background nowadays task sharing is a way to optimize utilization of human resources for health. this study was designed to assess the effect of task sharing, mutually between midwives and family health workforces (fhws), on the number of needed staff across the iranian health posts.   methods the workload and required number of midwives and fhws in a health post were calculated and compared in...

INTRODUCTION Congenital syphilis is an important health problem in Brazil. This study assessed measures aimed at the prevention and control of syphilis in the State of Mato Grosso and its capital, Cuiabá. METHODS A descriptive study cross-sectional and of time trends assessing the congenital syphilis was performed in Cuiabá and Mato Grosso between 2001 and 2011. We compared maternal sociodemo...

Background. To investigate the effect of social service prenatal care (PNC) utilization on perinatal outcomes among women with socioeconomic problems in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Methods. Retrospective study. The study enrolled all women at our hospital who either attended PNC utilizing social services (attenders) or who did not attend PNC (nonattenders) between January 1, 2007, and December...

BACKGROUND In China, the New Co-operative Medical System (NCMS), a rural health insurance system, has expanded nationwide since 2003. This study aims to describe prenatal care use, content and costs of care in one county where prenatal care is included in the NCMS and two counties where it is not. It also explores the perceptions of stakeholders of the prenatal care benefit package in order to ...

BACKGROUND The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 offered the promise that prospective drug utilization review (pDUR) systems would improve the quality of drug prescribing and patient drug use. There is little evidence that this promise has been fulfilled. To the contrary, there is growing evidence that suboptimal use of drugs (in terms of preventable drug-related morbidity) is at least ...

This research attempts to close an important gap in health economics regarding the efficacy of prenatal care and policies designed to improve access to that care, such as Medicaid. We argue that a key beneficiary-- the mother-- has been left completely out of the analysis. If prenatal care significantly improves the health of the mother, then concluding that prenatal care is 'ineffective' or th...

The persistence of negative perinatal outcomes in Rio de Janeiro suggests problems in the quality of prenatal care. The most recent study in the city showed that only 38% of prenatal care was adequate. This study aimed to evaluate the adequacy of prenatal care under the Brazilian Unified National Health System in the city of Rio de Janeiro. A cross-sectional study in 2007-2008 interviewed 2,422...

BACKGROUND Much attention has been given to the adequacy of prenatal care use in promoting healthy outcomes for women and their infants. Adequacy of use takes into account the timing of initiation of prenatal care and the number of visits. However, there is emerging evidence that the quality of prenatal care may be more important than adequacy of use. The purpose of our study was to explore wom...

INTRODUCTION In developing countries, night blindness is a very common public health problem among pregnant women. OBJECTIVE Evaluate the effect of the changes occurred on prenatal care concerning prenatal nutritional care on the occurrence of night blindness (XN) in adult pregnant women in public maternity hospital in Rio de Janeiro between 1999-2001 and between 2007-2008. METHODS Two cros...

This study uses hospital records for 7,000 births in McLennan County, Texas, during the period June 1987-July 1989 to examine the association between prenatal care and birth outcome and the implications for hospital costs of newborn infants. After controlling for a variety of maternal and birth factors, a significant relationship between prenatal care and birth outcome remained. Females who fai...