Book Description
This textbook provides a practical and comprehensive account of the management of diarrhea and constipation in the elderly. These common disorders are not only a burden in themselves but are often manifestations of a more serious underlying illness; thus, effective diagnosis and treatment are essential to improve quality of life. The chapters include updates on pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment, and highlight the vulnerability of the elderly to diarrhea and its complications.The etiology of diarrhea is explained, including infections of the gastrointestinal tract, and systemic diseases of which it is a symptom.The authors represent diverse disciplines: immunology, physiology, microbiology, nutrition, and psychiatry. The book is aimed at geriatricians, general practitioners, gastroenterologists, and allied health workers.Download Description
This textbook provides a practical and comprehensive account of the management of diarrhoea and constipation in the elderly. These common disorders in the elderly are not only a burden in themselves but are often manifestations of a more serious underlying illness: thus effective diagnosis and treatment are essential to improve quality of life. Many important conditions are associated with diarrhoea. The text includes updates on pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment, and highlights the vulnerability of the elderly in regard to acquiring diarrhoea and its complications. The aetiology of diarrhoea is explained, including infections of the gastrointestinal tract, and systemic diseases of which diarrhoea is a manifestation. Diverse disciplines are spanned: from immunology and physiology to microbiology, nutrition and psychiatry. The aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of constipation are dealt with, emphasising practical management issues. The book is aimed at geriatricians, general practitioners and allied health workers. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Economics and Human Biology, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Diarrhoea, claiming over three million young lives in the world every year, is the second biggest killer of children in developing countries. Using data for over 13,000 children in rural India, under the age of 3 years, this paper examines the relative effects of the different factors-inter alia the quality of the water supply, mother's literacy, housing conditions, and the level of development of the villages in which the children lived-contributing to diarrhoea. The paper highlights the importance of two factors: that children born to undernourished mothers may be more susceptible to infection than children whose mothers are well nourished, and that good hygienic practices within the home, such as washing hands with soap before feeding a child, can reduce the incidence of diarrhoea. The paper also quantifies the relative strength of the factors that determine whether mothers do so. The results emphasize the importance of mothers being literate, of household affluence and of institutional support (through the availability of trained midwives and mother and child centres in villages) in promoting domestic hygiene. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Social Science & Medicine, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Diarrhoea remains one of the leading killers of young children. A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that a two-week course of zinc tablets once daily significantly reduces the severity and duration of diarrhoea and mortality in young children (Bhutta et al., 2000. Therapeutic effects of oral zinc in acute and persistent diarrhea in children in developing countries: Pooled analysis of randomized controlled trials. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 72(6), 1516-1522). Formative research is being conducted in a number of countries to prepare for the large-scale promotion of this new treatment. In-depth and semi-structured interviews with parents, community health workers, and traditional healers were conducted to examine the household management of diarrhoea in the Sikasso region of southern Mali in preparation for the introduction of a short-course of daily zinc for childhood diarrhoea at the community level. Supporting data from a subsequent household survey are also presented. Although nearly all parents knew oral rehydration solution (ORS) could replace lost fluids, its inability to stop diarrhoea caused parents to seek antibiotics from local markets, traditional medicines or anti-malarials to cure the illness. The notion of combining multiple treatments to ensure the greatest therapeutic benefit was prevalent, and modern medicines were often administered simultaneously with traditional therapies. As parents often deem ORS insufficient and judge that an additional treatment should be combined with ORS to cure diarrhoea, the concept of joint therapy of zinc and ORS should be well accepted in the community. Mothers-in-law and fathers, who play a significant role in decisions to seek treatment for sick children, as well as traditional healers, should also be considered when designing new programs to promote zinc. Similarities with formative research conducted for a previous generation of diarrhoea control programmes are discussed. ... Read more

Book Description
Until recently a neglected disease syndrome, diarrhea is responsible for many millions of infant deaths in developing countries. The result of a 1987 symposium, this volume reflects advances in the aetiology of diarrhea while addressing such puzzling problems as the difficulty of growing viruses in a controlled setting. The volume is deliberately restricted to so-called ``novel'' diarrhea viruses and is not concerned with ``classical'' rotaviruses, which have formed the basis of previous symposia. Articles concentrate on: atypical rotaviruses; the enteric adenoviruses; small round viruses such as astroviruses, caliciviruses and Norwalk virus; and the Berne and Breda viruses, suggested as a new family Toroviridae. The contributions come from an interdisciplinary mix of virologists (both human and veterinary), epidemiologists, molecular biologists, and pathologists. ... Read more