Recruitment of young people for epidemiologic research remains challenging, with marked decreases in the effectiveness of face-to-face, mail, and telephone recruitment methods. We report on the implementation and feasibility of an innovative and flexible approach used to recruit participants for a longitudinal cohort study about contraceptive use and pregnancy (the Contraceptive Use, Pregnancy ...

BACKGROUND Hypertension is a health problem in Iran. Given the importance of this subject, we reviewed the factors affecting the blood pressure in this survey. METHODS This retrospective cohort study was performed on 3961 male workers employed at Isfahan Polyacryl Corporation (Iran) in health and safety executive between 1996 until 2008. In this study, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (S...

BACKGROUND Socioeconomic inequalities in birth weight and in body mass index (BMI) later in childhood are in opposite directions, which raises questions about when during childhood the change in direction happens. We examined how maternal and paternal education and household income were associated with birthweight z-scores and with BMI z-scores at age 5 and 12 months and 7 years, and we examine...

BACKGROUND A standard parameter to compare the disease incidence of a cohort relative to the population is the standardized incidence ratio (SIR). For statistical inference is commonly assumed that the denominator, the expected number of cases, is fixed. If a disease registry is available, incident cases can sometimes be identified by linkage with the registry, however, registries may not conta...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the relationship between intervening illnesses and injuries leading to hospitalization and restricted activity, respectively, and prolongation of disability in four essential activities of daily living in newly disabled older persons. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Greater New Haven, Connecticut. PARTICIPANTS Community-living persons aged 70 and older who ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In previous observational studies, hemoglobin concentrations have been associated with an increased risk of stroke. However, these studies were limited by a relatively low number of stroke events, making it difficult to determine whether the association of hemoglobin and stroke differed by demographic or clinical factors. METHODS Using Cox proportional hazards analysis ...

BACKGROUND There is a growing number of cohorts and registries collecting phenotypic and genotypic data from groups of multiple sclerosis patients. Improved awareness and better coordination of these efforts is needed. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this report is to provide a global landscape of the major longitudinal MS patient data collection efforts and share recommendations for increasing thei...

AIMS To investigate the association between intelligence in childhood and later risk of alcohol-related disease and death by examining (1) the mediating effect of social position as an adult and (2) gender as a possible moderator. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS 21 809 Swedish men and women, born in 1948 and 1953, from the Swedish "Evaluation Through Follow-up" database were f...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The social gradient in smoking is well known, with higher rates among those in less advantaged socioeconomic position. Some recent research has reported that personality characteristics partly explain this gradient. However, the majority of existing work is limited by cross-sectional designs unsuitable to determine whether differences in conscientiousness are a predictor or ...