Quality of life, lifestyle, and working environment of women in the footwear industry.

Introduction: The footwear industry uses glue and other organic solvents (such as ethyl acetate, acetone, xylene, and toluene) in its manufacturing process; these substances, when associated with an inadequate working environment, can potentialize health problems and interfere with the perception of quality of life by female workers.

Objectives: To verify the quality of life of women working in the footwear industry and its association with the self-reported morbidities of these workers, their working environment, and lifestyle habits.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach, developed with 120 women shoemakers in the city of Franca, state of São Paulo.

[Breastfeeding difficulties and influence in the early weaning].

The study aimed to verify the average time of exclusive breastfeeding (AME) of infants born at Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and to associate it with the following variables: marital status, mother's age, infant's weight, difficulties found and instructions received. This is a cohort study with a sample of 225 mothers interviewed postpartum and on the 15th, 30th, 60th, 120th and 180th days after discharge, by telephone. The monitoring of AME showed median of 113 days and 34,1% of the mothers kept it for up 180 days.

[Variables that influence the maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding].

This is a descriptive, exploratory and retrospective study, with a quantitative approach, performed in a low-income community in São Paulo, with the purpose to identify whether the maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in the first six months is influenced by the following variables: early contact in the first hour after birth, permanence in joint lodging, type of delivery and type of hospital. Data were collected from 75 medical records and analyzed with the methodology of generalized estimate equations. The results showed that the variables joint lodging, type of hospital and type of delivery interfered in the maintenance of EBF; however, that was not the case with early contact.

[Prevalence of specific hypertensive disease of pregnancy in a public hospital of the city of São Paulo].

This is a descriptive-exploratory study carried out from January to July 2002 with the purpose to know the prevalence of Specific Hypertension Disease in pregnancy (SHD) and its disorders. A total of 604 records of hospitalized women were retrospectively analyzed and 22 were diagnosed with SHD, that is, 3.64% of women presented this diagnosis.

[Nursing diagnosis made in elderly people with mental disorders].

This is a descriptive, exploratory study with a qualitative and quantitative approach, whose aim is to identify Nursing diagnosis in elderly people suffering from mental disorders. Forty-eight elders of the mental open clinic were interviewed, by means of an instrument on quality of life, translated and validated. Data collected helped to identify sixteen Nursing diagnoses, based in North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA).

[Nursing notes].

Aiming at some uniformity in nursing notes, the authors suggest a few norms on how to write them. This uniformity would help nursing students througout the whole nursing program.