[Gender and cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia].

:Leishmaniasis in Colombia has traditionally been seen as a health risk for adult males, as they become infected when they enter the vector's biotopes to tap natural resources. National health statistics seem to confirm this theory. However, during field studies, the Program for the Study and Control of Tropical Diseases (PECET) observed both equal proportions of men and women with active leishmaniasis and delayed hypersensitivity skin tests and equal proportions of males and females having had contact with the parasite from early childhood. Several factors that have not been analyzed in depth in Colombia thus far appear to distort the disease's epidemiological pattern in the country, and gender-linked differences in access to health care appear to exist. As a consequence, no relief is provided for this source of human suffering, and socioeconomic repercussions for households are significant. Preventive measures by the Colombian Ministry of Health (MOH) systematically underestimate the magnitude of intra- and peridomiciliary transmission, and female patients are excluded from active case detection. Further research should be devoted to this phenomenon. The MOH should be encouraged to improve leishmaniasis control programs, especially with regard to active case detection, training, and teaching, so that quicker diagnosis can be performed. Meanwhile, the MOH should retrain its health personnel.

被引量：19 发表：2001

[Physical growth in schoolchildren from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina State, Brazil: a case-control study].

:This study was undertaken using a case-control, prevalence survey design, aimed at verifying the effects of socioeconomic, environmental, and biological/morbidity variables on the growth of schoolchildren from low-income families. The study focused on schoolchildren whose height/age (H/A) ratio was < or = 2SD (NCHS). Control groups were paired according to sex into two groups: C1, whose H/A ratio was between -1SD (NCHS) and the median, and C2, with the H/A ratio > median to +1 SD (NCHS). The Mantel-Haenszel test was used to verify each variable with regard to the H/A ratio, while non-conditional multivariate analysis was used to identify which of the variable blocks had a significant effect and, in the following stage, to identify the variables with a significant effect within each block. In the first stage, the variables with a significant effect for C1 were socioeconomic. For C2, socioeconomic, environmental, and morbidity/biological variables were significant. In the final model, the remaining significant variables for C1 were socioeconomic, while those for C2 were socioeconomic and morbidity/biological. The authors conclude that socioeconomic variables are hierarchically superior to other risk factors.

被引量：- 发表：2001

[Reflections on health promotion in the Brazilian context].

被引量：- 发表：2000

[Capture-recapture methodology: an option for surveillance of non-communicable diseases in the elderly].

:Capture-recapture methodology is used in Ecology to estimate the total size of wild animal populations. This method can be used in Epidemiology to estimate the incidence and prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases in a relatively inexpensive and quick way. Surveillance systems based on the use of this methodology are a potential alternative for monitoring non-communicable diseases in Brazil. This paper presents a brief review of fundamental capture-recapture methodology and its applications to Epidemiology. We also present a theoretical model for implementation of a diabetes mellitus surveillance system in the elderly using publicly available morbidity and mortality data sources and the capture-recapture methodology.

被引量：- 发表：2000

[Recent health services reform in Quebec Province, Canada: on the frontier of preserving a public system].

:This paper analyzes recent changes in the Canadian health system through a case study of Quebec. As the last Province to adopt federal principles of universal coverage, comprehensiveness, and public management, its reform, conducted in 1971, met these objectives by means of key innovations. In the 1980s and early 90s, a process of health services evaluation in this Province and in Canada as a whole launched a period of extensive changes. The relevant measures are described herein: decentralization and regional management, "clinical shift", selective reduction in the supply of services, and new mechanisms for resource allocation and social control. There is a tendency towards an environment of public competition, but the approach that was adopted for regulation does not correspond to the main models from central countries. Within a scenario of budget constraints, technocratically-defined measures allowed for the settlement of benefits, preserving the system's main guidelines. This evidence is one of the main contributions of comparative analysis to health system reform in peripheral countries. The study identifies the relationships between these measures and a worldwide trend towards cost control and macroeconomic adjustment policies, discussing the relevant implications for health services.

被引量：1 发表：2000