Adherence to the follow-up of the newborn exposed to syphilis and factors associated with loss to follow-up. / Aderência ao seguimento no cuidado ao recém-nascido exposto à sífilis e características associadas à interrupção do acompanhamento.

Introduction: All newborns exposed to syphilis in pregnancy must have outpatient follow-up. The interruption of this follow-up especially threatens those children who were not treated at birth. Objective: To describe the clinical, epidemiological, and sociodemographic characteristics of pregnant women with syphilis and their newborns, and to investigate the factors associated with the discontinuation of the follow-up. Methods: This is an observational, descriptive, analytical, and retrospective study of medical records of 254 children exposed to syphilis, who were assisted at the Congenital Infectious Clinic of the university hospital of the Universidade Federal do Paraná, between 2000 and 2010. The newborns were classified by reference according to their follow-up. Data were analyzed by means of the binary logistic regression model in order to identify the factors associated to drop out. Results: The factors associated to the interruption of the follow-up were maternal age over 30 years, mothers with 3 or more children, and the absence of cross-infections by HIV and/or viral hepatitis. Conclusion: Such findings demonstrate the need to identify these families and implement strategies to promote the establishment of bonds. A greater rigor to indicate the treatment of the disease at birth is recommended, as most of them do not properly follow up.

[Epidemiology as a theoretical-methodological framework in the nurses' working process]. / A epidemiologia como referencial teórico-metodológico no processo de trabalho do enfermeiro.

The objective of this reflection was to understand epidemiology as the theoretical-methodological framework for collective health nursing practice. This study is a bibliographic investigation which analyzed articles and books that point out the strengths and weaknesses of classic, social and critical epidemiology, with the purpose to examine their concepts in regards to nursing practice. The connections between the knowledge obtained from the above mentioned views of epidemiology which allow the creation of nursing interventions to change health realities are discussed. Critical epidemiology is supported by the recognition of the protecting processes and wearing determinants of the health-disease process experienced by different social classes. Hence, nurses should plan health interventions aiming beyond the identified illness, proposing interventions committed to changing historical and social processes, taking into account the unique, particular or structural dimensions that eventually determine the health-disease process in individuals or groups.