Health education to prevent anemia among women of reproductive age in southern India

In this study, we used a narrow, but easily measured, indicator of how communication proceeded among health workers and women in Southern India. Anemia prevention during pregnancy was studied using a semistructured questionnaire. Participants included 5 nurses, 10 health aides, and 10 (traditional birth attendants) TBAs working with maternal health care and education, as well as 32 women seeking maternal health care. Those women who received health education where they lived, from health workers they knew, and together with participants familiar to them learned more about anemia prevention than others

Compliance with child accident precautions by child health nurses

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which parents follow advice from child health nurses about child accident prevention. The study was performed in one of the 10 districts in the city of Malmo, Sweden. Parents to 90, 10-month old children in southern Sweden participated. These parents completed a questionnaire that prompted responses related to parents' background and socio-economic factors as well as questions about any precautions they have taken to decrease hazards to children in their home. Odds ratios, confidence intervals and multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. The results indicated that lower educated parents (i.e. those with 12 years' education or less) and foreign-born parents complied with a significantly lower level. These results support the need to increase efforts in child accident prevention work. It is important for child health nurses to concentrate their efforts on foreign parents and on less educated parents. Information should be relayed regularly to these parents in a motivational way, in order to decrease risks of child accidents at home

Fluid restriction in heart failure patients: is it useful? The design of a prospective, randomised study.

Thirst is a common and troublesome symptom for patients with moderate to severe heart failure. The pharmacological and non- pharmacological treatment as well as the nature of the disease itself causes increased thirst. There is no evidence in the literature about the usefulness of fluid restriction for heart failure patients. Formerly, when very little pharmacological treatment was available, fluid restriction was one of the few interventional options but nowadays when the pharmacological treatment has improved, its importance may be questioned. This article describes the design of an ongoing study with the aim to determine if an individualised and less restrictive fluid prescription can improve the quality of life, cardiac function and exercise capacity, and decrease in hospital admissions and thirst. This study will be performed as a two-group, 1:1 randomised cross-over study. In group 1, the patients are instructed to comply with a maximum fluid intake of 1.5 l. This is a standard treatment today. In group 2, the patients are recommended to intake a fluid, based on the physiological need of 30 ml/kg body weight/24 h, and are allowed to increase the fluid intake to a maximum of 35 ml/kg body weight/24 h. After 16 weeks, the patients will cross over to the other intervention strategy and continue for another 16 weeks