Karaemea. 1. Demography, vital statistics, medical services, and morbidity in a New Zealand rural general practice.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This article draws together statistical information in several broad areas that relate to women's health, women's reproductive activities and women's occupations in Sweden. The statistical analysis reflects the major changes that have occurred in Swedish society and that have had a major impact on the health and well-being, as well as on the social participation rate, of women. Much of the data is drawn from a recent special effort at Statistic Sweden aimed at influencing the classification, collection and presentation of statistical data in all fields in such a way that family, working, education, health and other conditions of women can be more readily and equitably compared with those of men. In addition, social changes have seen the shifting of the responsibility of health care from the unpaid duties of women in the home to health care institutions, where female employees predominate. These trends are also discussed.
The National Dairy Heifer Evaluation Project was a cooperative, USDA-sponsored project involving state agricultural departments, the Cooperative Extension Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. A series of retrospective and prospective descriptive surveys using a multiple list and area frame sampling technique were conducted. Information collected pertained primarily to dairy neonates and replacement heifers. Much of the study was related to observational information on health and management characteristics that can be related to the animals' long-term physical and economic performance. The data reflect herds representing 78% of the national dairy cow population. Average herd size was 86 milking and dry cows and 66 heifers. Many characteristics of these herds reflect accepted and recommended practices in the area of dairy replacement management and nutrition. Data summarized in this national study can be utilized to evaluate the impact of management practices on dairy operations.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
BACKGROUND: The extent to which clusters of attempted suicides occur is a significant problem that is complementary to the current available research on the clustering of completed suicide. However, little systematic research on clusters of attempted suicides exists. The present study examines the extent and nature of clustering of suicide attempts. METHOD: The occurrence of clustering of attempted suicide was examined in nationwide data for all New Zealand hospitals, obtained from the New Zealand Health Statistics Services for the years 1988-1990. The Scan statistic and Knox procedure were employed for testing the significance of clusters in time and time-space, respectively. RESULTS: The analyses indicated that significant time clustering occurred in younger age groups, specifically among 15-19 and 20-24 year olds. The results could not be accounted for by seasonal variations in admissions. Age specificity of time-space clusters emerged, exhibiting a similar pattern to that reported for completed suicides in the US. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest a similar underlying mechanism for the clustering of parasuicide and completed suicides and provide support for the existence of contagion of suicidal behaviour. The implications for prevention are discussed.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Immunization against major childhood diseases has been an essential component of health policies in developing countries. However, despite its importance and the efforts invested by many organizations in promoting immunization programs, consistent and accurate measurement of immunization coverage has not yet been achieved. In this paper, we explore the implications of alternative methods of measuring immunization coverage rates in Guatemala, using data from the 1987 Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno Infantil, and we consider the dangers of making inferences about levels and trends in coverage from cross-sectional data. The results indicate that (1) service statistics may well lead to overestimates of coverage; (2) survey estimates derived from health cards can also produce severely biased estimates; and (3) in spite of problems associated with maternal recall, mothers' reports of their children's vaccination status probably result in substantially improved estimates of immunization coverage.
Major changes in contraceptive use among adolescents in the United States have been documented through surveys and analysis of family planning program service statistics. While we know of the changes in the adolescent population as a whole and those served by organized family planning programs, little is known about the patterns of contraceptive use by individuals. This study examines patterns of contraceptive use among 547 clients of a new contraceptive and counseling service for adolescents in New York City. The principal concern is consistency of contraceptive method use as determined from clinic statistics. Findings show generally high degrees of method consistency, with new and current users displaying more consistency than prior users. Among clients who switch methods, two major patterns emerged: switching among the more effective methods and from less effective to more effective methods. Younger new users were the most consistent subgroup suggesting that a service designed for adolescents may have a positive influence on teenagers without prior contraceptive experience. Prior users were the least consistent subgroup suggesting that programs incorporate screening procedures to identify prior users and to develop new approaches to understanding their past contraceptive use patterns to improve their future use.
Medical services provided to 402 children with exceptional health and educational needs between 1975 and 1978 were systematically studied to determine consumer satisfaction. Legislation (PL 94-142) has made it mandatory for complete services to be provided to exceptional children from birth to age 21. Although the major responsibility to provide these services lies with local public schools, physicians often are involved and can help to provide optimum care to these children. This report describes a medical-educational system that delivers multispecialty pediatric services. An inferential evaluation procedure has been applied to this system that shows how consumer input can lead to improved medical services. Statistical procedures used to examined the data include analysis of variance, utilized in comparing the satisfaction ratings over time, and multiple linear regression analysis, to predict medical service activities of importance to consumers.
In an effort to measure the value of outreach, a prospective study using an experimental comparison group design was implemented in a rural region of Tunisia, where an outreach program had been implemented in 1981 to increase contraceptive prevalence. The main components of the program included the improvement and expansion of rural health care services through mobile clinics, and the implementation of an information, education, and communication (IEC) outreach program. While the program tended to focus on the implementation of the mobile clinics, service statistics suggested that the IEC outreach component in fact accounted for much of the success of the program. The study shows that the addition of outreach to existing services more than doubles the number of new family planning acceptors, and that outreach has a more positive impact on service output than does the creation of new services.
Clinical detection of alcohol involvement (AI) and its recording (ethyl sign) in accident patients was evaluated by comparing the ethyl signs with blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) in 1012 injury victims. Of the 337 BAC-positive cases 50% had a positive ethyl sign, while an additional 13% had some reference to alcohol in their patient notes. Thus, the overall recording rate was 63%. Computer analysis of the statistics from the same emergency station revealed positive ethyl signs in 13.5% of all the 44 372 patients in 1973. The drunken victims of falls (44%) and fights & assaults (26%) formed the main bulk (70%) of all drunken injury patients. Ethyl sign was found to be a specific, though not a sensitive, indicator of AI and a useful device for studying the strain alcohol places upon the emergency services, statistically.
The California Health Plan for Children, 1979, compiled by the Committee on Health Planning of California, District IX of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is an extensive report on health problems unique to the children of California. Since its publication, many local and state health agencies have been using it as a guide and source of data in their planning efforts for child and youth health. The creation of the plan demonstrated a successful working relationship between health care practitioners and biostatisticians, the acceptance by health professionals of the use of health statistics in planning, the different uses of health statistics in formulating recommendations, and an approach to organizing and summarizing large bodies of data. Nevertheless, our experience indicates that although collection systems for data on population, mortality, natality, morbidity, and health services statistics abound, their use in community health planning for subpopulations is still limited by problems in the definition, validity, and completeness of the data elements. The establishment of an individualized data system for the entire population, to be developed, coordinated, and controlled by one central agency, could be a significant step toward solving these long-standing problems in our data systems.
The cost-effectiveness of reducing the frequency of routine supervision from monthly to quarterly was evaluated in a closely controlled field experiment conducted in a community-based distribution program in Piaui State in northeast Brazil. The results demonstrated substantial potential savings in supervisors' salaries and travel at no cost to program performance (new acceptors, revisits, distributor turnover). A possible reason for this finding was that most supervisory visits were primarily concerned with collecting inventory and service statistics, which probably contributed little to post performance. It was suggested that the number of supervisors and the frequency of supervision should be linked to productive rather than routine supervisory activities.
The increasing diversity of New York's Latino population creates complex challenges for the health care provider and planner, such as how to plan for divergent health risks, disease patterns, and health behaviors. However, most research on Latinos has been done in the southwestern United States. This paper reviews the epidemiologic data published since 1980 on Latino groups in New York State. The review covers the following areas: maternal and child health, infectious diseases, depression, tobacco and substance use, chronic diseases, neoplasms, and mortality statistics. We compare New York data with studies done in other areas of the United States. We identify serious methodological shortcomings in the epidemiological assessment of New York's Latino population, including (1) imprecise definition of "Latino," (2) misclassification, (3) census undercount of minority groups, and (4) lack of data on socioeconomic status. We argue that the epidemiological and cultural diversity of Latino groups demands the inclusion of such variables as place of birth, length of stay, and language preference in research and service statistics. This would facilitate targeted program planning and help to determine environmental, sociopolitical, behavioral, and genetic influences on diseases.
Service statistics and observations from site visits across the country indicate that school-based clinics (SBCs) may be having an impact on several of the problems targeted in the 1990 health objectives, including unplanned pregnancy and substance abuse. At least 120 junior and senior high schools in 61 communities are currently operating or developing clinics. Growth is attributed to increasing concern about high-risk youth, especially among educators in their roles of "surrogate parents"; to disillusion with categorical interventions and a movement toward more comprehensive services; and to student, parent, school, and community approval of the new programs. This article describes the comprehensive school-based clinic model, including its history, organizational strategies, school/community partnerships, and services.
This study examined Scottish dentists' claimed use of and opinions regarding bitewing radiography. Information was obtained from a questionnaire sent to all dentists practising in Scotland in 1987 and from national statistics published in the Annual Reports of the Dental Practice Boards in the UK. The response rate to the questionnaire was 72% (926 general dental practitioners and 201 clinical community dental officers). Respondents considered radiography to be of value for the detection of approximal caries, assessment of caries progression and evaluation of alveolar periodontal support. They considered it to be of less value for a variety of other tasks, including detecting occlusal caries, unerupted teeth or calculus. One hundred and fifty-eight dentists (15% of respondents) claimed not to have taken any bitewings of their 12-year-old patients in the preceding year. Those respondents who did claim to have exposed some bitewings said that approximately one-quarter of this patient group had received the examination in the past year. The overall Health Service statistics appear to confirm that the utilization of radiography by dentists practising in Scotland is somewhat lower than that by dentists in England and Wales, a factor which requires further investigation.