[Social responsibility in health and the global health situation: towards new health and social indicators].

New approaches to social responsibility and health must be developed to ensure that scientific and technological progress contribute to justice, equity and the interest of humanity. The current state of health in several regions of the world is a matter of great concern. Using various indicators, composite indices have been developed that provide us with socio-medical, demographic and economic data and make it possible to analyse socio-health conditions worldwide.

Association among individual deprivation, glycemic control, and diabetes complications: the EPICES score.

Objective: Previous studies have related poor glycemic control and/or some diabetes complications to low socioeconomic status. Some aspects of socioeconomic status have not been assessed in these studies. In the present study, we used an individual index of deprivation, the Evaluation de la Précarité et des Inégalités de santé dans les Centres d'Examens de Santé (Evaluation of Precarity and Inequalities in Health Examination Centers [EPICES]) score, to determine the relationship among glycemic control, diabetes complications, and individual conditions of deprivation.

[Psychosocial distress and stressful life antecedents associated with smoking. A survey of subjects consulting a preventive health center].

Background: The relationship between smoking and various socio-demographic or socio-economic factors, as well as the interactions between depressive mood and smoking are already known. However, the respective contribution of psychological factors and stressful life antecedents during childhood and adolescence warrants further specification.

Methods: 2315 consecutive subjects, aged 16 to 59, consulting for a free work-up in a preventive health centre, supported by the National French Health insurance system, were invited to fill out a series of questionnaires: the GHQ-28 and the LOT, respectively measuring psychosocial distress and dispositional optimism, as well as a questionnaire on socio-demographic, socio-economic and biographical data.

[Socioeconomic determinism of obesity in the Seine-Saint-Denis area].

Objective: Obesity is a complex multi-factorial disease. The role of socioeconomic factors is known but few studies have attempted to analyse separately the impact of the various participating factors: oncome, level of education, cultural and social status.

Method: These factors were analysed in 26,278 persons aging from 16 to 59 years, living in the district and having benefited from a medical check-up in the Seine-Saint-Denis health and social prevention centre, district particularly concerned by socio-economic insecurity.