https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/33325 2026-04-04T22:01:24Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/4470 Title: Nutrition in childhood Authors: Bartolo, Marie Claire Abstract: Childhood is the stage in a human’s life associated with growth and development. Growth proceeds rapidly in early life, slows down in middle childhood and accelerates at puberty before linear growth ceases. With increasing age there is also physical and psychomotor maturation, which influences activity, body composition, feeding skills and food choices (Geissler, 2011). Adequate nutrition is essential for growth, health and development of children. Poor nutrition increases the risk of illness, and is responsible directly or indirectly for one third of the estimated 9.5 million deaths that occurred in 2006 in children less than 5 years of age. Inappropriate nutrition can also lead to childhood obesity. (WHO, 2009a). 2014-05-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/4469 Title: A review of certain recent advances in primary health care Authors: Baldacchino, Marilyn; Bezzina, Glorianne; Scerri, Anne Marie; Sammut, Mario R. Abstract: A strong primary health care system is the keystone of health care and helps patients manage their health conditions in the community, whilst also providing disease prevention services. Primary care is a continuously evolving specialty, with recent exciting innovations, aiming to improve all aspects of care and to meet people’s needs and expectations. A search for articles focusing on the specific aspects of recent advances in primary health care was done using internet search engines. Articles were selected from primary and secondary literature sources, which included original research articles, review articles and other epidemiological studies. Recent advances in information technology, services and access, dealing with multimorbidity, academic family medicine, equity and outcome measures have all made an impact on the primary health care system and on meeting the ever-increasing challenges of modern society. Primary health care is of extreme importance in having an efficient and effective health care system. As primary health care improves with recent advances, a positive effect is seen on the population’s health, cost savings and health care disparities. 2014-05-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/4468 Title: Ethical principles in paediatric practice Authors: Attard Montalto, Simon Abstract: Clinical problems with significant ethical implications pose an ever increasing dilemma in everyday medical practice in the 21st century and rarely present a simple solution. This is particularly the case with ethical issues involving children and those unable to take their own decisions. Whilst the patients’ interests should come first and all personal, cultural and religious bias eliminated, the impact of costly treatment for the individual patient on the available healthcare resources must also be taken into account. Hence, it is essential to establish an ethically acceptable code of practice which will allow doctors to provide an objective approach to management that is rational and consistent, both for the patient as well as society at large regardless of creed or culture. An equally important code of practice is required for medical research, whether this involves clinical trials on children, laboratory and animal studies. Although the same general principles are applied to guide all medical ethical problems, these may be adjusted to different research scenarios. Particularly difficult issues relate to research involving subjects who are unable to fully comprehend the ethical issues at stake, especially the embryo, children and those with a disability, as well as issues relating to the initiation of intensive care or ‘extraordinary’ measures and, finally, issues relating to the discontinuation of care and the dying process. 2014-05-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/4452 Title: What general practitioners need to know about patent foramen ovale Authors: Saliba, Mario Abstract: A patent foramen ovale (PFO) consists of a hole between the right and left atriums of the heart that did not close the way it should after birth. Twenty five percent of the population have a PFO, but this usually does not cause problems, because the opening is functionally closed by the difference in pressure between the heart and the chest. This study is a literature review about the clinical significance of PFO and its management in three clinical situations: cryptogenic strokes, migraine with aura and scuba divers who sustained a decompression sickness. PFOs had been linked with various medical conditions such as strokes, migraine, and with certain types of decompression sickness (DCS). In general, this association is not very well established. Young patients who sustain a cardiovascular event without a known cause (cryptogenic stroke) have resulted in the tendency to screen these patents becoming the norm and more PFOs are being closed using standard methods and devices. The association of PFOs and migraine attacks is less clear. In the case of scuba divers the risk of suffering from a decompression accident is increased if one has a PFO. The management of these patients remains difficult. 2014-05-01T00:00:00Z