European journal of public health
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Eur J Public Health · Jun 2008
Risk factors for disability pension in a population-based cohort of men and women on long-term sick leave in Sweden.
Knowledge on predictors of disability pension is very limited. The aim was to assess the importance of sick-leave diagnosis and socio-demographic variables as risk factors for disability pension among individuals on long-term sickness absence and to compare these factors by gender and over time. ⋯ Besides socio-demographic risk factors, the sick-leave diagnoses constitute an important both medium and long-term predictor of disability pension among both men and women on long-term sickness absence.
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Eur J Public Health · Apr 2008
Discrimination, mental problems and social adaptation in young refugees.
Mental problems have been hypothesized to impede social adaptation and vice versa, and discrimination is assumed to interact with both. The available empirical documentation is, however, limited. The objective of this study is to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of associations and pathways between discrimination, mental problems and social adaptation in young refugees. ⋯ Perceived discrimination among young refugees from the Middle East is associated with mental problems and social adaptation. Discrimination seems to provoke internalizing but not externalizing behaviour. The direction of other pathways is ambiguous, suggesting a certain amount of recursive interaction between mental health, discrimination and social adaptation.
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Eur J Public Health · Feb 2008
Parental smoking behaviour and effects of tobacco smoke on children's health in Finland and Russia.
There is little information on potential differences in smoking behaviour of parents between Finland and Russia and on the effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure on allergic and respiratory diseases among Finnish and Russian children. The aim of the study was to compare the smoking behaviour of parents and school children and to assess the relations of tobacco smoke exposure during pregnancy and childhood with occurrence of allergic diseases and respiratory infections among school children. ⋯ Smoking behaviour of parents and ETS exposure during childhood differed markedly between Finland and Russia. Asthma was particularly increased in relation to high exposure to maternal smoking in Finland. The results suggest that more efforts should be directed to reducing tobacco smoke exposure of children in both Finland and Russia. (250 words).
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Eur J Public Health · Feb 2008
'Children and obesity: a pan-European project examining the role of food marketing'.
Rising levels of obesity in school-age children across Europe are causing increasing concern. The 'Children, Obesity and associated avoidable Chronic Diseases' project sought to examine the effects of promotion within food marketing, given the influential role it plays in children's diets. ⋯ Recommendations include the amendment of the European Union's Television Without Frontiers Directive to ban all TV advertising of unhealthy food to children, the adoption of a commonly agreed European Union definition of an 'unhealthy' food, and the establishment of a mechanism for pan-European monitoring of the nature and extent of food marketing to children and its regulation.