No abstract

Protein-energy malnutrition is one of the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries. The purpose of the present study was to measure the prevalence of stunting and its correlates among school children aged 6-12 years in the rural areas of southern Pakistan. We selected 1915 children aged 6-12 years enrolled in 32 primary schools in rural Sindh, Pakistan. Trained community health workers conducted child height and weight measurements and collected information from the parents. The Z-scores for the distribution of height-for-age, weight-for-age, and weight-for-height relative to those of National Center for Health Statistics/Center of Disease Control and prevention (NCHS/CDC) reference population were calculated. Out of 1915 children, 300 (16.5 per cent) were stunted. Female children compared to males were more likely to be stunted (prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.26; 95 per cent confidence interval (CI): 1.02-1.53). Children older than 7 years were more likely to be stunted (PR, 1.40; CI, 1.14-1.72). Fathers who were working as government employees (PR, 1.71; CI, 1.05-2.79), shopkeepers (PR, 2.00; CI, 1.22-3.26) and farmers (PR, 1.43; CI, 0.93-2.22) were more likely to have children who were stunted when compared to landlords. In rural areas of southern Pakistan, sex of child, age of the child, and father's occupation may be considered as important risk factors for stunting among school children aged 6-12 years.

In the Western Electric Company Study, carried out in Chicago, Illinois, data on diet and other factors were obtained in 1958 and 1959 for a cohort of 1,556 employed, middle-aged men. Nutrients included vitamin C and beta-carotene. An index that summarized combined intake of both nutrients was constructed. Mean intakes of vitamin C in the lowest and highest tertiles of the index were 66 and 138 mg/day; corresponding values for beta-carotene were 2.3 and 5.3 mg/day. A total of 522 of 1,556 men died during 32,935 person-years of follow-up, 231 from coronary heart disease and 155 from cancer. After adjustment for potentially confounding factors, relative risks (95% confidence intervals) associated with an increment of 19 points in the index (difference between means of the lowest and highest tertiles) were 0.60 (0.39-0.93) for cancer mortality, 0.70 (0.49-0.98) for coronary disease mortality, and 0.69 (0.55-0.87) for all-cause mortality. These results support the hypothesis that consumption of foods rich in vitamin C and beta-carotene reduces risk of death in middle-aged men.

In this region of lower Sindh, stunting is more common than wasting. Female illiteracy, poor household income and overcrowding are important risk factors for stunting. The prevalent belief that in rural Pakistan, parents pay attention to feeding male children at the cost of female children is not proven by these data.

To the authors' knowledge, the incidence pelvic endometriosis in the general female population has not been previously reported. The purpose of the present study was to determine the incidence rate of diagnosed pelvic endometriosis among white females of reproductive age (15-49 years) in Rochester, Minnesota, during 1970-1979. Incidence rates were prepared first with histologically confirmed cases alone and then with the successive inclusion of progressively less certain cases: surgically visualized, clinically probable, and clinically possible. The overall incidence of pelvic endometriosis more than doubled (from 108.8 to 246.9 cases per 100,000 person-years) as the definition of a case was extended from histologically confirmed cases alone to all cases. Age-specific incidence rates increased in successive age groups through age 44 and then declined for women 45-49 years of age. Methodological problems in the definition and ascertainment of incident cases of pelvic endometriosis are described in detail.

No abstract

No abstract

Transmission of infectious diseases became an immediate public health concern when approximately 27,000 New Orleans-area residents evacuated to Houston's Astrodome and Reliant Park Complex following Hurricane Katrina. This article presents a surveillance system that was rapidly developed and implemented for daily tracking of various symptoms in the evacuee population in the Astrodome “megashelter.” This system successfully confirmed an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis and became a critical tool in monitoring the course of this outbreak.