Mothers' Knowledge about Birth Asphyxia: The Need to do More!

Background: Health education is an important tool required for reducing the burden of birth asphyxia in the developing world. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge of mothers; who received health facility-based antenatal care during their last pregnancy; about birth asphyxia and relate their knowledge to their places of antenatal care. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey of mothers of infants attending the Immunization clinic in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital was done between July and October 2010 using a close-ended questionnaire. Consecutively consenting mothers were enrolled into the study. Results: Out of 354 mothers; 56.5 received counseling about birth asphyxia during antenatal clinic visits in their last pregnancy; 85.5 of attendees of teaching hospital; and 26.4 of attendees of private antenatal clinics received counseling about birth asphyxia. Overall; 38.9 of the respondents had satisfactory knowledge about birth asphyxia; 47.5 of teaching hospital attendees; and 28.1 of private clinic attendees had satisfactory knowledge about birth asphyxia. Lower socioeconomic status; lack of counseling; and nonattendance of teaching hospital antenatal clinic were associated with poor knowledge about birth asphyxia. Conclusion: Most of the mothers surveyed had poor knowledge about the risk factors and sequelae of birth asphyxia. The health system needs to improve health education of expectant mothers about birth asphyxia

Growth Pattern of Schoolchildren in Sagamu, Nigeria Using the CDC Standards and 2007 WHO Standards.

Objective: To compare the median weight, height and body mass index of school children with the 2000 CDC and 2007 WHO reference values. Settings: Schoolchildren in Sagamu, Nigeria. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: Between November and December, 2008, 1690 school children aged 6 to 16 years from 8 primary schools were surveyed using multi-stage sampling methods. The weight, height and body mass index (BMI) were recorded for each child. The Z-scores of the median anthropometric parameters for each age and sex were determined with the LMS statistical method using the values of L, M and S provided on the CDC and WHO charts. Results: The weight, height and BMI Z-scores were less than the reference values provided on the CDC and WHO charts but were generally closer to the WHO standards compared to the CDC standards. The median weight, height and BMI for females generally plotted higher on CDC and WHO chart compared to the males. The prevalence of underweight and stunting were relatively lower while the prevalence of overweight and obesity was relatively higher among children aged 6 to 10 years using the WHO references compared to the CDC reference values. Conclusions: The WHO references would underdiagnose under-nutrition and over-diagnose overweight/ obesity in the population studied.

Do working children have worse academic performance?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of child labor on school children's academic performance. METHODS: Primary school children engaged in child labor were compared with age, sex and school-matched controls for absence from school and scores obtained at sessional examination in English language, Mathematics, Sciences and Social studies. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the mean rate of school absence (p = 0.80), mean aggregate examination scores (p = 0.1) and proportion of class repeaters (p = 0.16) among working school children and the controls. However, a significantly higher proportion of the controls had high (>75%) average examination scores compared with the working school children (p = 0.017). Similarly, the controls performed better than working school children in each of four core subjects but significant differences were observed only in Social Studies and Science (p = 0.006 and 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSION: There is some undermining of academic performance among children who combine schooling with child labor despite comparable school absence with the controls.