Socioeconomic disadvantage in adolescent women and metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood: an examination of pathways of embodiment in the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Research indicates that disadvantaged socioeconomic status in childhood or adolescence increases specifically women's risk for developing metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Construing this observation as an expression of embodiment, the present study aims at examining the 'social chain of risk' and the 'reproduction' hypotheses as pathways of this embodiment. Participants were all women in the Northern Swedish Cohort, a 27-year prospective Swedish cohort, with data collection in 1981 at age 16 years (n = 1083, 506 women), and follow-up at age 21, 30 and 43 (n = 482 women) years.

Polytraumatization and trauma symptoms in adolescent boys and girls: interpersonal and noninterpersonal events and moderating effects of adverse family circumstances.

The objective of this study was to investigate the cumulative effect of interpersonal and noninterpersonal traumatic life events (IPEs and nIPEs, respectively) on the mental health of adolescents and to determine if the adverse impacts of trauma were moderated by adverse family circumstances (AFC). Adolescents (mean age 16.7 years) from the normative population (n = 462) completed the questionnaire, the Linköping Youth Life Experience Scale (LYLES), together with Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC).

Is the core-periphery labour market structure related to perceived health? findings of the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Background: There is controversy as to whether peripheral employment is related to poor health status or not. This study aims at examining whether 1) the accumulation of time in peripheral labour market positions is associated with psychological distress and poor or average self-rated health; 2) the proposed association is different among women than among men.

Method: Participants in the 1995 and 2007 follow-up surveys of the Northern Swedish Cohort (n = 985) completed self-administered questionnaires about psychological and general health and about employment positions during the follow-up years.

Social and material adversity from adolescence to adulthood and allostatic load in middle-aged women and men: results from the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Background: Little is known about the theoretically assumed association between adversity exposure over the life course and allostatic load in adulthood.

Purpose: This study aims to examine whether social and material adversity over the life course is related to allostatic load in mid-adulthood.

Methods: A 27-year prospective Swedish cohort (N = 822; 77% response rate) reported exposure to social and material adversities at age 16, 21, 30 and 43 years.

The association between long-term accumulation of temporary employment, the cortisol awakening response and circadian cortisol levels.

Temporary employment is an increasingly common contract type, which has not been investigated in a psychoneuroendocrinological context despite previous observations of associations between adverse work and employment conditions and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulations. The present study aims to examine whether the 12-year accumulation of temporary employment is related to circadian cortisol levels, and if any association is independent of current employment conditions. Participants were drawn from the prospective Northern Swedish Cohort (n=791, 74% of the original cohort).

Ventilation inhomogeneity in children with primary ciliary dyskinesia.

Background: The lung clearance index (LCI) derived from the multiple breath inert gas washout (MBW) test reflects global ventilation distribution inhomogeneity. It is more sensitive than forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) for detecting abnormal airway function and correlates closely with structural lung damage in children with cystic fibrosis, which shares features with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). Normalised phase III slope indices S(cond) and S(acin) reflect function of the small conducting and acinar airways, respectively.

Socio-economic disadvantage and body mass over the life course in women and men: results from the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Background: Obesity and body mass in adulthood relate both to current and to childhood socio-economic status, particularly in women, but the underlying life course processes are not known. This study aims at examining whether the life course socio-economic status-body mass association in women and men is explained by the cumulative risk or adolescent sensitive period models whether associations are similar at different life course stages; and whether health behaviours explain the associations.

Methods: A total of 476 women and 517 men participated in this 27-year prospective cohort study (participation rate 93%).

Small airway function, exhaled NO and airway hyper-responsiveness in paediatric asthma.

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disorder known to involve the peripheral airways. Current guidelines state that diagnosis and treatment should be guided by symptoms and spirometry. FEV(1) is, however, a poor marker of small airway function and correlates poorly with asthma control and airway inflammation.

Psychological evaluation of refugee children: contrasting results from play diagnosis and parental interviews.

Many refugee families from Bosnia and Herzegovina arrived in Sweden during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s. We studied 14 of these families to compare psychological evaluation of the children using two different methods. We first carried out a semi-structured interview of a parent or parents in each family.

Tidal volume single breath washout of two tracer gases--a practical and promising lung function test.

Background: Small airway disease frequently occurs in chronic lung diseases and may cause ventilation inhomogeneity (VI), which can be assessed by washout tests of inert tracer gas. Using two tracer gases with unequal molar mass (MM) and diffusivity increases specificity for VI in different lung zones. Currently washout tests are underutilised due to the time and effort required for measurements.

It's no surprise! Men are not hit more than women by the health consequences of unemployment in the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Aims: Research often fails to ascertain whether men and women are equally hit by the health consequences of unemployment. The aim of this study was to analyze whether men's self-reported health and health behaviour were hit more by unemployment than women's in a follow-up of the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Methods: A follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a middle-sized industrial town in northern Sweden was performed from age 16 to age 42.

Managing the legal proceedings: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of sexually abused children's experience with the legal process.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe how sexually abused children experience the legal process, a process that includes being questioned by the police during the preliminary investigation and by lawyers and the prosecutor in the courtroom, and meeting other professionals from various agencies.

Method: Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 children-9 girls and 1 boy between 9 and 15 years old-who had experienced child sexual abuse (CSA). The interviews were semi structured and carried out and analyzed by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Antidepressant drugs in children and adolescents: analytical and demographic data in a naturalistic, clinical study.

Pharmacokinetics of antidepressant drugs (ATDs), in terms of steady-state and trough values, in patients from Child and Adolescent Psychiatry centers in the midsouth-eastern part of Sweden, were evaluated, and the use of ATDs in this population were described. Patients to be prescribed an ATD were studied between 2002 and 2004. Two hundred eleven children, 64% girls and 36% boys (ages 8-20 years) were evaluated.

Life course origins of the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged women and men: the role of socioeconomic status and metabolic risk factors in adolescence and early adulthood.

Purpose: To assess whether body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and socioeconomic status in adolescence and early adulthood are independently related to the metabolic syndrome in adult women and men.

Methods: We based our work on a Swedish prospective cohort study that recruited participants at 16 years of age (N = 1083 at age 16; 403 women and 429 men at age 43, 78% of those still alive [N = 1071]). Blood pressure (BP) and BMI were assessed when participants were 16 and 21 years of age.

Socioeconomic status over the life course and allostatic load in adulthood: results from the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Background: Although several studies have reported rather consistent associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and allostatic load (AL), so far no study has examined the influence of SES over the life course on AL. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between SES over the life course and AL in mid-adulthood, guided by the conceptual models of cumulative risk, critical period and social chain of risk.

Methods: The sample comprises a 27-year prospective cohort (n=1071) from northern Sweden.

Perinatal, maternal, and fetal characteristics of children diagnosed with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder: results from a population-based study utilizing the Swedish Medical Birth Register.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of pre- and perinatal factors on the risk of developing attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Method: We investigated the medical history of 237 children (206 male; 31 female) from Malmö, Sweden born between 1986 and 1996 and in whom a diagnosis of ADHD (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IIIR or IV) was subsequently made at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lund University, and a reference group of 31,775 typically developing children from Malmö using data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register.

Results: The results of multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that ADHD was significantly associated with a young maternal age (odds ratio [OR] for 5 y increase 0.

Evaluation of the linköping youth life experience scale.

The objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument for potentially traumatic life events, the Linköping Youth Life Experience Scale (LYLES), and determine the benefits of including adverse childhood circumstances (ACCs) as factors in the evaluation. In addition, we wanted to investigate the difference between interpersonal and noninterpersonal traumatic events, the impact of ACCs, and the cumulative effects of these events on self-reported symptoms of dissociation, depression, and anxiety. Adolescents from the normative population (n = 188) answered the questionnaire LYLES and also the Dissociation-Questionnaire-Sweden and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Fetal and life course origins of serum lipids in mid-adulthood: results from a prospective cohort study.

Background: During the past two decades, the hypothesis of fetal origins of adult disease has received considerable attention. However, critique has also been raised regarding the failure to take the explanatory role of accumulation of other exposures into consideration, despite the wealth of evidence that social circumstances during the life course impact on health in adulthood. The aim of the present prospective cohort study was to examine the contributions of birth weight and life course exposures (cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage and adversity) to dyslipidemia and serum lipids in mid-adulthood.

The effect of dornase alfa on ventilation inhomogeneity in patients with cystic fibrosis.

Outcome measures to assess therapeutic interventions in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with mild lung disease are lacking. Our aim was to determine if the lung clearance index (LCI) can detect a treatment response to dornase alfa in paediatric CF patients with normal spirometry. CF patients between 6-18 yrs of age with FEV(1 )≥ 80% pred were eligible.

Asthma and allergy patterns over 18 years after severe RSV bronchiolitis in the first year of life.

Background: An increased prevalence of asthma/recurrent wheeze (RW), clinical allergy and allergic sensitisation up to age 13 years has previously been reported in subjects hospitalised with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis in their first year of life compared with matched controls. A study was undertaken to examine whether these features persist into early adulthood, to report longitudinal wheeze and allergy patterns, and to see how large and small airway function relates to RSV infection and asthma.

Methods: Follow-up at age 18 years was performed in 46 of 47 subjects with RSV and 92 of 93 controls.

Is body size at birth related to circadian salivary cortisol levels in adulthood? Results from a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: The hypothesis of fetal origins of adult disease has during the last decades received interest as an explanation of chronic, e.g. cardiovascular, disease in adulthood stemming from fetal environmental conditions.

EPA supplementation improves teacher-rated behaviour and oppositional symptoms in children with ADHD.

Aim: Measure efficacy of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: Randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 0.5 g EPA or placebo (15 weeks) in 92 children (7-12 years) with ADHD.