Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health articles from February 2004

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health archives from February 2004

Disabling words.(The JECH Gallery)
February 1, 2004... The words that are used to describe diseases and conditions change over time and reflect not only advances in medical knowledge but also prevailing social and cultural values. The etymology of the term "handicapped" suggests that it has its...

Getting the language right is sometimes more than political correctness.(The JECH Gallery)
February 1, 2004... Inappropriate signing for disabled people at Hong Kong's new airport. Handicap is a sign of failure when the provision for disabled people is inadequate. John R Ashton North West Public Health Team, North West Public Health Team,...

Once a week is not enough: effects of a widely implemented group based exercise programme for older adults; a randomised controlled trial.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy and Practice)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:83-88 Objectives: To determine the effects of gymnastics on the health related quality of life (HRQoL) and functional status of independently living people, aged 65 to 80 years. Gymnastics formed part of...

Are GP practice prescribing rates for coronary heart disease drugs equitable? A cross sectional analysis in four primary care trusts in England.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy and Practice)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:89-96 Study objective: To analyse the associations between proxies of healthcare need and GP practice prescribing rates for five major coronary heart disease (CHD) drug groups. Design: Cross...

Influential women in occupational health Vilma R Hunt--Nuclear Expert, Science Educator.(The JECH Gallery)
February 1, 2004... 1926-Country of birth: Australia Like many Australians, the first words Vilma Hunt learnt were "When I travel around the world..." Hunt decided early that science was her ticket to travel. A watershed event occurred in 1975, when her...

Impact of regionalisation of cardiac surgery in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy and Practice)
February 1, 2004... J. Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:97-102 Study objective: Assessment of the impact of the regionalisation of cardiac surgery through the organisational form of a hub & spoke model introduced in the year 2000. Design: Case mix...

Achieving change is about more than ticking boxes.(Aphorism of the Month)
February 1, 2004... The argument about the value of targets is current in the United Kingdom's search for improved health at the present time, yet we know that the battle for hearts and minds for buy-in and ownership are at least as important as an accountancy...

Predicted health impacts of urban air quality management.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy and Practice)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:103-113 Study objective: The 1995 UK Environment Act required local authorities to review air quality and, where UK National Air Quality Strategy objectives (except ozone) are likely to be exceeded in...

Developmental origins of adult health and disease: the aim of this glossary is to define some key terms used in the field of developmental and life course epidemiology.(Glossary)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:114-115 ADAPTATION The changes by which living things surmount the challenges of life. BRAIN SPARING A human baby receiving an inadequate supply of nutrients or oxygen may protect its...

Cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention: this glossary contains a small number of terms from the field of cardiovascular disease, selected for a non-specialist readership.(Glossary)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:116-119 The scientific field of epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease is enormous. Thus, in this glossary the reader will find only a comparatively small number of terms, selected...

Is it possible and worth keeping track of deaths within general practice? Results of a 15 year observational study.(Echo)
February 1, 2004... Aim: To assess the value of maintaining a death register in a general practice with particular reference to monitoring quality of care. Design of study: Observational study. Setting: Inner London general practice. Method: The...

Birth weight is inversely associated with coronary heart disease in post-menopausal women: findings from the British women's heart and health study.(Research Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:120-125 Objectives: (1) To assess the association between birth weight and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in a cohort of post-menopausal women, (2) to determine the combined effects of birth weight...

Birth characteristics of offspring and parental diabetes: evidence for the fetal insulin hypothesis.(Short Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:126-128 Birth weight of people is related to their risk of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), which may reflect intra-uterine programming of disease risk, or common genetic factors related...

Socioeconomic status, occupation, and risk of hospitalisation due to coxarthrosis in Denmark 1981-99.(Echo)
February 1, 2004... Objectives: To predict the relative risk and time trend in hospitalisation due to coxarthrosis (CA) among groups of different socioeconomic status and occupations in order to test existing aetiological hypotheses. Methods: Four consecutive...

Seasonal congestive heart failure mortality and hospitalisation trends, Quebec 1990-1998.(Short Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:129-130 Study objective: To describe seasonal congestive heart failure (CHF) mortality and hospitalisations in Quebec, Canada between 1990-1998 and compare trends in CHF mortality and morbidity with...

Low job control and myocardial infarction risk in the occupational categories of Kaunas men, Lithuania.(Research Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:131-135 Study objective: To determine the association between adverse psychosocial characteristics at work and risk of first myocardial infarction in the occupational categories of Kaunas men, Lithuania....

Geochemistry of ground water and the incidence of acute myocardial infarction in Finland.(Research Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:136-139 Study objective: To examine the association of spatial variation in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) incidence and its putative environmental determinants in ground water such as total water...

Case-control study of the association between kava use and ischaemic heart disease in Aboriginal communities in eastern Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) Australia.(Short Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:140-141 Kava, (Piper methysticum Forst. f., "Intoxicating pepper"), is a consciousness-changing muscle relaxant consumed in the Pacific islands and, since 1982, by indigenous Australians in eastern...

Skin cancer in people with multiple sclerosis: a record linkage study.(Research Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:142-144 Objective: The prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) varies with latitude: it increases with distance from the equator in both hemispheres. To seek evidence on whether solar radiation is a...

Country of birth, socioeconomic position, and healthcare expenditure: a multilevel analysis of Malmo, Sweden.(Research Report)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:145-149 Study objective: The principle of equity aims to guarantee allocation of healthcare resources on the basis of need. Therefore, people with a low income and persons living alone are expected to...

Predicting geographical variations in behavioural risk factors: an analysis of physical and mental healthy days.(Theory and Methods)
February 1, 2004... J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:150-155 Study objectives: To determine the validity of physical and mental unhealthy days as summary measures for county health status and to forward a method for examining county level health trends...

Smoking verification and the risk of myocardial infarction.(Letters)
February 1, 2004... If you have a burning desire to respond to a paper published in JECH, why not make use of our "rapid response" option? Log on to our web site (www.jech.com), find the paper that interests you, and send your response via email by clicking on...

Authors' reply.(Letters)
February 1, 2004... We appreciate the comments from Cope and Battersby on our paper reporting the association between smoking cessation and smoking reduction and subsequent risk of myocardial infarction. Specifically, they propose that the lack of a beneficial...

Fibrinogen, social position, and risk of heart disease.(Letters)
February 1, 2004... The report by Jousilahti and colleagues adds to growing evidence of a consistent association between serum inflammatory markers--particularly fibrinogen--and social position. (1-3) These authors interpret their data as suggesting that the...

Air pollution and asthma in children.(Letters)
February 1, 2004... Lin and colleagues have published an interesting paper on asthma hospitalisation in children. (1) They concluded that the study showed positive relations between gaseous pollutants and asthma hospitalisation in children and that the effects of...

Authors' reply.(Letters)
February 1, 2004... We appreciate Dr Finkelstein's comments on our paper (1) regarding sex differences in effects of air pollution on asthma hospitalisation and the possible impact that autocorrelations in the data would have on our risk estimates. In our study,...

Smoking cessation services may not reduce inequalities.(Letters)
February 1, 2004... Given the oft quoted proposition that health promotion interventions frequently increase, rather than decrease, socioeconomic inequalities in health (SEIH), (1) we were interested to read the article by Lowey et al. (2) However, we believe that...

Authors' reply.
February 1, 2004... Adams and White fall shy of refuting that smoking cessation services are reducing inequalities. However, using our data (1) and speculative levels of smoking, they examine how smoking cessation services might have changed the relative risk of...

Hygieia.
February 1, 2004... The presence of osteoarthritis (OA) in any finger joint significantly predicted cardiovascular deaths in Finnish men. A total of 7127 Finns aged 30 and over participated in a general health examination, of which 3595 gave hand radiographs....