Socioeconomic status, area remoteness, and survival from childhood leukemia: results from the Nationwide Registry for Childhood Hematological Malignancies in Greece.

The aim of the present nationwide Greek study is to assess whether survival from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is modified by socioeconomic status (SES) and area remoteness. Detailed precoded information derived from a personal interview conducted by specially trained health personnel with the child guardians was available for 883 ALL and 111 AML incident childhood cases registered in the Nationwide Registry for Childhood Hematological Malignancies during the period 1996-2010. Parental socioprofessional category was recorded on the basis of ISCO68 and ISCO88 codes; the exact traveling distance between residence and the treating hospital was ad hoc calculated.

Modeling and simulation of right ventricular volume measurement system during right heart catheterization.

Haemodynamic monitoring is necessary for the effective management of critically ill cardiac patients. Pulmonary artery catheterization has been used for monitoring the circulation, for measurement of intracardiac pressures and to estimate preload and afterload. However, pressures may not be accurate reflection of the circulation and simultaneous measurement of volumes would improve patient treatment.

Linking emergency medical department and road traffic police casualty data: a tool in assessing the burden of injuries in less resourced countries.

Objective: The study aimed to (1) assess the magnitude of road traffic injuries in a country missing a formal linkage system of police with hospital data, (2) quantify the underreporting, and (3) produce a convenient algorithm exploring its constituent components.

Methods: Linkage of disaggregate (individual) data collected by the road traffic police (RTP) with those by the Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System (EDISS) on the Greek island of Corfu and coded with different classification systems was carried out. The applied four-step methodology, also comprising the calculation of underreporting coefficients of the variation by basic demographic variables, mode of transport, and injury outcome, led to the identification of the overall underreporting from either registry.

Combating unintentional injury in the United States: lessons learned from the ICD-10 classification period.

Background: Unintentional injury remains the leading cause of death among individuals <45-year-old in several developed countries, including the United States, despite the availability of evidence-based preventive policies and practices. This study aims to estimate the preventable fraction of unintentional injury mortality in the United States and critically examine variability components and time trends among four different US regions.

Methods: ICD-10 coded unintentional injury mortality data were electronically obtained for all available years (1999-2004) from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control database; inter-region variability and time trends were calculated to assess age-specific and injury type-specific components.

The evolution of unintentional injury mortality among elderly in Europe.

Objective: To compare cause-specific unintentional injury mortality trends among elderly (65+) in the European Union over a 10-year period.

Method: Overall and cause-specific data for 23 out of the 29 EU and European Free Trade Association countries with population >/= 1,000,000 were retrieved from the World Health Organization (WHO), and age-standardized mortality rates for the first and last 3 available years of the study period were calculated. Proportional mortality changes were estimated through linear regression.

Survival among children with medulloblastoma in Greece: gains from transition to chemotherapy and socio-economic differentials.

The objective of this study was to quantify improvements in survival due to chemotherapy among children with medulloblastoma treated during the last three decades at a university unit in Greece, compare these gains with figures derived from a specialized unit in the United States and explore the role of extrinsic factors affecting survival. The records of all children with medulloblastoma (n=50) treated at the University Childhood Oncology Unit in Athens, Greece during the period 1973-2003 were reviewed. The role on survival of socio-demographic factors was studied by modeling the data through Cox's proportional-hazards regression, controlling for the mode of treatment (chemotherapy, yes vs.

Water safety: age-specific changes in knowledge and attitudes following a school-based intervention.

Objectives: To explore whether an intervention during mandatory schooling can lead to age-specific changes in water safety knowledge and attitudes.

Methods: Age-specific questionnaires were distributed to 202 kindergarten and grade one pupils, 220 elementary school pupils and 337 pupils attending the first three high school grades in Greater Athens. The information was used to design an educational package that was subsequently presented to pupils of the same grades and similar socio-demographic profiles attending different schools in the same area.

Doping use among tertiary education students in six developed countries.

Data on doping among young non-professional athletes are scarce. In order to estimate the prevalence and predictors of doping use, a standardized, anonymous questionnaire was self-administered by 2650 tertiary education students from five European Union countries (Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy) and Israel. The reported usage rate of a doping agent (at least once) was 2.