Associations and predictive power of dietary patterns on metabolic syndrome and its components.

Background And Aims: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) defines important risk factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases and other serious health conditions. This study aims to investigate the influence of different dietary patterns on MetS and its components, examining both associations and predictive performance.

Methods And Results: The study sample included 10,750 participants from the seventh survey of the cross-sectional, population-based Tromsø Study in Norway.

Identifying dietary patterns across age, educational level and physical activity level in a cross-sectional study: the Tromsø Study 2015 - 2016.

Background: A healthy diet can decrease the risk of several lifestyle diseases. From studying the health effects of single foods, research now focuses on examining complete diets and dietary patterns reflecting the combined intake of different foods. The main goals of the current study were to identify dietary patterns and then investigate how these differ in terms of sex, age, educational level and physical activity level (PAL) in a general Nordic population.

The prevalence of tinnitus in the Australian working population.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of tinnitus in Australian working people; to identify occupational and demographic factors associated with tinnitus.

Design: Cross-sectional national telephone survey of self-reported frequency and duration of tinnitus.

Setting, Participants: Australian Workplace Exposure Survey (AWES) - Hearing; 4970 currently employed people aged 18-64 years, recruited by random digit dialling, representative by sex of the workforce population, 7 June 2016 - 20 March 2017.

Exposure to Hand-Arm Vibration in the Australian Workforce.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of hand-arm vibration (HAV) in Australian workplaces.

Methods: The Australian Workplace Exposure Survey (AWES)-Hearing was a cross-sectional telephone survey of Australian workers conducted in 2016-2017. Respondents were asked about the time spent using tools or performing tasks known to be associated with HAV during their most recent working day.

Estimation of Excess Mortality and Years of Life Lost to COVID-19 in Norway and Sweden between March and November 2020.

We estimate the weekly excess all-cause mortality in Norway and Sweden, the years of life lost (YLL) attributed to COVID-19 in Sweden, and the significance of mortality displacement. We computed the expected mortality by taking into account the declining trend and the seasonality in mortality in the two countries over the past 20 years. From the excess mortality in Sweden in 2019/20, we estimated the YLL attributed to COVID-19 using the life expectancy in different age groups.

Modelling suggests limited change in the reproduction number from reopening Norwegian kindergartens and schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: To suppress the COVID-19 outbreak, the Norwegian government closed all schools on March 13, 2020. The kindergartens reopened on April 20, and the schools on April 27 and May 11 of 2020. The effect of these measures is largely unknown since the role of children in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still unclear.

Quality of life in substance use disorder patients with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 12 months after treatment: a naturalistic follow-up study.

There is sparse research on quality of life (QoL) as an outcome measure in patients with substance use disorders (SUD), with or without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We aimed to investigate whether SUD patients with and without ADHD (SUD + ADHD vs. SUD - ADHD) differed in QoL at baseline and at a 12-month follow-up after SUD treatment.

Exposure to noise and ototoxic chemicals in the Australian workforce.

Objective: To determine the current prevalence of exposure to workplace noise and ototoxic chemicals, including co-exposures.

Method: A cross-sectional telephone survey of nearly 5000 Australian workers was conducted using the web-based application, OccIDEAS. Participants were asked about workplace tasks they performed and predefined algorithms automatically assessed worker's likelihood of exposure to 10 known ototoxic chemicals as well as estimated their full shift noise exposure level (L) of their most recent working day.

Intake, sources, and determinants of free sugars intake in Australian children aged 12-14 months.

The consumption of free sugars is directly associated with adiposity and dental caries in early childhood; however, intake data in the first 2 years of life are limited. This cross-sectional analysis aims to identify major food sources of free sugars for Australian children aged 12-14 months and investigate factors associated with meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) Guideline for sugars intake. Three days of nonconsecutive dietary data were collected via a 24-hr recall and 2-day food record for 828 participants.

Increased risk of death immediately after losing a spouse: Cause-specific mortality following widowhood in Norway.

Objective: This paper examines the short-term risk of cause-specific death following widowhood.

Method: We followed all individuals registered as married in Norway in 1975 for marital status and mortality until 2006. Widowed individuals were followed for mortality for 7years following widowhood.

COPD in primary lung cancer patients: prevalence and mortality.

Background: Previous studies have relied on international spirometry criteria to diagnose COPD in patients with lung cancer without considering the effect lung cancer might have on spirometric results. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of COPD and emphysema at the time of primary lung cancer diagnosis and to examine factors associated with survival.

Materials And Methods: Medical records, pulmonary function tests, and computed tomography scans were used to determine the presence of COPD and emphysema in patients diagnosed with primary lung cancer at the University Hospital of North Norway in 2008-2010.

Mortality after the death of a spouse in Norway.

Background: Previous studies on mortality of widowed individuals have produced varying estimates of mortality after the death of a spouse. This variation is because of the various data types used and methodologies applied, as well as to the failure to account for sources of bias.

Methods: We followed all married individuals in Norway (1,801,456 individuals) for 32 years, and information on marital status and death was collected for use in a new application of survival analysis in this field of research.

Environmental adaptation of proteins: regression models with simple physicochemical properties.

Bio-sequences from ortholog proteins are well suited for statistical inference when the sequences can be divided into ordinal groups based on known environmental features or traits of the host organisms. In this paper two new regression models are described for extracting proteomic trends of extreme environments. The approach is based on physicochemical properties of the amino acids, and may also utilise stratification of the data.

[Mortality in Norway by time of year, day of the week and date of birth].

Background: The number of deaths increases in winter, and there are also reports on variation by day of week.

Material And Methods: Records of all deaths in Norway from 1991 to 1995, a total of 225 439, were provided by Statistics Norway.

Results: On average, the yearly number of excess deaths in winter was 2589, or 12 %.