American journal of epidemiology
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The authors estimated the association between asthma and body mass index in a 1963-2002 study of 135,000 Norwegians aged 14-60 years who were followed on average for 21 years. Cox proportional hazards regression models were fitted to estimate the relative risk of asthma adjusting for smoking, education, and physical activity. Compared with persons with a body mass index (weight (kg)/height (m)(2)) of less than 25, overweight (body mass index: 25-29) men and women had relative risks of asthma of 1.27 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13, 1.43) and 1.30 (95% CI: 1.17, 1.45), respectively, while obese (body mass index: >/=30) men and women had relative risks of 1.78 (95% CI: 1.35, 2.34) and 1.99 (95% CI: 1.67, 2.37), respectively. ⋯ In men, the risk of asthma increased by 10% with each unit of increased body mass index between 25 and 30. The similar value for women was 7%. Overweight or obese persons reported asthma more often than did thinner persons after adjustment for smoking, education, and physical activity.
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Gallstone disease is a major source of morbidity in Western countries. Nuts are rich in several compounds that may be protective against gallstones. The objective of the study was to examine the relation between nut consumption and gallstone disease in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. ⋯ Further adjustment for fat consumption (saturated fat, trans-fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat) did not materially alter the relation. In analyses examining consumption of peanuts and other nuts separately, both were significantly associated with a lower risk of gallstone disease in the age-adjusted and multivariate models. Our findings suggest that frequent nut consumption is associated with a reduced risk of gallstone disease in men.
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Data from a US mortality follow-back survey were analyzed to determine whether having a firearm in the home increases the risk of a violent death in the home and whether risk varies by storage practice, type of gun, or number of guns in the home. Those persons with guns in the home were at greater risk than those without guns in the home of dying from a homicide in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 3.4). ⋯ Persons with guns in the home were also more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from one committed by using a different method (adjusted odds ratio = 31.1, 95% confidence interval: 19.5, 49.6). Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.