A patchwork of funding sources for Norplant users in the U.S.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the 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 is concerned with the establishment and extension of health care and medical services in British colonial Malaya. Initially, medical care was provided for the colonial elite and those in their direct employment. With the expansion of colonial control beyond trade centers into the hinterland and with the growth of agriculture and mining. Western medicine was extended both to labor involved in these export industries and to others whose ill health might jeopardize the welfare of the colonists. Public health programs in the twentieth century continued to focus on medical problems that had direct impact on the colonial economy, but programs were extended to ensure the reproduction as well as the maintenance of the labor force. This article develops the notion of a legitimation vacuum, and the role of the state provision of social services, including medical services, in legitimizing colonial presence and control.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This article employs quantitative analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the community health worker (CHW) training program used by the Ministry of Public Health in Ecuador. The study first assesses CHW knowledge in the areas of prevention, maternal-child health, first aid, and treatment of common illnesses. The analysis reveals that CHWs retained less than 50 percent of what they learned one year after graduation. Demographic factors accounted for some variance in performance. Higher levels of community organization were associated with improved CHW knowledge. The presence of a health committee was also an important factor. The second phase of the study was designed to assess the community impact of the program. Surprisingly, neither the demographic characteristics of the health worker nor his or her level of competence affected the impact of the program on the community, as measured by patient satisfaction, utilization indices, and adoption of preventive health behaviors. It was the characteristics of the beneficiaries themselves that accounted for the variance in community impact. These results yield some important implications for public health policy in Ecuador.
BACKGROUND: To compare the pattern of need and demand for dental care in settings where services are paid for through government sponsored insurance programs and out of pocket by individuals. METHODS: Study consisted of first visit patients attending the Dental Hospital. The assessment of normative treatment needs was done. The tooth based treatment needs were assessed by the WHO basic methods and the periodontal needs were assessed by the periodontal need systems PTNS. RESULTS: More males had sought treatment than females. In both sexes, most of the patients demanding treatment belonged to the 17-34 year age group. There was no statistically significant difference between age groups (P = 0.65). 55.4, 8.1 and 1.4 percents sought care for toothache, caries without concomitant pain and dental check-up respectively. Oral surgical care was considered necessary for the main complaint in 50.1% of cases. However, the age group 17-34 year old needed more restorative care than periodontal and the > 65 age group requested more extractions. CONCLUSION: The expressed need or demand for dental care falls short of the normative need. It should therefore be the aspiration of appropriate government ministry and health care providers to attempt converting normative needs into demand for care.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
On the basis of the experience and data gained during breast-feeding situation assessment process (see Part II) the major activities of the breast-feeding promotion programme were identified as follows: 1. Training of health workers which aims the revision and change of practices in health services responsible for mother and child care. 2. Education of population about advantages of breast milk and breast-feeding management. The detailed project of the implementation of the programme on the national scale was presented.
Turkey has a young population as a result of high fertility and growth rates in the recent past. Thirty-five percent of the population is less than 15 years of age, and 25 percent of the population comprises reproductive-age woman. The latest estimate of the population growth rate was 19 per thousand for the 1990-1995 period. In recent decades dramatic declines in fertility rates have been noted. In the early 1970s, the overall fertility rate was approximately five children per woman, declining to 2.7 in 1993. The crude birth rate is currently estimated to be approximately 23 per thousand. The crude death rate has also declined from approximately 30 per thousand in the 1940s to 6.5 per thousand in the 1990s. Life expectancy at birth in the Turkey is 65.9 for males and 70.5 for females. The infant mortality rate in the 1960s was approximately 200 per thousand, declining to 67 per thousand during the 1985-1990 period, and 53 per thousand for the period 1988-1993. It was 48 per thousand in 1995 and 42.2 per thousand in 1996, according to the State Planning Organization. The infant mortality rate has declined by 35 percent in the last ten years. The mortality rate for children under five years of age was 113.5 per thousand between 1978-1983 and 60.9 per thousand in 1993; it is currently 50 per thousand. The maternal mortality rate was greater than 200/100,000 in 1995. During the last five years the proportion of women receiving antenatal care has increased from 43 to 63 percent. The proportion of safe deliveries was 76 percent. Thirty-nine percent of all deliveries occur at home. The important point here is that the proportion of unsafe deliveries assisted by traditional birth attendants is 24 percent. It is very obvious that during the last 15 years, maternal and child health (MCH), especially child health, has improved dramatically in Turkey. The improvement made in the last five years has been more marked. The improvement is closely related to the government's special interest, attention and efforts to prevent and identify the most common health problems and to overcome these problems with appropriate interventions. The government also pays special attention to the socio-economic priority areas of the country and initiates special health programs in these areas first, in order to reduce high regional differences in MCH indices. Despite these dramatic improvements, one great obstacle is the high maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rates in the country at the time of ratification of the European Social Charter. The success made so for in maternal and child health should not be ignored, but it must be realized that much still remains to be done to improve the MCH level further.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a managed care demonstration project in CHAMPUS (Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services), the insurance program covering physical and mental health care services for the dependents of active duty military personnel, military retirees, and the retirees' dependents. The demonstration project added a health maintenance organization (HMO) option and a preferred provider organization (PPO) option to the standard CHAMPUS coverage and allowed beneficiaries to select the coverage option they preferred. DATA SOURCES: Utilization, costs, access, and beneficiary satisfaction were measured using data from CHAMPUS claims records, the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, the demonstration project contractor's HMO enrollment file, the contractor's list of network hospitals, and two surveys of CHAMPUS beneficiaries. STUDY DESIGN: Changes in utilization at 11 demonstration sites were compared with changes in utilization at 11 matched control sites. The effect of the demonstration project on costs was evaluated by estimating the costs for the demonstration sites both with and without the managed care options based on data from the control sites. Access to care and satisfaction were compared between the demonstration sites and control sites based on beneficiary surveys. DATA COLLECTION: All claims in both demonstration and control sites were used in estimating utilization changes. Two mailed surveys were sent to a randomly selected sample of active duty and retiree households with CHAMPUS beneficiaries; the sample was stratified by beneficiary type (active duty or retiree) and site. PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: Overall utilization in the CHAMPUS system decreased at the demonstration sites but stayed approximately the same at the control sites. Utilization among the enrollees in the HMO demonstration option, however, increased dramatically. Patient access to care and satisfaction generally remained at the same levels at both demonstration and control sites, but enrollees in the HMO option reported higher satisfaction. Costs to the government at the demonstration areas, based on regression estimates from the control sites, were about the same or slightly higher than what they would have been under the standard CHAMPUS system. CONCLUSIONS: Managed care plans for large government-sponsored insurance programs can reduce utilization and maintain patient access and satisfaction. Careful structuring of such plans is needed, however, if they are to reduce costs.
Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) has had a dramatic global impact. The worldwide consequences of this therapy are discussed in four categories: (1) adoption of ORT as the primary therapy for acute dehydrating diarrhea; (2) establishment of national ORT programs; (3) scientific knowledge gained from studies into intestinal absorption of oral rehydration solutions; and (4) implications of ORT for the next decade. The Diarrheal Disease Control Program has been assigned a high priority by the World Health Organization. It now includes 99% of the population of the developing world, although it is not uniformly implemented. Because knowledge of how to use ORT parallels implementation, it is hoped that expanded training of community health workers will increase implementation. In addition, specific indications for ORT need further study and refinement so that community health workers may learn to distinguish between diarrheal episodes that require such therapy and those that do not. Better scientific understanding of intestinal absorption of ORT fluids has led to the development of new formulations that enhance absorption of nutrients and repletion of electrolytes. The optimal composition of such revised solutions has yet to be established. In addition to these improvements in utilization, distribution, education, and application of ORT, other measures to reduce the morbidity and mortality from diarrhea can be expected in the areas of better infant feeding practices, improved sanitation, management of persistent diarrhea, targeted therapy for particular groups of infants at high risk, and immunization.
A malaria knowledge, attitudes and practices survey was conducted in Malawi during April and May, 1992, to provide policy makers and program managers with information needed to design or improve malaria control programs, to establish epidemiologic and behavioral baselines, and to identify indicators for monitoring program effectiveness. Using cluster-sample survey methodology, 1531 households, in 30 clusters of 51-52 households each, were identified and members interviewed. Interviews were conducted by trained survey teams composed of young Malawian women with secondary level education. Heads of households were asked about malaria prevention methods used and about household economics; caretakers of children were asked about treatment and health seeking behavior in a recent malaria episode in a child; and women who had been pregnant in the past 5 years were asked about their antenatal clinic utilization and malaria during pregnancy. Survey results will be used to make programmatic decisions, including developing health education messages and establishing monitoring and evaluation of malaria control activities and outcomes in Malawi.
Surveys of state Medicaid agencies and maternal and child health programs were conducted in late 1991 and in 1992 to evaluate the extent to which states carried out a series of federal policy changes intended to improve low-income women's access to prenatal care. The results show a great deal of variability in the aggressiveness with which states implemented these Medicaid eligibility expansions. Overall, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Arkansas moved most aggressively to carry out the expansions; Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming were ranked least aggressive. States with relatively high levels of poor birth outcomes or low-birth-weight deliveries prior to the Medicaid expansions were generally more likely than other states to have undertaken reforms intended to increase the number of women eligible for assistance and ease their enrollment. In addition, expansion efforts were greater in states where the federal government paid more of the cost of caring for Medicaid recipients.
This study compares the cost effectiveness of various health inputs and government programs in reducing race-specific neonatal mortality or death in the first 27 days of life. Approximately two thirds of all infant deaths occur within this period. The programs and inputs at issue are teenage family planning use; the supplemental food program for women, infants, and children (WIC); use of community health centers and maternal and infant care projects; abortion; prenatal care; and neonatal intensive care. Using an economic model of the family as the analytic framework, effectiveness is determined by using ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares to estimate infant health production functions across large counties in the United States in 1977. Estimates of costs are from a number of published sources. We find the early initiation of prenatal care to be the most cost-effective means of reducing the neonatal mortality rate for blacks and whites. Moreover, blacks benefit more per dollar of input use than whites. Neonatal intensive care, although the most effective means of reducing neonatal mortality rates, is one of the least cost-effective strategies.
Three hundred and sixty-one women were provided government-funded sterilization reversal services with the technique of microsurgery. A large majority of reasons (89.8%) for requesting reversal surgery was a loss of children, and the mean interval between sterilization and reversal was 28.7 months. Two hundred and seven (69.7%) of 297 follow-up cases have experienced term delivery or intra-uterine pregnancy and 5 cases were ectopic pregnancy. The largest number of reversal clients (63.3%) were sterilized by the laparoscopic unipolar coagulation technique and the next largest group (24.2%) was sterilized by the laparoscopic banding technique. The highest pregnancy rate (77.8%) was shown in clients who had undergone laparoscopic banding technique while the lowest (65.9%) was the group of laparoscopic unipolar coagulation. A more than 60% of the clients became pregnant within 6 months of their reversal surgery, with the shortest interval being 1 month, the longest 39 months, and the mean 7.6 months. A large majority of the successful cases, 81.6%, were pregnant within 1 year of their reversal surgery.
Historically, concerns about rapidly growing populations and resources that could not support them persuaded governments of developing countries to initiate family planning programs. Between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, the number of governments supporting these programs increased from 7 to approximately 120. Today, 52 governments in developing countries provide support to family planning programs because of the demographic rationale, and 65 governments do so because of human rights and health considerations: The effective use of family planning significantly diminishes infant, child, and maternal mortality and morbidity. Forty-five percent of married women of reproductive age worldwide are practicing contraception today; however, 69% do so in East Asia and only 11% in Africa. Female sterilization and use of intrauterine devices are the most popular methods in developing countries, and oral contraceptives and condoms, in developed countries. Of the 400 million women of reproductive age, 140 million (35%) are relying on family planning methods requiring male cooperation and less than 60 million (15%) are using oral contraceptives. More than half of these oral contraceptive users live in four countries: the United States, Brazil, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany. On the other hand, the percentage of currently married women, aged 15 to 19 years, who have never used any form of contraception is as high as 85% to 90% in Bangladesh, Sudan, and Pakistan. In many developing countries, there is a statistically significant correlation between women's use of contraception and years of education. Other important factors influencing contraceptive prevalence include the established or perceived side effects of currently available methods, the status of women, the political climate, and a number of behavioral and social determinants.
UNLABELLED: Breastfeeding promotion program was started by the paediatricians and others in 1977, and is becoming a strong activity since 1990 it was declared by the President of the Republic of Indonesia as a National Movement. One year later the First Lady stated the importance of every Indonesian mother to breast-feed her baby, and thereafter many hospitals created the so called "Baby Friendly Hospital". In this occasion we only limit with eminent topics, i.e., "Exclusive Breast-feeding" in Indonesia, and "Breastfeeding amongst Working Mothers." In fact, until now the percentage of mothers who breastfeed exclusively is very low. Although the ever breastfed babies in Indonesia is 97% (Kodyat, 1996) but the data of the "Exclusive Breastfeeding" of Indonesia is just like Pakistan and Thailand, i.e. nearly 2 months, whereas the Philippines and Ceylon showed a figure of 4 months, and India 5 months. The Home Health Survey (SKRT) data in 1992 showed that 63.7% of the babies were exclusively breast-fed until 3 months. Three quarter of the quality of the exclusive breastmilk is quite good, enough or excellent, whereas the other one quarter is poor and this should be interfered by increasing the quality of the breastmilk and/or adding other formula, to prevent the baby of getting "failure to thrive" (Suharyono, 1996). Working mothers use to do "Early Weaning Practices" with very high mixed feeding practices (Matulessy et al, 1996). Mothers have to go to work because they have to support their family income, but unfortunately most of them ignore their main task of care their children. IN CONCLUSION: the experience in Indonesia proves that a very hard work should still be continued on the effort of promoting breastfeeding, especially regarding the two issues, i.e. "Exclusive breastfeeding" (we do hope at least until 4 months) and the other issue is regarding the "Working Mothers".
Explore the source record for details and available documents.