Pelvic pain and associated characteristics among women in northern Mexico.

Context: Until recently, the reproductive health agenda has focused on a restricted number of morbidity indicators, particularly those associated with life-threatening diseases. However, gynecologic morbidities that are a source of pelvic pain, although not life-threatening, do impose a substantial burden because of their potential to reduce women's overall well-being.

Methods: In 2005, a cross-sectional population-based study was conducted in Hermosillo, Mexico, to assess self- reported pelvic pain conditions in a random sample of 1,307 women aged 25-54.

Neighborhood resources for physical activity and healthy foods and their association with insulin resistance.

Objective: : Little is known about the influence of the built environment, and in particular neighborhood resources, on health. We hypothesized that neighborhood resources for physical activity and healthy foods are associated with insulin resistance.

Methods: : Person-level data (n = 2026) came from 3 sites of The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a study of adults aged 45-84 years.

Filling the gaps: spatial interpolation of residential survey data in the estimation of neighborhood characteristics.

The measurement of area-level attributes remains a major challenge in studies of neighborhood health effects. Even when neighborhood survey data are collected, they necessarily have incomplete spatial coverage. We investigated whether interpolation of neighborhood survey data was aided by information on spatial dependencies and supplementary data.

Indicators of moisture and ventilation system contamination in U.S. office buildings as risk factors for respiratory and mucous membrane symptoms: analyses of the EPA BASE data.

We assessed associations between indicators for moisture in office buildings and weekly, building-related lower respiratory and mucous membrane symptoms in office workers, using the U.S. EPA BASE data, collected in a representative sample of 100 U.

Mucous membrane and lower respiratory building related symptoms in relation to indoor carbon dioxide concentrations in the 100-building BASE dataset.

Unlabelled: Indoor air pollutants are a potential cause of building related symptoms and can be reduced by increasing ventilation rates. Indoor carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentration is an approximate surrogate for concentrations of occupant-generated pollutants and for ventilation rate per occupant. Using the US EPA 100 office-building BASE Study dataset, we conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses to quantify the relationship between indoor CO(2) concentrations (dCO(2)) and mucous membrane (MM) and lower respiratory system (LResp) building related symptoms, adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, presence of carpet in workspace, thermal exposure, relative humidity, and a marker for entrained automobile exhaust.

Radiation and breast cancer: a review of current evidence.

This paper summarizes current knowledge on ionizing radiation-associated breast cancer in the context of established breast cancer risk factors, the radiation dose-response relationship, and modifiers of dose response, taking into account epidemiological studies and animal experiments. Available epidemiological data support a linear dose-response relationship down to doses as low as about 100 mSv. However, the magnitude of risk per unit dose depends strongly on when radiation exposure occurs: exposure before the age of 20 years carries the greatest risk.

Analysis of the spatial distribution of cryptosporidiosis in AIDS patients in San Francisco using density equalizing map projections (DEMP).

Environmental transmission of cryptosporidiosis has occurred repeatedly in defined spatial areas during outbreaks of disease attributed, for example, to drinking water contamination. Little work has been done to investigate the possibility of cryptosporidiosis infection in defined spatial areas in non-outbreak (i.e.

Risk factors for breast cancer in a population with high incidence rates.

Background: This report examines generally recognized breast cancer risk factors and years of residence in Marin County, California, an area with high breast cancer incidence and mortality rates.

Methods: Eligible women who were residents of Marin County diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997-99 and women without breast cancer obtained through random digit dialing, frequency-matched by cases' age at diagnosis and ethnicity, participated in either full in-person or abbreviated telephone interviews.

Results: In multivariate analyses, 285 cases were statistically significantly more likely than 286 controls to report being premenopausal, never to have used birth control pills, a lower highest lifetime body mass index, four or more mammograms in 1990-94, beginning drinking after the age of 21, on average drinking two or more drinks per day, the highest quartile of pack-years of cigarette smoking and having been raised in an organized religion.

Breast cancer incidence and mortality trends in an affluent population: Marin County, California, USA, 1990-1999.

Background: Elevated rates of breast cancer in affluent Marin County, California, were first reported in the early 1990s. These rates have since been related to higher regional prevalence of known breast cancer risk factors, including low parity, education, and income. Close surveillance of Marin County breast cancer trends has nevertheless continued, in part because distinctive breast cancer patterns in well-defined populations may inform understanding of breast cancer etiology.