Parents' knowledge and behaviour concerning sunning their babies; a cross-sectional, descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: For centuries, sunlight has been used for therapeutic purposes. Parents still sun their infants to treat neonatal jaundice, nappy rash or mostly to supply vitamin D for bone development as a consequence of health beliefs. In this study we aimed to assess knowledge and behaviour of parents about benefits of sunlight and sun protection. METHODS: In this study, parents attending to governmental primary healthcare units for their children's routine vaccinations, upon their informed consent, were consecutively enrolled during one month. Data were collected by a semi-structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean age of 118 enrolled parents and their babies were 27.9 +/- 6.5 years and 8.3 +/- 5.8 months, respectively. Most of the participants were mothers (93.2%), housewives (81.4%) with an educational level of > or =6 years (71.2%). Sunlight was considered beneficial for bone development (86.4%), diaper rash (5.9%) and neonatal jaundice (12.7%). In case of neonatal jaundice 72.0% of the participants reported that they would consult a physician. Most of the participants (82.2%) were sunning their babies outdoors. Nearly half (49.7%) of them got this information from medical staff. Fifty two percent of the parents were sunning their babies before 10-11 a.m. and/or after 3 p.m. Only 13.6% of parents reported using sunscreen for their babies, and the majority of them were using sun protecting factor > or = 15. One forth of the sunscreen users was using sunscreen according to their physicians' advice. CONCLUSION: Most of the participants were aware of the benefits of sunlight; especially for bone development. However they were displaying inappropriate behaviour while sunning their babies for health reasons. More education should be given to parents about the danger of sunlight at primary health care units while advising to sun their babies, if any.

Counselling and knowledge about contraceptive mode of action among married women; a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Family planning counselling which covers knowledge transfer about contraceptive mode of action, by enabling informed choice, improves compliance to and efficiency of contraceptive methods. The objective of this study was to investigate associations between family planning counselling, counsellor and correct knowledge about mode of action of modern contraceptive methods among married women. METHODS: For this cross-sectional study, stratified (according to current modern contraceptive method in use) random sampling was performed from the registries of two primary health care centres. Main outcomes were; prevalence of family planning counselling, professional background of the counsellor and correct knowledge about mode of action. A semi-structured questionnaire developed by the researchers was applied via face-to-face interview. The answers about mode of action were categorized as correct vs. incorrect by consensus rating. RESULTS: Prevalence of counselling and correct knowledge about mode of action was 49.0% and 39.3%, respectively. Higher educated women were significantly more likely to know the mode of action (p < 0.001). Being counselled by a physician (54.1%, n = 120) was not associated with correct knowledge about mode of action (p = 0.79). Non-barrier method users were less educated (p = 0.001), more often counselled (60.8% vs. 8.0%) and less knowledgeable (p < 0.001) about mode of action of their contraceptive method, compared to condom users. Nevertheless, counselled non-barrier method users were significantly more likely to know the correct mode of action of their chosen method (p = 0.021) than counselled condom users. CONCLUSION: The beneficial effect of counselling on knowledge about mode of action of the more complicated, medical (non-barrier) contraceptive methods suggests that the use of family planning counselling services in primary health care should be promoted; furthermore, counselling strategies and content should be re-structured for better efficacy.

Satisfaction among women: differences between current users of barrier (male condom) and non-barrier methods.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the differences in and factors related to satisfaction between barrier (male condom) and non-barrier method users. METHODS: A semi-structured questionnaire was used for collecting data for this cross-sectional survey. The questionnaires were completed via one-on-one interviews by the researchers. The study group was selected using stratified random sampling. Exclusion criteria were, being unmarried, pregnant, in postmenopausal status and using traditional methods. A total of 434 currently married women using modern contraceptive methods participated in the study. Contraceptive users were dichotomized into two groups as non-barrier method users and barrier method users. RESULTS: About half of the participants (n = 191, 44%) were barrier method users. Their mean age was 33.7 +/- 7.3 years, 66.6% (n = 131) were well educated and reported significantly less pregnancies, given births, living children and abortions (reproductive history events) than non-barrier users. Barrier method users were significantly more likely to be satisfied with their contraceptive method of choice (OR: 2.4; 95% CI 1.2-5.2). Among barrier method users, deciding the type of the contraceptive method themselves had significant effect on satisfaction. CONCLUSION: In our study, satisfaction was mostly affected by heavy side effects and health risks of the methods resulting in less satisfaction with the contraceptive method among non-barrier method users. Other factors which may influence satisfaction deserve further investigation.

Granulomatous glossitis: a case report.

A 50-year-old man was admitted to our clinic with a complaint of lingual enlargement. Detection of non-caseous epithelioid granuloma on histopathological examination led to a diagnosis of a granulomatous glossitis. Extensive investigation for the presence of associated disorders yielded negative results. Metranidazole and clofazimine were totally ineffective and tetracycline led to a minimal improvement. No associated disorder was detected at a 4-year follow-up examination. The position of granulomatous glossitis within the spectrum of orofacial granulomatous conditions is discussed.