Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2011
Historical ArticleCauses, risks, and probabilities: probabilistic concepts of causation in chronic disease epidemiology.
Identifying and understanding causes of disease is arguably the central aim of the discipline of epidemiology. However, while the discipline has matured over the past sixty years, developing a battery of quantitative tools and methods for data analysis, the discipline of epidemiology lacks an explicit, shared theoretical account of causation. Moreover, some epidemiologists exhibit discomfort with the concept of causation itself, concerned that it creates more confusion than clarity. ⋯ The epidemiologic evidence linking cigarette smoking and lung cancer in the 1950s provided a focus for debates over causation. While some epidemiologists embraced probabilistic concepts of cause and effect, others maintained that causal mechanisms must ultimately be deterministic. The tension between probabilistic risk factors and deterministic causal mechanisms continues to haunt epidemiology today.
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Preventive medicine · Sep 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialIntervention effects of exercise self-regulation on physical exercise and eating fruits and vegetables: a longitudinal study in orthopedic and cardiac rehabilitation.
The primary objective of this study was to unveil the mechanisms by which an exercise self-regulation intervention affects physical exercise in a rehabilitation context. The second aim was to investigate whether the intervention led to changes in fruit and vegetable intake that was not targeted in the intervention. Finally, it was tested whether changes in exercise habit strength may explain such a transfer effect. ⋯ Interventions could be optimized if they aim at fostering exercise habits. This in turn may also facilitate transfer effects from one health behavior to the other.
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Preventive medicine · Sep 2011
ReviewThe role of clinical breast examination and breast self-examination.
The efficacy of screening by clinical breast examination (CBE) and/or breast self-examination (BSE) is reviewed using indirect evidence from randomized breast screening trials and that from observational studies. In countries where breast cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage, screening by CBE with the teaching of BSE as an integral component will probably be effective in reducing breast cancer mortality. However, in technically advanced countries where adequate treatment is given, no screening modality is likely to be sufficiently beneficial to outweigh the harms of screening, especially false positives and over-diagnosis.
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The study sought to determine BMI trajectories in Iraq/Afghanistan veterans over 6 years and to examine sociodemographic factors associated with BMI trajectory membership. ⋯ Higher post-deployment BMI was associated with greater BMI gain over time for both male and female veterans. Older age is associated with higher BMI regardless of gender. Education level and racial status are differentially related to BMI trajectory by gender.
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Preventive medicine · Sep 2011
Impact of a pedometer-based workplace health program on cardiovascular and diabetes risk profile.
To evaluate whether participation in a four-month, pedometer-based, physical activity, workplace health programme results in an improvement in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. ⋯ Completion of this four-month, pedometer-based, physical activity, workplace programme was associated with improvements in behavioural and anthropometric risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Long-term evaluation is required to evaluate the potential of such programmes to prevent the onset of chronic disease.