OBJECTIVES To improve access to contraceptives in remote and rural areas, sub-Saharan African countries are allowing community health workers (CHWs) to distribute hormonal contraceptives. Before offering hormonal contraceptives, CHWs must determine pregnancy status but often lack a reliable way to do so. No studies have evaluated the impact of providing CHWs with urine pregnancy test kits. We a...

BACKGROUND There is an increased risk of venous thromboembolism among women taking oral contraceptives. However, whether there is an additional risk among women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is unknown. METHODS We developed a population-based cohort from the IMS LifeLink Health Plan Claims Database, which includes managed care organizations in the United States. Women aged 18-46 years...

BACKGROUND Average contraceptive prevalence rate in the Nkwanta district of Ghana was estimated to be 6.2% relative to the national average at the time, of 19%. While several efforts had been made to improve family planning in the country, the district still had very low use of modern family planning methods. This study sought to determine the factors that influenced modern family planning use ...

BACKGROUND The Brazilian SUS (Unified Health System) was created in 1988 within the new constitution, based on the premises of being universal, comprehensive, and equitable. The SUS offers free health care, independent of contribution or affiliation. Since then, great efforts and increasing investments have been made for the system to achieve its goals. We assessed how coverage and equity in se...

background: muslim women tend to postpone their menstrual period using short course oral contraceptives (oc) during ramadan, muslims fasting month. recently, many cases of stroke, particularly cerebral vein thrombosis (cvt), have been reported in ramadan. objective: this work studies the incidence of cvt and its relation to ramadan. materials and methods: this is a cohort study conducted from o...

background: we report a case series of cerebral vein thrombosis (cvt) in women who used oral contraceptive pill (ocp) in the muslims ramadan and fasting month. methods: this study was a retrospective case series of 9 patients with diagnosis of cvt, who admitted in the neurology ward of tohid hospital of sanandaj, iran, in july-august 2014-2015. results: patients had no history of thrombosis bef...

INTRODUCTION In Pakistan, Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) among married female youth is 17.4% and even lower in rural and slum areas leading to rapid population growth on one hand and poor health consequences on the other. The study was conducted to explore family planning service providers' perceptions regarding use of different contraceptive methods and to identify factors that are influe...

BACKGROUND Childhood falls result in considerable morbidity, mortality and health service use. Despite this, little evidence exists on protective factors or effective falls prevention interventions in young children. OBJECTIVES To estimate ORs for three types of medically attended fall injuries in young children in relation to safety equipment, safety behaviours and hazard reduction and explo...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of self-reported diabetes and hypertension and their absolute numbers in Brazil. METHODS Data from 54,369 individuals aged > or = 18 years, interviewed by the Vigilância de Fatores de Risco e Proteção para Doenças Crônicas por Inquérito Telefônico (VIGITEL--Telephone-based Surveillance of Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases), conducted in 27 B...