Respiratory symptoms and function were examined in a random sample of 181 farmers (124 pig farmers and 57 dairy farmers) with a mean age of 43 years. Wheezing and shortness of breath during work in the animal house were significantly associated with pig farming (odds ratio 11.4), current smoking (odds ratio 2.2), bronchial hyperreactivity (odds ratio 3.8), and low FEV1 (odds ratio 3.4). Pig far...

The authors report the impact of smoking upon health in Puerto Rico for the year 1983. Using a microcomputer spread-sheet program that calculates smoking-attributable disease impact, they estimated that 2,468 deaths were attributable to smoking. This represented 11.5% of all deaths on the island in 1983 and resulted in approximately 19,445 years of potential life lost (YPLL). It appears that ci...

OBJECTIVE To study the awareness of 'Informed Consent', among patients presenting to Family Physicians. METHOD A cross-sectional study was carried out at the Community Health Centre, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi in July 2002. Written Consent was taken and confidentially was assured RESULTS Out of the 100 patients interviewed, 80 agreed to participate in the study, forty-four men an...

Objectives and relationship to conference themes The development of a research culture within the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, and the research capacity building within the profession that must underpin this, is an essential element of both the ‘learn’ and ‘achieve’ themes of the conference. The role of professional bodies in developing professional practice and the maintenance of s...

OBJECTIVES Examining the premature death rate represents the first step in estimating the overall burden of disease, reflecting a full picture of how different causes affect population health and providing a way of monitoring and evaluating population health. The present study was conducted to assess the burden of premature mortality in Hamadan Province, Iran in 2006 and 2010. METHODS To calc...

Background Maternal and child under-nutrition is a pervasive and detrimental condition in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Despite the rapid economic growth during the past decade, the stunting rate for children under 5 has remained at 46 percent in PNG. Objective The objective of the study was to analyze the association between the demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related factors with undernutr...

Global DNA methylation of long interspersed nucleotide elements (LINE-1) in leukocytes has been suggested to be a risk factor for a few cancers. There has been no report of LINE-1 methylation in leukocytes as a risk factor for aggressive prostate cancer at diagnosis and prognosis after treatments. In this study, we measured the leukocyte DNA methylation of LINE-1 in 795 PCa patients and compare...

A 65 year old male retired farmer presented with an inability to fully straighten the ring finger and little finger of his right hand. This had progressed over the past two years and he had recently noticed a “rope like” swelling in his palm. He had no history of trauma and no medical history of note, except that he had smoked until 10 years earlier and had a 90 pack year history. His father ha...

Excessive alcohol consumption, the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States, resulted in approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) annually during 2006-2010 and cost an estimated $223.5 billion in 2006. To estimate state-specific average annual rates of alcohol-attributable deaths (AAD) and YPLL caused by excessive alcohol use, 11 stat...

Results Alcohol and tobacco use were not significant risk factors in female patients; 1(12.5%) female reported 1 pack year history of smoking and none consumed alcohol. Smoking (71.5% of patients) and regular alcohol consumption (57.2% of patients) were common risk factors in men. Exposure to smoke from cooking on wood fires was common in females (87.5%) spending on average 3 hours cooking insi...