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This paper and the next, report on the experience of adolescent care in an ambulatory and multidisciplinary center based on a bifocal medical and psychological strategy. Two thirds of the adolescents are referred by a physician. The most common reasons are one or several somatic symptoms with a background of emotional complaints. Those reasons are consistent with the general adolescent health problems as revealed by studies of large national samples. It appears critical to read the adolescent complaint in a psychological register together with the somatic aspects. Initially, the adolescents are however rarely open for awareness of their psychological needs. This justifies care in a center where the initial medical management may secondarily result in psychological management.

The present paper surveys the discussions conducted by official statisticians regarding the ideal structure according to which a national data collection system should have been designed if it was to meet the challenges put up by the various transformation Western countries have undergone since the beginning of the 19th century. Arguments in favour of coordination, centralization, or decentralization have emerged for the first time in 1832 Britain, when the Statistical Bureau of the Board of Trade was created. Up to 1945, this debate went on, the industrial take-off, the economic crises, and the world wars all being occasions for its protagonists to put forward their preferred view. The perspective we take here is original in two respects: on the one hand, instead of confining ourselves to the major statistical systems (those of France, Britain, and the USA), we intend to evoke a large number of cases and, from this comparative standpoint, propose a general account of the drive towards centralization; on the other hand, instead of restraining our-selves to the 19th century, we cover the entire time-frame extending from 1800 to 1945.

The aim of this paper is to compare respiratory mortality, cancer and tuberculosis excluded, in 10 countries during 12 years. Mortality data came from World Health Statistics Annual of the WHO and age adjusted rates were calculated. For all causes respiratory mortality, acute pathologies and chronic obstructions not elsewhere classified, United Kingdom and above all Eire have the highest rates; Italy, France and Germany have the lowest rates; the other countries (Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Canada, United States) have rates similar, sometimes equal). For chronic conditions, Denmark has the highest rates, Canada and United States the lowest; Eire and United Kingdom begin a great decrease from 1983. On the whole, differences between countries do not vary very much with the years or the pathologies and the evolution over the time is not very marked apart from some countries.

This paper attempts to give an overview of current levels of child mortality prevailing in the world. It also examines trends and socioeconomic differentials in child mortality for selected countries and regions of the world. Lastly it reviews data on causes of child death and related environmental factors. The paper concludes that despite the fact that child deaths are frequently avoidable, mortality differentials between the developed and developing regions of the world are more pronounced in childhood (ages one to under five years) than at any other time of life. While some developing countries have substantially reduced the level of mortality in childhood, in others it remains very high. In contrast, in most developed countries child death rates are now so low, that they no longer serve as useful measures of public health.

"Who moves among the elderly? With whom do the elderly move? With whom will they stay once they have migrated? These are the main questions discussed in this paper. On the basis of a sample of individual data obtained from the censuses of Italy and the United States, data which were analysed by taking the household--and not, as is traditionally done, the individual--as the observation unit, the author concludes that there are some significant differences between the two countries as far as migration behavior of the elderly is concerned, even if there are also many similarities." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA), (excerpt)