The effect of cigarette smoking on hemoglobin levels and anemia screening

Article Abstract:

Anemia is a condition of inadequate hemoglobin, due either to defects in hemoglobin formation or a reduced number of red blood cells. Cigarette smoking is known to cause an increase in the level of hemoglobin, apparently as a response to the tight chemical bond that becomes established between carbon monoxide (a by-product of tobacco smoking) and hemoglobin. The effects of smoking on the measured level of hemoglobin were analyze among 2,250 males and 2,454 women between 18 and 44 years of age. Smoking history, hemoglobin level and socioeconomic status of all individuals were known. There was no significant difference in hemoglobin levels between individuals who had never smoked and those who had given up the habit. However, cigarette smoking was found to cause elevated hemoglobin in both men and women. The underestimation of anemia in smokers as the result of the elevation of hemoglobin was seen as significant. The compensation values presented in this article should be applied to the hemoglobin values of all smokers in order to detect possible anemia. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Anemia, Diagnosis, Measurement, Physiological aspects, Smoking, Hemoglobin, Hemoglobins

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Acute malnutrition and high childhood mortality related to diarrhea: lessons from the 1991 Kurdish refugee crisis

Article Abstract:

A public-health-oriented program might have helped lower the mortality rate of Kurdish refugee children in 1991. Though the Kurdish refugees on the Turkey-Iraq border benefited from relatively quick intervention, children five years old and younger accounted for 2/3 of all deaths during the crisis and in the refugee camps. Children shorter than 110 centimeters at Zakho Camp 1 in northern Iraq were selected at random for evaluation for signs of malnutrition. The height and weight of 816 children from 323 families were measured. Acute malnutrition, as determined by low weight for the height of the children, was most prevalent in children under two years old. It appeared to be a consequence of diarrhea. The mortality survey found that a total of 301 refugees died during the eight-week period studied from the beginning of the crisis. Children who were younger than one year had the highest mortality rate at 64 deaths per 1,000 each month. Children who are younger than two years should receive special attention from relief programs. These children would benefit from a disease-prevention program.

Evaluation, Patient outcomes, Mortality, Iraq, Malnutrition in children, Child malnutrition, Disaster relief, Diarrhea in children, Childhood diarrhea, Refugees, Kurdish, Kurdish refugees

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Improving growth status of Asian refugee children in the United States

Article Abstract:

Southeast Asian children who emigrate to the US have been found to be small for their age when they arrive in this country, but data from the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that their growth rates increase significantly thereafter. In 28,725 Asian children from low-income families surveyed by the CDC between 1978 and 1989, the percentage of children identified as low birth weight at delivery dropped from 15.5% to 8.5%. The percentage of children who were small or underweight for their age also dropped during this time period. By 1989, the percentage of Asian children who were small or underweight for their age approached that of other low-income minority children. It may not be necessary to develop special standards to assess the growth of Southeast Asian immigrant children.

Health aspects, Children, Food and nutrition, Growth, Child development, Refugees, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian refugees

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