Journal of epidemiology and community health
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J Epidemiol Community Health · May 2015
Smoking, sex, risk factors and abdominal aortic aneurysms: a prospective study of 18 782 persons aged above 65 years in the Southern Community Cohort Study.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a leading cause of death in the USA. We evaluated the incidence and predictors of AAA in a prospectively followed cohort. ⋯ Smoking is a major risk factor for incident AAA, with a strong and similar association between men and women. Further studies are needed to evaluate benefits of ultrasound screening for AAA among women smokers.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · May 2015
Political party affiliation, political ideology and mortality.
Ecological and cross-sectional studies have indicated that conservative political ideology is associated with better health. Longitudinal analyses of mortality are needed because subjective assessments of ideology may confound subjective assessments of health, particularly in cross-sectional analyses. ⋯ Political party affiliation and political ideology appear to be different predictors of mortality.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · May 2015
Socioeconomic inequalities in cause-specific mortality in 15 European cities.
Socioeconomic inequalities are increasingly recognised as an important public health issue, although their role in the leading causes of mortality in urban areas in Europe has not been fully evaluated. In this study, we used data from the INEQ-CITIES study to analyse inequalities in cause-specific mortality in 15 European cities at the beginning of the 21st century. ⋯ The results confirm the existence of socioeconomic inequalities in many of the main causes of mortality, and reveal variations in their magnitude between different European cities.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · May 2015
Health service use, out-of-pocket payments and catastrophic health expenditure among older people in India: the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE).
Healthcare financing through out-of-pocket payments and inequities in healthcare utilisation are common in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Given the dearth of pertinent studies on these issues among older people in LMICs, we investigated the determinants of health service use, out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures among older people in one LMIC, India. ⋯ Reducing out-of-pocket health expenditure among older people is an important public health issue, in which social as well as medical determinants should be prioritised. Enhanced public health sector performance and provision of publicly funded insurance may protect against catastrophic health expenses and healthcare inequities in India.