Scandinavian journal of social medicine
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Sickness absence and disability pension due to musculoskeletal diagnoses has increased in Sweden. ⋯ More women than men were sick-listed in "all diagnoses" in 1985. There were corresponding gender differences in sickness absence with musculoskeletal diagnoses except with the diagnosis "low back pain". Sick-listing with musculoskeletal diagnoses increased for both women and men from 1985 to 1987, but the increase was consistently much higher for women, especially for younger women.
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The mental health of 63 refugee children, with a mean age of 5.9 years, from Chile and the Middle East, were studied during the first 18 months of exile in Stockholm, Sweden. 46% of the children were rated as having poor mental health five months after resettlement in symptom interviews with parents based on the structured questionnaire developed by Cederblad, and 44% thirteen months later. Political violence in the home country and stress in the family sphere in exile were identified as the major determinants of poor mental health in this context.
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The associations between measures assessing bereaved carers' health status and their perceptions of the quality of palliative care delivered by community nurses, general practitioners and hospital doctors to cancer patients in their last year of life are investigated in this paper. Analysis was conducted on a sub-sample from the Regional Study of Care for the Dying (RSCD), a survey in which relatives or friends of a random sample of deaths in 1990 in 20 health districts in England were interviewed some 10 months after the death. ⋯ The results showed statistically significant associations between bereaved carers' self-rating of health status, their psychological functioning, their experience of bereavement-related health problems, and their satisfaction with services delivered by the different providers. Further research is needed, however, to explore in-depth the nature of these associations.
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Multicenter Study
Incidence of falls in three different types of geriatric care. A Swedish prospective study.
The incidence and consequences of falls were investigated in three different types of Swedish geriatric care clinics: a geriatric rehabilitation clinic, a psychogeriatric clinic and a nursing home. Falls were prospectively registered by the nursing staff. ⋯ Most falls (62%) did not result in injury, while major injuries occurred in 5%. We conclude that accidental falls are a major problem in geriatric care in Sweden, but there is a considerable difference in incidence rates between different types of institutions.
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The prevalence of pain combinations among school children is addressed in view of earlier findings of high pain prevalence in this population. The study considers the prevalence of combinations of three common pains headache, stomach pain and back pain-in a random national sample of 2173 Icelandic 11-12 and 15-16 year-old school children. According to the results from this study there is a 78.2% prevalence of monthly pain. ⋯ Girls have significantly more frequent overall pain than boys. The distribution of pain combinations varies by age but not overall pain. The study yields important information about the extent of the overall problem of pain among school children and indicates the need to further study the correlates of different pain combinations in this age group.