U.S.- and Mexico-born Hispanic teen mothers: a descriptive study of factors that relate to postpartum compliance.

PIP: Compliance with postpartum visits after teenage births in the US was examined among 289 Hispanic teenagers, of whom 127 were born in Mexico or border towns, who delivered at Harris County Hospital District and scheduled postpartum appointments at the Teen Health Clinic. The mean age was 17.31 years for mothers and 21.95 years for fathers. 56.7% (164) were married. 49.8% lived with husbands, 25.8% with parents, 22.3% with friends/relatives, and 2.1% alone. 74.7% stated that they had no social supports. 88.9% had a term delivery, 8.3% a preterm delivery, and 2.8% a fetal loss. 67.5% were first births, 5.5% had a previous abortion, and 3.1% had a previous miscarriage. 23.2% had a previous child, and 0.7% had a previous preterm delivery. Some form of prenatal care was received by 85.1%. 34.3% reported no further educational plans. 17.3% (50) returned for a scheduled postpartum visit. Mothers with a prior history of a premature birth or miscarriage were more likely to return postpartum compared to mothers with a first or prior birth. The differences are marginally significant. None of the mothers with a prior abortion returned. 34.9% of the returning teen mothers were more likely to have had prenatal care. Returning mothers also were a larger percentage of those with no future educational plans. 13.4% of returning mothers had an available social support system. Country of origin was not associated with support systems, prenatal care, return status, educational plans, pregnancy history, or current birth outcome. Out of the 50 returning, 20 were Mexican-born and married. Only Mexican marital status was found to be a significant variable explaining differences. Marital status had no effect on the 26 US native-born returnees. 92% of the Mexican-born teens were married and had a support system. The most dramatic feature of this study is the high level of noncompliance among both US-born and Mexican-born adolescents. There were few distinguishing features between these two groups. Return status was affected by very few features and was achieved by a very small percentage of the study population. The suggestion is made that poverty, a lack of health insurance, and poor knowledge of English, as representative of cultural dissimilarity, may be responsible for poor use of preventive care.^ieng

Management of central nervous system infections during an epidemic of enteroviral aseptic meningitis.

Four hundred and fifty-six patients with signs and symptoms of potential central nervous system infection were evaluated from June 28, 1978, to September 30, 1978. The majority of the children had a relatively brief and mild illness characterized by a constellation of features previously described with central nervous system infections. Fever, headache, and vomiting were typical. Altered sensorium and nuchal rigidity were inconstant. One distinct and another infrequently reported feature of enteroviral disease, hypoglycorrhachia and cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis in excess of 2,000 cells/mm3, occurred independently or in concert in 18% of the cases. When these unexpected findings were associated with a presumptive clinical diagnosis of aseptic meningitis, watchful observation and repeat lumbar puncture precluded the necessity to administer antibiotics in every case. The possibility of enteroviral aseptic meningitis being a definitive diagnostic entity manageable on a group, yet individual basis utilizing a disposition protocol is discussed.

Oxygen-isotope analysis of recent tropical Pacific benthonic Foraminifera.

Analysis by the oxygen-isotope method of samples of benthonic Foraminifera, collected at different depths on the continental shelf and slope of western Cenitral America, yielded isotopic temperatures agreeing closely with the temperatures measured in the field. The validity of the oxygen-isotope method as a means of analysis of paleotemperatures is further supported.