EDITORIAL
José da Rocha Carvalheiro
This issue of RBE opens its tenth year and consolidates the essential features established along this decade.
There are twelve articles that have gone through the now constant ongoing flow, which has made it possible for RBE to be published at regular intervals and that ensures its continuity. There are no foreign papers, nor from the north and center-west regions of Brazil. However, all Brazilian capitals and the Indians of Central Brazil are the theme of two of the studies. Another article collected opinions of physicians from across the country.
There are two articles from the northeast, both from Pernambuco, and one from Rio Grande do Sul. There are nine articles from the southeast: São Paulo prevails with six papers, two are from Rio de Janeiro, and one is from Espírito Santo. As usual, authors come from a wide variety of institutions. Many of them come from healthcare facilities, usually partners with local universities. There is an average of 3.25 authors per article, with only one with a single author. The predominance of women authors, which marked previous issues, is not seen here. Of the 39 authors, only 19 (48.7 %) are women.
Right now, March 2007, the new Minister of Health, José Gomes Temporão, is starting a discussion with society on the decriminalization of abortion. The first article of this issue, by authors from UNICAMP, CEMICAMP, PUC-São Paulo and FEBRASGO, analyzes factors related to the knowledge and opinions that gynecologists and obstetricians from across the country have about Brazilian abortion law.
Another paper, a conceptual study, by an author from Ensp/ Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, analyzes alterity and its integration into the concept of health.
Authors from FSP/ USP, analyze the quality of information on malnutrition as the underlying or associated cause of death of women in childbearing age, in Brazilian capitals in the first half of 2002.
The nutritional status of children from the High Xingu is the theme of an article by authors from the São Paulo Federal Medical School (Escola Paulista de Medicina- UNIFESP) and the São Paulo Health State Department's Health Institute (Instituto de Saúde).
Tuberculosis is the theme of two studies. One that analyzes hospital morbidity-mortality in São Paulo was written by authors from the São Paulo State Health Department and the São Paulo University School of Public Health (FSP/ USP). In another study, authors from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) analyze the epidemiological profile of cases of multi-resistant tuberculosis in the state of Espírito Santo.
Self-medication is the theme of two studies. One of them, from the Federal University of Pelotas, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, analyzes the theme associated with work conditions in healthcare workers from the city of Pelotas. Another paper, by authors from the Federal University of Pernambuco (PE), analyzes self-medication among the elderly from Salgueiro, PE.
Osteoporosis and vertebral fractures in post-menopausal women are analyzed in a convenience sample from reference services of the University of Pernambuco. The authors are from the University itself and from the Aggeu Magalhães Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Aggeu Magalhães), of Fiocruz in Recife, PE.
In another convenience sample, from a public antenatal service in the city of São P aulo, authors from UNIFESP and FSP/ USP, analyze determinants for excessive weight gain in low-risk pregnant women.
Authors linked to the Campinas State Dental School (Faculdade de Odontologia da UNICAMP), in Piracicaba, analyzed oral clefts in Campos de Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro. They used patient files of reference services for craniofacial anomalies and defined the "study universe" using the SINASC, between 1999 and 2004.
A study with physical education students, conducted by authors from the Estácio da Sá University, in Rio de Janeiro, analyzes risk and vulnerability behaviors among these youngsters in contrast with the "healthy lifestyle" discourse.
Our Debates section in this issue does not bring any new contributions on the "gate-keeping role" of general practitioners in the Healthcare System, neither on questions related to Ethics in Research with Human Beings, nor the concept of "public health problem". We are looking forward to new contributions to these Debates and we promise we will do our best to follow a procedure that is typical of Epidemiology in Healthcare Services: active search. The debate on avian influenza has also abated. We are only presenting the table of lab-confirmed cases and deaths published by the WHO in late March. With the opening of the influenza vaccine plant at Instituto Butantan, in São Paulo, in April, we are going to get back to this theme in June. A contribution by Sylvaim N. Levy, a sanitarian and psychoanalyst, celebrating the 31st anniversary of the Mortality Information System (SIM) is being published in the Opinião column and will drive the active search for a new Debate. The author mentions the group that participated in the definition of the SIM in late 1975, including himself and the Editor of RBE. He pays a moving tribute to the late Edmundo Juarez, although he failed to mention at least two important people: Mário Hamilton and Bento de Jesus Bandarra. The episode that marked the definition of the SIM and, especially, the definition of the (then) new Death Certificate deserves more attention. We promise, for the coming RBE issue, to print at last one new contribution (a Shelf, according to our usual classification): the report of the "First National Meeting on Health Information Systems", an offset report published by the Ministry of Health in November 1975.
Enjoy your reading.
The Editor
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
21 May 2007 -
Date of issue
Mar 2007
