European journal of epidemiology
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To identify predictive factors for 2-year mortality in frail elderly patients after acute hospitalisation, and from these to derive and validate a Mortality Risk Index (MRI). A prospective cohort of elderly patients was set up in nine teaching hospitals. This cohort was randomly split up into a derivation cohort (DC) of 870 subjects and a validation cohort (VC) of 436 subjects. ⋯ The area under the ROC curve for overall score was statistically the same in the DC (0.72) as in the VC (0.71). The proposed MRI appears as a simple and easy-to-use tool developed from relevant geriatric variables. Its accuracy is good and the validation procedure gives a good stability of results.
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To investigate the independent associations between occupational and educational based measures of socioeconomic status (SES) and cause-specific mortality, and the extent to which potentially modifiable risk factors smoking and body mass index (BMI) explain such relationships. ⋯ Social class and education are not necessarily interchangeable measures of SES. Some but not all of the socioeconomic differential in mortality can be explained by potentially modifiable risk factors smoking and BMI. Further understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association of each socioeconomic indicator with specific health outcomes is needed if we are to reduce inequalities in health.
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Mortality rates after hip fracture have not declined in 20 years. We assessed the impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on mortality after hip fracture, and compared mortality in this cohort to persons without hip fracture in a population-based prospective cohort study. ⋯ In this cohort, persons with COPD have a 60-70% higher risk of death following hip fracture than those without COPD. In addition, hip fracture and COPD increased 1-year mortality 3-5 times that of persons without hip fracture.
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Although a regular moderate physical activity is commonly accepted as an important heath promoting factor, the role of professional sport training is still under debate. The presented mortality analysis, concerning the period of 1946-2000, was performed for three groups of people completely healthy in youth, but exhibiting different physical activity level in those days: all Polish athletes who participated in the Olympic Games (1689 males, 424 females), drama actors/actresses (2406/1938), and monks/ nuns (796/323). In all studied cohorts mortality was lower than that of gender adjusted, Polish urban population. ⋯ The sportsmen also exhibited the longest mean survival. The similar, but not statistically significant trends were observed for female cohorts. All the obtained results proved that high level physical activity in youth positively influenced men's mortality, what was observed for the former athletes even after 40 years since the end of their professional carrier.