Associations between study questionnaire-assessed need and school doctor-evaluated benefit of routine health checks: an observational study.

Background: In Finland, school doctors examine all children at predetermined ages in addition to annual health checks by school nurses. This study explored the association of study questionnaire-assessed need for and school doctor-evaluated benefit of routine health checks conducted by doctors.

Methods: Between August 2017 and August 2018, we recruited a random sample of 1341 children in grades 1 and 5 (aged seven and eleven years, respectively) from 21 elementary schools in four Finnish municipalities.

Stability of parent-reported food allergy in six and 7-year-old children: the first 5 years of the Finnish allergy programme.

Aim: The Finnish national allergy programme was introduced in 2008 to decrease the burden of allergy in the population. This study, carried out in 2013, evaluated the prevalence of parent-reported food allergies, treated with an avoidance diet until early school age, and discussed the rates in relation to those found in an identical study in 2009.

Methods: School health nurses used a structured questionnaire to interview the parents of 1653 children aged of six or seven in the first year of elementary school.

[Initiation and monitoring of contraception].

The majority of those requiring contraception may safely use any available contraceptive method. Each method has, however, its particular contraindications, which should be screened by applying careful anamnesis and focused status, when contraception is being initiated. Gynecologic examination is not a prerequisite for the initiation of hormonal contraception, but measurement and monitoring of blood pressure is important.

Quality of the contraceptive service structure: a pilot study in Finnish health centre organisations.

Objectives: To evaluate the quality of the contraceptive service structure in health centre organisations (HCOs) in western Finland and to establish whether the characteristics of the HCOs are associated with the quality measured.

Methods: Survey data were collected from all HCOs in a university hospital area in western Finland (N = 63). Quality was evaluated using a score of ten indicators.

Provision of contraception: a survey among primary care physicians in Finland.

Objective: To investigate self-reported practices of contraceptive provision among primary care physicians.

Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Setting: All community health centers (n = 63) in an university hospital area in Western Finland.