Results of retrospective survey of some water-born diseases in people at 3 urban districts, Hai Phong city showed that: the prevalence of low infected diseases were typhoid, hepatitis, malaria, haemorrhagic fever, eye disease; diarrhea, intestinal amebiasis, helminth were high infection but tended to decrease from 1997 to 2002. The prevalence of haemorrhagic fever and malaria on 100,000 people in Hai Phong city decreased by the year, reduction 7-49 folds compared to the whole country and there were only sporadic cases. The prevalence of the highest diseases was in the age of 60 (7.5%)
Water ; Disease ; Urban Health ; Urban Population

Vitamin K ; Pregnant Women ; Pregnancy ; Urban Population

Dengue is a disease propagated by vectors namely Aedes spp. mosquitoes. One of the effective approaches to control dengue is through integrated vector management and intervention programs. COMBI or Communication for Behavioral Impact is a strategic approach to control the Aedes population as well as dengue cases. This study was conducted at Taman Desa Kolej, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, an suburban residential area to determine the effectiveness of COMBI, by using questionnaire and entomological survey as well as implementation of an intervention program. We carried out activities such as the establishment of COMBI promoter team, clean up events, talk shows with the residential community and distributed pamphlets containing information about dengue. Results indicated significant difference (p<0.05) on the knowledge, opinion and practices about dengue among the residents, for the pre and post intervention program. The entomological survey showed that, the primary mosquito species in this area was Aedes albopictus which comprised of 78 (31%) of the total mosquitoes examined, followed by Culex gelidus of 58 (23%), Culex quinquefasciatus of 37 (14.7%) and Aedes aegypti of 21 (8.3%). The density of Aedes population did not show any significant difference. In conclusion, COMBI intervention was effective in controlling dengue cases in Taman Desa Kolej.
Dengue ; Aedes ; Data Collection ; Urban Population ; Malaysia

Adolescent ; Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Motor Activity ; Rural Population ; Suburban Population ; Urban Population

In order to reduce the health inequalities within a society changes need to be made in broad health determinants and their distribution in the population. It has been expected that the Health impact assessment(HIA) and Healthy Cities can provide opportunities and useful means for changing social policy and environment related with the broad health determinants in developed countries. HIA is any combination of procedures or methods by which a proposed 4P(policy, plan, program, project) may be judged as to the effects it may have on the health of a population. Healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to their maximum potential. In Korea, social and academic interest regarding the HIA and Healthy Cities has been growing recently but the need of HIA and Healthy Cities in the perspective of reducing health inequality was not introduced adequately. So we reviewed the basic concepts and methods of the HIA and Healthy Cities, and its possible contribution to reducing health inequalities. We concluded that though the concepts and methods of the HIA and Healthy Cities are relatively new and still in need of improvement, they will be useful in approaching the issue of health inequality in Korea.
Health Planning/*methods ; Health Services Accessibility ; *Health Status Disparities ; Humans ; Korea ; *Urban Health ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVE: To establish the norms of Sub-Health Measurement Scale (SHMS V1.0) for Chinese urban residents. METHODS: Using a multistage stratified sampling method, we conducted a large-scale epidemiological investigation among 15 066 urban residents sampled from 6 regions in China, including Tianjin City (north China), Guangdong Province (south China), Anhui Province (central south China), Sichuan Province (southwest China), Lanzhou City (northwest China) and Harbin City (northeast China). The mean, percentile and threshold norms were established based on the characteristics of SHMS V1.0 scores for Chinese urban residents. RESULTS: The mean and percentile norms of total, physical, mental and social sub-health of Chinese urban residents were established according to gender and different age groups (14-19, 20-29, 30-49, 50-64 and ≥65 years). The threshold norms of SHMS V1.0 divided 5 health states, namely disease, severe sub-health, moderate subhealth, mild sub-health and healthy states according to the ± and ±0.5 of the converted scores. CONCLUSIONS The norms of Sub-Health Measurement Scale (SHMS V1.0) for Chinese urban residents were established, which provides a reference for rapid screening and diagnosis of sub-health status in Chinese urban residents and facilitates further study of the prevalence and contributing factors of sub-health.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; China ; Health Status ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Health ; Urban Population

Hemoglobin(Hb), zinc protoporphyrin(ZPP) and blood lead(PbB) levels were determined for 1,851 blood samples collected from healthy urban population to establish reliable baselines for Hb, ZPP and PbB levels by age and sex. ZPP values were analyzed with a Hmatofluorometer and PbB determinations were concurrently carried out using flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The blood sampling period was about 6 months from May, 1991 and the summarized results were as follows; 1. The mean value of Hb in male female were 14.55+/-1.81 g/dl and 12.61+/-1.81 g/dl respectively and there was statistically significant difference(p<0.05). 2. The mean value of ZPP in pre-schoolchildren was 37.49+/-13.31 microgram/dl for male, 35.77+/-11.85 microgram/dl for female and that of ZPP in after 7 years groups was 31.91+/-8.23 microgram/dl for male, 30.11+/-9.11 microgram/dl for female and there was statistically significant difference(p<0.05). 3. The mean value of PbB in pre-schoolchildren was 25.10+/-5.21 microgram/dl for male, 24.45+/-4.18 microgram/dl for female and that of PbB in after 7 years groups was 24.28+/-3.00 microgram/dl for male, 21.99+/-5.05 microgram/dl for female and there was statistically significant difference(p<0.05).
Female ; Humans ; Korea* ; Male ; Spectrophotometry, Atomic ; Urban Population* ; Zinc*

China ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Humans ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVETo determine the validity of the diagnostic evidence for deceased cases in hospitals.

METHODSAll information collected from medical records of the deceased cases in tertiary care health facilities was input into our database. Four diagnosis levels were determined based on level of diagnostic evidence: level I was based on autopsy, pathology or operative exploration, level II on physical and laboratory tests plus expert clinical judgment, level III on expert clinical judgment, level IV on postmortem assumptions. After the diagnostic evidence of each deceased case was reviewed by a panel of three experts, the diagnostic level of each diagnosis was determined.

RESULTSAmong the 2102 medical cases for verbal autopsy study, only 26 (1.24%) afforded diagnostic evidence for level III. Among the level III evidence-based cases of death, the major causes of death were cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and gastroenterological diseases. According to some special symptoms and medical histories, these cases could be diagnosed by comprehensive clinical judgment. Only one case met the criteria for level IV.

CONCLUSIONLevel I diagnostic evidence is hard to attain in China because of the traditional concept and economic restriction. The causes for 2101 deaths can be validated by level II or III diagnostic evidence.

OBJECTIVETo study the characteristics of the effect of different temperatures on mortality of different cities through analyzing the relationship between mortality and meteorology of five Chinese cities.

METHODSWe get the demography and climate data of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing and Changsha cities from National Center of Disease Control and Prevention and Climate net respectively. Then we applied the R software and Distributed Lag Non-linear Models (DLNM) package to analyze our data and find the nonlinear and lag effects on mortality using DLNM.

RESULTSThe city of Beijing and Tianjin are located in the temperate zone. And the climate of Shanghai, Nanjing, Changsha belong to subtropical monsoon climate. When the daily mean temperature arrived 30°C and on lag 0 day, the values of relative risk of effect of high mean temperature on mortality in Nanjing (1.31, 95%CI: 1.21 - 1.41) and Changsha (1.25, 95%CI: 1.13 - 1.39) are larger than that in Beijing (1.18, 95%CI: 1.12 - 1.25), Tianjin (1.18, 95%CI: 1.10 - 1.26) and Shanghai(1.15, 95%CI: 1.06 - 1.24). While the relative risk of effect of low mean temperature on mortality is lower and lasts for a longer lag time. During the whole lag time, the relative risk of effect of the lowest daily mean temperature of each city on mortality in Tianjin, Changsha, Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai is 3.41, 95%CI: 1.60 - 7.27, 2.15, 95%CI: 1.11 - 4.15, 2.24, 95%CI: 1.12 - 4.48, 2.80, 95%CI: 1.75 - 4.48, 1.53, 95%CI: 1.12 - 2.03, respectively. The cumulative effect of mean temperature on mortality appears like a U-shape. When on lag 0-1 day, the value of relative risk of effect of extremely high temperature and the highest mean temperature on mortality is larger than 1. While the effect of low temperature on mortality becomes obvious after lag 2 days.

CONCLUSIONDepending on this research, extremely low temperature and the lowest mean temperature has a more obvious impact on mortality in the northern area than in the south. Extremely high temperature and the highest daily mean temperature is on the contrary. Meanwhile, different temperatures have different impacts on mortality in the same city: high temperature has an acute impact while there is a longer lag time in low temperature.