PURPOSE OF REVIEW There are today 11 mega-countries with more than 100 million inhabitants. Together these countries represent more than 60% of the world's population. All are facing noncommunicable chronic disease (NCD) epidemic where high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases are becoming the main public health concerns. Most of these countries are facing the double burd...

OBJECTIVES To present the incidence of vestibular schwannoma (VS) in Denmark, compare the incidence with that of previous periods, and discuss the real incidence of VS. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Prospective registration of all diagnosed VS in Denmark, with a population of 5.1 to 5.2 million, during the 6 years from January 1996 through December 2001. Incidence in this period was compared ...

Over the last 50 years, the world has faced dramatic growth of its urban population. In 2007 the amount of urban residents has outnumbered the rural population for the first time in history and by the year 2030 already two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in cities [1]. The number of so-called mega cities –cities with more than 10 million inhabitants– increased in the period...

Growing up in urban areas represents a possible risk factor in the genesis of psychopathologies. The aim of the present study was to investigate the link between urbanicity variables and indicators for psychiatric disorders. We investigated a potential association between primary emotional traits and urbanicity variables in 324 individuals from Germany and 713 individuals from China. Higher sco...

In total, 44 countries were included in the present study. This group comprised the 20 most populated countries of the world, the five most populated countries of each continent and a few other countries that were included in a recent nutritional study [3]. The number of McDonald’s restaurants per million inhabitants was calculated for each of these countries (www.mcdonalds.com). Countries were...

1% in 2000. Although the objective was far from being reached (the current rate being close to 2%), in 2000 Mexico had 53 million inhabitants fewer than it would have had if fertility had remained at its 1970 level. The population pyramids of 1930, 1970 and 2000 clearly illustrate this dynamics (Figure 2). In 1930 the population was beginning to recover from the aftereffects of the Revolution a...

In the context of the newly adopted World Health Organization (WHO) End TB strategy, an action framework towards tuberculosis (TB) elimination in low incidence countries has been launched [1, 2]. Its aim is to reach pre-elimination of TB (less than 10 cases per one million inhabitants) by 2035 and TB elimination (less than one case per one million inhabitants) by 2050. Germany belongs to the ad...