| 21. |
- Valladares, Eliette, et al.
(författare)
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Violence against pregnant women : prevalence and characteristics. A population-based study in Nicaragua.
- 2005
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Ingår i: British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. - : Wiley. - 1470-0328 .- 1471-0528. ; 112:9, s. 1243-1248
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: This study aims to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of partner abuse during pregnancy as well as to investigate associated social factors in León, Nicaragua. DESIGN: Cross-sectional community-based study. SETTING: All pregnant women from 50 randomly selected geographical clusters out of 208 in the municipality of León, Nicaragua. SAMPLE: A total of 478 pregnant women were included; only one woman refused to participate. METHOD: The domestic violence questionnaire from the WHO-co-ordinated Multi-Country Study on Women's Health and Life Events was used with each participant being interviewed twice during pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence and characteristics of partner violence during pregnancy. RESULTS: The prevalence of emotional, physical and sexual abuse during pregnancy was 32.4%, 13.4% and 6.7%, respectively. Seventeen percent reported experience of all three forms of violence. Two-thirds of the victims reported repeated abuse. Half of the abused women had experienced punches and kicks directed towards the abdomen and 93% had been injured. Most women had not sought health care in relation to the abuse, but those who did were usually hospitalised. Factors such as women's age below 20 years, poor access to social resources and high levels of emotional distress were independently associated with violence during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Violence against pregnant women in Nicaragua is common and often repeated. Although these women have poor access to social resources and high levels of emotional distress, they are rarely assisted by the health services. Innovative strategies are needed to provide support and counselling.
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| 22. |
- Wedel, Johan, 1962
(författare)
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Healing and spirit possession in the Caribbean
- 2009
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Ingår i: Stockholm Review of Latin American Studies. - 1654-0204. ; :4, s. 49-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article takes a comparative look at spiritual healing and its implications among followers of Afro-Cuban Santería and among the Miskitu people of Nicaragua. It shows how illness and suffering is located in a sacred domain allowing transformations on social, psychological, and physiological levels. Healing is achieved by creating a sacred reality by means of powerful symbols and spirit possession. In this process, spiritual beings are representations of people’s conditions. At the same time, spirits also represent a model for healing.
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| 23. |
- Dahlblom, Kjerstin, 1950-
(författare)
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Estrella : a gifted narrative
- 2009
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Ingår i: Childhoods Today. - : University of Sheffield. - 1753-0849. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper analyses a short written account by a young Nicaraguan girl who narrates an experience she had while taking care of her small niece. She describes a turning point in her life, and narrative analysis was applied to interpret the meaning of her story. The importance and implications of becoming a mother are the key elements in her narrative. Her contribution was part of a larger study on sibling caretaking conducted in León, Nicaragua, in which multiple tools were used for exploration and analysis.
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| 24. |
- Nilsson, Manuela
(författare)
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The Role of Universities in Peacebuilding : A Nicaraguan Case Study
- 2005
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Ingår i: Revista Encuentro. - Managua, Nicaragua : Universidad Centroamericana. - 0424-9674. ; 71, s. 78-93
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A pesar de que la comunidad internacional ha comenzado a reconocer la necesidad de utilizar actores locales de la sociedad civil en el proceso de construcción de la paz en sociedades que han pasado recientemente por un conflicto armado, el potencial de las universidades como socios locales ha sido pasado por alto. Esta investigación analiza el papel que las universidades pueden jugar en los procesos de transformación de conflictos y la construcción de la paz, utilizando el involucramiento de las universidades en Nicaragua como estudio de caso. El trabajo demuestra las ventajas de utilizar a la comunidad universitaria y analiza las diferentes maneras de su involucramiento activo, tanto en cooperación con los organismos internacionales como en iniciativas independientes. También discute las limitaciones de su desempeño y finaliza con las lecciones aprendidas en el estudio del involucramiento de las universidades nicaragüenses en la construcción de la paz.
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| 25. |
- Segnestam, Lisa, 1971-
(författare)
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Division of Capitals - What Role Does It Play for Gender-Differentiated
- 2009
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Ingår i: Community Development. Journal of the Community Development Society. - Philadelphia : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. - 1557-5330. ; 40:2, s. 154-176
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the gender differentiation of vulnerability to the drought situation within a rural community in the dry zone of Nicaragua. Case study work demonstrates that women and men use different strategies to cope with drought in the short term, and to adapt to the recurring El Niño induced events in the longer term. These strategies combined constitute the livelihoods of the rural poor in the dry zone of Nicaragua—livelihoods that change at times of drought to reduce its impacts. The article uses the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to look at what resources women and men in the case study area have lost and to analyze what capitals are most central for the coping and adaptation capacity. A gender perspective is applied to see what difference in access to capitals between men and women exist and what that means in terms of gender-differentiated vulnerability to drought.
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| 26. |
- Tercero, F, et al.
(författare)
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The epidemiology of moderate and severe injuries in a Nicaraguan community : a household-based survey
- 2006
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Ingår i: Public Health. - London : Saunders Elsevier. - 0033-3506 .- 1476-5616. ; 120:2, s. 106-114
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although injuries constitute a major public health problem worldwide, the magnitude and nature of this problem is difficult to establish in low-income settings due to the lack of valid and representative data. In Nicaragua, several parallel studies have been carried out attempting to assess levels and patterns of injury using various sources of information. The objective of this study was to describe the magnitude and profile of moderate and severe injuries in a well-defined community in Nicaragua. The study was conducted using a household-based survey design. Randomized cluster sampling provided information from 10,797 households (63,886 inhabitants). The outcomes included fatal and non-fatal injuries registered during a recall period of 6 weeks. Seven percent of all. injuries were classified as moderate or severe. The estimated annual incidence rate of moderate/severe injuries was 27.6 per 1000 [95% confidence intervals (CI): 26.4-29.2], white the mortality and impairment rates were 108.9 (95% CI: 83.5-134.4) and 95.3 (95% CI: 71.4-119.2) per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Home and traffic areas were the main environments associated with injury occurrence. The most affected groups were the elderly, children and mates. No differences were found between urban and rural areas. Only 9% of all cases, including minor injuries, sought hospital treatment. The main causes of non-fatal injuries were falls, traffic and cuts, whereas fatalities were largely associated with intentional injuries. For every death due to injury, there was one permanent disability, 25 moderate/severe injuries and 354 minor injuries. This study provides a broad description of injury magnitudes and patterns in a defined Nicaraguan community, and demonstrates the aggregate injury pyramid of the same community. It also identifies the issue of severity and concludes with a recommendation to apply different criteria of severity. Our results support the call for a careful evaluation of injury data sources and severity scores when planning injury prevention programmes.
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| 27. |
- Peña, R., et al.
(författare)
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The Nicaraguan health and demographic surveillance site, HDSS-León : A platform for public health research
- 2008
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. - : SAGE Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 36:3, s. 318-325
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: To describe the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in Leon, Nicaragua and to present results from the 2002-2003 baseline. Design and methods: A 22% sample of the total population in Leon, both urban and rural, was selected in 1993. This sample was updated in 2002 and will be followed up on a biannual basis with regard to births, deaths, in-migration, and out-migration. A group of 18 female fieldworkers perform 10 household interviews per day, 20 days per month. They use a map that is produced by a Geographical Information System. It shows all the households, and is the main means of the interviewers finding the households. An extensive data quality control system is used. Results: In total, 54,647 persons lived in the area of the surveillance system, and they resided in 10,994 households. The mean age was 26 years;, the sex ratio was 0.93. The infant and neonatal mortality rates were 25.4 and 20.5 per 1,000 live births, respectively. In total, 2,034 people out-migrated from the study area and 3,377 in-migrated. Of the households, 53% were classified as non-poor, 41% as poor, and 6% as extremely poor. Six per cent of the population did not have a toilet or a latrine, and only 16% in the rural area had indoor running water. The surveillance system revealed that 10% were illiterate. Conclusions: The HDSS in Leon has shown that it can serve as a platform for further intervention studies as well as for research training.
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| 28. |
- Cuadra, Steven
(författare)
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Child labour and health hazards: chemical exposure and occupational injuries in Nicaraguan children working in a waste disposal site
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- About 600 children and teenagers work at Managua's landfill, the largest in Nicaragua. They collect and sort waste at the open dump, which covers an area of 7 km2 on the outskirts of the city on the shores of Lake Managua. Such work, which occurs in many large cities in developing countries, is considered to be one of the riskiest types of child labor that exists. Nevertheless, knowledge of such work and its risks is lacking.We investigated chemical exposure and risk of injury among 103 child laborers aged 6 to 15 years from Managua's landfill. Almost half of the children also lived in the dump area itself, while the rest lived in a nearby area, Acahualinca. For comparison, 102 children from Acahualinca and 34 children from central Managua, 10 km away, who did not work at the dump, were also studied. This provided the opportunity to also study the environmental exposure from the landfill. The children were interviewed about living conditions, working conditions, and all injuries that occurred at workplaces, at school, and at home during the last 12 months. They had to provide blood samples for examination of the levels of, among other things, heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, and persistent organic environmental toxins such as pesticides and PCBs. We also investigated the levels of a relatively new organic environmental poison, the brominated flame retardant PBDE. At a later stage, soil samples were also collected from the landfill area and from Acahualinca for investigation of metal content.The children who worked at the landfill had higher levels of lead, mercury, and cadmium than the children in the comparison groups. One-third had blood lead levels higher than 100 μg/l, a level where measures to reduce exposure are clearly recommended. We also found that the children in the nearby residential area had higher lead levels than the children from central Managua. Although mercury levels were higher among the child workers, the levels were not such that they could be considered a present and clear health risk. Consumption of fish from Lake Managua only slightly affected mercury levels. The levels of several of the organic environmental toxins, especially PCBs, were also higher among the child workers than in the comparison groups. We know that PCBs, which have long been banned in the West, are still used in Central America, or stored in uncontrolled forms. The children in the comparison groups also had clearly higher levels of a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT and of PCBs than children in the USA and Western Europe. The levels of these substances are steadily decreasing in the Western world. There is extremely limited knowledge of how the development over time looks like in Central and Latin America because too few surveys have been carried out. Unexpectedly, we found extremely high levels of PBDEs among the children living and working at the dump, higher than previously reported. The children in the comparison groups also had unexpectedly high levels of these substances. This is the first investigation of human PBDE levels in Central and Latin America, and the findings clearly show that it is extremely important to study the spread of the new environmental toxins also in non-industrialized countries and among particularly vulnerable groups. Several of the different substances that we studied are toxic to reproduction, and they can negatively affect human reproduction and fetal development. It would therefore have been desirable to be able to make a balanced risk assessment, but this is not possible because there is a lack of knowledge about the synergistic effects of the substances, and especially about how other factors such as inadequate nutrition can further affect the risk picture. What is clear, however, is that the levels we found among the children are significant from a reproductive perspective, as many of the girls we surveyed will be mothers in a few years - a fifth of Managua's teenagers are pregnant or have given birth already.Injuries, which caused at least one day of absence from school or work, were seven times more common among the children working at the dump than among the children in the comparison groups. The vast majority of injuries occurred during work, corresponding to 2.2 injuries per 1000 working days. The children reported that approximately one in ten injuries had resulted in permanent disability or pain. We analyzed the injuries that occurred to clarify whether there were any clear injury patterns. Cuts and puncture wounds to the hands and feet in connection with material handling were most common and caused 70% of the injuries. This shows that simple protective measures – many children lack shoes and no one has gloves – could reduce the risk of injury. However, the most serious damage was caused by the vehicles at the dump.In our studies, we have wanted to measure exposure levels and quantify risks in order to clarify the situation of child workers, in the hope that increased knowledge and awareness can eventually contribute to change. We have also gained valuable knowledge about the levels of several common environmental toxins among ordinary poor city children in a developing country. This is something that has so far been too inadequately investigated.
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| 29. |
- Korsak, Larisa, et al.
(författare)
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Alternatives of Sludge Use in Nicaragua
- 2005
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 27th Annual HWEA Conference "New Technical Knowledge for Clean Water".
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 30. |
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