ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To deepen the demographic study of the immigrant population from West Africa who regularly sought health-care at our Health Centre and to analyse their morbidity. DESIGN: A retrospective observation study of a crossover type. SETTING: Salt Basic Health Area, in the Girona Health Region. PATIENTS: The black population originating in West Africa and resident in Salt, whose clinical notes were in the Centre's records. RESULTS: The 57 people registered attended 436 times, of which 289 were for the Paediatric Clinics. Of these 289, 40% were handled by the paediatric nurses. The average frequency of visit by age ranged from 2 attendances a year (20-29 years old) to 14 per year (under 14 years old). In 25.95% of the consultations involving paediatric teams and in 19.05% of those involving adults, no medical diagnosis was made. The most common paediatric diagnoses were, following the CIPSAP-2-WONCA classification: Supplementary Classification (25.95%) and Pathology of the Respiratory System (20.07%). Among adults, Pathologies of the Digestive System (21.77%) and Infectious and Parasite Diseases (12.93%) were the two most common illnesses. Additional tests to assist diagnosis or a simple preventive screening were rarely requested. CONCLUSIONS: Tackling the problems of the black-african population at the Primary Care level is limited by lack of knowledge of tropical diseases, the scant specific bibliography available, linguistic and cultural barriers and the lack of institutional delivery of health-care to the clandestine population. Alternatives are proposed, such as: an operating procedure, and interdisciplinary socio-sanitary programme.
Subject(s)
Black or African American , Emigration and Immigration , Morbidity , Adolescent , Adult , Africa, Western/ethnology , Age Factors , Black People , Child , Female , Gambia/ethnology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Primary Health Care , Retrospective Studies , Sex Factors , SpainABSTRACT
The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the prevalence of smoking habit, knowledge on the adverse health effects and attitudes towards it among nurses students in their three years of study (University School of Girona). A self-administrated questionnaire was used. A total of 135 questionnaires were answered (88%) from an estimated available population of 154 students (94% females with 21 years old of mean age). The prevalence of current smoking was 34.3%; ex smokers 23.3% and non smokers 42.5%. The mean of tobacco consumption was 367.6 cigarettes/month. 92% no smokers, 91% ex smokers and 76% smokers thought that smoking has adverse health effects (p less than 0.001). They consider the health protection like the first reason to give up smoking. 38% will advise their healthy smokers patients about the risk of their habit. We conclude: 1.-Low prevalence of smoking habit; 2.-Nurses should know methods aimed at lowering smoking rates, assuming that they have determined influence on the population behavior.
