1,721,045 research outputs found
Mortality of employees of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, 1946-97
No full textBackground: The workforce of the UK Atomic Energy Authority has been the subject of several previous epidemiological investigations. Aims: To detect and investigate associations between mortality rates and employment in a substantially increased cohort size and follow up extended to 1997. Methods and Results: The new cohort included 51 367 employees, of whom 10 249 were dead. Mortality rates for all workers were low compared to national rates, as were rates in radiation workers and for workers monitored for internal contamination. For radiation workers all cause mortality and all cancer mortality were significantly lower than for non-radiation workers. There was no overall trend of increasing mortality with radiation dose. There was little evidence of raised mortality from leukaemia. The association of prostatic cancer with radiation dose was much less significant than in previous reports. However, the relatively high mortality from uterine cancers among radiation workers remained, though the numbers were very small. The association was with endometrial rather than cervical cancer. Mortality from cancer of the pleura was high among radiation workers, but was not correlated with dose. Conclusion: Overall, radiation workers at UKAEA showed no excess mortality. The previously detected association of prostate cancer with high radiation dose may have been a statistical artefact or a risk associated with discontinued activities. Endometrial cancer occurred at higher rates in female radiation workers, but, because there was no correlation with dose, may well be due to something other than their radiation exposure. Cancer of the pleura in radiation workers was almost certainly related to past asbestos exposure. <br/
Lobar pneumonia - an occupational disease in welders
No full textWe have used data from three analyses of occupational mortality for England and Wales to investigate a suspected hazard of pneumonia in welders. Mortality from the disease was consistently raised in welders aged 15-64, with standardised mortality ratios of 184 (95% Cl 150-224) in 1959-63 and 157 (121-200) in 1970-72. Analysis of data for 1979-80 and 1982-90 showed that the increased risk is attributable mainly to an excess of pneumococcal and unspecified lobar pneumonia (proportional mortality ratio 255, 95% Cl 192-332). No excess occurred in men above retirement age (65). A possible explanation of these findings is that welding fume reversibly increases the susceptibility of the lung to pneumonic infection. The observation of a similar mortality pattern in moulders and coremakers points to the metallic component of the fume as a possible culprit, but ozone or oxides of nitrogen could also be implicated. There are grounds for lobar pneumonia to be considered an occupational disease in welder
Dietary patterns in pregnant women: a comparison of food-frequency questionnaires and 4 d prospective diaries
No full textThere is growing interest in the use of dietary patterns as measures of exposure in studies of diet-disease relationships. However, relatively little is known about the impact of the type of dietary assessment method on the patterns observed. Using FFQ and food diary data collected from 585 women in early pregnancy we used principal component analysis to define dietary patterns. The first pattern was very similar in both datasets and was termed the 'prudent' diet. The second pattern, whilst comparable for the FFQ and food diaries, showed greater variation in coefficients than the prudent pattern; it was termed the 'Western' diet. Differences between the FFQ and diary scores were calculated for each woman for both the prudent and Western diet patterns. Of the differences in the prudent diet score, 95 % lay within +/- 1.58 sd of the mean, and 95 % of the differences in the Western diet scores lay within +/- 2.22 sd of the mean. Pearson's correlation coefficients were 0.67 (P < 0.001) for the prudent diet score and 0.35 (P < 0.001) for the Western diet score. The agreement between the FFQ and diary scores was lowest amongst respondents who were younger, had lower educational attainment and whose diaries were coded as 'poor, probably incomplete', although these effects were small. The first two dietary patterns identified in this cohort of pregnant women appear to be defined similarly by both FFQ and diary data, suggesting that FFQ data provide useful information on dietary pattern
Pathways of disadvantage and smoking careers : evidence and policy implications.
No full textObjectives: To investigate in older industrialised societies (a) how social disadvantage contributes to smoking risk among women (b) the role of social and economic policies in reducing disadvantage and moderating wider inequalities in life chances and living standards. Methods: Review and analysis of (a) the effects of disadvantage in childhood and into adulthood on women’s smoking status in early adulthood (b) policy impacts on the social exposures associated with high smoking risk. Main results: (a) Smoking status—ever smoking, current smoking, heavy smoking, and cessation—is influenced not only by current circumstances but by longer term biographies of disadvantage (b) social and economic policies shape key social predictors of women’s smoking status, including childhood circumstances, educational levels and adult circumstances, and moderate inequalities in the distribution of these dimensions of life chances and living standards. Together, the two sets of findings argue for a policy toolkit that acts on the distal determinants of smoking, with interventions targeting the conditions in which future and current smokers live. Conclusions: An approach to tobacco control is advocated that combines changing smoking habits with reducing inequalities in the social trajectories in which they are embedded. Policies to level up opportunities and living standards across the lifecourse should be championed as part of an equity oriented approach to reducing the disease burden of cigarette smoking
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