Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2)

HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe: More Than a Sexual Health Crisis

Jeffrey V. Lazarus, Annemarie Bollerup, Srdan Matić

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):55-58 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3375  

HIV/AIDS is often described as a sexually transmitted disease. In the former USSR, however, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is being driven by injecting drug use among men. This article addresses several widely circulated assumptions about HIV in eastern Europe: that sexual contact is the primary mode of transmission, that women form a major increasing proportion of those infected, and that the disease threatens young people in particular. Because the rate of injecting drug use is extremely high in many eastern European countries, HIV control there cannot just target sexual transmission but must embrace other approaches, such as comprehensive harm reduction.In...

"Condoms Are Reliable but I Am Not": A Qualitative Analysis of AIDS Related Beliefs and Attitudes of Young Heterosexual Adults in Budapest, Hungary, and St.Petersburg, Russia

Judit Takács, Yuri A. Amirkhanian, Jeffrey A. Kelly, Anna V. Kirsanova, Roman A. Khoursine, László Mocsonaki

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):59-66 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3373  

HIV and STD prevention is an essential component of public health initiatives in countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Liberalization in sexual values, declining age at first sex, higher levels of sexual activity, and inconsistent condom use have been well-documented among young people in the region following the political, economic, and cultural transitions after the end of the state socialism era. Less well-understood are the reasons for high-risk sexual behavior and psychosocial factors that must be addressed in the development of effective HIV/STD prevention programs. This study recruited members of 12 high-risk social networks of young...

Enteroviral Infection Outbreak in the Republic of Belarus: Principal Characteristics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Etiological Agents

Tamara V. Amvrosieva, Natallia V. Paklonskaya, Aliaksei A. Biazruchka, Olga N. Kazinetz, Zoya F. Bohush, Elena G. Fisenko

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):67-73 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3369  

For the last decade enterovirus outbreaks were registered in all of six districts of Belarus. Two of them, reported in 1997 (in Gomel) and in 2003 (in Minsk), were the most extensive and involved 461 and 1,351 patients respectively. Virus ECHO 30 was identified as the dominant etiologic agent of the outbreak in 1997 whereas co-circulation of ECHO 30, ECHO 6 and Coxsackievirus B5 took place in 2003. Analysis of clinical manifestations during the Minsk outbreak revealed unusually high rate of severe clinical forms of infection including aseptic meningitis, encephalitis and myocardial disorders. Epidemiologic observation was ordinary for enterovirus epidemics...

Dietary Habits in a Greek Sample of Men and Women: The ATTICA Study

Fotini Arvaniti, Demosthenes B. Panagiotakos, Christos Pitsavos, Antonis Zampelas, Christodoulos Stefanadis

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):74-77 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3374  

Objective: Although there are several dietary guidelines accepted at the international and national level, there are indications that dietary habits in Greece have been changing, moving away from the traditional Mediterranean diet pattern. The aim of this work was to evaluate the dietary habits of a randomly selected sample from the general adult population, in Greece.Subjects: The "ATTICA" study is a prospective health and nutrition survey. For the purpose of this study, 3,042 adults, from whom 1514 were men (48%) and 1,528 were women (52%), were selected from the greater Athens area during 2001 and 2002. The assessment of the dietary habits was...

Associaton of Insulin Resistance Linked Diseases and Hair Loss in Elderly Men. Finnish Population-based Study

Päivi Hirsso, Mauri Laakso, Veikko Matilainen, Liisa Hiltunen, Ulla Rajala, Jari Jokelainen, Sirkka Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):78-81 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.b0045  

Previous investigations have shown an association of androgenetic alopecia (AGA) with insulin resistance related disorders such as ischemic heart disease. An association between AGA and anthropometric abnormalities linked with insulin resistance and heredity in women aged 63 years has also been shown. We therefore compared 63-year-old men with AGA and ones with normal hair status for insulin resistance linked parameters. A population of 245 men aged 63 years, who were participants in a population-based cross-sectional study in the City of Oulu, underwent a medical check-up including assessment of hair status on the Hamilton-Norwood scale and determination...

Lags in Behavioral Change: A Population Based Comparison of Cardiovascular Risk Behavior in Poland and Sweden

Per Andersson, Rickard L. Sjöberg, Marzena Krysa, Władysław Sidorowicz, John Öhrvik, Jerzy Leppert

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):82-85 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3366  

One thousand and twenty Polish men and women and 1,011 Swedish men and women aged 50 and recruited through primary health care took part in a survey relating to their knowledge of health-related behaviour, attitudes to health-related behaviour and self-reported risk behaviour. The results reveal that Poles know as much about cardiovascular risk factors as Swedes, but that Swedes feel that it is more important to change their dietary habits and to influence factors in the working environment to avoid the risk of developing CVD than did Poles. Swedes also displayed less risk behaviour than Poles and more Swedes than Poles had successfully stopped smoking....

Practices of Clinical Examination of Heart Failure Patients in Primary Health Care

Aino Laukkanen, Markku Ikäheimo, Heikki Luukinen

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):86-89 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3368  

The aim of this cross-sectional cohort study was to examine practices of clinical examination of heart failure patients in three primary health care regions in northern Finland. Altogether, 825 randomly selected heart failure patients aged 45 years or older, who had special reimbursement for drugs for the treatment of heart failure, were included. Main outcome measures were the frequency of medical visits and the mode of clinical examinations during control visits and symptomatic visits due to heart failure made by general practitioners.The prevalence of heart failure was 2% among those aged 45-75 years and 18% among the older ones. No differences...

Colonization of Mucosal Surfaces

Jindřich Jíra

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):89  

Entry Age into Day Care and Later Development of Allergic Disorders - Results from the City of Leipzig Cohort of the LISA Study

Stefan Röder, Michael Borte, Olf Herbarth

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):90-96 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3364  

The situation in early childhood is supposed to be a risk factor for later development of allergic diseases. The birth cohort from the LISA (Lifestyle - Immune System - Allergy) study gave us the opportunity to investigate the relationship between early childhood situation and the development of allergic diseases.This paper describes our findings regarding to the relationship between entry age into day care and obstructive bronchitis as well as allergic rhinitis and atopic eczema.Study was designed as a longitudinal birth cohort study. Children were examined by a physician at birth, 1/2 year, 1 year, 1 1/2 year, 2 years, 3 years and 4 years....

A Fresh Look at Growth Assessment of Infants and Young Children in the Czech Republic in Context of International Developments

Jana Vignerová, Lída Lhotská

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(2):97-100 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3371  

The growth charts of basic body measurements are an important aid for the daily routine practice of paediatricians. Charts for children from birth to 2 years of age form an integral component of a set of such tools for the age spectrum from birth to 18 years of age. The interpretation of growth charts is highly dependent on the data on basis of which the charts were constructed.In the Czech Republic, the growth reference data have been regularly updated since 1951, in 10-year intervals. These updates are based on data from nation-wide anthropological surveys of children and adolescents. Countries, which do not have their own reference data, have...