Health vulnerabilities in adolescence: socioeconomic conditions, social networks, drugs and violence.

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the health vulnerabilities in adolescence associated with socioeconomic conditions, social networks, drugs and violence from the perspective of students. METHOD: cross-sectional study with 678 students between 14-15 years old in Contagem, Brazil. A self-administered questionnaire divided into modules by subject was used. Quantitative, descriptive and stratified analyses were performed by sex. RESULTS: high percentage of adolescents (40.4%) were beneficiaries of Government financial support called "Bolsa Família" and 14.6% had a job, 57.1% and 23.6% had tried alcohol and tobacco, respectively. We identified 15% of aggression and 26.7% of bullying. The majority informed they never/rarely talk to parents about the daily difficulties (64.5%) and 22% reported insomnia and/or feelings of loneliness. CONCLUSION: the results indicated that there is a need to intensify educational activities that seek to develop cognitive, affective and social skills aimed at improving the way adolescents face the vulnerabilities, in these activities, nursing has a fundamental role.

Epidemiological profile of tuberculosis in the city of Belo Horizonte (MG), from 2002 to 2008.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the epidemiological profile of tuberculosis in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, from 2002 to 2008. METHODS: For descriptive epidemiological study, the data were obtained from the municipal National Health Surveillance System, after obtaining approval from the Research Ethics Committee at the City Health Department. Incidence coefficient, average rates and stratified data analysis with significance level of p ≤ 0.05 were calculated. RESULTS: About 7.590 new tuberculosis cases were reported between 2002 and 2008. There was a slight reduction in the number of cases throughout the historical trend, with an average annual incidence rate of 46/100,000 inhabitants. The study also showed a male gender ratio of 1.84:1, a higher incidence coefficient in the age group between 40 and 59 years old (73/100,000) and a higher incidence of tuberculosis among people who only had primary education level. Pulmonary tuberculosis was the most prevalent form in every year of the study (p < 0,001). Among the cases reported with associated diseases, alcoholism was registered in 47.9% and AIDS in 34.5%. Between 2002 and 2008, there was an increasing trend of cases treated under Directly Observed Treatment, accounting for 29.5% in total. Cure percentage rate was below the expected result (67.3%) and non-adherence to treatment showed a high total percentage (17.9%). CONCLUSION: The results indicated that tuberculosis control actions need to be intensified with investments on professional training, systemic audits of the information system, improved integration between AIDS/tuberculosis programs and raising awareness of the disease with the goal of mobilizing the society.

The role of population movement in the epidemiology and control of schistosomiasis in Brazil: a preliminary typology of population movement.

This paper examines recent developments in migration studies. It reviews literature related to the potential role of internal population movement in the occurrence of schistosomiasis in Brazil and modifies Prothero's typology of population movement for use in Brazil. This modified classification system may contribute to a better understanding of schistosome transmission as well as improved research and control programs. The results of this study indicate that population movement in Brazil primarily involves economically-motivated rural-urban and interregional movement. However, several movement patterns have become increasingly important in recent years as a result of changing socioeconomic and urbanisation dynamics. These patterns include urban-urban, intracity and urban-rural movement as well as the movement of environmental refugees and tourists. Little is known about the epidemiological significance of these patterns. This paper also highlights the role of social networks in the decision to migrate and to settle. Prothero's classic population movement typology categorises movement as either one-way migrations or circulations and examines them along spatial and temporal scales. However, the typology must be modified as epidemiological information about new patterns becomes available. This paper identifies areas that require further research and offers recommendations that can improve the measurement and spatial analysis of the relationship between population movement and schistosomiasis.

Popular beliefs about the infectivity of water among school children in two hyperendemic schistosomiasis areas of Brazil.

This article examines changing common knowledge of elementary school children to scientific knowledge related to the relationship between water characteristics and the transmission of schistosomiasis through health education. A review of the literature and two case studies from rural elementary schools in Brazil show how the prevailing concept of dirty and polluted water, which has operated as an epistemological obstacle for acquiring scientific knowledge, may be related to symbolic thought and cultural parameters. Through an educational intervention not commonly applied to health programs involving elementary school students in two schistosomiasis-endemic rural communities in Brazil this paper describes the difficulties researchers encountered in changing the prevailing perception that very dirty and polluted water provides optimal conditions for schistosome transmission, to the scientifically accepted view that transmission occurs most often in visually clean, although fecally contaminated water. This conceptual difficulty may be largely explained in terms of the symbolism involved in clean and dirty water and the life-giving quality of water. Based on our results, we recommend that knowledge about water-related beliefs and concepts among school children should be considered in school-based health education programs in areas of endemic schistosomiasis and possibly other intestinal infections.

Health education and social representation: an experience with the control of tegumentary leishmaniasis in an endemic area in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

This study was developed in an endemic area of tegumentary leishmaniasis in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with the objective of analyzing a health education process based on the social representations theory. The educational model was developed in two phases with 34 local residents. In the first phase, social representations of leishmaniasis were identified and analyzed. The second phase was based on the interaction between social representations and scientific knowledge. The results showed that social representations were structured in a central core by the terms "wound" and "mosquito" and in the peripheral system by the terms "mountains", "standing water", and "injection" related respectively to place, transmission, and treatment of the disease. We concluded that tegumentary leishmaniasis is viewed as a wound caused by a mosquito, portrayed by metaphors. The results of the second phase showed that social representations are systems that favor adherence to scientific knowledge, at times more rigidly in the central core, other times more flexibly when linked to the peripheral systems.