Guest relations: substance or fluff?
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Consumer Behavior↗
Biomedical subjects
K Peterson
Publications and source records attributed to K Peterson.
Drug abuse in pregnancy. Detection and intervention.
Drug abuse in the obstetric population of a large urban HMO is discussed. Marijuana metabolites were detected in 9.1% of urines submitted for routine pregnancy testing, while cocaine use was detected in 1.3%. A separate group of urines submitted for urine culture at the time of the first obstetric visit were tested and showed levels of 5.0% and 0.2%, respectively. Cocaine use was associated in an estimated 1-2% of all live births. The unexpected magnitude of this problem led to the creation of an outreach clinic and a process of care. The preliminary experience of our program forms the basis of this report.
Cocaine↗
Team management of cognitive dysfunction in children with spina bifida.
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Child↗
Iatrogenic immune suppression.
Tissue and organ transplants are now fairly common medical procedures encountered by pediatric nurses practicing in acute care settings. The understanding of what is known about the immune response to foreign antigens provides strong evidence of the immunologic barriers to organ and tissue transplantation. It is known that failure to suppress this immune response will result in degradation of transplanted organs and tissue. The extent to which these processes occur will depend on the action of T cells. Specific control of T cell action depends on the immunosuppressive agents administered. Administration of one or more of the identified iatrogenic immunosuppressive agents, at varied intervals and in varied doses, will surely affect the outcomes of the transplant process. Caring for children undergoing such a procedure requires an indepth knowledge of immune system function, as well as the various pharmacologic therapies employed.
B-Lymphocytes↗
Seasonal variation in weight-for-age in a pediatric emergency room.
OBJECTIVE: The authors assess seasonal variations in the prevalence of low weight-for-age among young children visiting the pediatric emergency room of a city hospital. METHODS: We analyzed data on 11,118 children ages 6 to 24 months who visited the Boston City Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department between July 1989 and June 1992. Medical diagnoses were documented on a randomly selected subsample of 1,569 children. In addition, a questionnaire about food insecurity was administered to a convenience subsample of 269 families with children under 3 years of age. RESULTS: The percentage of children visiting the emergency room with weight-for-age below the fifth percentile was significantly higher for the three months following the coldest months than for the remaining months of the year, controlling for year of measurement. In the subsample, gastrointestinal illness was correlated with both season of measurement and weight-for-age, but the seasonal effect remained for the entire sample after controlling for dehydration. The questionnaire data suggested a relationship between economic stress and food insecurity that might help explain the seasonal effect. Families who were without heat or who were threatened with utility turnoff in the previous winter were twice as likely as other families to report that their children were hungry or at risk for hunger. CONCLUSIONS: Winter and early spring constituted periods of increased nutritional risk in the in this sample of predominantly low-income children, probably because of the increased caloric associated with cold stress and infections. Further research is needed to assess whether decreased caloric availability due to high heating costs, a "heat or eat" effect, also contributes to this phenomenon.
Age Factors↗
[Overweight in 12-49 year-old women and children under 5 years of age in Mexico].
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association between some sociodemographic characteristics and the risk of obesity among 12-49 year-old women and children aged under five. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We analyzed data from Mexico's 1988 National Nutrition Survey, including information on 15 811 women of child-bearing age and 6 987 children aged under five years. We estimated the obesity prevalence rate ratios and confidence intervals for all the variables of interest. RESULTS: Preschool children living in the north and central regions of Mexico presented higher obesity prevalence rates than those living in the southeast (PR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.41-2.59 and PR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.41-2.59, respectively). The risk of obesity was positively associated to the educational level of the head of the household. The prevalence of obesity was greater among child-bearing age women living in the northern region of Mexico and in Mexico City (PR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.10-1.34 and PR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.28). The prevalence of obesity was also positively associated with the number of live births and negatively associated with the woman's educational level. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to implement obesity prevention programs among high risk groups.
Adolescent↗