Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health articles from May 2001

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health archives from May 2001

The new UK health inequalities targets.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... On 28 February last year, the new Labour UK government announced the first ever health inequalities targets for Britain. In the words of the secretary of state for health, Alan Milburn, "these targets represent the most fundamental challenge to...

Just imagine politicians working for health equity.(Column)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Dear politicians in rich countries, I write to issue a challenge to you: are any of you brave enough to really tackle health inequities both in your own country and between your country and the poorer countries of the world? But I can...

Health and housing: a lasting relationship.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... This photograph shows the condition of some of the worst housing in the Glasgow constituency of Shettleston, which had the highest premature standardised mortality ratios in Britain in the period 1996-98. [1] Leaking soil pipes have caused the...

A widening horizon for European public health practice.
May 1, 2001... In Spring 1998 the previous European Commission (EC), sometime before all the Commissioners resigned en masse, published a discussion document on future directions for European Union (EU) public health strategy. [1] EU policies in this field...

A basic glossary of vaccinology.(Glossary)
May 1, 2001... We have prepared a basic glossary to give readers of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health an understanding of the main terms currently used in vaccinology. Vaccines (products producing active immunity, thereby protecting the body...

Suicide in doctors: a study of risk according to gender, seniority and specialty in medical practitioners in England and Wales, 1979-1995.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Study objective--To investigate the suicide risk of doctors in England and Wales, according to gender, seniority and specialty. Design--Retrospective cohort study. Suicide rates calculated by gender, age, specialty, seniority...

Relative contribution of early life and adult socioeconomic factors to adult morbidity in the Whitehall II study.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Study objective--To determine the relative contribution of adult compared with early life socioeconomic status as predictors of morbidity attributable to coronary heart disease (CHD), chronic bronchitis and depression in the...

Prognostic factors in women with breast cancer: distribution by socioeconomic status and effect on differences in survival.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Study objective--To quantify and investigate differences in survival from breast cancer between women resident in affluent and deprived areas and define the contribution of underlying factors to this variation. ...

Long working hours and risk for hypertension in Japanese male white collar workers.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Study objective--To evaluate the association of long working hours with the risk for hypertension. Design--A five year prospective cohort study. Setting--Work site in Osaka, Japan. Participants--941 hypertension free...

Survival after initial hospitalisation for heart failure: a multilevel analysis of patients in Swedish acute care hospitals.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Study objective--Although national variation in short-term prognosis (that is, 30 day mortality) after a patient's first hospitalisation for heart failure may depend on individual differences between patients, dissimilarities in...

Housing tenure and car access: further exploration of the nature of their relations with health in a UK setting.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Housing tenure and car access predict longevity and health in many European countries. It is usually assumed that they do so only because they are markers of other material determinants of health. However, in a previous paper we showed that...

Mismatch between perceived and actual overweight in diabetic and non-diabetic populations: a comparative study of South Asian and European women.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Diabetes is more common in South Asian (defined here as Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin) populations compared with Europeans. This may be related to their greater abdominal obesity. [1] Weight loss and maintenance are crucial in the...

Smoking in adolescence and young adulthood and mortality in later life: prospective observational study.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... As experimentation with smoking occurs overwhelmingly in adolescence, a major objective of government strategy is to reduce smoking among young people. [1] However, most studies of the association between mortality and smoking have relied on...

Abortion and breast cancer: a case-control record linkage study.(no link between induced abortion and breast cancer)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... There is controversy about whether interruption of pregnancy, particularly if it is induced rather than spontaneous, increases the risk of breast cancer. Individual studies, and reviews summarising them, have given conflicting results. [1,2]...

Incidence of ocular melanoma in the general population and in glaucoma patients.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Intraocular melanomas are the most common primary ocular malignancy in white people accounting for approximately 70% of all eye malignancies in adults. [1] Most ocular melanomas arise from uveal melanocytes distributed throughout the stoma of...

Social circumstances in childhood and cardiovascular disease mortality: prospective observational study of Glasgow University students.(Scotland)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Background Adverse socioeconomic circumstances in childhood have been related to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in adulthood in most, but not all, studies. [1] The findings of such studies can be difficult to interpret given...

Rationalising chances of success in intersectoral health policy making.
May 1, 2001... Abstract Objective--It is generally accepted that a wide range of factors determine the health of a population, many of which are beyond the remit of the Ministry of Health. The aim of intersectoral health policy is to influence these...

Methods used to maintain a high level of participant involvement in a clinical trial.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To describe the strategies adopted to maintain high level participation throughout a community based clinical trial, and the reasons given by participants for why they participated in the study. ...

What is the difference between controlling for mean versus median income in analyses of income me quality?(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... It is routine to control for "average" income when assessing the independent effect of income inequality on health, but authors have used different measures, for example, percentage poverty, [1] per capita or mean income, [2] and median income....

Are cities becoming more unhealthy? An analysis of mortality rates in Belfast and Dublin between 1981 and 1991 to illustrate a methodological difficulty with ecological studies.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Z Johnson [*] Ecological studies are increasingly being used to monitor changes in status over time or as a way of evaluating area based policy interventions [1] and as a method of examining for widening inequalities in health. [2] The...

Large decline in injecting drug use in Amsterdam, 1986-1998: explanatory mechanisms and determinants of injecting transitions.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Abstract Objectives--To study community wide trends in injecting prevalence and trends in injecting transitions, and determinants. Design--Open cohort study with follow up every four months (Amsterdam Cohort Study). Generalised...

Use of health services by prison inmates: comparisons with the community.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... The future organisation of prison health care [1] recommends that the NHS and the Prison Service work together to plan and provide health care services for prisoners. Whereas previously the Prison Service had this responsibility alone. The NHS...

Performance of surrogate markers of low birth weight at community level in rural India.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Low birth weight (LBW) is the most important determinant of infant mortality rate (IMR). [1] In India, the current IMR is around 72 per 1000 live births and prematurity and LBW account for 49.6% of infant mortality as reported by the government...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2001... Working conditions and sickness absence: a complex relation EDITOR,--A recent article [1] in this journal has commented on the part played by working conditions, especially psychosocial risk factors, in causing sickness absence, and two...