A total of 1125 diarrhea fecal samples were examined: 163 were positive by using PCR (14.5%) and 67 Shigella found by culture (5.9%). The highest prevalence of shigellosis was seen in children with 2 years old and in the group of ³16 years old (23% and 17.9% by PCR, and 30.7% and 52.2% by culture, respectively). The lowest prevalence was found in children £ 6 months (3.1%) by PCR, and 3% by culture). The positive cases were seen more in female than in male in the age group of ³16 years old. Shigellosis is a sporadic infection all year round but the higher frequency seen in the hot months.
Dysentery, Bacillary ; Suburban Health

A Sociological survey of 1500 households in 30 communes in Hanoi' s suburbs shows that 1337/1500 households (89.13%) want to be provided with home health care service 25.42% consider this as a measure to improve health - care quality in the community
Delivery of Health Care ; Suburban Health ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; Suburban Population

PURPOSE: The purpose of this quasi experimental study was to evaluate the effects of Culturally Sensitive Sex Education Skill Development, a teacher-led sex education program in secondary schools in Thailand. METHODS: Two public secondary schools in the suburban areas of Bangkok were randomly selected. One was designated as the experimental school and the other as the comparison school. Ninety grade seven and eight teachers, 45 from each school, were selected to participate in the study. Self efficacy theory and culturally appropriate basis were applied to develop the program which included 4 weeks of intervention and 2 weeks of follow up. Primary outcomes were attitudes toward sex education, perceived self efficacy, and sex education skills. Statistical analysis included independent and paired t test, and repeated one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: At the end of the intervention and during the follow-up period, the intervention group had significantly higher mean scores of attitudes toward sex education, perceived self efficacy, and sex education skills than their scores before (p < .001), and than those of the comparison group (p < .001). CONCLUSION: The results showed that Culturally Sensitive Sex Education Skill Development could enhance attitudes and sex education self efficacy to promote the implementation of sex education among teachers.
Culture ; *Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; *School Health Services ; Schools ; *Self Efficacy ; Sex Education/*methods ; Suburban Health ; Thailand

OBJECTIVEThe main causes of death in children aged 0 - 4 were accidental suffocation and drowning which had a significant relation with parents' lack of prevention knowledge and effective measures. By comparing parents' acknowledge and behavior in preventing accidental suffocation and drowning and the mortality rate of accidental suffocation and drowning after intervening with those before the intervening, evaluation was made on intervening efficacy of health education.

METHODSSix counties in north Jiangsu were involved in the survey. Two townships drawn from each county were divided into the intervened group and the controlled group. Health education was carried out in the intervened group for one year in 2000. Twenty to 30 parents of infants and children aged 1 - 4 drawn randomly from every township in the intervened group were taken as investigation subjects before and after intervening, and a questionnaire was made for them to answer. Meanwhile, the mortality rates of accidental suffocation and drowning were measured.

RESULTSFollowed by health education for a year, the parents' opinion about whether unintentional injury can be avoided or not has changed from 18.8% to 20.5% to 1.8% - 2.9%, and parents' knowledge about how to give first aid in spot has increased from 11.1% - 13.5% to 41.1% - 56.8%. The parents' behavior that not sleeping with their infants in the same beds and not tying infants in a candle with blanket, and setting up fence beside pools and rivers has increased by 75.7%, 61.5% and 61.2%, respectively, while their relative knowledge has increased by 212.7% and 194.3%. In the intervened group, the mortality rates of infants' accidental suffocation per 100,000 has fallen from 487.8 to 71.2, dropped by 85.4%; and the mortality rates of drowning in children aged 1 - 4 per 100,000 has fallen from 60.0 to 36.2, dropped by 39.7%. In comparison, in the controlled group, the mortality rates of infants' accidental suffocation per 100,000 has fallen from 344.1 to 276.4, dropped by 19.7%; and the mortality rates of drowning in children aged 1 - 4 per 100,000 has increased by 26.3%, from 51.7 to 65.3.

CONCLUSIONHealth education to parents is an effective intervening measure for prevention of accidental suffocation and drowning. The goal of health education should be to change inadequate behavior and dangerous environment in which unintentional injury is easily happened. The intervening measures that not sleeping with their infants in the same beds and not tying infants in a candle with blanket, and putting up fence beside pools and rivers are feasible and practicable.

Accident Prevention ; Asphyxia ; prevention & control ; Child, Preschool ; China ; Drowning ; prevention & control ; Female ; Health Education ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Parenting ; Parents ; education ; Suburban Population ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo study the epidemiological status of diabetes' risk factors among urban and suburban residents and their perceptions of their own health status and risk of diabetes.

METHODSStratified multi-stage sampling method was used to conduct the survey among 18-60 years old residents from Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Henan, Yunnan, and Qinghai provinces in China from March to May in 2013. The Questionnaire of Health Literacy of Diabetes Mellitus of the Public in China was used to conduct the survey, and then the data were analyzed. The main contents of the questionnaire included diabetes mellitus knowledge, diabetes mellitus risk factors and diabetes mellitus risk self-assessment. The results of the survey were standardized by the 6(th) national census data.

RESULTSA total of 4 416 respondents were surveyed, and 4 282 valid questionnaires were successfully collected during the survey and the response rate was 97.0%. After weighted adjustment, the overweight and obesity rate of the residents in 6 provinces was 35.3%, abdominal obesity rate was 54.7%. 77.8% of the residents without diabetes had more than one risk factor, but only 8.5% thought they might got diabetes. The residents with high risk behavior possessing rates of diabetes were in eastern areas (79.7%), urban areas (80.7%), men (84.1%), aged from 45 to 60(100.0%), below primary school education level (83.4%) and enterprise personnel (79.7%). The residents with high risk consciousness of getting diabetes were in eastern areas (11.0%), urban areas (9.7%), men (9.7%), aged from 45 to 60 (12.3%), over college education level (12.7%) and the offices (14.7%). The results of logistic regression showed that residents in the middle areas (OR = 2.148, 95% CI: 1.633-2.920), urban residents (OR = 2.100, 95% CI: 1.611-2.738), male (OR = 2.488, 95% CI: 1.962-3.154), the older (OR = 1.102, 95% CI: 1.090-1.115) had a higher risk behavior rate of diabetes mellitus. Urban residents (OR = 2.784, 95% CI: 1.497-5.175), male (OR = 1.522, 95% CI: 1.152-2.011), the older (OR = 1.022, 95% CI: 1.009-1.035), college educational level (OR = 1.685, 95% CI: 1.033-2.749), with a higher score of health awareness(OR = 1.090, 95% CI: 1.061-1.120)had a higher risk consciousness to being diabetes mellitus.

CONCLUSIONThe urban and suburban residents in China had a high risk behavior possessing rates of diabetes, and a low risk consciousness of being diabetes.

Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Obesity ; Risk Factors ; Suburban Population ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVETo identify the prevalence and risk factors of diabetes and prediabetes in the community residents above 18 years old in the suburbs of Guangzhou.

METHODSBetween April and May in 2008, the residents above 18 years living in 6 communities of Guangzhou for 5 or more years were sampled with multistage clustering sampling. The sampled residents were surveyed by questionnaires, and physical examination and glucose determination were carried out.

RESULTSA total of 1532 residents were sampled. The incidence of diabetes mellitus in these community residents was 8.46%, and that of impaired glucose regulation was 6.59%. Age, body mass index, family history of diabetes mellitus, case history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and smoking were all the independent risk factors for impaired glucose regulation and diabetes mellitus.

CONCLUSIONDiabetes and prediabetes are prevalent in the community residents in Guangzhou. Controlling the risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, lipid metabolism disorder among the residents above 40 years with a family history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension is key to prevention of impaired glucose regulation and diabetes mellitus.

Adult ; Aged ; Blood Glucose ; metabolism ; China ; epidemiology ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; blood ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prediabetic State ; blood ; epidemiology ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Suburban Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo describe the epidemiologic features of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in urban and suburb areas in Beijing and to explore their differences between these two areas.

METHODSData of SARS cases were collected from daily notification of China Ministry of Health and a database of infectious diseases was established by the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Prevention and Control (BCDC). All the data were put into dataset files by Microsoft Excel-2000 and analyzed with SPSS version 10.0 software.

RESULTSThe respective urban incidence and mortality rate were 29.06 and 2.21 per 100,000, while the case fatality rate was 7.62%. In contrast, the respective suburb incidence and mortality rate were 10.61 and 0.78 per 100,000, and the case fatality rate was 7.32%. No significant differences were found in demographic characteristics between the urban and suburb areas.

CONCLUSIONBeijing urban area suffered a more serious SARS epidemic than the suburb area in 2003.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Cities ; Female ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; epidemiology ; mortality ; Suburban Population ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVEIn order to minimize lead pollution and to protect the identified individuals with high blood lead level from lead contamination, an epidemiological study was carried on children living around the village and township-owned lead industries in Tianying town.

METHODSEnvironmental monitoring: lead levels in air, soil, drinking water and crops were measured. Biological monitoring: 959 children aged 5 - 12 years were selected from villages where the lead smelters located near the residential areas and the battery disassembling was done in some families. The control children (207 pupils) were from other villages without lead exposure. Blood lead, ZnPP and teeth lead were determined. Height, weight and head circle of children and IQ scores were measured.

RESULTSThe environment was seriously polluted. The average lead concentrations in air and soils were 8.5 times and 10 times of the MACs (national health standard) respectively. Eighty-five per cent the air samples with lead concentrations higher than the national health standard. Local crops and wheat at farmers' home were also contaminated by lead dust, with. Lead content being 24 times higher than the standard. The mean blood lead and ZnPP levels of children lived in the polluted areas were 496 microgram/L and 9.41 microgram/g Hb respectively. The lead exposure caused adverse effects on children's IQ and physical development.

CONCLUSIONIt is necessary to remove and reduce currently active sources of lead pollution in the community and to increase public awareness of potential health effects of lead exposure.

Air Pollutants ; analysis ; Child ; Child Development ; drug effects ; Child, Preschool ; China ; Crops, Agricultural ; chemistry ; Environmental Monitoring ; methods ; Environmental Pollution ; adverse effects ; analysis ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Industrial Waste ; adverse effects ; analysis ; Lead ; adverse effects ; blood ; Male ; Soil Pollutants ; analysis ; Suburban Health ; standards ; Urban Health ; standards