This supplement presents a collection of articles based on the National Survey on Access, Use and Promotion of Rational Use of Medicines in Brazil (PNAUM). Since there is not a centralized control system for the supply of medicines in this Country, unlike many developed countries, the information obtained via population surveys are essential for evaluating the current situation of access to med...

The current article proposes a reflection on several aspect pertaining to dental fluorosis in Brazil, based on a systematic review of epidemiological surveys. The authors assess the prevalence and degrees of severity found in different studies and show that in methodological terms, there is a need for progress in procedures for population-based studies on fluorosis. Despite the different data c...

BACKGROUND The use of health status measures to assess health-related quality of life is not widespread. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence, characteristics and severity of oral impacts on health using the Child-Oral Impact on Daily Performance (Child-OIDP). METHODS The survey was conducted on 11-16 years old randomly selected students in Catanzaro. Data were collected...

BACKGROUND To determine whether education and financial incentives increased dentists' delivery of fluoride varnish and sealants to at risk children covered by capitation dental insurance in Washington state (U.S.). METHODS In 1999, 53 dental offices in Washington Dental Service's capitation dental plan were invited to participate in the study, and consenting offices were randomized to interv...

OBJECTIVE The development of measures of self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination is an active area of research, but few measures have been validated across multiple racial/ethnic and language groups. Our goal is to develop and evaluate a discrimination measure that is appropriate for use in surveys of racially and ethnically diverse populations. METHODS To develop our measure, we employ a ...

BACKGROUND Exploring changes in health inequality and its determinants over time is of policy interest. Accordingly, this study aimed to decompose inequality in neonatal mortality into its contributing factors and then explore changes from 1995-2000 to 2005-2010 in Iran. METHODS Required data were drawn from two Iran's demographic and health survey (DHS) conducted in 2000 and 2010. Normalized...

The paper's main purpose is to estimate the dietary exposure to lead for the inhabitants of Jiangsu province, China. Lead concentration data were obtained from the national food contamination monitoring programme during 2007-10. Food samples (n = 2077) were collected from 23 food categories in Jiangsu province. Consumption data were derived from Chinese national nutrition and health survey in 2...

BACKGROUND Geographical variation in the prevalence of common mental disorders has not been explained adequately. AIMS To investigate whether regional mental health differences in Wales would persist after having taken into account the characteristics of individuals and regional social deprivation. METHOD Data from the 1998 Welsh Health Survey were used. Common mental disorders were assesse...

The identification of the characteristics that have an influence on the vaccination coverage of children and the determination of the pattern of such influence are very important since the government can reschedule the policy to immunize each and every child. This paper examines the factors that manipulate the vaccination coverage in terms of five major vaccines using the Bangladesh Demographic...