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Biomedical subjects

W E Bertrand

Publications and source records attributed to W E Bertrand.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Breast-feeding, water and sanitation, and childhood malnutrition in the Philippines.

This study examines effects and interactions of socioeconomic status, access to water supply and sanitation, and breast-feeding practices in relation to child growth in two provincial cities in the Philippines. Multivariate analysis identified food expenditure per head, education of the household head and gender of the child as significant predictors of nutritional status. The duration of partial and full breast-feeding was negatively (though non-significantly) associated with growth. Sanitation facilities and breast-feeding are, however, important determinants during the first year of life. Among children over 1 year of age, socioeconomic variables and gender are the most important predictors. Breast-feeding is shown to provide more important health benefits for children in lower income households. The need for further studies on the causes of gender differences in nutritional status was apparent.

Breast Feeding↗
PubMed1993

Conceptual framework for nutrition surveillance systems.

This article describes the evolution of nutrition surveillance as an intervention strategy and presents a framework for improving the usefulness of nutrition surveillance programs. It seems clear that such programs' impact on nutritional well-being will depend increasingly on their ability to reach and influence decision-makers. Therefore, it is important to consider political and social forces, and also to realize that if a program is too decentralized or too far removed from key decision-makers, its ability to influence resource flows may be limited. It is of course important that the surveillance information provided be appropriate and of good quality. Therefore, the data collected should be analyzed to ensure they are accurate and representative. Once that has been done, relevant findings should be presented in a readily understandable form designed to meet the intended recipients' information needs. Such findings should also be disseminated to all important decision-maker constituencies, including external donors of nutrition assistance and the general public.

Caribbean Region↗
PubMed1992

An intelligent computer-assisted instruction system designed for rural health workers in developing countries.

This paper describes an intelligent computer-assisted instruction system that was designed for rural health workers in developing countries. This system, called Consult-EAO, includes an expert module and a coaching module. The expert module, which is derived from the knowledge-based decision support system Tropicaid, covers most of medical practice in developing countries. It allows for the creation of outpatient simulations without the help of a teacher. The student may practice his knowledge by solving problems with these simulations. The system gives some initial facts and controls the simulation during the session by guiding the student toward the most efficient decisions. All student answers are analyzed and, if necessary, criticized. The messages are adapted to the situation due to the pedagogical rules of the coaching module. This system runs on PC-compatible computer.

Computer Simulation↗
PubMed1990

Dynamics of HIV infection and AIDS in central African cities.

A detailed stochastic model of HIV infection and AIDS for large cities in central Africa is described, which reproduces past events in Kinshasa, Zaire and projects rapid future spread of the disease, consistent with recent findings for Nairobi, Kenya. Most of the parameters used describe the behaviour of individuals, and it is therefore possible to look at the effects of changes in such behaviour, and thus to test various strategies aimed at providing effective public health policies. The model demonstrates that, if the spread of infection is to be controlled, changes in the behaviour of the major risk groups are essential. With appropriate modifications, this model could be adapted for use elsewhere in Africa.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1988

Differential correlates of nutritional status in Kinshasa, Zaire.

In an effort to search for causes of malnutrition in the urban environment to guide intervention efforts, a study of more than 2000 mother/child pairs was conducted in Kinshasa, Zaire. Under the auspices of the Zairian National Nutrition Planning Center a representative sample of a large lower class urban population was interviewed at two points in time. One phase covered morbidity and nutritional status measurements for all children under five years of age. A second phase examined a complex set of socioeconomic and behavioural variables possibly linked to nutritional outcomes for a 20% sample of the households. After merging the data sets bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed twice, using the youngest child and the household as the unit of analysis respectively. Results showed that different complexes of variables predicted malnutrition as measured by three separate anthropometric measures. For so-called acute malnutrition (weight-for-height) morbidity, migration, and diarrhoeal knowledge, all emerged as significant predictors. Chronic malnutrition (height-for-age), however, was only significantly predicted by zone of residence, a level of living score, and recent morbidity when all major variables were considered in the regression model. Factors that were significant predictors of each of these two indices also were predictors of the third nutritional indicator, weight-for-age. Birth interval also was associated with this index. The findings here suggest more careful scrutiny of the nature, causes, interpretation and use of these widely accepted measures of nutritional status.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Use of microcomputers in health and social service applications in developing nations.

The microcomputer is creating something of a revolution in many developing nations where historically there has been a lack of access to computer power at all levels of the health sector. For the first time, practitioners and researchers, often trained in computer techniques for developing countries, have access through microcomputers to data and information manipulation in their local workplace. While the history of microcomputers in such settings is short, this article presents early evidence from several countries which indicates the usefulness of various applications. The majority of the applications reported in the literature from clinical and research laboratories is made up of national data base systems and special studies of morbidity and mortality. Secondary applications, including assistance in biographical searches and word and graphics processing, are also reviewed in this article. A summary of the most utilized microcomputer hardware configurations completes the review.

Computers↗
PubMed1985

Microcomputer applications in health population surveys: experience and potential in developing countries.

Regrettably, because the content and technology are evolving so rapidly the literature on the application of microcomputer technology to health and development is either out of date, or hard to find (e.g. unpublished reports from consultants working with development agencies or universities). The time needed to review and publish an article or a book dictates that by the time it is published, any statements about current hardware will be obsolete. For example, a recent volume by Ingle et al., quite sound from the theoretical and practical point of view is already out of date with respect to hardware details. For that reason no hardware suggestions are made in this article. On the other hand, detailed reports of experience with first-generation microcomputers are very useful to the individual planning a developing country application. From the literature and our own field experience with respect to microcomputer applications in health/population surveys in developing countries, the following are useful summary points for projects currently going into the field. Careful planning is absolutely necessary if microcomputer technology is to be applied successfully to field data collection problems. Search out organizations with similar experiences. Collaboration among staff at all levels is essential for a system to be installed and utilized effectively. The particular technology combination selected must be adapted to the field situation. Remember survey complexity and size. Training is essential, and should be on-the-job and oriented towards specific tasks. If time consuming and repetitive tasks are given over to the microcomputer the technology will be readily accepted and fully utilized. To the extent that a community of users can be formed, the entire adoption process will be stimulated and results improved. Most maintenance and some repairs should be carried out in the field by local project personnel. For most survey and data acquisition problems some custom programming will be needed; this requires a good working knowledge of a powerful programming language (although this is likely to change in the near future). For descriptive statistics and small data management problems off-the-shelf software is appropriate but can be expensive. Compare options. Standardization and compatibility must be considered in all applications. This is important!(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Computers↗
PubMed1984

Biorhythms revisited: rhythm and blues?

In a previous study, no significant relationship was seen between date of psychiatric admission or psychiatric emergency room visit and various phases or critical days in the biorhythm cycle. The present study evaluated these relationships for date of admission of 313 patients--192 with major depression, 88 with bipolar disorder, and 33 with schizophrenia or other diagnoses. No significant relationship to critical days or any combination of critical/noncritical days was found. Two further analyses failed to reveal any significant relationship between admission date and ascendant versus recuperative phases or any combination of cycle and phase. No differences were seen between affectively ill and other patients on any measures evaluated.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1984

The impact of oedema on anthropometric measurements in nutritional surveys: a case study from Zaire.

Six surveys for protein-energy malnutrition were carried out in sequence in Bas-Zaire beginning at the end of 1978 at the estimated height of the famine and continuing throughout the recovery period. Utilizing a stratified multi-stage sampling technique, over 1000 children aged 6 months to 6 years were measured anthropometrically and examined for the presence or absence of bilateral pedal oedema in each survey. The proportions of children who were less than 80% of the reference median weight-for-height and who had oedema decreased, respectively, from 12.8% and 14.4% initially to 2.1% and 1.8% in the final survey. The proportion of oedematous children who were found to be not less than 80% of the reference median weight-for-height was high, varying from 71.7 +/- 7.0% to 94.4 +/- 10.6%. The importance of these findings for the interpretation of anthropometric data from nutritional surveys in developing countries is discussed.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed1983

Maternal knowledge, attitudes and practice as predictors of diarrhoeal disease in young children.

The focus on diarrhoeal disease as a world wide health problem as demonstrated by recent efforts of international agencies has raised the question of the importance of social factors such as maternal knowledge and attitudes in explaining differential prevalence. Using data from an experimental outreach health delivery programme in Cali, Colombia, this article examines 583 randomly selected women with children 0-4 years of age representing a total population of approximately 70 000. With perceived diarrhoea as the outcome question mothers were questioned on 11 attitude indicators of maternal knowledge and practice about diarrhoeal disease, four indicators of individual socioeconomic status, three indicators of crowding, three of housing quality and two of family sanitary conditions. Results indicate significant elevated prevalence (chi 2 analysis) with 11 variables including knowledge of cause of diarrhoea, where to and how to treat diarrhoea, housing quality, mother's age, education and civil status, type of water service, and where parents were born. Logistic regression performed on variables with significant and near significant prevalence findings indicated that mother's perception of malnutrition in child, age of mother, house appearance, birthplace of mother and mother's general knowledge of diarrhoea were the most important predictive variables in descending order. Authors indicate that these conclusions suggest the importance of social and attitudinal variables in explaining differential diarrhoeal disease among a homogeneous, poor urban population and as such deserve more careful study.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1981

Biorhythms: fact or superstition?

Although much has appeared in the lay literature regarding the role of biorhythms in life events, few empirical data exist to support the notion that biorhythms affect our lives. The authors first examined the relationship between biorhythms and date of psychiatric hospitalization for 218 patients. They then compared the dates of psychiatric emergency room visits for 386 patients with each patient's biorhythms. The results from both studies failed to reveal a significant relationship between time of psychiatric admission or psychiatric emergency room visit and various phases of the biorhythm cycle. The biorhythm theory is much too simplistic to account for the complexities of everyday life. Therefore, belief in the theory is likely to be an expression of superstitious behavior.

Hospitalization↗
PubMed1980

A model for the incorporation of alumni-faculty feedback into curriculum planning.

Recent changes in the scope and nature of public health jobs and the characteristics of public health students prompted the development and testing of a strategy for curriculum planning based on information obtained from alumni and faculty. Identification of job activities viewed as important by both faculty and alumni for the largest number of job groups suggested a management-oriented core curriculum which could be supplemented by skills and knowledge related to the type of job which the student was preparing to enter.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1979

A methodology for determining high risk components in urban environments.

A method of data collection and analysis is proposed for identifying environmental indicators significant to community health. The methods were applied to a study of child mortality in the city of Cali, Colombia. Pridit analysis (principal component analysis of ridits) is described. The methods have potential usefulness for monitoring and health care planning.

Colombia↗