Maternal smoking during pregnancy and anthropometric measurements of newborns: a population-based study in southern of Brazil

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy and its impact on anthropometric measurements of newborns. A standardized questionnaire was applied to all pregnant women admitted for delivery in the maternity units in Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, in 2007. Measurements were taken of the newborns' weight, length, and head circumference. Prevalence rates were 23% for maternal smoking during pregnancy and 29% for exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, compared with those whose mothers never smoked, newborns whose mothers smoked throughout pregnancy showed average decreases of 223.4 g in birth weight (95%CI: 156.7;290.0), 0.94 cm in birth length (95%CI: 0.60;1.28), and 0.69 cm in head circumference (95%CI: 0.42-0.95). In conclusion, prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy was high in this municipality. Maternal smoking during pregnancy was inversely associated with birth weight, length, and head circumference.     

Crossmodal correspondences in product packaging. Assessing color-flavor correspondences for potato chips (crisps)

We report a study designed to investigate consumers’ crossmodal associations between the color of packaging and flavor varieties in crisps (potato chips). This product category was chosen because of the long-established but conflicting color-flavor conventions that exist for the salt and vinegar and cheese and onion flavor varieties in the UK. The use of both implicit and explicit measures of this crossmodal association revealed that consumers responded more slowly, and made more errors, when they had to pair the color and flavor that they implicitly thought of as being “incongruent” with the same response key. Furthermore, clustering consumers by the brand that they normally purchased revealed that the main reason why this pattern of results was observed could be their differing acquaintance with one brand versus another. In addition, when participants tried the two types of crisps from “congruently” and “incongruently” colored packets, some were unable to guess the flavor correctly in the latter case. These strong crossmodal associations did not have a significant effect on participants’ hedonic appraisal of the crisps, but did arouse confusion. These results are relevant in terms of R&D, since ascertaining the appropriate color of the packaging across flavor varieties ought normally to help achieve immediate product recognition and consumer satisfaction.     

Complementary and alternative medicine for children's asthma: satisfaction, care provider responsiveness, and networks of care

We explain why some caretakers opt for alternative medicine for the treatment of children's asthma whereas others do not. In the past 15 years, asthma care has been standardized, with clinical practice guidelines centered on advanced pharmacological regimes. Clinicians argue that with proper biomedical treatment and environmental control, asthma should be a manageable chronic disease. Yet many patients forego available pharmacological treatments for alternative medicine or complement prescribed drugs with unconventional treatments. On the basis of open-ended, in-depth qualitative interviews with 50 mothers of children with asthma, we argue that the experience with biomedical treatments, social influence in mother's network of care, concerns about adverse and long-term effects, health care providers' responsiveness to such concerns, and familiarity with alternative treatments explain why some families rely on alternative medicine and others do not.     

Are the osseous and tendinous-cartilaginous tibial tuberosity-trochlear groove distances the same on CT and MRI?

Objective

To verify whether the tibial tuberosity-trochlear groove distance (TT-TG) and the tendinous-cartilaginous TT-TG (the distance between the patellar tendon and trochlear groove: PT-TG) are identical using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques.

Subjects and methods

The TT-TG and PT-TG distances were measured on the same knee samples by three observers (two measurements per observer) using CT and MRI scans collected retrospectively. The reproducibility of the measurements was assessed using the interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The means and standard deviations of four measurements were calculated for each patient. A paired t-test was used to assess differences between measurements.

Results

Fifty knee samples (32 with patellar instability and 18 with other conditions) were evaluated. The inter- and intraobserver reliability was excellent for all four measurements (>0.8). On average, the TT-TG distance on MRI was 3.1–3.6 mm smaller than that on CT, and the PT-TG distance on MRI was 1.0–3.4 mm larger than the TT-TG distance on MRI.

Conclusion

The osseous TT-TG and tendinous-cartilaginous PT-TG distances determined by CT and MRI were not identical.