No abstract

DM was associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality. DM care improved hypertension control, but had little impact on other comorbid conditions. Enhanced monitoring and greater patient involvement should improve care; creative strategies are required to prevent and reduce obesity.

No abstract

Objectives-A community intervention trial was carried out to evaluate the relative eVectiveness of two methods of reducing playground hazards in schools. The study hypotheses were: (1) a health promotion programme addressing barriers to implementing the New Zealand Playground Safety Standard will reduce playground hazards and (2) the intervention programme will be more successful than providing information alone. Methods-Twenty four schools in Wellington, New Zealand were randomly allocated into two groups of 12 and their playgrounds audited for hazards. After the audit, the intervention group received a health promotion programme consisting of information about the hazards, an engineer's report, regular contact and encouragement to act on the report, and assistance in obtaining funding. The control group only received information about hazards in their playground. Results-After 19 months, there was a significant fall in hazards in the intervention schools compared with the control schools (Mann-Whitney U test, p=0.027). No intervention schools had increased hazards and eight out of 12 had reduced them by at least three. In contrast, only two of the control schools had reduced their hazards by this amount, with three others increasing their hazards in that time. Conclusions-It is concluded that working intensively with schools to overcome barriers to upgrading playground equipment can lead to a reduction in hazards, and that this form of intensive intervention is more eVective than providing information alone. (Injury Prevention 1999;5:124-128)

Objective Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Palau and across the Pacific Islands is a serious public health issue that is currently understudied. Methods This study was a retrospective cohort study that included 1730 women with a single live birth in Palau between January 2007 and December 2014. Results The overall prevalence of GDM among women in Palau was 5.5%. Women who were older (≥30 years) or obese (BMI ≥30) were more likely to have GDM than women who were younger (<30 years) or non-obese (BMI <30), respectively. When adverse birth outcomes were assessed, women with GDM were found to have significantly higher prevalence of high birth weight infants, cesarean sections, and neonatal deaths when compared to women without GDM. In fact, women with GDM were five times more likely to have a neonatal death than women without GDM (p = 0.008). Conclusion Reducing overall rates of obesity in the population could help reduce rates of diabetes and GDM in Palau. Based on this work, current practices for the identification, monitoring and treatment of women with GDM should be evaluated and strengthened in order to reduce neonatal mortality rates in Palau.