Stability of dietary patterns in young women over a 2-year period.

Objective: To examine the stability of dietary patterns in young women over a two-year period and to identify factors that influence stability.

Design: A food frequency questionnaire was used to assess diet. In a subgroup, this was repeated after 2 years.

Parental determinants of neonatal body composition.

Background: The prevalence of both childhood and adult obesity is rising in the developed world, and there is increasing interest in its underlying causes. A number of studies suggest a positive relationship between birth weight and childhood body mass index, but less is known about specific prenatal environmental influences on more direct measures of obesity. We used data from the Southampton Women's Survey to investigate parental influences on neonatal body composition ascertained by dual x-ray absorptiometry.

Socioeconomic gradients in smoking among young women: A British survey.

Marked and increasing socioeconomic gradients in cigarette smoking are well established. Tracking these differentials among women requires appropriate measures of their socioeconomic position (SEP) which are equivalent across older and younger age groups. This study examines socioeconomic gradients in cigarette smoking by age among women aged 20-34, using a standard indicator of SEP (age left full-time education) and alternative indicators which take account of changes in women's educational levels across age cohorts.

Confidentiality of personal health information used for research.

Researchers must balance the quest for better health for all against the need to respect the privacy of research participants. What needs to be done to ensure best practice?

Dietary patterns in the Southampton Women's Survey.

Objective: Dietary pattern analysis is receiving increasing attention as a means of summarizing the multidimensional nature of dietary data. This research aims to compare principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis using dietary data collected from young women in the UK.

Design: Diet was assessed using a 100-item interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire.

Socioeconomic lifecourse influences on women's smoking status in early adulthood.

Study Objective: To incorporate women's domestic trajectories and circumstances into analyses of the socioeconomic influences on women's smoking status (current and former smoking) in early adulthood.

Design: Cross sectional survey.

Setting: Southampton, UK.

Will elderly rest home residents wear hip protectors?

Background: Hip fracture is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in elderly people, for whom osteoporosis, the risk of falling and direct trauma to the hip during the fall are the major risk factors. External hip protectors have been developed which reduce the risk of hip fracture after a fall. However, compliance with their use is uncertain.

Maternal and seasonal predictors of change in calcaneal quantitative ultrasound during pregnancy.

Background: During pregnancy, mineralization of the fetal skeleton and obligate urinary losses require adaptation of maternal calcium homeostasis, such as increased intestinal calcium absorption and bone resorption. However, the environmental determinants of maternal bone resorption during pregnancy in healthy adult mothers have not been previously described.

Subjects And Methods: We conducted a population-based longitudinal study of 307 term pregnancies using a cohort of 307 pregnant women living in Southampton, United Kingdom.

Epidemiological differences between back pain of sudden and gradual onset.

Objective: To explore possible differences in risk factors for low back pain according to its speed of onset.

Methods: We analyzed longitudinal data from 1366 hospital nurses in England who initially had been free from low back pain for at least one month. Risk factors were ascertained from a self-administered baseline questionnaire, and outcomes from serial followup questionnaires.

Fetal liver-sparing cardiovascular adaptations linked to mother's slimness and diet.

Fetal adaptations to impaired maternoplacental nutrient supply include altered regional blood flow. Whether such responses operate within the normal range of maternal body composition or diet is unknown, but any change in fetal liver perfusion could alter hepatic development, with long-term consequences for the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. In 381 low-risk pregnancies, we found that the fetuses of slimmer mothers with lower body fat stores and those eating an unbalanced diet had greater liver blood flow and shunted less blood away from the liver through the ductus venosus at 36 weeks gestation.

Mortality of employees of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, 1946-97.

Background: The workforce of the UK Atomic Energy Authority has been the subject of several previous epidemiological investigations.

Aims: To detect and investigate associations between mortality rates and employment in a substantially increased cohort size and follow up extended to 1997.

Methods And Results: The new cohort included 51 367 employees, of whom 10 249 were dead.

Small size at birth and greater postnatal weight gain: relationships to diminished infant lung function.

Recent evidence suggests that impaired lung development is linked with diminished lung function and an increased risk of chronic obstructive airway disease in adulthood. To examine environmental influences on early lung development, we measured lung function in 131 normal-term infants aged 5-14 weeks. Adjusting for age at measurement, FEV at 0.

Impact of educational attainment on the quality of young women's diets.

Objective: New findings, that relate poor foetal growth to long-term outcomes, highlight the need to understand more about the nature of women's diets before and during pregnancy. This study examines the influence of sociodemographic and anthropometric factors on the quality of the diets of young women in the UK.

Design: Diet was assessed by an interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire.

Risk factors for incident neck and shoulder pain in hospital nurses.

Aim: To assess the incidence and risk factors for neck and shoulder pain in nurses.

Methods: A longitudinal study of neck and shoulder pain was carried out in female nurses at two hospitals in England. Personal and occupational risk factors were assessed at baseline.

Personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and the severity of virus-induced asthma in children.

Background: A link between exposure to the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and respiratory disease has been suggested. Viral infections are the major cause of asthma exacerbations. We aimed to assess whether there is a relation between NO2 exposure and the severity of asthma exacerbations caused by proven respiratory viral infections in children.

Impact of ergonomic intervention on back pain among nurses.

Objectives: This study assessed the impact of ergonomic intervention on rates of low-back pain among hospital nurses.

Methods: Altogether 1239 female nurses from two hospitals in southern England completed a baseline postal questionnaire about low-back pain and associated risk factors. Between 18 and 28 months after the baseline survey, major intervention was implemented at one hospital to minimize unassisted patient handling and high-risk nursing tasks.

Neutropenia and agranulocytosis in England and Wales: incidence and risk factors.

The objectives of this study were to estimate the incidence of idiosyncratic neutropenia and agranulocytosis in England and Wales and to evaluate their risk factors and outcomes. The study was conducted using data from the General Practice Research Database. All cases of idiosyncratic neutropenia or agranulocytosis were identified and the incidence was estimated.

Changing causes of death in the West African town of Banjul, 1942-97.

Objective: To determine trends in the causes of death in a West African town. Mortality caused by infectious diseases is reported to be declining while degenerative and man-made mortality factors are increasingly significant. Most mortality analyses for sub-Saharan Africa have involved extrapolation and have not been derived from community-based data.

Personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide and risk of airflow obstruction in asthmatic children with upper respiratory infection.

Background: Several studies have linked air pollution by nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) with increased hospital admissions for asthma in children. Exacerbations of asthma in children are often precipitated by upper respiratory infections. It is therefore possible that NO(2) increases the risk of airways obstruction when asthmatic children develop upper respiratory infections.

Causes of the excess mortality of schizophrenia.

Background: The excess mortality of schizophrenia is well recognised, but its precise causes are not well understood.

Aims: To measure the standardised mortality ratio (SMR) and examine the reasons for any excess mortality in a community cohort with schizophrenia.

Method: We carried out a 13-year follow-up of 370 patients with schizophrenia, identifying those who died and their circumstances.

Personal exposures of children to nitrogen dioxide relative to concentrations in outdoor air.

Objectives: To investigate the relation between fluctuations in personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) in school children and changes in outdoor NO(2) concentrations.

Methods: 114 Asthmatic school children aged 7-12 years were recruited from the Southampton area. Weekly average personal exposures to NO(2) were measured over a 13 month period with passive diffusion tubes.

A study of the iron and HFE status of blood donors, including a group who failed the initial screen for anaemia.

A complete data set (age, weight, diet and recent donation history; venous blood cell count, serum ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor concentrations and transferrin saturation; HFE genotype) was obtained from 113 male and 122 female blood donors. Progressive iron depletion and deficiency - most apparent from serum concentrations of soluble transferrin receptor divided by the logarithm of ferritin concentrations (the TfR-F index) - developed in men donating up to six times in 2 years, although the serum ferritin alone was also informative; however, no prediction could be made for those iron-depleted individuals who will develop iron deficiency after donation. Iron stores in the groups of donors with 'low-normal' haemoglobin (Hb) concentrations were indistinguishable from those in donors with higher Hb values, whereas donors failing the anaemia screen had reduced stores.