Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Health Beliefs And Parenting Attitudes Influence Breastfeeding Patterns Among Low-Income African-American Women, Phyllis W. Sharpe, Ayman A.E. El-Mohandes, M. Nabil El-Khorazaty, Michele Kiely, Tessa Walker

Publications and Research

OBJECTIVE: To describe breastfeeding initiation among 210 urban African-American mothers with inadequate prenatal care.

METHODS: This study is a case–control study of postpartum mothers recruited from four large urban hospitals.

RESULTS: Mothers who chose to breastfeed were more educated, employed before birth, married, and using contraception postnatally. Regression model analysis controlling for demographic differences revealed that breastfeeding was significantly associated with a higher perception of severity of illness and higher confidence in the ability of health care to prevent illness. Breastfeeding mothers were less likely to reverse parent– child roles and had a lower perception of hassle from their infant’s …

Persistence Of Virus-Reactive Serum Immunoglobulin M Antibody In Confirmed West Nile Virus Encephalitis Cases, John T. Roehrig, Denis Nash, Beth Maldin, Anne Labowitz, Denise A. Martin, Robert S. Lanciotti, Grant L. Campbell

Publications and Research

Twenty-nine laboratory-confirmed West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis patients were bled serially so that WNV-reactive immunoglobulin (Ig) M activity could be determined. Of those patients bled, 7 (60%) of 12 had anti-WNV IgM at approximately 500 days after onset. Clinicians should be cautious when interpreting serologic results from early season WNV IgM-positive patients.