Community views on health sector reform and their participation in health priority setting: case of Lushoto and Muheza districts, Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Community participation (CP) is a key concept under 'primary health care' programmes and 'Health Sector Reform' (HSR) in many countries. However, international literature with current empirical evidence on CP in health priority setting and HSR in Tanzania is scanty. OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe community views on HSR and their participation in setting health priorities. METHODS: A multistage sampling of wards and villages was done, involving group discussions with members of households, Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Ward Development Committees (WDCs). RESULTS: Respondents at village and ward levels in both districts related HSR with a cost sharing system at public health facilities. Views on the advantages or disadvantages of HSR were mixed, most of the residents pointing out that user charges burden the poor, there is a shortage of drugs at peripheral health facilities, the performance of government health service staff and village health workers does not satisfy community needs, health insurance is promoted more than people actually benefit, VDC and WDC poorly function as compared to local community-participatory priority-setting structures. CONCLUSION: HSR may not meet the desired health needs unless more efforts are made to enhance the performance of the existing HSR structures and community knowledge and enhance trust and participation in the health sector programmes at all levels.     

Health seeking behavior among cancer patients attending Ocean Road Cancer Institute, Tanzania

OBJECTIVES: To characterize cancer patients and to determine the associated health seeking behaviours. METHODS: Between September 2005 and February 2006, we collected data using structured and semi-structured interviews among new cancer patients attending the ORCI. Findings are summarized using univarite and bivariate analyses. RESULTS: There were 330 cancer patients during the study period. The mean age was 48 (SD = 13.5) years ranging between 21 and 84 years. The majority, 205 (62.1%), were females. More than two thirds of all patients, that is 225 (68.2%), presented at the ORCI at advanced stages of disease. Many patients reported to have neither heard, 193 (58.5%), nor to know cancer symptoms, 203 (61.5%). Only 185 (56.1%) of all patients reported their willingness to disclose and a freedom to talk about the disease. Risk factors for cancer staging were sex, patient's education status, awareness and knowledge of disease symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions targeted to improve health care seeking behaviour among cancer patients need to include health education and sensitization specifically of cancer disease, establish a strong referral mechanisms at primary health level and to start a population cancer registry for monitoring and evaluation purposes.     

中国13个城市经皮冠状动脉介入治疗的成本疗效分析

目的 对经皮冠状动脉介入治疗(PCI)进行成本疗效分析.方法 连续收集2006年1月至6月在中国13个城市行PCI的冠心病患者资料.利用SF-36健康调查量表对患者住院期间及出院9个月后的生命质量进行问卷调查,并依此进行成本疗效分析.结果 (1)51.8%接受PCI的冠心病患者年龄在60岁以下.(2)患者住院成本中材料成本占82.5%、西药费占6.8%、手术费占5.9%,这3项共占总住院成本的95.2%,其中支架费用占材料成本的69.8%.(3)术后1年内患者再次入院成本:44例由于发生不良反应事件而再次入院患者的平均再次住院成本为17 841.5元.(4)术后1年内的药物费用:以使用频率最高的5种药(阿司匹林、氯吡格雷、美托洛尔、阿托伐他汀和辛伐他汀)的使用量和价格为依据,通过对患者术后1、3、6、9、12个月的随访调查显示,患者在术后平均每个月的药费为831.5元,每个月药费为400.0元的患者最多.(5)患者治疗后的生命质量显著提高,平均得分提高20.59分;每提高一个分值的生命质量需花费3975.7元;每获得一个质量调整生命年花费59 898.3元.结论 我国PCI的成本疗效比在一个较为理想的范围内.     

Sexual practices among unmarried adolescents in Tanzania

Background  

Sexual activities are increasingly changing from the cultural point of view what they used to be. Knowledge of these practices among adolescents may be a basis to create awareness among adolescents on practices that involve risks. This study aims to assess sexual practices among unmarried adolescents in Tanzania.     

Angiographic-Guided Embolization of Metastatic Invasive Mole

Background: The friable and hypervascular nature of a metastatic invasive mole places the patient at risk for significant hemorrhage. Bleeding is the chief cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with a histopathological diagnosis of invasive mole. Bleeding from vaginal metastatic lesions can be controlled by packing the vagina and local excision if necessary. Often the results are less than satisfactory. Case: This case describes a 43-year-old Hispanic female with metastatic invasive mole to the vagina. Following chemotherapy, she underwent life-threatening hemorrhage requiring hospitalization and multiple transfusions. The metastatic lesions were successfully embolized with gelfoam by selective angiography. The patient required minimal additional chemotherapy and is currently without evidence of disease. Conclusions: The technique of angiographic embolization is emerging as a successful and minimally invasive procedure as illustrated in this presentation. Prophylactic embolization with or prior to the administration of chemotherapy in the management of metastatic invasive mole is discussed and may play a role in the primary therapy of this condition.     

Increasing risk of gastroschisis in Norway: an age-period-cohort analysis

The prevalence of gastroschisis in Norway, as reported to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway, increased regularly and sixfold from 0.5 to 2.9 per 10,000 births during 1967-1998. The prevalence was also consistently higher among children of younger mothers. The authors used age-period-cohort analysis to assess effects of both parents' age and year of birth (parental cohorts). Mother's and father's age were included in three different regression models. Apart from a significantly higher risk at a young maternal age, the authors also found higher risk at a young paternal age (1.6-fold per 10 years' reduction in father's age, 95% confidence interval: 1.0, 2.4). The time trend was highly significant regardless of whether it was ascribed to period, mother's year of birth, or father's year of birth. However, when father's year of birth was used to describe the time trend, no apparent additional effect of father's age was found, only for mother's age. The time trend is likely caused by environmental factors. Persistently increasing risks among children of young mothers may hypothetically be related to lifestyle factors. A contribution to risk also from fathers born in more recent years or from young fathers increases the likelihood that a factor related to modern lifestyles of young couples may be related to risk.     

Surface changes in intrauterine contraceptive devices after variable use

Four used intrauterine contraceptive devices and two new control devices were studied by scanning electron microscopy. All intrauterine contraceptive devices were found to have surface deposits that differed not only from site to site on a given device but between devices. A finding of this study not previously described in the literature was the observation of a euhedral crystal rosette of an apatite mineral group [Ca5(PO4)3(F,Cl,OH)] on the Lippes Loop that had been in situ for 15 years.     

The role of p27 in endometrial carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27 has been shown to mediate cell growth arrest in response to various environmental stimuli. p27 protein levels have shown prognostic value in several different types of cancer. We examined the prognostic value of p27 protein expression in endometrial cancer, the most common gynecologic malignancy. METHODS: A total of 95 paraffin-embedded tumor blocks were obtained and stained via immunohistochemical techniques with a monoclonal antibody against p27. Ten high-power fields were evaluated per slide with at least 1000 cells per slide and two slides per specimen evaluated by two reviewers for nuclear and cytoplasmic staining. The specimens were evaluated for associations with age, stage, grade, and histology. Statistical analysis was performed using the Student t test, chi(2) Kaplan-Meier, and likelihood ratios to assess the data and to generate P values. RESULTS: A total of 91 patients met inclusion criteria for statistical analysis. Fifty-three patients were stage I, 13 stage II, 14 stage III and 11 stage IV with a positive stain (>50% of cells) for p27 obtained in 32.1, 23.1, 35.7, and 36.4%, respectively (Student t test P = 0.77). Survival data were available on 24 advanced stage patients. p27 protein immunostaining showed no association with patient survival. We also found no association of p27 staining with age or histology. Notably, we found a trend in increasing staining with increase in grade, particularly with stage I patients. Also, there was an association of the nuclear and cytoplasmic staining and stage (P = 0.05), but it had no correlation with patient survival. CONCLUSION: Our study showed decreased p27 protein staining in endometrial cancers compared to normal endometrial cells. We found that p27 protein staining shows no association with stage, age, or histology and is not prognostic for survival in advanced endometrial cancers. However, there may be a trend associated with increased p27 protein staining with advanced grades of tumors.