Nutritional risk factors for tuberculosis among adults in the United States, 1971-1992.

The risk of developing tuberculosis (TB) may be related to nutritional status. To determine the impact of nutritional status on TB incidence, the authors analyzed data from the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHEFS). NHANES I collected information on a probability sample of the US population in 1971-1975.

Impact of depressive symptoms on hospitalization risk in community-dwelling older persons.

Objective: To determine whether depressive symptoms in older adults are associated with an increased risk for hospitalization.

Design: A 6 month cohort study.

Setting: Five counties in the northern Piedmont of North Carolina from the Duke University site of the Established Populations for Epidemiological Studies of the Elderly project.

Comorbidity of five chronic health conditions in elderly community residents: determinants and impact on mortality.

Background: Comorbidity is common in elderly persons. Its extent, correlates, and life-threatening impact in representative community residents are unclear.

Methods: Self-reported information of physician-diagnosed coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, and cancer was obtained annually between 1986-87 and 1992-93, and hypertension was obtained triennially from the participants of the Duke Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly, a stratified multistage sample of 4,126 Black and White community residents aged 65-100, living in a five-county area of North Carolina.

Spondyloarthropathy in the community: differences in severity and disease expression in Alaskan Eskimo men and women.

Objectives: To determine the relative severity and compare the clinical expression of spondyloarthropathy (SpA) in men and women.

Methods: A clinical study was conducted in 43 women and 40 men who made up 80% of all individuals identified as having SpA in a community-wide epidemiologic study of Alaskan Eskimos. The study included interviews, physical, laboratory, radiographic and electrocardiographic examinations, record reviews, and functional assessments.

Insomnia and heart disease: a review of epidemiologic studies.

Since the discovery and successful treatment of sleep apnea, researchers seem to believe that the association between sleep disturbance and coronary heart disease (CHD) has been explained. To determine whether subjective nighttime sleep complaints (trouble sleeping, trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep), exclusive of apnea, predicted myocardial infarction and other coronary events, a MEDLINE search was conducted for articles published between January 1976 through August 1997. Ten studies with an explicit measure of association between an insomniac complaint and CHD were identified.