Preventive medicine
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Although tuberculosis has already become uncommon in industrialised countries, is a major burden in many developing countries, including India. This paper examines the association between smoking (mainly bidi smoking) and tuberculosis in Mumbai, India. ⋯ In India around 32% of tuberculosis deaths can be attributable to bidi smoking. Thus, bidi smoking seems to be an important cause of manifestation and death from tuberculosis.
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Few studies in the US have assessed physical activity levels across worker groups, despite the increasingly sedentary milieu of contemporary US occupations and increasing obesity rates among US workers. The present study determined the proportion of US workers meeting the Healthy People 2010 Guidelines for leisure-time physical activity levels in major US occupational groups. ⋯ Leisure-time physical activity levels were sub-optimal among all major US worker groups, with substantial variability across occupations. As part of disease prevention, health professionals should promote increased physical activity levels among those occupations identified with very low rates of leisure-time physical activity.
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Preventive medicine · May 2007
Long-term effects of a playground markings and physical structures on children's recess physical activity levels.
The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of a playground redesign intervention across time on children's recess physical activity levels using combined physical activity measures and to evaluate the potential influence of covariates on the intervention effect. ⋯ The results suggest that a playground redesign, which utilizes multicolor playground markings and physical structures, is a suitable stimulus for increasing children's school recess physical activity levels.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2007
Years of potential life lost among heroin addicts 33 years after treatment.
To examine premature mortality in terms of years of potential life lost (YPLL) among a cohort of long-term heroin addicts. ⋯ The YPLL among addicts was much higher than that in the national population; within the cohort, premature mortality was higher among Whites and Hispanics compared to African American addicts.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2007
Non-alcoholic beverage and caffeine consumption and mortality: the Leisure World Cohort Study.
To examine the effects of non-alcoholic beverage and caffeine consumption on all-cause mortality in older adults. ⋯ Moderate caffeine consumption appeared beneficial in reducing risk of death. Attenuation in the observed associations between mortality and intake of tea and milk with adjustment for potential confounders suggests that such consumption identifies those with other mortality-associated lifestyle and health risks. The increased death risk with consumption of artificially sweetened, but not sugar-sweetened, soft drinks suggests an effect of the sweetener rather than other components of the soft drinks, although residual confounding remains a possibility.