Contraceptive knowledge, attitudes and changing practices in women presenting to maternal and child health clinics in North Central Trinidad.

UNLABELLED: The relationship between contraceptive awareness and use in an environment of both high levels of unplanned pregnancies and prevalence of HIV/AIDS continues to be a major challenge. The objective of this study is to ascertain the knowledge of contraception and methods chosen in women of 18-45 years old attending primary care facilities in North Central Trinidad. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional study design with a knowledge, attitude, and practices type survey design. Five primary care facilities were selected using cluster sampling. All participants eligible for entry into the study were administered a structured, pretested questionnaire. RESULTS: 269 participants were enrolled in the study. The majority (88%) had good knowledge of contraceptive methods, yet this knowledge was not translated into the prevention of pregnancies as 64.3% had had an unplanned pregnancy. The male condom is now the predominant method of contraception. CONCLUSION: The study provides evidence on the level of knowledge of contraception methods and their use, as well as attitudes and practices among women who are pregnant or who recently completed a pregnancy. Although the knowledge of contraception methods was relatively high, attitudes and practice remain unacceptable and the male condom is now the predominant method of choice.

Adult-onset calorie restriction attenuates kainic acid excitotoxicity in the rat hippocampal slice.

Lifelong calorie restriction is the only known intervention that has been shown to consistently increase life span and reduce the effects of aging on the brain. Given the difficulties of replicating lifelong calorie restriction within human populations, we have sought to assess the effects of short-term adult-onset calorie restriction upon acute excitotoxic insults in the rat hippocampus. Adult animals (approximately 6 months of age) underwent calorie restriction (alternate day feeding) for 7-10 weeks. Utilizing both electrophysiological and immunocytochemical techniques, we report that calorie restriction had no effect upon long-term potentiation (LTP), a measure of neuronal function. In control animals, application of kainic acid (20 microM) resulted in only 35% recovery of CA1 population spikes post-insult. However calorie-restricted animals showed significantly improved recovery after kainic acid treatment (64%). This data was supported by immunocytochemical studies which noted widespread loss of microtubule-associated protein (MAP 2) immunoreactivity in control slices following treatment with kainic acid; however MAP 2 staining was preserved in the CA1 and CA3 regions of calorie-restricted animals. Interestingly there was no significant difference in the recovery of population spikes between groups when slices were treated with N-methyl-d-aspartate (15 microM). We conclude that short-term adult-onset calorie restriction does not alter normal neuronal function and serves to protect the hippocampus from acute kainic acid excitotoxicity.