Association of physical activity with body mass index, waist circumference and incidence of obesity in older adults.

Background: There is limited, and inconsistent, data on the prospective association between physical activity and surrogate markers of adiposity in older adults. We aim to determine the prospective association of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and the incidence of obesity.

Methods: This prospective analysis included 7144 individuals with a mean age of 67 ± 6.

[Epistemology as health research propedeutics].

The present article advocates the need for epistemological training prior to the study of biostatistics and epidemiology. Taking Plato as the starting point, we reached this conclusion after analysis of the paradigm problems affecting biostatistics and the connotations of causality and research time in major epidemiological designs. External validity is intimately linked to the philosophical problem of induction.

Multivariate explanatory model for sporadic carcinoma of the colon in Dukes' stages I and IIa.

Objective: We obtained before an explanatory model with six dependant variables: age of the patient, total cholesterol (TC), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), VLDL cholesterol (VLDL-C), alkaline phosphatase (AP) and the CA 19.9 tumour marker. Our objective in this study was to validate the model by means of the acquisition of new records for an additional analysis.

[1991-2004 follow-up of a Spanish general population cohort. Mortality and raising risk factors in the DRECE III Study (Diet and Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases in Spain)].

Background: The DRECE III study is based on the follow up of a cohort representative of the Spanish general population. The mortality, its main causes and relevant risk factors have been analyzed.

Methods: The DRECE cohort is composed of 4783 subjects followed since 1991 to 2004 (70930 person-years).

Has mortality from malignant melanoma stopped rising in Spain? Analysis of trends between 1975 and 2001.

Background: There have been suggestions that mortality from cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is starting to level off in the European Union.

Objectives: To analyse changes in CMM mortality trends in Spain during 1975-2001 using joinpoint regression models.

Methods: Mortality data were obtained from the National Statistics Institute.