At the present time of change, muddle, and uncertainty in the health service, there are opportunities to improve services for children if we can build on the certainty of our commitment to an integrated child health service. In reply to the British Paediatric Association's (BPA) response to the government's white paper Working for Patients, the Secretary of State, Mr Kenneth Clarke, wrote 'I am...

OBJECTIVE Assess the maternal socio-demographic factors associated with the frequency of use of child care services by low income families. METHODS Cross-sectional analysis of 393 children between 12 and 16 months old who participated in a randomized field trial during their first year of life in a program of nutritional intervention. The study began in the Brazilian Unified Health System (Si...

In stressing the opportunities for preventive mental health work which the public health services provide, it is noted that these are appreciated by only a comparatively few psychiatrists, although Psychiatric support is needed by the public health worker in integrating the principles of mental hygiene into his activities as well as in dealing with individual mental health problems. The Report ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to find out what aspects of their parenthood parents revealed, and how they expressed their thoughts concerning maternity care services on an online communication forum. BACKGROUND The 'Information Society' offers a growing variety of health services as part of public primary health care via the internet. Little is known about the contents produced online b...

BACKGROUND In high-income countries, great disparities exist in the organizational characteristics of maternity health services. In Finland, primary maternity care is provided at communal maternity health clinics (MHC). At these MHCs there are public health nurses and general practitioners providing care. The structure of services in MHCs varies largely. MHCs are maintained independently or mer...

Prompted by declines in average durations and proportions of women breast feeding in several developing countries, international organizations have placed breast feeding promotion high on their health policy agendas. Breast feeding can prolong the length of the birth interval directly through its ability to cause lactational amenorrhea and anovulation. Maintenance of lactational amenorrhea de...

Gender equity concerns in health care often centre on ensuring access to high-quality health care services for women. Although women consistently show higher rates of health care utilization and longer life expectancies, they tend to have higher reported morbidity rates, and the quality of care for services such as maternity and child health services can be poor. Primary health care (PHC) progr...

This paper examines the socioeconomic characteristics of rural-urban migrants, child mortality and maternity child health care in Ghana. Data from the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey shows that infant mortality is lower among rural-urban migrants compared to rural non-migrants. Proportional hazards model estimates reveal that the survival chances of children of rural-urban migration pe...