree of resistance to the development of one national policy. We recommend that one policy, based on the recommendations of the South African Paediatric Association, be adopted by all health authorities in South Africa as a matter of urgency.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Fluid Therapy↗
PubMed1989

Diarrhoeal diseases and oral fluid therapy in the Gelukspan health ward.

This study reports the results on diarrhoeal disease and oral fluid therapy (OFT) obtained during a survey on maternal knowledge and child health in the Gelukspan health ward (GHW) in 1985-1986. We studied 210 women sampled by means of a multistage sampling procedure. Strict selection criteria ensured that the baby had been born in the GHW, that it was the first-born and the only child, and that it had been cared for by the mother from birth until the time of interviewing. All the children were between 12 and 24 months old. Information was collected by interviewing the mother and by analysing data on the home-retained 'Road to Health' cards (RTHCs) of the study children. Ninety-three per cent of the children had an RTHC and 97% of these had at least one record about reasons to visit the health service. Most visits were 'well' visits (71%), 18% were associated with respiratory tract complaints, and 12% were associated with gastro-intestinal complaints (most commonly diarrhoea). Sixty-three per cent of children with data on visits to the health services attended at least once with gastro-intestinal complaints during the first year of life. About two-thirds of the mothers knew the composition of an acceptable oral fluid solution for home therapy of diarrhoeal disease. Only 40% knew how frequently it should be given and only a quarter knew how much to give. After multivariate analysis the only independent variables that remained predictors of knowledge on OFT were maternal knowledge on signs and symptoms of dehydration (SSD) and frequency of gastro-intestinal complaints as recorded on the RTHC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cross-Sectional Studies↗