Factors affecting intention to breastfeed of a group of Brazilian childbearing women.

BACKGROUND: Knowing the intention of mothers is important to plan actions to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates. AIM: The objective of this retrospective study was to verify the intention to breastfeed and the intended breastfeeding duration of a group of women participating in a public prenatal dental care program in the city of Araçatuba, Brazil. METHODS: The records of 933 childbearing women were analyzed and their intention to breastfeed and intended breastfeeding duration were associated to women's age, ethnicity, marital status, education, employment, number of gestations, previous breastfeeding experience, previous breastfeeding guidance, presence of complications during pregnancy, and systemic diseases. Data were inserted into Epi Info 2000 and analyzed with Biostat, at a 5% level of significance, and confidence interval of 95%. FINDINGS: Participants mean age was 26.1±5.9years. The majority of women (96.5%) declared their intention to breastfeed their babies. The main variables to affect the intention to breastfeed were the number of gestations (p=0.001), previous breastfeeding experience (p=0.03), and previous breastfeeding guidance (p=0.01). Intended breastfeeding duration was significantly affected by women's age (p=0.04), employment (0.02), the number of gestations (p=0.001), and previous breastfeeding experience (p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Previous positive breastfeeding experience and guidance during prenatal examinations positively affected women's intention to breastfeed; while older, unemployed women in their second or more gestation and previous breastfeeding experience intended to breastfeed their children for longer periods of time.

Prevalence of deciduous tooth erosion in childhood.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of deciduous tooth erosion and to identify possible associations with sex, age and toothbrushing frequency in children aged 4-6 years. METHODS: The sample was drawn from attendants (n = 7058) of 57 public preschools in a Brazilian city. Tooth wear index was used to evaluate erosion. Descriptive statistical analysis consisted of the calculation of the prevalence of dental erosion; chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests were performed to verify the association between dental erosion and sex, age and toothbrushing frequency. RESULTS: Two thousand and seven hundred and fifty-nine preschool students were examined. Deciduous tooth erosion was observed in 0.6% of children and its incidence did not differ between sexes. The highest prevalence was observed in children aged 6 years (58.3%) and the most affected sextants were the fourth (22.86%) and sixth (20.00%), indicating that lingual and occlusal tooth surfaces were most frequently involved. The degree of involvement was classified as incipient in 54.29% of children and moderate in 45.71%. The significance level was set at 5%. No association was found between erosion and sex, age or toothbrushing frequency. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of deciduous tooth erosion was low in Brazilian children, and this disorder is not considered a public health problem in this part of the population.

Volatile aldehydes in the mainstream smoke of the narghile waterpipe.

Very little is known about the quality and quantity of toxicants yielded by the narghile, a subject of increasing importance as this method of tobacco smoking has become popular all over the world. This study is concerned with the identification and quantification of volatile aldehydes in the gas and particle phases of mainstream narghile smoke generated using a popular type of flavored ma'ssel tobacco mixture. These compounds were analyzed based on a modified version of the Environmental Protection Agency compendium method TO-11A. Using a standardized smoking machine protocol consisting of 171 puffs, 2.6s puff duration and 17s inter puff interval, the average yields of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein, propionaldehyde and methacrolein were 630, 2520, 892, 403, and 106 microg/smoking session, respectively. The results showed that none of the aldehydes identified in this study are found in the particulate phase of the smoke, except for formaldehyde for which the partitioning coefficient was estimated as Kp = 3.3 x 10(-8) microg/m3. Given previously reported lung absorption fractions of circa 90% for volatile aldehydes, the yields measured in this study are sufficient to induce various diseases depending on the extent of exposure, and on the breathing patterns of the smokers.

El consentimiento informado en la clínica odontológica

El consentimiento informado (CI) es la aprobación del individuo expresada a él en lenguaje accesible, antes de empezar el tratamiento, teniendo como base sus aspectoséticos-legales el Código de Ética dontológica, Civil y Penal y la Resolución 196/96. Aunque sea importante como modo de protección judicial para el cirujano-dentista, difícilmente se utiliza en la clínica odontológica. Fue objeto de este estudio elevaluar el conocimiento y prácticas de los cirujanos-dentistas sobre el CI, verificarse la presentación y decisión del tratamiento propuestas al paciente y clase de documento utilizado por cirujanos-dentistas en la clínica odontológica. Los sujetos de esta encuesta eran todos cirujanos-dentistas del municipio de Lucélia, São Paulo, Brasil. Como instrumento de colecta de datos, se elaboró un cuestionario conteniendo 11 cuestiones discursivas y de elección múltiple, dividido en tres partes temáticas: el CI, el contrato de prestación de servicios y el plan de tratamiento. Para interpretación de cuestiones discursivas, fue preconizada la técnica de Análisis de Contenido. Los resultados sugieren que la mayoría de los cirujanos-dentistaspresenta deficiencia al que se refiere al conocimiento acerca del CI, mientras otrosdesconocen totalmente el tema. Su aplicación no se realiza de manera satisfactoria, yla autorización es el documento más utilizado en la clínica odontológica. El tratamiento a realizarse depende de la decisión conjunta del paciente y profesional, presentándoselo al cliente de manera clara. De esa manera, se hacen necesarias la sensibilización y capacitación de los profesionales para la práctica del CI como rutina en la clínica odontológica.