The maternal mortality rate is a highly sensitive indicator for the health level of both women and the general population in a given geographical area. There is extensive variability among different countries, and rates are high in underdeveloped or developing areas, as in Brazil. Health authorities from various countries have launched programs aimed at reducing maternal deaths and have thus needed to estimate the actual rates to allow for a proper assessment and to control the programs' progress. However, there are many obstacles and difficulties in obtaining the real values of these measures, mainly because of incomplete data. The aim of this paper is to present some of the proposed methodologies for estimating maternal mortality rates and to call attention to the limits and biases of these methods. Based on the Brazilian case, the article also recommends an improvement in the quality and coverage of the Civil Registry, the official source of data on births and deaths.

Brazil↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Prevention of sexually transmitted diseases in women: association with socioeconomic and demographic variables].

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been a subject of discussion both among scientists and in the mass media, especially because of their association with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We studied the adoption of specific protective behaviors for the prevention of STDs among women, as well as the associations between these behaviors and socioeconomic and demographic variables. This was a descriptive study based on secondary data from a previous study carried out in Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil. A total of 635 women were selected using the social network ("snowball") technique. Subjects were classified into four groups: adolescents and adults of upper middle and lower socioeconomic status, respectively. Condoms were the STD prevention method most frequently mentioned by interviewees. A negative association was observed between having a steady partner and condom use in all the groups. The main reason mentioned for not using condoms was "having a single partner and trusting him". Among adolescents, a positive association was observed between schooling above the 8th grade and condom use, and a negative association was observed between age and condom use. Among adults, only condom use in general was also positively associated with socioeconomic status.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Ethnicity and cancer risk in São Paulo, Brazil.

Data from the São Paulo Cancer Registry (Brazil) for the period 1969-1974 are used to investigate ethnic differentials in cancer risk. Risks for specific cancers were estimated for mulattos and blacks relative to whites, using a case-control approach with other cancers as controls. For both sexes, blacks and mulattos are at higher risk than whites for cancer of the esophagus, stomach, and liver and for myeloma; for prostate cancer in males; and for gall bladder, pancreas, and cervix uteri cancers in females. Blacks and mulattos are at lower risk than whites for cancer of the colon, lung, larynx (males only), bladder, bone, testis, breast, and corpus uteri and for melanoma and leukemia. Except for lung and colon cancers, for which life-style habits are the main risk factors, these ethnic differences are similar to those observed in the United States.

Adult↗