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Primary care (PC) is a strong determinant of overall health care. Children make up around a fifth of the population of the European Union and European Economic Area and have their own needs and uptake of PC. However, there is little research into how well PC services address their needs. There are large differences in childhood mortality and morbidity patterns in the EU and EEA countries, and there has been a major epidemiological shift in the past half century from predominantly communicable disease, to non-communicable diseases presenting and increasingly managed in PC. This increase in multifactorial morbidities, such as obesity and learning disability, has led to the need for PC systems to adapt to accommodate these changes. Europe presents a challenging picture of unexplained variation in health care delivery and style and of children’s different health experiences and health-related behaviour. The Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) project aimed to describe the PC systems in detail, analyse their components and appraise them from a number of different viewpoints, including professional, public, political and economic lenses. It did this through nine work packages supported by a core management team, and a network of national agents, individuals in each MOCHA country who had the expertise in research and knowledge of their national health care system to answer a wide range of questions posed by the MOCHA scientific teams.

In order to assess the state of health of Europe’s children, or to appraise the systems and models of healthcare delivery, data about children are essential, with as much precision and accuracy as possible by small group characteristic. Unfortunately, the experience of the Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) project and its scientists shows that this ideal is seldom met, and thus the accuracy of appraisal or planning work is compromised. In the project, we explored the data collected on children by a number of databases used in Europe and globally, to find that although the four quinquennial age bands are common, it is impossible to represent children aged 0–17 years as a legally defined group in statistical analysis. Adolescents, in particular, are the most invisible age group despite this being a time of life when they are rapidly changing and facing increasing challenges. In terms of measurement and monitoring, there is little progress from work of nearly two decades ago that recommended an information system, and no focus on the creation of a policy and ethical framework to allow collaborative analysis of the rich anonymised databases that hold real-world people-based data. In respect of data systems and surveillance, nearly all systems in European society pay lip service to the importance of children, but do not accommodate them in a practical and statistical sense.

This study aims to determine the impact of nutrition education intervention on nutritional status of undernourished children aged 6-24 months in the East Mamprusi district of Ghana.

This was a pre-post interventional study. In all, 153 undernourished children of age 6-24 months and their mothers were recruited from five communities. Underweight, stunting, wasting, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) and haemoglobin (Hb) levels were determined at baseline and after intervention. Nutrition education was given to the mothers for three months based on the nutrition problems identified at baseline assessment.

There were improvements in underweight, wasting, MUAC and Hb levels among the children after the nutrition education intervention. The level of improvement at post-intervention differed significantly for underweight (−2.4 ± 0.4, −2.2 ± 0.4; p = 0. 001), wasting (−2.2 ± 0.6, −1.9 ± 0.6; p = 0. 001), MUAC (12.3 ± 0.5, 12.9 ± 0.6; p = 0. 001) and Hb level (10.0 ± 1.4, 10.5 ± 1.4; p = 0. 001) of the children compared to pre-intervention (−1.4 ± 1.8, −1.3 ± 1.7; p = 0.314).

There was significant improvement in the nutritional status of the undernourished children after the nutrition education intervention. Community nutritionists and stakeholders involved in nutrition and health issues concerning infants and young children should consider nutrition education, as it could be an inexpensive and effective strategy in combating childhood undernutrition in resource-poor settings.

Findings of this study provide evidence, suggesting nutrition education as a potential strategy to curb the high rates of child undernutrition in resource-poor communities in Ghana. This study provides insight for larger studies on the effectiveness of nutrition education in curbing child malnutrition in deprived communities in Ghana.

The health consequences of child labor may take time to manifest themselves. This study examines whether children who began working at a young age experience increased incidence of illness or physical disability as adults. When child labor and schooling are treated as chosen without consideration of unobserved abilities or health endowments, child labor appears to have small adverse effects on a wide variety of health measures. Some adverse health consequences such as heart disease or hypertension seem unlikely to be caused by child labor. However, when we allow unobserved health and ability endowments to alter the age of labor market entry and years of schooling completed, the joint effects of child labor and schooling on health become larger while the less plausible health consequences lose significance. Results imply that delaying entry into child labor while increasing time in school significantly lowers the probability of early onset of physical ailments such as back problems, arthritis, or reduced strength or stamina. However, our methods are not able to distinguish between the health impacts of child labor from the impacts of reduced time in school.

The continuing challenge for health professionals engaged in international health activities is to encourage essential changes in policy and process in order to meet the objectives of ‘Health for All by the Year 2000’, by way of the primary health care (PHC) approach, as laid down by the World Health Organization in 1978. Achievement of the long‐term goals will largely depend on the extent of the immediate commitment to those primary health care management considerations which reflect the expressed health needs of the community and which accommodate and support methods by which those needs can be met appropriately.

This study explored self-management in the context of asthma experiences of school-age children and the factors that facilitate asthma self-management.

This is qualitative research used in-depth interviews. Purposive sampling was employed to select 15 school-age children with asthma attending the outpatient pulmonary department at university hospital in Thailand. Semistructured in-depth individual interviews were conducted. which were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.

Two major themes emerged from this study: (1) perspectives on managing asthma and (2) facilitators in asthma self-management. Four subthemes emerged from the first major theme related to views on managing asthma: (1) emphasizing use of an inhaler for asthma, (2) self-monitoring for symptom, (3) difficulties with the daily regimens and (4) family support on asthma self-management. Two subthemes emerged from the second major theme related to facilitators in asthma self-management: (1) confidence in performing asthma care behaviors and (2) asthma communication.

This study described strategies that support asthma management of children in Thailand and provided insight into factors that influence asthma self-management. Findings will inform the development of future self-management interventions for school-age children with asthma.

The paper presents results of a qualitative assessment of the morbidity and mortality in thyroid cancers by the Belarusian population caused by the Chernobyl accident. In the period of 1986‐1998 about 3,851 radiation‐induced thyroid cancers appeared in Belarus: about 615 cancers by children and about 3,236 cancers by adolescents and adults. The number of lethal thyroid cancers in this period of time in Belarus is assessed as about 167 cases. The excessive absolute risk (EAR) of the morbidity in the thyroid cancer assessed for the period of 1986‐1998 on the basis of given data on the morbidity is about 1.7 per 10⁴ PYGy. The excessive absolute risk of mortality is assessed as about 0.075 per 10⁴ PYGy. These values agree quite well with analogous risk coefficients established for other groups of people in other epidemiological studies.

The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of child undernutrition and anemia among children 6–24 months old in the East Mamprusi district, Northern region, Ghana.

This cross-sectional study recruited 153 children and their mothers. Weight, height and hemoglobin levels of the children were measured. A structured questionnaire based on the World Health Organization's indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices was used to collect data on parents' socioeconomic status, household characteristics, hygiene and sanitation practices, mothers' knowledge on feeding practices such as child's meal frequency and dietary diversity and child morbidity within the past two weeks. Predictors of child nutritional status were determined using multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Underweight in the children was significantly predicted by maternal knowledge on protein foods (AOR = 0.045, p = 0.008), time of initiation of complementary feeding (AOR = 0.222, p = 0.032) and maternal age (AOR = 9.455, p = 0.017). Feeding child from separate bowls (AOR = 0.239, p = 0.005), minimum meal frequency per child's age (AOR = 0.189, p = 0.007) and time of initiation of complementary feeding (AOR = 0.144, p = 0.009) were significant determinants of stunting among the children. Exclusive breast feeding (AOR = 7.975, p = 0.012) and child's past morbidity (AOR = 0.014, p = 0.001) significantly contributed to anemia among the children.

This is a cross-sectional study and cannot establish causality. The small sample size also limits the generalizability of study findings. However, findings of the study highlight factors which could potentially influence the high rate of child undernutrition in the study setting.

This study identifies determinants of undernutrition in the East Mamprusi district, an underresourced area in Ghana. This information could inform the development/reformulation of locally sensitive key messages and targeted intervention strategies to curb the high levels of child undernutrition in the East Mamprusi district of Ghana.

This study identifies maternal care practices as key potential drivers of undernutrition in a low-resource setting known for high prevalence of child undernutrition. It suggests insight for large-scale studies on the predictors of child undernutrition in Northern Ghana and other resource-poor settings.

This paper aims to understand the maternal health vulnerabilities of migrant women in slums and explore their challenges during and after childbirth.

The study used a qualitative approach, including in-depth interviews through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Thematic analysis was used for analysing data. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies (COREQ)-32 items were followed for reporting this study.

The study found that migrant women were highly susceptible to adverse birthing outcomes due to risks involved in birthing, lack of care and hygiene, lack of skilled care in dealing with complicated pregnancies and exposure to domestic and obstetric violence.

The study intends to highlight the narratives of female migrants’ birthing and maternal health challenges. The entire process of childbirth in slums with consequences can result in maternal and infant morbidities and mortalities.

Examines three inter‐related facets of environmental pollution: the physiological facet, namely the effect of exposure on health (specifically, morbidity), which has revealed a significant relationship between qualitatively‐defined ambient pollution levels in either respondent′s place of residence or workplace and self‐reported respiratory symptoms and diseases; a behavioural facet, manifested in seeking health care and in restricting normal activity, which has shown significant relationships between mean sulphur dioxide concentrations during a two‐week period preceding the interview and utilization of medical services or restricted activity days over the same period; and an economic facet, which translated these behavioural responses into economic costs, in terms of the value of lost output and additional health‐care resources, and elicited direct estimates of these economic costs in terms of the willingness to pay of households to avoid the health consequences of exposure to pollution. Findings indicate a high degree of consistency among three alternative methods for eliciting willingness to pay, but a sizeable discrepancy between the two approaches to valuing the economic cost. Explains the discrepancy by the different methodological basis of the two approaches.