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In Senegal, the evolution of disease as recorded by the public health care system confirms the preponderance of seeking care for infectious diseases (malaria, respiratory and diarrheal diseases) and reveals the emergence of chronic diseases. However, while the incidence of hypertension diagnosed by the public system increased from 14 to 81 per thousand inhabitants aged over 40, between 1995 and 2009, the diabetes appears only at 0.4‰, thus in contradiction with hospital data and general population surveys. For instance, diabetes prevalence was estimated at 10.4% in Saint-Louis in 2010 (8). This difference recalls the limitations of this data source as regards epidemiological information, but sheds light on the challenges facing the health care system, both in terms of detection, medical care, access to health care and treatment as well as cost recovery.

This paper describes a knowledge transfer experiment that has been conducted since September 2012 in Argenteuil (Val d'Oise, France). This experiment is part of an interventional research project called DeCL/C: "Knowledge translation on social and spatial inequalities: a tool to raise local awareness and mobilization to lessen cancer screening participation rate disparities': The project is carried out by health geographers from Paris Ouest University (UPO) and the National Association of Cities for Public Health (Elus, Sante Publique et Territoires, ESPT). It encompasses two main components: intervention designed to implement a knowledge co-production and transfer process among researchers, stakeholders and decision makers at various levels. This knowledge concerns social and spatial determinants of inequalities of access to breast cancer screening programmes in cities. The research is multidisciplinary (geography, sociology, political science, epistemology) and is designed to measure the impact of this knowledge co-production and transfer in terms of actions in the targeted cities (six cities in the Paris region) as well as the reduction of inequalities of access to breast cancer screening programmes. This article, based on knowledge transfer literature and an empirical experiment in Argenteuil, describes the ongoing knowledge transfer process. It also highlights Argenteuil stakeholders' and decision makers' interest in action and research. The analysis of the knowledge co-production, sharing and ownership process by local actors a e both "strategic" and "profound':

Background: Dental caries is the most common multifactorial disease in children and has substantial negative impact on daily life. In sub-Saharan Africa, few data are available on the relationship between dental caries and the social and family environment of children. The objectives of the present study were firstly to assess the level of prevalence and severity of dental caries of children in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso and secondly to determine whether or not individual factors, family and living conditions are linked with dental health disparities within the population., Methods: Interview and clinical data were obtained from a household-based cross-sectional survey. A two-stage stratified sampling technique was applied in four areas of Ouagadougou representing different stages of urbanization., Results: The final study population included 1606 children aged 6-12 years. For the overall group the total caries prevalence rate was 48.2%. Results showed that the dental health status of the mother, social integration of the householder and socioeconomic level of the household were associated with the dental health of children. Disparities in dental health were prominent; poor dental health was relatively frequent in children from households poorly integrated into social networks with rather acceptable standard in terms of material wealth., Conclusion: Our study showed that individual factors as well as family-related and environmental factors had an influence on their caries experience. The rapidly changing lifestyle affects oral health and the burden of oral diseases is expected to increase initially in people of upper classes and later in disadvantaged people. Disease prevention focussing on common risk factors of chronic diseases should be enhanced. In addition, the accessibility of quality fluoride products (e.g. toothpaste, salt, water) should be facilitated as soon as possible., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Urbanization is a fairly recent phenomenon. Thus during the 19th century, only 5% of the population was living in town. However it is more and more important as urban population has been multiplied by 15 since 1900. In Africa, this evolution is still more recent and the continent remains poorly urbanized. But the rate of urbanization is the fastest in the world and demographic forecasts indicate that by 2025, more than 50% of the African population will live in towns. Consequences of urbanization on human development are not well known. Concepts of demographic and epidemiological transitions were widely used for health. Health transition is another concept, including cultural, social and behavioural determining factors as well as ways of caring and being cared for. These processes account for the reduction of infectious diseases through a fall of mortality and birth rates and the emergence of non-transmissible diseases like cardiovascular diseases, cancers, mental diseases.... Although health situation is depicted as better in towns (better immunization, health care offer, better access to health care...), mortality and morbidity patterns seem to change more quickly in towns than in rural areas. However this is not true everywhere in urban areas where several towns are to be found within the same town and for example, health of populations living on margins may be worse than that of rural populations. Urban people resort to modern health care together with traditional healers, even informal, sometimes illegal health care, involving heavy costs but offering no guarantee as regards their quality and their efficiency for patients and society. It appears that developing countries have to face a new health care demand quite different from the one they used to face before, when they have simultaneously to cope with uncontrolled town growth. Under these conditions, urban health should become a priority.

Background: It is important to choose a valid spatial scale to study health differences in a geographical perspective. Many scales can be valid and a combination is required to understand the spatial distribution of a given health problem. Geographic distribution of lung cancer was studied in France using different scales to illustrate the importance of changing scales in health geography., Methods: Standardized rates (direct method) for lung cancer were calculated for the period 1988-92 and mapped at different scales., Results: Original spatial structure was observed for each scale. This proved that different interactions occur at each scale between environmental and social factors. Changing the scale allowed a better understanding of variations in the spatial distribution of lung cancer., Conclusions: The validity of a regional scale to study health geographical distributions is questioned. Changing the scale would allow proposing action to improve health promotion.

A survey carried out in Pikine (Senegal) on a sample of 5 groups of children drawn from ecologically representative sections of the town confirms the high prevalence in urban areas of Africa of intestinal infection, especially A. lumbricoides (35.6%), T. trichiura (35.4%), and Giardia (43.7%). The prevalence of A. lumbricoides (35.6%), T. trichiura (35.4%), and Giardia (43.7%). The prevalence of A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura are appreciably higher in the oldest sectors of the town or in those with a better sanitary standard: up to 47.7% for Ascaris and 46% for Trichuris. The use of X2 tests and log-linear analysis demonstrates a significant association between Ascaris and Trichuris. The highest prevalence for Giardia (56.8%) were to be found on the outskirts of the town, where the lowest prevalence of Ascaris (21.7%) and Trichuris (22.9%) were noted; moreover, age-based prevalence for the three parasites vary from one ecological area to another. The relationship between the urbanization process, the variation in environmental factors and intestinal parasitic infection, and the operational implications arising from this geographically-based approach are discussed.

Research conducted in Third World towns show the heterogeneity of health population status. Among the indicators, mortality and birth are the most frequent, but the quantity of data and the classical methods in demography make the localisation of high-risk population difficult. Civil Registration Data Base are seldom studied, especially by geographers. The author analyses the interest and limits of these data in a spatial perspective, i.e. mortality and birth rates, mortality and birth volumes, seasonal variations of mortality, and relations between seasonal variations and health system activities. The author's conclusion is on the necessity to include these indicators in the health information system after complementary research on possible bias.

To evaluate the impact of urban life-style on nutritional status, body mass index (BMI) of mothers and indices of malnutrition of preschool children were calculated in four representative surveys in two rural areas and two main cities of Western and Central Africa. Mean BMIs were similar in both urban settings and were significantly higher than those of rural mothers. Distributions shifted significantly towards values over 25 kgs/m2 in towns, although, values lower than 18.5 were still present. Therefore chronic energy deficiency, largely prevalent in many rural areas of Africa, remains important in cities, where obesity also appears to have become a public health concern. Wasting was rare in young urban children, but the prevalence of stunting, although lower, indicates the persistence of nutritional deficiencies. This situation of nutritional transition generates a double burden to already limited health finances and requires an appropriate educational policy.

This note concerns the analysis of a work written in the early years of the century by a discredited Polish nobleman. The book, pseudo-encyclopaedic in character and didactic in tone is cast presumably in the mould of the "Guide to the Perplexed". Among other traits it reflects a paranoiac personality. In the course of his observations the author of the article raises the question of pathography in general. After a historical and epistemological survey of the working methods employed in this field, he suggests a new critical attitude which claims to be "multi-disciplinary". Taking its stand on several different points of view - philosophical, literary, linguistic, psychodynamic. The analysis of the book by Prince Korab serves to illustrate this "non-reductive" form of approach.

In a view which takes into consideration together systemic concepts, concepts own to the field of communication theories, and ideas of comparative ethology, the author attempts an approach of the mechanisms governing interpersonal regulation of aggressive behaviour. After a brief review of characters of rites, he examines more specifically rites of aggression and of appeasement, currently observed in animal world, and that can be observed too in human species, at a stylized level. In this point of view, he studies not only specific characters of these rites, but their dynamic unrolling into interactional sequences, which can by symmetrical or complementary. He underlines the usefulness of rites in human relationships, especially their regulating value in mastering aggressive behaviour. He calls their therapeutic utilisation, notably in family therapy.

Mainly because of its universality the incest taboo has been a field of investigation open to a number of disciplines. The author reviews the most important theories concerning the bases of this taboo, arranged according to the point of view, finalist or determinist. He then considers the anew in the light of recent acquisitions stemming from ethology and family theory. It has been demonstrated that an instinctive barrier against incest exists in the family life of wild animals, bringing into play defence mechanisms analogous to those that obtain in the human family. Developing the subject, the author shows on the one hand how this discovery calls in question certain postulates hitherto regarded as definitive, and on the other hand how it opens the way to a more synthetic view of the problem.

The authors describe a clinical experiment of a year of multifamily pedagogical and therapeutic sessions in a psychiatric hospital. The families were those of inpatients, most of them psychotic. The theoretical frame was the systemic and contextual approach of the family. The experiment showed that this therapeutic level can be efficient and useful with families often described as rigid and closed to external interventions.