Preventing caries in young children of immigrant Bangladeshi families in New York: perspectives of mothers and paediatricians.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood caries is common in South Asian immigrant families. Few children visit a dentist by 12 months, as recommended by current guidelines. The paediatric visit has important potential for linking children to preventive care. The aim of this study was to understand the barriers and facilitators to caries prevention for young children of immigrant Bangladeshi families in New York. Qualitative data were collected as a preliminary step in the development of an oral health counselling intervention for South Asian children. BASIC DESIGN: Qualitative interviews on child feeding and oral health prevention were conducted with Bangladeshi mothers. Qualitative interviews were conducted with paediatricians regarding their experiences with providing care. The data were analysed using standard qualitative approaches. SETTING: Paediatric practices serving low income Bangladeshi immigrants in New York City. PARTICIPANTS: 26 mothers of children aged 6-24 months receiving services in five paediatric settings and 15 paediatricians providing care in these settings. RESULTS: Both mothers and their paediatricians described risky feeding practices, communication problems and a lack of compliance. Oral health for young children was a low priority for some mothers. Most, however, were concerned about childhood caries but lacked skills or resources to decrease caries risk. CONCLUSIONS: Results support our plan to develop an empowerment-based counselling intervention to address caries risk in children. Paediatric dentists should be aware of the barriers to caries prevention in this group.

Role strain and psychological well-being in women with systemic lupus erythematosus.

This study is an examination of the relationship between disease severity, social role strain, and psychological well-being among a group of women suffering from the chronic disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). In an attempt to explore the question of why chronic disease has a powerful negative impact on some people, causing them to become depressed or anxious, while leaving others relatively unaffected psychologically, we predicted that psychological distress would result in SLE patients when their illness affected their ability to perform valued social roles. Results confirmed this mediator hypothesis, suggesting, in fact, that disease severity has little psychological effect apart from the distress engendered by role strain. This finding indicates the importance of safeguarding patients' social roles in the psychosocial management of the illness.

Determination of added blood in ground beef.

Blood added to ground beef is estimated from hemoglobin extracted with water. Since myoglobin is co-extracted with the hemoglobin, the 2 heme pigments are separated in one portion of the extract by precipitating the hemoglobin in an 85% (NH4)2SO4 solution. The myoglobin remaining in solution is used as the reference solution for determining the hemoglobin in another portion of the extract containing both pigments. The hemoglobin is converted to cyanomethemoglobin and quantitated by its absorbance at 422 nm.

Rapid screening procedure for the determination of preservatives in ground beef: sulfites, benzoates, sorbates, and ascorbates.

A procedure is described for the examination of large numbers of ground beef samples for the 4 most commonly used preservatives. A single sample solution is prepared and aliquots are taken for the various tests. Sulfite is determined colorimetrically with acid-bleached prosaniline. Ascorbic acid is titrated with 2,6-dichloroindophenol. Benzoic and sorbic acids are measured by ultraviolet absorption. Negative samples are rapidly sorted out in this procedure and positive samples are completed for quantitative determination of the preservative. Recoveries are 95% for sodium sulfite, 103% for sodium benzoate, 90% for potassium sorbate, and 81% expected recovery for sodium ascorbate. The limit of detection is 0.005% for potassium sorbate, and 0.001% for the 3 other perservatives.