Effect of social development in reducing tuberculosis mortality In northeastern Brazil areas

INTRODUCTION

Tuberculosis (TB) is the primary cause of death among infectious diseases affecting groups in extreme poverty. Social improvements could reverse this situation in Brazil. This study aims to demonstrate the spatial relationship between social development (SD) and TB mortality in Natal, a city in northeastern Brazil.

METHODOLOGY

Ecological study. The study population comprised TB deaths recorded in the Mortality Information System between 2008 and 2014. The units of analysis were 59 human development units (HDUs). Raw and smoothed mortality rates were calculated using the global empirical Bayes method. Primary components analysis was used to develop the SD indicators. An association between TB mortality and SD was verified using multiple linear regression analysis. Spatial autocorrelation was verified using models with global spatial effects. Analyses were performed using Statistica version 12.0, ArcGIS version 10.2, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0, and OpenGeoDa 1.0.1. The significance level was established at 5% (p < 0.05).

RESULTS

The TB mortality rate with non-random spatial distribution ranged between 0.52 and 8.90 per 100,000 inhabitants. The spatial lag model was chosen because it presented the highest log-likelihood value, lowest AIC, and highest R2. A negative association was found between TB mortality and SD (R2 = 0.207; p = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

The results show a negative association between TB mortality and the high SD indicator. This study can support decision-making in terms of collective projects within public health in order to link the health field to other sectors, aiming for social well-being and human development.

Featured counter-trafficking program: Kolkata Sanved's model Sampoornata

This invited article is one of several comprising part of a special issue of Child Abuse and Neglect focused on child trafficking and health. The purpose of each invited article is to describe a specific program serving trafficked children. Featuring these programs is intended to raise awareness of innovative counter-trafficking strategies emerging worldwide and facilitate collaboration on program development and outcomes research. This article describes Kolkata Sanvedan India-based organization dedicated to utilizing a special form of dance movement therapy (DMT), Sampoornata, as a form of trauma therapy for survivors of trafficking and sexual violence. The Sampoornata model has been employed to promote healing and wellbeing through integration in the individual's social framework and encouraging comprehensive wellbeing.

Household Chaos and Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: Does Childcare Play a Buffering Role?

Evidence suggests that household chaos is associated with less optimal child outcomes. Yet, there is an increasing indication that children's experiences in childcare may buffer them against the detrimental effects of such environments. Our study aims were to test: (1) whether children's experiences in childcare mitigated relations between household chaos and children's cognitive and social development, and (2) whether these (conditional) chaos effects were mediated by links between chaos and executive functioning. Using data from The Family Life Project (n = 1,235)-a population-based sample of families from low-income, rural contexts-our findings indicated that household disorganization in early childhood was predictive of worse cognitive and social outcomes at approximately age five. However, these relations were substantially attenuated for children attending greater childcare hours. Subsequent models indicated that the conditional associations between household disorganization and less optimal outcomes at age five were mediated by conditional links between disorganization and less optimal executive functioning.

Joint Attention and Early Social Developmental Cascades in Neurogenetic Disorders

This review examines what is known about joint attention and early social development in three neurogenetic syndromes: Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and fragile X syndrome. In addition, the potential cascading effects of joint attention on subsequent social development, especially social interaction and social cognition are proposed. The potential issues and complexities associated with conducting prospective, longitudinal studies of infant social development in neurogenetic disorders are discussed.

Excess female child mortality in the developing world during the 1970s and 1980s

"How did...excess female child mortality evolve from the 1970s to the 1980s, during a period when mortality declined significantly? Is there a relationship between the intensity of the phenomenon and levels of mortality or certain social development indicators? These are some of the questions which the article discusses on the basis of reliable and comparable data taken from approximately 60 [developing] countries."

[Families is transformation: a Polynesian case (Maatea, Moorea, Society Islands)]

"Using a survey of a set of households in a village community in Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia), the author examines family transformations using a 'substantive' approach. Analysis of the resources of each household in the context of the recent opening up to the consumer society gives information on the evolution of incomes, the subsistence level, the building up of surpluses and the degree of 'equipment'. Analysis of the social form of households reveals the multiplicity of family types and variable cycles of transformation from one type to another. This information, which cuts across the social form and mode of management of the households, leads the author to identify five distinct types of household, each with a coherent model of operation. Far from observing a uniform evolution of the extended family towards the nuclear family, the author shows that the opposite evolution is just as possible. The plural, fluctuating nature of the family institution in Polynesia today is noted above all." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Asian urbanization and development: a comparative view

A comparative perspective on urbanization trends in Asia is provided. "The trends for the different Asian regions are first presented in the context of the world's more developed and less developed regions. Comparative data on the constituent countries in each of the regions are next shown. Then a modified urbanization-development model is proposed and subsequently tested empirically. The concluding section summarizes the findings and implications." The data are taken primarily from published U.N. sources.

[Consanguineous marriage in Turkey and its effects on infant mortality]

The authors examine the effects of consanguineous marriage on infant mortality in Turkey. An attempt is made to distinguish the influence of consanguineous marriage from that of selected regional and socioeconomic factors. It is found that "the differences of the average infant mortality rates between consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages are parallel to the development differences between the regions as well as the conditions of the house which are thought to signify the socioeconomic differences. Although the differences in averages are insignificant statistically, this trend [indicates] that consanguineous marriages [affect] infant mortality." Data are from the 1983 Turkish Fertility, Contraceptive Prevalence and Family Health Status Survey. (SUMMARY IN ENG)

The relationship between supporting economic development and enhancing population quality in China's poverty-stricken areas

"In order to qualitatively portray the combined quality level of community population and societal development [in China], this author has developed a model for evaluating the quality of population and development in poor communities (or regions) and comparing cross-region developmental differences on the basis of an in-depth field study conducted in some poor counties and communities."