Journal of epidemiology and community health
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Feb 1998
Psychosocial work environment and cardiovascular risk factors in an occupational cohort in France.
Concordant results have been reported in several studies for the effects of job stress on cardiovascular disease, but the potential mechanisms of these effects have seldom been explored. The aim of this study was therefore to examine, in women and men, the cross sectional relations between psychosocial work variables (psychological demands, decision latitude, and social support) and cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, overweight, smoking, and alcohol consumption). ⋯ These cross sectional results underline the potential effects of psychosocial work characteristics on cardiovascular risk factors and the differences between the effects of job stress in men and women, and confirm the direct mechanisms (through physiological variables) and indirect mechanisms (through behavioural risk factors) potentially involved in the relation between psychosocial work characteristics and cardiovascular disease.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Aug 1997
Fatal methadone and heroin overdoses: time trends in England and Wales.
Although the total number of self poisonings in England and Wales has dropped by 32%, the number involving methadone and/or heroin rose by 900% in 1974-92. Because of concern about the role of methadone in this increase, the part played by methadone and heroin in poisoning deaths in England and Wales in 1974-92 was investigated. ⋯ The impact of opiate addiction on rates of death by poisoning is rising quickly. This may reflect the growth of the addict population and is an important public health problem. There is no evidence that methadone's involvement in these deaths has risen disproportionately in relation to that of heroin up to 1992.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Aug 1997
A confidential enquiry into emergency hospital admissions on the Isle of Wight, UK.
To quantify the proportion of potentially avoidable emergency short term admissions to hospital and to identify ways in which they could have been avoided. ⋯ Urgent consultant opinion, either in A&E or in an outpatient clinic, would have prevented most of these inappropriate admissions, and home support would have expedited the ability to discharge some patients. Further research into the costs and benefits of methods for providing these services is needed urgently.