Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Rubella Vaccine And Medical Policymaking: Fetal Rights And Women's Health, Jacob Heller

New England Journal of Public Policy

U.S. vaccine policies, to all appearances, are based on assumptions about cost effectiveness, safety, and public health needs. Analysis of the peer review health professions’ discourse about rubella vaccine between 1941 and 1999 challenges this view. There were four justifications for the development of the vaccine: (1) cost-benefit projections about vaccine use versus anticipated birth defects; (2) the desire to prevent “fetal wastage” by vaccinating women; (3) a professional imperative to ensure healthy babies; and (4) a bias among vocal vaccine advocates against “unnecessary” abortion. The role of a fifth consideration, the “cultural provenance” of vaccines for American medicine, though …

Center-Based Prevalence Of Anxiety And Depression In Women Of The Northern Areas Of Pakistan, Sunita Dodani, Rukhsana Wamiq Zuberi

Department for Educational Development

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression in women of the Northern areas. Methods: A cross-sectional center-based study was conducted at Singal Medical Center (SNIC), Gilgit, in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Results: One hundred and twenty women, between the ages of 16 and 60, attended the SMC over a two month period and were included in the study. Using HADS, it was found that 50% of the women had anxiety and/or depression; 25% suffered only from anxiety, 8% from depression and 17% had features of both.

Conclusion: This study …

Integrating A Reproductive Health Framework Within Primary Care Services: The Experience Of The Reproductive Health Intervention Study, Karima Khalil, Abdel Moneim Farag, Assem Anwar, Dina Galal, Olfia Kamal, Karraze Shorbagi, Miral Breebaart, Hind Khattab, Nabil Younis, Huda Zurayk

Reproductive Health

This paper is part of the Policy Series in Reproductive Health, which shares research undertaken by the Reproductive Health Working Group (RHWG). It describes the Reproductive Health Intervention Study, which designed and tested a model of essential reproductive health (RH) services. RHWG was established in 1988 as part of a special program on the health of women and children within the context of the family and community initiated by the Population Council’s Regional Office for the West Asia and North Africa region. The paper identifies a framework of basic service components that address RH and shows that their delivery is …

Alone You Are Nobody, Together We Float: The Manuela Ramos Movement, Judith Bruce, Debbie Rogow

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Quality/Calidad/Qualité, a publication of the Population Council, highlights examples of clinical and educational programs which bring a strong commitment, as well as innovative and thoughtful approaches, to the issue of quality care in sexual and reproductive health. The series is based on the philosophy that women and their partners have a fundamental right to respectful treatment, information, choice, and follow-up from reproductive health care providers. This issue discusses improving women’s health and well being through a range of empowerment strategies in rural Peru.

Moderate Intensity Exercise Training Improves Cardiorespiratory Fitness In Women, J. David Branch, Russell R. Pate, Sharon P. Bourque

Faculty Publications

Among women, there is an increased prevalence of sedentary lifestyle and less participation in physical activity at levels recommended by the Surgeon General. As a result, women have been identified as a target group in public health initiatives to increase physical activity. The health-related benefits of habitual, moderate intensity physical activity are well documented in the epidemiological literature, but less is known about the effect of such physical activity on cardiorespiratory fitness. Our hypothesis was that moderate and vigorous exercise training regimens of similar estimated energy expenditure would result in similar changes in cardiorespiratory fitness. Eighteen sedentary premenopausal women with …

A Participatory Evaluation Of The Life-Skills Training Programme In Myanmar, Unicef, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In 1993 UNICEF/Myanmar launched an innovative project aimed at preventing the further spread of HIV/AIDS through the promotion of reproductive health. One of the activities undertaken was life-skills training for women and youth, conducted in collaboration with the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) and the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association (MMCWA). The objective of the training activities was to encourage and promote informed decision-making and care-seeking behavior among youth and women. The training aims to provide detailed and accurate information concerning sexuality, birth spacing, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS, and to provide skills for youth and women to enable …

Women Street Vendors: The Road To Recognition, Monique Cohen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS explores the experience of women working and organizing as urban street vendors at a time when both the volume of demand and the number of vendors are expected to grow. As municipalities seek to change laws that affect how street vendors ply their trade, it is clear that vendors must have a seat at the table. Local-level organizational efforts need to be consolidated at the national level to cement vendors’ hard-earned gains as rights in national laws and policy. A 1995 meeting in Bellagio conceived an international alliance of street vendors—StreetNet—which aims to promote the exchange …

Greater Investments In Children Through Women's Empowerment: A Key To Demographic Change In Pakistan?, Valerie L. Durrant, Zeba Sathar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Women’s status has received considerable attention as a significant factor in demographic behavior and outcomes in South Asia however, little research has addressed the links between women’s status and their investments in children. In this paper, we empirically investigate how women’s status on multiple levels is associated with demographic outcomes. Using data from the Pakistan Status of Women and Fertility Survey in rural Punjab, we confirm that empowered women, or those with higher status, are better able to make positive investments in their children, thus increasing their children’s chances of survival during infancy and increasing their likelihood of ever attending …