Poster session on Health, mortality and longevity (1)

The study aimed at finding out factors affecting utilization of antenatal care services among pregnant adolescents. In order to answer this objective, Naguru Teenage Health Centre found in Kampala was used as case study.
The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection where questionnaires, interview guides and observation guide were used. Sampling method was used and a sample of ninety six pregnant adolescents and two health workers were used.
The study revealed reasons affecting utilization of antenatal care services among adolescent pregnant mothers at the health center such as long waiting hours; lack of education; long distances to Health Center. It is therefore recommended to train more health workers, sensitizing the youth about utilization of antenatal care services and constructing more health centers in rural communities. However, findings show that services at Naguru Teenage Health Centre are user friendly compared to other maternity clinics.
Key words: Teenage expectant mothers, Antenatal care Utilization, Naguru teenage health center.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between coffee consumption and the risk of COPD.
Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Japan. A total of 277 eligible patients, aged 50-75 years with COPD diagnosed within the past four years, were referred by respiratory physicians, while 340 control subjects were recruited from the community. All participants underwent spirometric measurements of respiratory function. Information on demographics, lifestyle characteristics and habitual coffee consumption was obtained by face-to-face interview using a validated questionnaire.
Results: The prevalence of coffee drinking was higher among cases (81.6%) than controls (74%). A two-fold significant increase in COPD risk was evident for frequent coffee consumption (p < 0.01). Relative to never drinkers, the adjusted odds ratio was 1.94 (95% confidence interval 1.19 to 3.16) for drinking 2 to 3 cups or more daily.
Conclusions: A positive association was found between coffee consumption and the COPD risk. Further studies in other populations are needed to confirm the effect of long-term coffee drinking on the disease development.

Although socioeconomic status has been positively linked to health, little is known of how socioeconomic disadvantage experienced in both childhood and adulthood influence diabetes diagnosis in lesser developed countries. With particular emphasis on the elderly, this paper uses Latin American data from the SABE project to test whether adult SES disadvantage, net of childhood SES disadvantage, is predictive of being diagnosed with diabetes. This paper also explores how location plays a role in the relationship between SES and diabetes by providing country-specific analyses. Preliminary data suggests that the diabetes prevalence differs in the four countries studied (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay). Logistic regression will be used to analyze the data further.

In 2009, more than 37 thousand Brazilians died due to traffic accidents. Of these, 35% were between 15 and 29 years old and 81.5% were men. The number of people who lose their lives in traffic accidents is rising since the beginning of the 2000´s.
Meanwhile, the mortality by this cause is declining in developed countries. Until the end of 1980´s, the pattern of deaths by traffic accidents in Spain had similarities with the one observed for Brazil. In 1989, the country invested in traffic security and mortality fell from 18.8 to 6.65 deaths / 100.000 persons in 2009. In Brazil, this rate went from 22.22 in 1990 to 20.11 deaths / 100.000 persons in 2009 (rates standardized by the Spanish population in 1981).
The aim of this article is to analyze the characteristics and changes in the patterns of traffic mortality in both countries.

This study used Swedish population register data to investigate the relationship between birth order and mortality risk in adulthood for Swedish cohorts born between 1938 and 1960. We investigate both all-cause mortality as well as cause-specific mortality attributable to neoplasms, cancers of the respiratory system, diseases of the circulatory system, and accidents, suicides, and events of undetermined intent. The follow-up period is from 1960 to 2007 for all-cause mortality, and from 1968 to 2007 for cause-specific mortality. The analyses are conducted using piece-wise constant survival models, with age as the baseline hazard, and the estimates are adjusted for mother's age at the time of birth, sibship size, and cohort effects. Focusing on sibships ranging in size from two to six, we find that mortality risk in adulthood increases with later birth order. This pattern is also consistent for cause-specific mortality risk, but is particularly pronounced for mortality attributable to cancers of the respiratory system. These results suggest that social pathways play an important role in the relationship between birth order and mortality risk in adulthood.

Life Expectancy at birth for women in the United States rose to nearly 78 years in 2007. While this is a new milestone for low mortality among Americans, the United States lags significantly behind its counterparts in Europe, partially reflecting a history of heavy smoking among Americans. However, health and mortality experience in the United States is far from homogeneous. The same factors that are responsible for the shortfall of American life expectancy may also be manifested in geographic inequalities in mortality within the United States. The current geographic pattern in adult mortality in the US is a relatively recent phenomenon, the result of increasing divergence in mortality experience between the southern states and the rest of the United States over past several decades. The goal of this paper is to examine the contribution of cigarette smoking to the increasing mortality gap between the southern states and the rest of the US since 1965. Data come from US vital statistics and the impact of smoking is estimated using indirect methods. Preliminary results indicate that the divergence in all-cause mortality occurs concomitantly with divergence in mortality attributable to cigarette smoking.

In a view of recent and future demographic changes, the provision of long-term care for the elderly becomes increasingly challenging. The development of the policies and programs attempting to offer the cost-effective care requires a sufficient amount of information not only on the macro but also on the individual level. Utilizing the German Micro Census data, the paper estimates the association between the individual’s socioeconomic status (by means of education) and the prevalence in public long-term care (PLTC) among people aged 65 years and above. These are the only data allowing studying this association. Particular attention is paid to the disparities between men and women and between the residents from East/West Germany. Being assigned to one of the three care levels (‘Pflegestufe’) is considered as a proxy for LTC utilization, the eligibility to which depends on the physical evaluation of the applicants. The logit regression model is applied to study the direction and the strength of the relationship. The preliminary results reveal the lower prevalence in care for people with higher education but they are found to be in need of more extensive care. The regression results show that education certainly matters for prevalence in LTC.

It is well known that urban slums represent some of the most hazardous and unhealthy living conditions in which human populations reside today. As urban populations swell globally, accurate and up to date information on the location and distribution of the urban poor is essential for effective policymaking. However, in India, as in many other rapidly urbanizing low and middle income countries, not all slum dwellers are poor and not all poor are slum dwellers. This paper explores the sensitivity and specificity of two slum designations – survey enumerators’ and Census – in eight Indian cities using data from the third National Family and Health Survey. The gold standard of comparison is the respondents’ actual reporting of their toilet facilities, water source, housing materials, crowding and security of tenure. Preliminary analyses indicate that neither survey nor census slum designation well identify urban residents in need of services. Slum designation may be uninformative because it becomes quickly obsolete in a rapidly changing urban area, or because it puts too much of a focus on legality, among other reasons. This paper is intended to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneity of urban India and to inform more targeted health and development policies on behalf of the urban poor.

Although there has been a large body of research looking at migrant health issues, there is little understanding of migrant health in Australia due to limited research. Australia is among the top migration countries, where about half of the population is a first- or second-generation migrant, and where more than quarter of the labour force consists of migrants. This study adds to our understanding of migrant health in Australia by looking at the health of migrants upon their arrival in the destination and at the change in their health status in the next 6-18 months since migration. The study uses two waves of second Longitudinal Study of Immigrants in Australia, including about 3000 migrants and 1000 of their partners. The preliminary findings show that migrants entering the country on humanitarian visas report disproportionately worse health outcomes than other migrants and their health is more likely to change over time.

Objectives: Evaluate effects of NNS (non nutritive sucking) to the very low birth weight infant (VLBWI).
Method: Intervention study was conducted with total 28 VLBW infants hospitalized in P University Hospital; 14 NNS applicated and 14 general gavage feeding group. Providing blackmail nipple for the VLBWs at 11am for 10mins. Heart rate, oxygen saturation every 1 min and body weight every 2 am checked. The measurements were compared with repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) using MedCalc (ver. 12.2.1, Mariakerke, Belgium).
Result: The baseline status - gestational age, birth weight, Apgar score, application time of mechanical ventilation showed no differences in the two group. Weight tends to gain after loss, and on the seventh day, it was higher in NNS than control group (p=0.013). With comparing heart rate and oxygen saturation, NNS seemed to more supportable. And, NNS group is more easy to transit to bottle feeding.
Conclusion: NNS was effective to improve heart rate, oxygen saturation and to reduce hospitalization days in VLBWI. For the gavage feeding preterm infants, applying NNS would be helpful.