BACKGROUND There is a growing awareness that there should be a public health perspective to health system governance. Its intrinsic population health orientation provides the ultimate ground for determining the health needs and governing collaborative care arrangements within which these needs can be met. Notwithstanding differences across countries, population health concerns are not central t...

INTRODUCTION Brazilian epidemiological studies on rheumatoid arthritis are scarce, thus all data currently available originate from the international literature. OBJECTIVES To determine the incidence and some clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the municipality of Cascavel, state of Paraná, Brazil. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data were collected between...

INTRODUCTION A method to select populations living in areas affected by diffuse environmental contamination is presented, with particular regard to oil refineries, in the Italian context. The reasons to use municipality instead of census tract populations for environment and health small-area studies of contaminated sites are discussed. METHODS Populations most affected by diffuse environment...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to survey minor home help services provided by Swedish municipalities with the main purpose to prevent fall injuries. METHODS If minor home help services were presented on the homepage of a municipality, an initial telephone contact was taken. Thereafter a questionnaire was administered, including questions about target groups, aim with the services, tasks...

The geographical distribution and factors associated with bovine fasciolosis in the south of Espírito Santo were updated and the prevalences of this disease and of snails of the genus Lymnaea in the municipality of Jerônimo Monteiro were calculated. In the first stage, fecal samples were collected from 10% of the herds of 115 farms in 23 municipalities and interviews were conducted with owners....

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Child pedestrians have been identified as vulnerable road users. Although walking as a means of transport has health and other benefits, it exposes children to the risk of road traffic injuries. This study was conducted to assess the availability of road safety features around government-owned primary schools in Ibadan municipality. MATERIALS AND METHODS A multistage samp...

Based on the premise that spatial occupation by the population is a socially constructed process, the present study identified and grouped homogeneous sectors vis-à-vis living conditions in the municipality of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Among socioeconomic variables from the Brazilian national census, the study identified and selected those which best represent the intra-urban...

Mangrove crabs (Scylla serrata) were trapped in summer and fall 2004 at four sites, each in a separate municipality on the Pacific island of Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia. Carapace width (CW) of the 219 crabs averaged 15.1±0.13 cm (SE), slightly larger than the mean size of 221 crabs trapped from the same sites 4 y earlier. Mean CW of the 56 crabs in the upper quartile was 17.5±0.17 cm...

Methods: revised method description: “National surveys were conducted in Norway in 2006 (n=2,415) and 2008 (n=2,209) to measure general practitioners’ evaluation of community mental health centres. GPs evaluated the centres by means of a postal questionnaire, consisting of questions focused on centre quality and cooperation with GPs. As part of the national surveys 75 GPs in 2006 and 66 GPs in ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the relationship between poor vision and occurrence of road traffic accidents (RTAs) and the barriers to uptake of refractive error services among commercial drivers in the Cape Coast Municipality of Ghana. METHODS A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted involving commercial drivers in the municipality. Participants underwent an eye examination comprising visu...