Purpose: People with cardiac disease have 2-4 times greater risk of stroke than the general population. We measured stroke incidence in people with coronary heart disease (CHD), atrial fibrillation (AF) or valvular heart disease (VHD).
Methods: We used a person-linked hospitalization/mortality dataset to identify all people hospitalized with CHD, AF or VHD (1985-2017), and stratified them as pre-existing (hospitalized 1985-2012 and alive at October 31, 2012) or new (first-ever cardiac hospitalization in the five-year study period, 2012-2017).
Background: International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes are central for identifying myocardial infarction (MI) in administrative hospitalisation data, however validation of MI subtype codes is limited. We measured the sensitivity and specificity of ICD-10-AM (Australian Modification) codes for ST-elevation MI (STEMI) and non-STEMI (NSTEMI).
Methods: A sample of MI admissions was obtained from a dataset containing all MI hospitalisations in Western Australia (WA) for 2003, 2008 and 2013.
Issue Addressed: Since 2005, a government-endorsed strategy guiding food sold in New South Wales school canteens has been in place. This study describes the changes in school canteen food between 2007 and 2010 and characterises schools most likely to adhere to strategy guidelines.
Methods: Menus obtained from a cohort of primary and central schools in the Hunter New England region of New South Wales were audited using a traffic light system of classification.
Background: Only a minority of women with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection eventually develop cervical cancer, which suggests that host immune mechanisms play a role in the disease. HLA polymorphisms have been linked to the risk of cervical cancer, but very little is known about the role that they play in the acquisition and persistence of HPV infection.
Methods: A cohort study of cervical HPV infections was used to examine the role that 5 HLA alleles (B*07, DQB1*03, DQB1*0602, DRB1*13, and DRB1*1501) play in determining the risk of HPV positivity and persistence in 524 female university students in Montreal.