20 research outputs found
High birthweights among infants of north African immigrants in Belgium.
OBJECTIVES: This study examined birthweights of North African immigrants in Belgium.
METHODS: Analyses focused on Belgian single live birth certificates from 1981 to 1988.
RESULTS: Low-birthweight (< 2500 g) rates were 3.1% among 34,686 newborns of North African origin and 4.8% among 804,286 newborns of Belgian origin. The entire North African birthweight distribution was shifted toward higher birthweights than the Belgian distribution. Low frequencies of low birthweights among North Africans were still observed after marital status, occupation of the father, and parity had been taken into account.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite their low socioeconomic status, North African immigrants have high birthweights
Beliefs and traditions related to a childÂŽs first year of life : a study of the Northwest of Portugal
In this paper we propose an approach to investigate, in the North-west of Portugal, the
parentsâ behaviour at birth and during the first year of life of their children. We compare
the heritage, specifically the beliefs and traditions, with the changes that resulted from
the recent and deep cultural transformations that have taken place in Portugal in the last
few decades. In parallel, we tried to determine if the parentsâ behaviours, based on beliefs
and traditions, can affect the childrenâs health. We based our investigation on
standardized interviews with 76 mothers of one-year-old children (born between January
and December 2001) who lived in two parishes of Vizela city. This is a territory where
a more traditional way of life prevails than in other territories of the centre and south of
the country, where there is a strong attachment for religious and social values and where
the influence of the ancestral traditions is still alive. The paper concludes that cultural
heritage can have important impact on individual health. Health professionals, who
work in primary care and in hospitals, must be aware of the responsibility they have to
change this scenario.(undefined
The development and application of a new tool to assess the adequacy of the content and timing of antenatal care
Abstract
Background: Current measures of antenatal care use are limited to initiation of care and number of visits. This
study aimed to describe the development and application of a tool to assess the adequacy of the content and
timing of antenatal care.
Methods: The Content and Timing of care in Pregnancy (CTP) tool was developed based on clinical relevance for
ongoing antenatal care and recommendations in national and international guidelines. The tool reflects minimal
care recommended in every pregnancy, regardless of parity or risk status. CTP measures timing of initiation of care,
content of care (number of blood pressure readings, blood tests and ultrasound scans) and whether the
interventions were received at an appropriate time. Antenatal care trajectories for 333 pregnant women were then
described using a standard tool (the APNCU index), that measures the quantity of care only, and the new CTP tool.
Both tools categorise care into 4 categories, from âInadequateâ (both tools) to âAdequate plusâ (APNCU) or
âAppropriateâ (CTP). Participants recorded the timing and content of their antenatal care prospectively using diaries.
Analysis included an examination of similarities and differences in categorisation of care episodes between the
tools.
Results: According to the CTP tool, the care trajectory of 10,2% of the women was classified as inadequate, 8,4%
as intermediate, 36% as sufficient and 45,3% as appropriate. The assessment of quality of care differed significantly
between the two tools. Seventeen care trajectories classified as âAdequateâ or âAdequate plusâ by the APNCU were
deemed âInadequateâ by the CTP. This suggests that, despite a high number of visits, these women did not receive
the minimal recommended content and timing of care.
Conclusions: The CTP tool provides a more detailed assessment of the adequacy of antenatal care than the
current standard index. However, guidelines for the content of antenatal care vary, and the tool does not at the
moment grade over-use of interventions as âInappropriateâ. Further work needs to be done to refine the content
items prior to larger scale testing of the impact of the new measure
Registration of vital data: are live births and stillbirths comparable all over Europe?
International comparisons of the perinatal mortality data derived from vital registration statistics can be made in different ways. In this article we examine the legal and administrative definitions of vital events (live births and stillbirths) in the 27 European countries that participated in an in-depth survey conducted in 1991 by the Institute of Demography, University of Louvain, Belgium. The impact of the various definitions in use on the comparability of vital event data over time and in different countries is illustrated by discussing some of the anomalies exhibited by published data (e.g., age at death in different European countries and the trends in infant mortality or stillbirth rate in selected countries). Analysed is the potential for vital registration systems to produce standardized perinatal mortality data that satisfy WHO recommendations for international comparisons, taking into account the contents of the vital registration forms and the data processing (record linkage) methods useful in different countries
High birthweights among infants of north African immigrants in Belgium.
OBJECTIVES: This study examined birthweights of North African immigrants in Belgium. METHODS: Analyses focused on Belgian single live birth certificates from 1981 to 1988. RESULTS: Low-birthweight (< 2500 g) rates were 3.1% among 34,686 newborns of North African origin and 4.8% among 804,286 newborns of Belgian origin. The entire North African birthweight distribution was shifted toward higher birthweights than the Belgian distribution. Low frequencies of low birthweights among North Africans were still observed after marital status, occupation of the father, and parity had been taken into account. CONCLUSIONS: Despite their low socioeconomic status, North African immigrants have high birthweights
A comparison of prenatal care use in the United States and Europe.
OBJECTIVES. We sought to describe prenatal care use in the United States and in three European countries where accessibility to prenatal care has been reported to be better than it is in the United States. METHODS. We analyzed the 1980 US National Natality Survey, the 1981 French National Natality Survey, a 1979 sample of Danish births, and a survey performed from 1979 to 1980 in one Belgian province. RESULTS. The proportion of women who began prenatal care late (after 15 weeks) is highest in the United States (21.2%) and lowest in France (4.0%). This contrasts with the median number of visits, which is greater in the United States (11) than in Denmark (10) or in France (7). Across all maternal ages, parities, and educational levels, late initiation of prenatal care is more frequent in the United States, and median number of visits in the United States is equal to or higher than that in the other countries. CONCLUSIONS. In countries that offer nearly universal access to prenatal care, women begin care earlier during pregnancy and have fewer visits than women in the United States