background : the association of the mobile phone use and risk of brain tumor remains controversial among radiationepidemiologists. methods : we hypothesized if an association between brain tumor and mobile phone use exists, this association will be manifested as a cohort effect (as a proxy of association between mobile phone use and brain tumor) in the incidence rates of brain tumor during the ...

BACKGROUND Information on life expectancy change is of great concern for policy makers, as evidenced by the discussions of the so-called "harvesting" issue (i.e. the question being, how large a loss each death corresponds to in the mortality results of time series studies). METHODS Whereas most epidemiological studies of air pollution mortality have been formulated in terms of mortality risk,...

BACKGROUND In our country, the biological valvular prostheses predominate, considering the difficulties related to anticoagulation, even in young patients, in spite of the need for repeated operations due to the degeneration of the bioprostheses. OBJECTIVES To report our consecutive series of recipients of isolated St Jude Medical mechanical valve prosthesis in the mitral (MVR) or aortic (AVR...

BACKGROUND The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and breastfeeding has been extensively discussed in the literature. However, there is some evidence that this relationship can differ with immigration status. To date the majority of research investigating the relationships among SES, breastfeeding and immigration status has been conducted in Europe and the United States with a lack...

BACKGROUND Three longitudinal studies of cancer incidence in varied populations of World Trade Center responders have been conducted. METHODS We compared the design and results of the three studies. RESULTS Separate analyses of these cohorts revealed excess cancer incidence in responders for all cancers combined and for cancers of the thyroid and prostate. Methodological dissimilarities inc...

BACKGROUND Studies of the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy have reported inconsistent findings in relation to measures of offspring cognitive functioning. Few studies, however, have examined learning outcomes in adolescents, as opposed to IQ. AIM To examine the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and academic performance among adolescent offspring. STUDY DESIGN...

Gemini is a cohort study of young twins in the United Kingdom designed to assess genetic and environmental influences on early childhood weight trajectories with a focus on infant appetite and the family environment. A total of 2402 families with twins born in England and Wales between March and December 2007 agreed to participate and returned completed baseline questionnaires. The sample inclu...

BACKGROUND Food preferences vary substantially among adults and children. Twin studies have established that genes and aspects of the shared family environment both play important roles in shaping children's food preferences. The transition from childhood to adulthood is characterized by large gains in independence, but the relative influences of genes and the environment on food preferences in...

The strong differences in manifestation, prevalence, and incidence in dyslexia across languages invite studies in specific writing systems. In particular, the question of the role played by emergent literacy in opaque and transparent writing systems remains a fraught one. This research project tested, through a 4-year prospective cohort study, an emergent literacy model for the analysis of the ...

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends administering diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccines to children at 2, 4, 6, 15-18 months, and 4-6 y of age; preferably with the same-brand vaccine for the whole series. We estimated age-appropriate DTaP dose completion and the proportion of children receiving a "mixed" DTaP vaccination series (ie, including DTaP v...