1,721,071 research outputs found
A comparative analysis of risk factor associations with interval and screen-detected breast cancers: a large UK prospective study
Full text linkThe associations of certain factors, such as age and menopausal hormone therapy, with breast cancer risk are known to differ for interval and screen-detected cancers. However, the extent to which associations of other established breast cancer risk factors differ by mode of detection is unclear. We investigated associations of a wide range of risk factors using data from a large UK cohort with linkage to the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme, cancer registration, and other health records. We used Cox regression to estimate adjusted relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between risk factors and breast cancer risk. A total of 9421 screen-detected and 5166 interval cancers were diagnosed in 517,555 women who were followed for an average of 9.72 years. We observed the following differences in risk factor associations by mode of detection: greater body mass index (BMI) was associated with a smaller increased risk of interval (RR per 5 unit increase 1.07, 95% CI 1.03–1.11) than screen-detected cancer (RR 1.27, 1.23–1.30); having a first-degree family history was associated with a greater increased risk of interval (RR 1.81, 1.68–1.95) than screen-detected cancer (RR 1.52, 1.43–1.61); and having had previous breast surgery was associated with a greater increased risk of interval (RR 1.85, 1.72–1.99) than screen-detected cancer (RR 1.34, 1.26–1.42). As these differences in associations were relatively unchanged after adjustment for tumour grade, and are in line with the effects of these factors on mammographic density, they are likely to reflect the effects of these risk factors on screening sensitivity
Cellular Telephone Use and the Risk of Brain Tumors: Update of the UK Million Women Study
Full text linkBACKGROUND: The ongoing debate of whether use of cellular telephones increases the risk of developing a brain tumor was recently fueled by the launch of the fifth generation of wireless technologies. Here, we update follow-up of a large-scale prospective study on the association between cellular telephone use and brain tumors. METHODS: During 1996-2001, 1.3 million women born in 1935-1950 were recruited into the study. Questions on cellular telephone use were first asked in median year 2001 and again in median year 2011. All study participants were followed via record linkage to National Health Services databases on deaths and cancer registrations (including nonmalignant brain tumors). RESULTS: During 14 years follow-up of 776 156 women who completed the 2001 questionnaire, a total of 3268 incident brain tumors were registered. Adjusted relative risks for ever vs never cellular telephone use were 0.97 (95% confidence interval = 0.90 to 1.04) for all brain tumors, 0.89 (95% confidence interval = 0.80 to 0.99) for glioma, and not statistically significantly different to 1.0 for meningioma, pituitary tumors, and acoustic neuroma. Compared with never-users, no statistically significant associations were found, overall or by tumor subtype, for daily cellular telephone use or for having used cellular telephones for at least 10 years. Taking use in 2011 as baseline, there were no statistically significant associations with talking for at least 20 minutes per week or with at least 10 years use. For gliomas occurring in the temporal and parietal lobes, the parts of the brain most likely to be exposed to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from cellular telephones, relative risks were slightly below 1.0. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the accumulating evidence that cellular telephone use under usual conditions does not increase brain tumor incidence
Adiposity and risk of oesophageal cancer subtypes in the Million Women Study
Full text linkBackground
The strong association of body mass index (BMI) with increased oesophageal adenocarcinoma risk is established, but its relationship with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma is less clear. There is little evidence regarding the association of abdominal adiposity with either subtype.
Methods
In a large prospective cohort of women in the UK, mean age 56.2 [standard deviation (SD) = 4.9] years, we investigated the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in relation to self-reported BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR), using Cox regression to estimate adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), taking account of potential reverse causation bias.
Results
During mean follow-up of 17.7 (SD = 4.9) years, 1386 adenocarcinomas and 1799 squamous cell carcinomas of the oesophagus were registered among 1 255 529 women. Compared with women of BMI 22.5 to <25 kg/m2, those with BMI ≥35 kg/m2 had a 2.5-fold risk of adenocarcinoma (adjusted RR = 2.46, 95% CI = 1.99–3.05) and an almost 70% reduction in risk of squamous cell carcinoma (RR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.22–0.46). These associations were broadly similar in each 5-year follow-up period, and were evident in both never and ever smokers, although somewhat stronger for squamous cell carcinoma among current and past smokers than in never smokers (Pheterogeneity = 0.007). After controlling for BMI, WC and WHR were associated with risk of squamous cell carcinoma but not adenocarcinoma.
Conclusions
In this population of middle-aged women, there was robust evidence that greater BMI is associated with an increased risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma and a reduced risk of squamous cell carcinoma
Patterns of use of hormone replacement therapy in one million women in Britain, 1996-2000.
No full textOBJECTIVE: To describe national patterns of use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in 1996-2000. DESIGN: Population-based study of women aged 50-64. SETTING: England and Scotland. POPULATION: A total of 1,091,250 women were recruited between May 1996 and December 2000. METHODS: Women invited for screening at 66 NHS breast screening units were sent a questionnaire to complete before they were screened; 71% of women screened participated. Prevalence of use of HRT. RESULTS: Overall, 33% of women reported that they were currently using HRT, the average duration of use being 5.8 years; 50% were ever-users. Current use of HRT was about twice as common at age 50-54 than 60-64, but varied little by time or region, the prevalences being 33%-34% in each year from 1996 to 2000; 30% in Scotland and 35% in southeast England. The prevalence of current use of HRT varied substantially depending on the woman's history of gynaecological surgery and past health, and was as follows in women with a history of: bilateral oophorectomy (66%); hysterectomy without bilateral oophorectomy (48%); neither hysterectomy nor bilateral oophorectomy (27%); breast cancer (6%); other cancer (25%); stroke (24%); venous thromboembolism (24%); diabetes (25%); heart disease (31%); or hypertension (31%). There was considerably less variation in the prevalence of use of HRT according to deprivation index, education, parity, body mass index, exercise, smoking or alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: HRT is currently used by around one-third of women aged 50-64 in Britain and appears to be influenced considerably more strongly by a woman's medical and surgical history than by socio-economic or lifestyle factors
Tobacco smoking and all-cause mortality in a large Australian cohort study: findings from a mature epidemic with current low smoking prevalence
Full text linkThis study finds that up to two-thirds of deaths in current smokers in Australia can be attributed to smoking.
Abstract
Background
The smoking epidemic in Australia is characterised by historic levels of prolonged smoking, heavy smoking, very high levels of long-term cessation, and low current smoking prevalence, with 13% of adults reporting that they smoked daily in 2013. Large-scale quantitative evidence on the relationship of tobacco smoking to mortality in Australia is not available despite the potential to provide independent international evidence about the contemporary risks of smoking.
Methods
This is a prospective study of 204,953 individuals aged ≥45 years sampled from the general population of New South Wales, Australia, who joined the 45 and Up Study from 2006–2009, with linked questionnaire, hospitalisation, and mortality data to mid-2012 and with no history of cancer (other than melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer), heart disease, stroke, or thrombosis. Hazard ratios (described here as relative risks, RRs) for all-cause mortality among current and past smokers compared to never-smokers were estimated, adjusting for age, education, income, region of residence, alcohol, and body mass index.
Results
Overall, 5,593 deaths accrued during follow-up (874,120 person-years; mean: 4.26 years); 7.7% of participants were current smokers and 34.1% past smokers at baseline. Compared to never-smokers, the adjusted RR (95% CI) of mortality was 2.96 (2.69–3.25) in current smokers and was similar in men (2.82 (2.49–3.19)) and women (3.08 (2.63–3.60)) and according to birth cohort. Mortality RRs increased with increasing smoking intensity, with around two- and four-fold increases in mortality in current smokers of ≤14 (mean 10/day) and ≥25 cigarettes/day, respectively, compared to never-smokers. Among past smokers, mortality diminished gradually with increasing time since cessation and did not differ significantly from never-smokers in those quitting prior to age 45. Current smokers are estimated to die an average of 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
Conclusions
In Australia, up to two-thirds of deaths in current smokers can be attributed to smoking. Cessation reduces mortality compared with continuing to smoke, with cessation earlier in life resulting in greater reductions
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Body size in early life and risk of lymphoid malignancies and histological subtypes in adulthood
No full textAbstract Risk of adult lymphoid malignancy is associated with recent adiposity. Some have reported apparent associations with adiposity in childhood or early adulthood, but whether these associations are independent of recent adiposity is unknown. Birth weight, body size at age 10 years, clothes size at age 20 years, and recent body mass index (BMI) were recorded in 745,273 UK women, mean age 60.1 (SD 4.9) at baseline, without prior cancer. They were followed for 11 years, during which time 5,765 lymphoid malignancies occurred. Using Cox regression, a higher risk of lymphoid malignancy was strongly associated with higher recent BMI (RR=1.33, 95%CI 1.17-1.51, for BMI 35+ vs <22.5 kg/m(2)), and this association remained essentially unchanged after adjustment for birth weight and body size at 10. Higher lymphoid malignancy risk was also associated with large size at birth, at age 10, and at age 20 years, but after adjustment for recent BMI, the significance of the associations with large size at birth and at age 10 years was sufficiently reduced that residual confounding by adult BMI could not be excluded; a weak association with large size at 20 years remained (adjusted RR =1.17, 95%CI 1.10-1.24 for large size at age 20 vs. medium or small size). We found no strong evidence of histological specificity in any of these associations. In conclusion, our findings suggest a possible role of adiposity throughout adulthood in the risk of lymphoid malignancy, but the independent contribution of body size at birth and during childhood appears to be small.We thank all the women who participated in the Million Women Study. The Million Women Study Collaborators are: Hayley Abbiss, Simon Abbott, Rupert Alison, Naomi Allen, Miranda Armstrong, Krys Baker, Angela Balkwill, Emily Banks, Isobel Barnes, Valerie Beral, Judith Black, Roger Blanks, Kathryn Bradbury, Anna Brown, Benjamin Cairns, Karen Canfell, Dexter Canoy, Andrew Chadwick, Francesca Crowe, Dave Ewart, Sarah Ewart, Lee Fletcher, Sarah Floud, Toral Gathani, Laura Gerrard, Adrian Goodill, Jane Green, Lynden Guiver, Michal Hozak, Isobel Lingard, Sau Wan Kan, Nicky Langston, Bette Liu, Kath Moser, Kirstin Pirie, Gillian Reeves, Keith Shaw, Emma Sherman, Helena Strange, Sian Sweetland, Sarah Tipper, Ruth Travis, Lyndsey Trickett, Lucy Wright, Owen Yang, Heather Young
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
