Child Health Practices Research Articles

Child and adolescent mental health practice in primary care

Until recently, little attention had been paid to the study of child and adolescent mental health practice in primary care. In the past year, an extensive review was published that summarized knowledge and practice in the area. Further work has detailed the relevance of child and adolescent mental health problems for primary care across different countries and age groups. In addition, a number of treatment initiatives have been successfully piloted.

Concurrent Session on Health Promotion: A Summary

Health promotion in child care encompasses components of environmental health and safety, individual and group preventive health practices, medical care, and health education. Child-care providers, children in child day care, and their families have all been appropriate targets for such efforts. It is not surprising, therefore, that goals for health promotion have been vast, complex, and difficult to reach. The purposes of this session are to outline specific and essential elements of health promotion in child day care and to identify realistic ways to make progress toward achieving them. HEALTH EDUCATION AND CHILD DAY CARE To achieve a healthier environment in child day care, it is essential to raise the sense of awareness about the importance of preventive health practices. This is important for child day-care providers, parents of children attending child care, and children. Packaged health curricula for preschool-age children and toddlers have been designed specifically for child day-care settings. Although their ability to improve child health practices is still under investigation, these curricula serve to intensify awareness among children and providers about the importance of safety and hygiene. Health education for preschoolers can also be taught more informally and without a set curriculum. Child day-care providers can add a health component to other activities during the day. A few extra words added to statements made to preschoolers can transform routine instructions into health-promotion messages. "Let's wash our hands before we eat, so that we don't eat the germs that are on our hands after playing outside" is an example.

Child Health Care Process and Practice

Child Health Care Process and Practice

Book Review: Social Work Practice in Maternal and Child Health

Book Review: Social Work Practice in Maternal and Child Health

Comorbid association of autism and schizophrenia

In the last several decades, considerable evidence has suggested that autism and schizophrenia are unrelated. However, recent reports have suggested that individuals with autism may be at greater risk for schizophrenia and that the conditions may be more closely related than generally believed. The authors examined detailed case records of 163 adolescents and adults with well-documented histories of autism. These cases included 139 males and 24 females. Only one individual had an unequivocal history of schizophrenia. If the present study group is taken to be representative, it appears that the frequency of schizophrenia among autistic patients (0.6%) is roughly comparable to the frequency of schizophrenia in the general population. It does not appear that the two conditions are more commonly observed together than would be expected on a chance basis; therefore, the current (DSM-III-R) approach to dual diagnosis of these conditions appears reasonable.

Social work practice in maternal and child health

Social work practice in maternal and child health

Relationships among children's health-related behaviors: A multivariate, developmental perspective

Considerable evidence documents the aggregation of cardiovascular risk factors in children; yet, very little is known about the covariation of children's health practices. Accordingly, using a multivariate and developmental perspective, the present research examines the interrelationships among multiple health behaviors (i.e., physical activity, eating habits, smoking, alcohol use, and stress-related behaviors) in 1,092 predominantly low-socioeconomic status, rural schoolchildren (ages 11–18, grades 6–12). Our data provide support for a multidimensional view of children's health habits and suggest that patterns of interrelationships may vary at different developmental levels. Implications of these results are discussed and directions for future research are highlighted.

Women's health care in China: American travelers’ views

Chinese health care was examined by three American nurses who visited China between 1986 and 1988. A thorough discussion of women's health care as it was presented to the authors is provided. Each author found the experience invaluable to her understanding of the world and the vast differences, as well as commonalities, between health care in the United States and health care in China.

Traditional Child Health Practices in Communities in North-West Ethiopia

A study in 3 villages in northwest Ethiopia was designed to find the type and extent of health damaging traditional child practices. The result of the survey showed high rates of uvulectomy and milk teeth extraction, and low rates of eyelid incision and female circumcision. More than 84.5% and 98.8% of the mothers surveyed, respectively, reported milk teeth extraction as a useful treatment for diarrhea and eyelid incision in the treatment of eye disease. The damage done by milk teeth extraction includes complications from unhygienic conditions (e.g. ostitis and osteomyelitis). Although many children survive these ill advised procedures and their complications, the considerable damage done to some of the children makes these procedures serious health hazards. Intensive health education with relevant health activities to correct the use of these traditional practices is advised.

Book Reviews: Maternal and Child Health Practices (3rd ed.), by H.M. Wallace, G. Ryan, and A.C. Oglesby (Eds.). Oakland, CA: Third Party, 1988. 722 pp. $29.95

Book Reviews: Maternal and Child Health Practices (3rd ed.), by H.M. Wallace, G. Ryan, and A.C. Oglesby (Eds.). Oakland, CA: Third Party, 1988. 722 pp. $29.95

Maternal and Child Health Practices

Maternal and Child Health Practices

Who Should Provide Primary Health Care to Children: Pediatricians or Family Medicine Physicians?

INTRODUCTION —Robert A. Hoekelman, MD This debate is one of a series entitled "Controversies in Child Health and Pediatric Practice." In 1978 and 1979, the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester conducted 12 such debates, which were published in book form in 1981.1 It is interesting that of these 12 controversies, not one has been resolved. That may prove to be the case for the controversy presented in this debate, "Who should provide primary health care to children: pediatricians or family medicine physicians?" Our guest speakers are Dr Michael Klein and Dr James E. Strain. Dr Klein is Professor of Family Medicine and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University School of Medicine. He is also Director of the Department of Family Medicine and of the Herzl Family Practice Center at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. Dr Klein received his medical degree at Stanford University in 1966, and he was his class's recipient of the pediatric Harold K. Kaiser Award. Dr Klein served his internship at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center at Albert Einstein University and his pediatric residency at Montreal Children's Hospital. During his last year, he served as Senior Resident in Neonatology under Robert Usher at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He then became a fellow in biochemical genetics under Charles Scriver and the Chief Medical Resident at Montreal Children's Hospital under Mary Ellen Avery. In 1970, he came to Rochester as a Fellow in Ambulatory Pediatrics. Dr Klein's practice experience is extensive. He was the pediatric coordinator of the St Jacques Clinic in Montreal during the late 1960s and the medical director of the Westside Health Services in Rochester from 1971 to 1975, after which he assumed his current position.

Maternal and Child Health Practices: Problems, Resources, and Methods of Delivery

The purpose of this book is to present a complete and comprehensive assessment of modern maternal and child health practices. Topics covered are the scope of maternal and child health, including a historical perspective from about 1890; the organization of and legislative base for federal programs, trends, and demography; the services provided for maternal care, perinatal care, the young child, the adolescent, and handicapped children in the United States; and maternal and child health practices in developing countries. The book is appropriate as a textbook for courses in maternal and child health at the undergraduate level for students majoring in medical care administration or at the graduate level for physicians, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, public health professionals, and other health professionals interested in maternal and child health or other types of administration. Tables for reporting data are liberally used throughout the book. The material is presented in a logical, well-organized

MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH PRACTICES

More than 100 contributors have collected a catalog of current health and social challenges for the fourth edition of Maternal and Child Health Practices. The text consists of 7 sections: "Background," "Delivery of Maternal Child Health Services," "Maternal Health," "The Infant and Child," "Adolescence," "Children with SpecialHealth Care Needs," and "The Health of Mothers and Children Around the World." Public health practices and suggested solutions to the problems are provided. The lack of national health insurance and a national health service is contrasted with the expenditure on "the highest percentage (14 percent) of its Gross Domestic Prod-

Changing practice on confidentiality: further points for discussion.

In the March 1982 issue of the Journal Dr Pheby, a community health doctor, was one of several writers to discuss medical confidentiality. Dr Pheby urged doctors to minimise subjective and judgmental comments in medical records and to make clear when their assessments were speculative. He also urged `vigorous reappraisal of the extent to which information about a patient needs to be circulated9 to members of other disciplines, for instance, in child health practice. If doctors did not take such steps themselves legal changes might well be imposed upon them, giving patients the right of access to their medical records and perhaps making breach of medical confidentiality a criminal offence. Mr Jacob, a lawyer, commenting on the papers by Dr Pheby and Mr Kenny, a health administrator, argued that increased legal intervention in medical ethics could quite possibly actually erode traditional medical ethical standards of confidentiality based on peer review and `the ethic of virtue9.

Changing practice on confidentiality: a cause for concern.

The dissemination of information about patients through computers and multidisciplinary teams involves departures from traditional tenets of confidentiality. This raises ethical problems, exemplified by current practices in child health. In multidisciplinary teams, problems may arise because different professions utilise different types of data. Some team members may not appreciate the extent to which data may be unscientific and judgmental. Children and thier families may be labelled, without justification, preventing objective reappraisal. The ethical and legal implications are considered. Practice may not conform to principles of natural justice, for example when care orders are sought. Obligations to the State may also imperil the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship, and of medical records, the legal status of which is confused and requires clarification. Allowing patients access to their records could be a useful safeguard, and the medical profession should devise alternatives should it not be accepted.

W.H.O. activities for control of diarrheal disease in developing countries.

Significant research advances in recent years have prompted national health administrators to ask WHO to give high priority to technical cooperation in the control of diarrheal diseases A WHO Diarrheal Diseases Control Programme has there-fore been developed consisting of a health services component and a research component. The former is concerned with the incorporation into national primary health care programme of new, effective strategies such as oral rehydration therapy along with education on proper dietetic management to reduce diarrhea-related mortality and malnutrition; and improved maternal and child health practices, better water supplies, sanitation, and food hygiene and epidemic control along with health education as an integral part of all these strategies. The research component of the programme provides support to operational and basic research to determine the best ways of applying new knowledge and to develop new and improved tools for prevention and treatment.

Maternal and Child Health Practices

Maternal and Child Health Practices

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:J. R. Bierich, K. Rager & M. B. Ranke: Maldescensus testisS. H. Pierog & A. Ferrara; Medical care of the sick newbornR. I. Mackay: Mental handicap in child health practice

Book Review: Mental Handicap in Child Health Practice

Book Review: Mental Handicap in Child Health Practice