International journal of epidemiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Health status of Persian Gulf War veterans: self-reported symptoms, environmental exposures and the effect of stress.
Most US troops returned home from the Persian Gulf War (PGW) by Spring 1991 and many began reporting increased health symptoms and medical problems soon after. This investigation examines the relationships between several Gulf-service environmental exposures and health symptom reporting, and the role of traumatic psychological stress on the exposure-health symptom relationships. ⋯ Veterans deployed to the Persian Gulf have higher self-reported prevalence of health symptoms compared to PGW veterans who were deployed only as far as Germany. Several Gulf-service environmental exposures are associated with increased health symptom reporting involving predicted body-systems, after adjusting for war-zone stressor exposures and PTSD.
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Deaths exhibit a seasonal pattern in most parts of the world. Analyses of deaths for the years 1972-1974 from the vital registration system of Matlab, Bangladesh, published in this journal 17 years ago, showed sinusoidal seasonal patterns. As death rates have declined in other nations, the seasonal pattern is attenuated. Death rates have declined substantially in Bangladesh in the past two decades. Thus, the present study examines monthly counts of deaths from Matlab data for a period 15 years later and tests the hypothesis of a decrease or shift in seasonality over time. ⋯ Marked seasonal patterns of deaths persist in the Matlab area of Bangladesh even as the level of mortality has declined.
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Hip fracture as a consequence of osteoporosis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among the elderly. Due to improving life expectancy, the number of elderly individuals is increasing more rapidly in the developing countries of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Incidence of hip fracture, which rises exponentially with age, varies substantially between countries and according to the age, sex, and ethnic distribution of the population. Highest rates are observed in Scandinavia and in whites in the US, intermediate in western Europe, and the lowest rates in Asia. Little is known about the epidemiology of hip fractures in the Middle Eastern populations. In particular, there are no published reports from any of the Arab countries. We have therefore estimated the incidence of hip fracture in Kuwait and compared it with other populations. ⋯ The incidence of hip fracture in the Kuwaiti population is higher than that reported from other countries in Asia and is comparable to the incidence in some of the western European and North American populations.
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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers in the world and is particularly prevalent in China. China is also a hyperendemic area for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Although a strong association between HBV infection and HCC has been established previously, the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the interaction between HBV and HCV in the development of HCC has not been adequately explored. The major objective of this study is to determine the relationship between HBV or HCV infection and HCC by use of case-control study in Henan, China. ⋯ This is the first reported case-control study of HCC in Henan, China. This study provides further evidence that chronic HBV infection is strongly associated with the development of HCC among this population. Our results have demonstrated that HCV and HBV infection are independent and probably additive risk factors for HCC.
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In the 1980s socioeconomic development was dramatically rapid in the urbanized municipalities of Taiwan due to a prospering economy. This study addressed the question: Could differences in the incidence of childhood leukaemia (age <15) be demonstrated between urban and rural communities in Taiwan between 1981 and 1990? ⋯ We noticed a relationship between urbanization and risk of leukaemia in children. Because of a dramatic influx of people into metropolitan areas during the 1980s, our findings may have provided support for the putative association between 'population mixing' or 'population density' and risk of childhood leukaemia. Whether such association can be attributable to virus infection or other aetiologically related leukemogens warrants further investigations.