ABSTRACT
The National Screening Committee has recommended that all women presenting for antenatal care be offered routine screening for hepatitis B by the year 2000. In a low prevalence area a survey of the management of neonates whose mothers were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen showed that management of this group was better among general practitioners who had received advice on treatment.
Subject(s)
Hepatitis B/diagnosis , Hepatitis B/prevention & control , Pregnancy Complications, Infectious/diagnosis , Prenatal Care , Female , Hepatitis B Surface Antigens/blood , Humans , Immunization Programs , Pregnancy , Prenatal Diagnosis , Primary Health Care , Risk Factors , United KingdomSubject(s)
Education, Medical, Continuing/methods , Pediatrics/education , England , Humans , Pilot Projects , Societies, Medical , WalesABSTRACT
There is an ongoing debate about the relative value of selective vs routine entrant medicals. This paper describes a districtwide study of entrant medicals using the tracer method to assess the prevalence and detection rates of problems at school entry. Overall 57% of school entrants were selected for a medical but there was a significant difference in selection rates in urban and rural schools. This selection rate is higher than that reported by other authors. There was a trend for tracer conditions to be more prevalent in urban areas although this was not statistically significant. Prevalence rates suggest that the method of selection successfully detected children with problems. The tracer methodology provided useful information for service planning without the collection of large amounts of data and has not, to our knowledge, been used before in community child health. We recommended this methodology to other districts as a simple and effective method of assessing selective entrant medicals.
