OBJECTIVE Selecting controls is one of the most difficult tasks in the design of case-control studies. Hospital controls may be inadequate and random controls drawn from the base population may be unavailable. The aim was to assess the use of hospital visitors as controls in a case-control study on the association of organochlorinated compounds and other risk factors for breast cancer conducted...

a r t i c l e i n f o The absence of parents for foster children in residential treatment undermines the known positive effects of parental visits during treatment on children's permanency. To date, little attention has been given to the scope and role of visitation by non-parental adults. This study utilized clinical data from a residential treatment center for children to examine the patterns...

In today’s mechanized world, the need for a patient-friendly attitude in the hospitals and its psychological effects on the recovery time of patients has been proven. Considering the special pre and post-partum conditions of a pregnant woman, together with the fact that the mother and child cannot be treated as a patient case, makes these psychological effects more critical in this resear...

OBJECTIVE Implementation fidelity is a key issue in home-visiting programs as it determines a program's effectiveness in accomplishing its original goals. This paper seeks to evaluate fidelity in a 27-month program addressing maternal and child health which took place in France between 2006 and 2011. METHOD To evaluate implementation fidelity, home visit case notes were analyzed using themati...

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a serious societal and public health issue that takes place within family-type intimate relationships and forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviours, which can escalate over time. DVA rarely exists in isolation from other social 'ills' and can have an enormous impact on people's health and wellbeing. Recently, family violence has become more visi...

Transmission of organisms within the hospital setting has become a topic of major concern not only for patients and healthcare facilities but also for government agencies and the general public. This increased awareness has occurred in part due to the spread of organisms that have limited treatment options, such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), as well as the heightened recogni...

BACKGROUND Within the challenging healthcare environment are nurses, patients, and patients' families. Families want proximity to their loved ones, but the benefits of such proximity depend on patients' conditions and family-patient dynamics. OBJECTIVES To describe patients' preferences for family visiting in an intensive care unit and a complex care medical unit. METHODS Sixty-two patients...