While obesity is an indicated risk factor for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be inversely associated with the development of preeclampsia and gestational hypertension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effects of high body mass index and smoking on hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. This was a case-control study base...

BACKGROUND Much uncertainty exists about the role of dietary glycemic index and glycemic load in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, especially in populations that traditionally subsist on a diet high in carbohydrates. METHODS We observed a cohort of 64,227 Chinese women with no history of diabetes or other chronic disease at baseline for 4.6 years. In-person interviews were conducte...

OBJECTIVE Altitude can affect the diagnostic accuracy of portable monitors used to diagnose suspected obstructive sleep apnea syndrome on the basis of oxygen desaturation measurements. The aim of this study was to determine agreement between the desaturation index measured by oximetry and the apnea-hypopnea index measured by polysomnography in Mexico City (2240 m above sea level). We also wishe...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To derive methods of calculating confidence limits for the relative index of inequality, defined by Kunst and Mackenbach as a measure of the influence of socioeconomic status on an adverse health index, such as mortality rate. The methods may be used for a health outcome recorded on a continuous scale, as a Poisson count or as a binomial variable. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION The co...

OBJECTIVE A new oral appliance to treat obstructive sleep apnea in infants with Pierre Robin sequence has recently been shown to be superior to a sham procedure. We now investigate safety and long-term effects of this appliance on obstructive sleep apnea in infants with Pierre Robin sequence. DESIGN Case series with repetitive follow-up examinations. SETTING Tertiary neonatal intensive care...

Macro economists have documented the association between consumer confidence dynamics and durables purchases. A similar dynamic exists in China’s urban housing market. At any point in time Chinese consumer confidence hinges on beliefs about the state of the macro economy and the resolution of policy uncertainty related to the national and local housing policies. We build a 35 Chinese city real ...

    Background: Providing fair access to high-quality healthcare services is one of the most important goals of health systems. This study was conducted between 2012 and 2013 to determine the level of equity in the quality of hospital services in Iran.    Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1,003 patients were chosen from 100 hospitals in Iran with multi-stage rand...

Real estate confidence index, as an efficient and effective information-oriented measure, is being studied and applied to the China’s real estate market. It not only assists government with the macro control of real estate market, but also guides investment and consumption. In order to assure the accuracy and real time of the RECI, more factors should be considered and an efficient system based...

Process capability indices are designed to describe how the process of interest can achieve to meet specification limits under a condition of statistical control. One of the capability indices is denoted as Cpm proposed by Chan, Cheng and Spiring (1988), sometimes termed the Taguchi index. The primary goal of this paper attempts to construct a confidence interval for Cpm, which measures proces...