Antibiotic Treatment During Pregnancy and the First Six Months Postpartum - a Secondary Analysis of the "Healthy Living in Pregnancy" (GeliS) Study.

Introduction: Antibiotic therapies for the treatment of bacterial infections pose a particular challenge during pregnancy and breastfeeding. For Germany, there is hardly any information on the frequency of antibiotic use during this phase. Our analysis uses data from the "Healthy Living in Pregnancy" (GeliS) study to describe antibiotic treatments during pregnancy and in the first six months after birth (postpartum), and to compare their use with existing recommendations.

Cigarette smoking is associated with a greater risk of incident asthma in allergic rhinitis.

Background: Asthma and rhinitis are often comorbid conditions, and several studies have suggested that rhinitis often precedes asthma. Sensitization to allergen has been shown to be one of the strongest determinants of incident asthma, but little is known about the effects of cigarette smoking among individuals with allergic rhinitis.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the importance of cigarette smoking as an additional risk factor for incident asthma in a cohort of hospital-referred nonasthmatic adult subjects with allergic rhinitis.

The change in excess risk of lung cancer attributable to smoking following smoking cessation: an examination of different analytic approaches using CPS-I data.

Background: Lung cancer risk is modified by smoking cessation. However, the inclusion in the group of former smokers of those who quit after developing symptoms or being diagnosed with lung cancer distorts the apparent risk in the first several years following cessation. This bias is termed the quitting ill effect.

Does a failed quit attempt reduce cigarette consumption following resumption of smoking? The effects of time and quit attempts on the longitudinal analysis of self-reported cigarette smoking intensity.

California Tobacco Survey respondents were asked the intensity of their cigarette smoking 1 year previously and at the time of the survey. Respondents reported a generally lower smoking intensity at survey time compared with 1 year previously. Multivariable statistical models on the change in smoking intensity in the past year were fitted to assess the effects of low-tar cigarette use, a quit attempt in the past year, smoking intensity 1 year previously, and demographic variables (age, education, income, and race).

Risk factors for progression of peripheral arterial disease in large and small vessels.

Background: Data on the natural history of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) are scarce and are focused primarily on clinical symptoms. Using noninvasive tests, we assessed the role of traditional and novel risk factors on PAD progression. We hypothesized that the risk factors for large-vessel PAD (LV-PAD) progression might differ from small-vessel PAD (SV-PAD).

Lung cancer mortality is related to age in addition to duration and intensity of cigarette smoking: an analysis of CPS-I data.

Objectives: Models previously developed for predicting lung cancer mortality from cigarette smoking intensity and duration based on aggregated prospective mortality data have employed a study of British doctors and have assumed a uniform age of initiation of smoking. We reexamined these models using the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study I data that include a range of ages of initiation to assess the importance of an additional term for age.

Methods: Model parameters were estimated by maximum likelihood, and model fit was assessed by residual analysis, likelihood ratio tests, and chi(2) goodness-of-fit tests.

Weight loss: a determinant of hip bone loss in older men and women. The Rancho Bernardo Study.

The sex-specific effect of weight change on change in total hip bone mineral density was evaluated over 4 years (1992-1996) in 1,214 community-dwelling adults whose mean age at baseline was 71 years. Weight and bone mineral density (by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) were assessed at two study visits. The average bone loss was 0.

The relationship between weight loss and all-cause mortality in older men and women with and without diabetes mellitus: the Rancho Bernardo study.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between measured weight change over an approximate 10-year time period on all-cause mortality over the following 12 years in 1,801 community-dwelling men and women (mean age 71 at the beginning of mortality follow-up) with and without diabetes mellitus.

Design: A longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: A geographically defined community in southern California.

Stability of electrocardiographic classification pre- and postglucose challenge.

Because of validity concerns, electrocardiograms (ECGs) in epidemiologic studies are usually taken in fasting subjects. It would be preferable logistically to record ECGs throughout the day. The authors investigated the stability of ECGs taken while fasting and approximately 1 hour after a 75-g glucose load on the same morning in 89 older men and women who were participants in the Rancho Bernardo (California) Chronic Disease Study between 1984 and 1995.

Factor analysis of self-reported symptoms: does it identify a Gulf War syndrome?

Active duty US Naval mobile construction battalion personnel (Seabees) were surveyed in 1994 for the presence of a variety of symptoms. Questions were drawn from the Hopkins Symptom Checklist and from a collection of symptoms either defining clinical depression or commonly reported by Persian Gulf War veterans. Of those surveyed, 524 were Gulf War veterans and 935 were nondeployed Gulf War-era veterans.

Is systemic lupus erythematosus, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or fibromyalgia associated with Persian Gulf War service? An examination of Department of Defense hospitalization data.

Since the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, veterans have reported diverse, unexplained symptoms. Some have wondered if their development of systemic lupus erythematosus, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or fibromyalgia might be related to Gulf War service. The authors used Cox proportional hazard modeling to determine whether regular, active-duty service personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf War (n = 551,841) were at increased risk of postwar hospitalization with the three conditions compared with nondeployed Gulf War era service personnel (n = 1,478,704).

Are Gulf War veterans suffering war-related illnesses? Federal and civilian hospitalizations examined, June 1991 to December 1994.

A previous epidemiologic study demonstrated no unexplained increase in risk for postwar hospitalization among Gulf War veterans who had remained on active duty. The authors sought to expand this study to include Reserve and separated military personnel. They examined hospitalization data from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development hospital systems for the years 1991-1994.

Risk factors for mental disorder hospitalization after the Persian Gulf War: U.S. Armed Forces, June 1, 1991-September 30, 1993.

Effects of Persian Gulf War (August 2, 1990-July 31, 1991) and Gulf War occupation on post-War hospitalization risk were evaluated through Cox proportional hazards modeling. Active-duty men (n = 1,775,236) and women (n = 209,760) in the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps had 30,539 initial postwar hospitalizations for mental disorders between June 1, 1991 and September 30, 1993. Principal diagnoses in the Defense Manpower Data Center hospitalization database were grouped into 10 categories of ICD-9-CM codes.

The postwar hospitalization experience of Gulf War Veterans possibly exposed to chemical munitions destruction at Khamisiyah, Iraq.

Using Department of Defense hospital data, the authors examined the postwar hospitalization experience from March 1991 through September 1995 of US Gulf War veterans who were near Khamisiyah, Iraq, during nerve agent munition destruction in March 1991. Multiple sources of meteorologic, munition, and toxicology data were used to circumscribe geographic areas of low level, vaporized nerve agent for 4 days after the destruction. Plume estimates were overlaid on military unit positions, and exposure was estimated for the 349,291 US Army Gulf War veterans.

Testicular cancer and Persian Gulf War service.

We studied whether regular, active-duty servicemen deployed to the Persian Gulf War were at increased risk of testicular cancer compared with nondeployed Gulf War-era servicemen from August 1991 through March 31, 1996, using a Cox proportional hazards model for survival analysis with covariates. Race was an important predictor of hospitalization for testicular cancer [rate ratio (RR) = 0.19; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.

Gulf War Veterans' Health Registries. Who is most likely to seek evaluation?

Since the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, many veterans have sought medical evaluation in the Department of Veterans Affairs Persian Gulf Veterans' Health Registry (VA registry) or the Department of Defense's Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program (DoD registry). Using combined data collected from 1993 to 1997 from the VA and DoD registries, the authors compared the characteristics of registry participants (n=74,653) with those of all Gulf War veterans (n=696,531) to determine the personnel most likely to seek medical evaluation. Using multiple logistic regression, the authors found that service branch and type were strongly associated with registry participation, with Army (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=4.

Hospitalizations for unexplained illnesses among U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf War.

Persian Gulf War veterans have reported a variety of symptoms, many of which have not led to conventional diagnoses. We ascertained all active-duty U.S.

The postwar hospitalization experience of U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf War.

Background: Since the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, many veterans of that conflict have reported diverse, unexplained symptoms. To evaluate the health of Gulf War veterans, we studied their postwar hospitalization experience and compared it with that of other military personnel serving at the same time who did not go to the Persian Gulf.

Methods: Using a retrospective cohort approach and data from Department of Defense hospitals, we studied hospitalizations of 547,076 veterans of the Gulf War who were serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force and 618,335 other veterans from the same era who did not serve in the Persian Gulf.

Nonparametric analysis of covariance for comparing change in randomized studies with baseline values subject to error.

Change from baseline to a follow-up examination can be compared among two or more randomly assigned treatment groups by using analysis of variance on the change scores. However, a generally more sensitive (powerful) test can be performed using analysis of covariance (ANOVA) on the follow-up data with the baseline data as a covariate. This approach is not without potential problems, though.

A comparative study of two statistical models for the analysis of binary data from longitudinal studies.

This study extensively compares two statistical models for the analysis of binary data from longitudinal studies. The first model was proposed by Zeger, Liang, and Self, which was abbreviated as ZLS model and another model was proposed by Origasa. The comparison focuses on both analytical and statistical view-points.