Medication use among children 0-14 years old: population baseline study / Uso de medicamentos entre crianças de 0-14 anos: estudo de base populacional

OBJECTIVE: Determine the prevalence of medication use in children and adolescents in 20 municipalities of Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais-Brazil, showing the main groups and variables that may have influenced use. METHODS: Descriptive population-based survey sample of 555 interviews, selected by simple random cluster sampling of 137 census tracts. Inclusion criteria were age ≤ 14 years, mandatory interview with the legal guardians, and regardless of having received medications. Regarding the usage pattern, participants were divided into two groups: consumption and non-consumption of drugs. A descriptive analysis of the variables and tests of association were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of drug consumption was 56.57%, and 42.43% showed no consumption. The use of medicinal plants was 72.9% for drug users and 74.3% for non-users. The health conditions for consumption were cough, common cold, flu, nasal congestion or bronchospasm (49.7%), fever (5.4%), headache (5.4%), diarrhea, indigestion, and abdominal colic (6.7%). In cases of self-medication, 30.57% of the drugs were given by the mother, and 69.42% were prescription drugs. Self-medication was prevalent using paracetamol (30.2%), dipyrone (20.8%), and cold medicine (18.8%). There was increased use of analgesics/antipyretics, followed by respiratory medications, systemic antibiotics, histamine H1 antagonists, and vitamins/antianemics. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of drugs use in children was high, indicating the need for formulating educational programs aiming at the awareness of caregivers regarding rational use. .

OBJETIVO: Determinar a prevalência do consumo de medicamento em crianças e adolescentes de 20 municípios do Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais-Brasil, mostrando os principais grupos e variáveis que possam ter influenciado o uso. MÉTODOS: Estudo descritivo tipo inquérito populacional domiciliar, amostra constituída por 555 entrevistas selecionadas de maneira aleatória simples por meio de amostragem por conglomerado de 137 setores censitários. Os critérios de inclusão foram idade ≤14 anos, entrevista obrigatória com os responsáveis legais, independente de terem consumido medicamento. Quanto ao padrão de uso os participantes foram divididos em dois grupos consomem e não consomem medicamentos. Realizada análise descritiva das variáveis e aplicados testes de associação. RESULTADOS: A prevalência de consumo de medicamentos foi 56,57% e o não consumo 42,43%. O uso de plantas medicinais foi de 72,9% para o consumo de medicamento e 74,3% para o não consumo. As situações de saúde para o consumo foram tosse, resfriado comum, gripe, congestão nasal ou broncospasmo (49,7%); febre (5,4%); cefaléia (5,4%); diarréia, "má digestão" e cólica abdominal (6,7%). Na automedicação, 30,57% dos medicamentos foram indicados pela mãe, e 69,42% de prescrições médicas. Destaca-se na automedicação o uso de paracetamol (30,2%), dipirona (20,8%) e antigripais (18,8%). E um maior uso de analgésicos/antipiréticos, seguido do aparelho respiratório, antibióticos sistêmicos, antagonistas H1 da histamina e vitaminas/antianêmicos. CONCLUSÕES: A prevalência do consumo de medicamentos na população infantil foi alta, indicando a necessidade de formulação de programas educativos visando principalmente à ...

Medication use among children 0-14 years old: population baseline study.

OBJECTIVE: Determine the prevalence of medication use in children and adolescents in 20 municipalities of Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais-Brazil, showing the main groups and variables that may have influenced use. METHODS: Descriptive population-based survey sample of 555 interviews, selected by simple random cluster sampling of 137 census tracts. Inclusion criteria were age ≤ 14 years, mandatory interview with the legal guardians, and regardless of having received medications. Regarding the usage pattern, participants were divided into two groups: consumption and non-consumption of drugs. A descriptive analysis of the variables and tests of association were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of drug consumption was 56.57%, and 42.43% showed no consumption. The use of medicinal plants was 72.9% for drug users and 74.3% for non-users. The health conditions for consumption were cough, common cold, flu, nasal congestion or bronchospasm (49.7%), fever (5.4%), headache (5.4%), diarrhea, indigestion, and abdominal colic (6.7%). In cases of self-medication, 30.57% of the drugs were given by the mother, and 69.42% were prescription drugs. Self-medication was prevalent using paracetamol (30.2%), dipyrone (20.8%), and cold medicine (18.8%). There was increased use of analgesics/antipyretics, followed by respiratory medications, systemic antibiotics, histamine H1 antagonists, and vitamins/antianemics. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of drugs use in children was high, indicating the need for formulating educational programs aiming at the awareness of caregivers regarding rational use.

Voronoi distance based prospective space-time scans for point data sets: a dengue fever cluster analysis in a southeast Brazilian town.

BACKGROUND: The Prospective Space-Time scan statistic (PST) is widely used for the evaluation of space-time clusters of point event data. Usually a window of cylindrical shape is employed, with a circular or elliptical base in the space domain. Recently, the concept of Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) was applied to specify the set of potential clusters, through the Density-Equalizing Euclidean MST (DEEMST) method, for the detection of arbitrarily shaped clusters. The original map is cartogram transformed, such that the control points are spread uniformly. That method is quite effective, but the cartogram construction is computationally expensive and complicated. RESULTS: A fast method for the detection and inference of point data set space-time disease clusters is presented, the Voronoi Based Scan (VBScan). A Voronoi diagram is built for points representing population individuals (cases and controls). The number of Voronoi cells boundaries intercepted by the line segment joining two cases points defines the Voronoi distance between those points. That distance is used to approximate the density of the heterogeneous population and build the Voronoi distance MST linking the cases. The successive removal of edges from the Voronoi distance MST generates sub-trees which are the potential space-time clusters. Finally, those clusters are evaluated through the scan statistic. Monte Carlo replications of the original data are used to evaluate the significance of the clusters. An application for dengue fever in a small Brazilian city is presented. CONCLUSIONS: The ability to promptly detect space-time clusters of disease outbreaks, when the number of individuals is large, was shown to be feasible, due to the reduced computational load of VBScan. Instead of changing the map, VBScan modifies the metric used to define the distance between cases, without requiring the cartogram construction. Numerical simulations showed that VBScan has higher power of detection, sensitivity and positive predicted value than the Elliptic PST. Furthermore, as VBScan also incorporates topological information from the point neighborhood structure, in addition to the usual geometric information, it is more robust than purely geometric methods such as the elliptic scan. Those advantages were illustrated in a real setting for dengue fever space-time clusters.