Biomedical subjects
Rodolfo Dennis
Publications and source records attributed to Rodolfo Dennis.
Asthma and other allergic conditions in Colombia: a study in 6 cities.
BACKGROUND: No detailed information is available on the burden and impact of allergic diseases simultaneously for adults and children in Colombia and most Latin American countries. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis symptoms in 6 cities in Colombia; to measure patient expenses and school days and workdays lost; to describe disease severity; and to determine levels of total and specific IgE in asthmatic subjects. METHODS: A multistage stratified random sample selection of schools with subjects aged 5 to 18 years in each city was used. Guardian subjects selected were contacted, and home visits were arranged. Subjects aged 1 to 4 years and older than 19 years were also selected randomly by systematic sampling based on the addresses of the subjects aged 5 to 18 years. Subjects with asthma symptoms were invited to provide a blood sample. RESULTS: Information was obtained from 6,507 subjects. The prevalence of asthma, rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis symptoms in the past 12 months was 10.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.7%-11.1%), 22.6% (95% CI, 21.6%-23.6%), and 3.9% (95% CI, 3.4%-4.4%), respectively. Thirty-eight percent of asthmatic subjects had visited the emergency department or have been hospitalized, and 50% reported lost school days and workdays. Seventy-six percent of sampled asthmatic patients were considered to be atopic. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of disease and societal consequences of allergic entities in urban settings in countries such as Colombia are of concern but are largely ignored, perhaps because of the misconception that these diseases are of public health importance only in industrialized nations.
Building capacity in health research in the developing world.
Strong national health research systems are needed to improve health systems and attain better health. For developing countries to indigenize health research systems, it is essential to build research capacity. We review the positive features and weaknesses of various approaches to capacity building, emphasizing that complementary approaches to human resource development work best in the context of a systems and long-term perspective. As a key element of capacity building, countries must also address issues related to the enabling environment, in particular: leadership, career structure, critical mass, infrastructure, information access and interfaces between research producers and users. The success of efforts to build capacity in developing countries will ultimately depend on political will and credibility, adequate financing, and a responsive capacity-building plan that is based on a thorough situational analysis of the resources needed for health research and the inequities and gaps in health care. Greater national and international investment in capacity building in developing countries has the greatest potential for securing dynamic and agile knowledge systems that can deliver better health and equity, now and in the future.