Current Neonatal Skin Care Practices in Four African Sites.

Data for this study on skin care practices and emollient use in four African sites were collected using in-depth interviews, focus-group discussions and observations. Respondents were mothers, grandmothers, fathers, health workers, birth attendants and people selling skin-care products. Analysis included content and framework analyses.Emollient use was a normative practice in all sites, with frequent application from an early age in most sites. There were variations in the type of emollients used, but reasons for use were similar and included improving the skin, keeping the baby warm, softening/strengthening the joints/bones, shaping the baby, ensuring flexibility and encouraging growth and weight gain. Factors that influenced emollient choice varied and included social pressure, cost, availability and deep-rooted traditional norms. Massage associated with application was strong and potentially damaging to the skin in some sites.Given the widespread use of emollients, the repeated exposure of newborns in the first month of life and the potential impact of emollients on mortality, trials such as those that have been conducted in Asia are needed in a range of African settings.

Religious affiliation and extramarital sex among men in Brazil.

CONTEXT: Since 1990, HIV infection in Brazil has spread among the heterosexual population, particularly in the north. Containment of the epidemic can be informed by a better understanding of men's sexual risk behavior. METHODS: Logistic, Poisson and multilevel logit models were applied to data on married and cohabiting men who had participated in the 1996 Brazilian Demographic and Health Survey. RESULTS: Twelve percent of married or cohabiting men reported having had at least one extramarital partner in the previous 12 months; half of these had had two or more. The majority (77%) of partners were described as friends or lovers; 4% had been prostitutes and 15% strangers. Among men who had had sex with an extramarital partner in the last year, 40% reported having used condoms during last extramarital sex. Compared with members of evangelical religions, other men were significantly more likely to report having had an extramarital partner (odds ratios, 3.0-4.7) and unprotected extramarital sex in the last 12 months (3.4-7.9). Region of residence was also strongly correlated with extramarital sex: Compared with men in southern or central Brazil, those in the north had more than three times the odds of having had extramarital sex and unprotected extramarital sex in the last year (3.1-3.8). CONCLUSION: In Brazil, religious affiliation and region of residence exert a major influence on risk behavior.