Comparison of sociodemographic factors, healthcare utilisation by general practitioner visits, somatic hospital admissions, and medication use in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Purpose: The healthcare systems in Scandinavia inform nationwide registers and the Scandinavian populations are increasingly combined in research. We aimed to compare Norway (NO), Sweden (SE), and Denmark (DK) regarding sociodemographic factors and healthcare.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed aggregated data from the nationwide Scandinavian registers.

Time to pregnancy and life expectancy: a cohort study of 18 796 pregnant couples.

Study Question: Is fecundity, measured as time to pregnancy (TTP), associated with mortality in parents?

Summary Answer: Prolonged TTP is associated with increased mortality in both mothers and fathers in a dose-response manner.

What Is Known Already: Several studies have linked both male and female fecundity to mortality. In women, infertility has been linked to several diseases, but studies suggest that the underlying conditions, rather than infertility, increase mortality.

Hypothesis: Metformin is a potential reproductive toxicant.

Metformin is the first-line oral treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus and is prescribed to more than 150 million people worldwide. Metformin's effect as a glucose-lowering drug is well documented but the precise mechanism of action is unknown. A recent finding of an association between paternal metformin treatment and increased numbers of genital birth defects in sons and a tendency towards a skewed secondary sex ratio with less male offspring prompted us to focus on other evidence of reproductive side effects of this drug.

Development in life expectancy with good and poor cognitive function in the elderly European Population from 2004-05 to 2015.

Background: Living not just longer, but also cognitively healthier, and more independent lives is essential if European countries are to cope with the financial challenges that the shifting age composition of Europe's population presents. Here we investigate the change in life expectancy (LE) spent with good and poor cognitive function among older adults across Europe.

Methods: LE with good/poor cognitive function was estimated by the Sullivan Method.

Nervous system drugs taken by future fathers and birth defects in offspring: a prospective registry-based cohort study.

Objectives: To evaluate the association of paternal intake of antipsychotics, anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and (benzo)diazepines during the development of fertilising sperm with birth defects in offspring.

Design: Prospective registry-based cohort study.

Setting: Total Danish birth cohort 1997-2016 using Danish national registries.

Preconception Antidiabetic Drugs in Men and Birth Defects in Offspring : A Nationwide Cohort Study.

Background: Diabetes reduces semen quality and increasingly occurs during reproductive years. Diabetes medications, such as metformin, have glucose-independent effects on the male reproductive system. Associations with birth defects in offspring are unknown.

Environmental factors in declining human fertility.

A severe decline in child births has occurred over the past half century, which will lead to considerable population declines, particularly in industrialized regions. A crucial question is whether this decline can be explained by economic and behavioural factors alone, as suggested by demographic reports, or to what degree biological factors are also involved. Here, we discuss data suggesting that human reproductive health is deteriorating in industrialized regions.

Gender differences in time to first hospital admission at age 60 in Denmark, 1995-2014.

Unlabelled: Women have consistently lower mortality rates than men at all ages and with respect to most causes. However, gender differences regarding hospital admission rates are more mixed, varying across ages and causes. A number of intuitive metrics have previously been used to explore changes in hospital admissions over time, but have not explicitly quantified the gender gap or estimated the cumulative contribution from cause-specific admission rates.

Impaired fecundity as a marker of health and survival: a Danish twin cohort study.

Study Question: Is fecundity, measured as self-reported time to first pregnancy (TTP), a marker for subsequent health and survival?

Summary Answer: Long TTP was a marker for increased mortality among women and higher hospitalization rates for both women and men.

What Is Known Already: Poor semen quality has been linked to increased mortality and morbidity from a wide range of diseases. Associations among fecundity, health and survival among women are still uncertain and studies on actual measures of fecundity and health outcomes are rare.

Burden and prevalence of risk factors for severe COVID-19 in the ageing European population - a SHARE-based analysis.

Aim: International health authorities suggest that individuals aged 65 years and above and people with underlying comorbidities such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are at increased risk of severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, the prevalence of risk factors is unknown in many countries. Therefore, we aimed to describe the distribution of these risk factors across Europe.

Subject And Methods: Prevalence of risk factors for severe COVID-19 was identified based on interviews from 73,274 Europeans aged 50+ participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 2017.

Skewness of X-chromosome inactivation increases with age and varies across birth cohorts in elderly Danish women.

Mosaicism in blood varies with age, and cross-sectional studies indicate that for women, skewness of X-chromosomal mosaicism increases with age. This pattern could, however, also be due to less X-inactivation in more recent birth cohorts. Skewed X-chromosome inactivation was here measured longitudinally by the HUMARA assay in 67 septuagenarian and octogenarian women assessed at 2 time points, 10 years apart, and in 10 centenarian women assessed at 2 time points, 2-7 years apart.

Paternal prescription medication before conception: A retrospective cohort study of all births in Denmark 1997-2017.

Aim: To study what medication fathers are being prescribed in the months preceding conception.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of Danish national registries, comprising all births in Denmark 1997-2017 (1.3 million births).

Healthy life expectancy by frailty state in Europe from 2004 to 2015: findings from SHARE.

Background: As populations age, the possible consequences of increased frailty are a major concern for the health sector. Here, we investigate how life expectancy with and without frailty has changed during a 10-11-year-period across Europe.

Methods: The Sullivan method was used to investigate changes in life expectancy with and without frailty in 10 European countries.

Sex and age differences in COVID-19 mortality in Europe.

Aim: To examine the magnitude of sex differences in survival from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Europe across age groups and regions. We hypothesized that men have a higher mortality than women at any given age but that sex differences will decrease with age as only the healthiest men survive to older ages.

Methods: We used population data from the Institut National D'Études Démographiques on cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 from February to June 2020 in 10 European regions: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, England and Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Risk of pre-term births and major birth defects resulting from paternal intake of COVID-19 medications prior to conception.

Objective: With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, large numbers of people will receive one of the several medications proposed to treat COVID-19, including patients of reproductive age. Given that some medications have shown adverse effects on sperm quality, there might be a transgenerational concern. We aim at examining the association between drugs proposed to treat COVID-19 when taken by the father around conception and any pre-term birth or major birth defects in offspring in a nation-wide cohort study using Danish registry data.

Preparing for the future: The changing demographic composition of hospital patients in Denmark between 2013 and 2050.

Background: Population aging will pose huge challenges for healthcare systems and will require a promotion of positive attitudes towards older people and the encouragement of careers in geriatrics to attract young professionals into the field and to meet the needs of a rapidly growing number of old-aged patients. We describe the current demographic profile of hospital care use in Denmark and make projections for changes in the patient profile up to 2050.

Methods: The Danish population in 2013 (N = 5.

Burden and prevalence of risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease in the ageing European population - A SHARE-based analysis.

International health authorities suggest that individuals aged 65 years and above and people with underlying comorbidities such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are at increased risk of severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, the prevalence of risk factors is unknown in many countries. Therefore, we aim to describe the distribution of these risk factors across Europe. Prevalence of risk factors for severe COVID-19 was identified based on interview for 73,274 Europeans aged 50+ participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 2017.

Risk of pre-term births and major birth defects resulting from paternal intake of COVID-19 medications prior to conception.

Objective: With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, large numbers of people will receive one of the several medications proposed to treat COVID-19, including patients of reproductive age. Given that some medications have shown adverse effects on sperm quality, there might be a transgenerational concern. We aim at examining the association between drugs proposed to treat COVID-19 when taken by the father around conception and any pre-term birth or major birth defects in offspring in a nation-wide cohort study using Danish registry data.

Spousal order of migration, gender, and hospitalization among immigrants in Denmark.

Certain migration contexts that may help clarify immigrants' health needs are understudied, including the order in which married individuals migrate. Research shows that men, who are healthier than women across most populations, often migrate to a host country before women. Using Danish register data, we investigate descriptive patterns in the order that married men and women arrive in Denmark, as well as whether migration order is related to overnight hospitalizations.

Sex and age differences in COVID-19 mortality in Europe .

To examine the magnitude of sex differences in survival from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Europe across age and countries. We hypothesise that men have higher mortality than women at any given age, but that sex differences will decrease with age as only the strongest men survive to older ages. We used population data from Institut National D'Études Démographiques on cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 from February to June 2020 in 10 European countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, England & Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Heritability of subfertility among Danish twins.

Objective: To investigate the relative contribution of genetic and environmental components to subfertility.

Design: Twin design using a quantitative genetic liability threshold model that splits the variation of subfertility into additive genetic effects, common environmental effects, and unique environmental effects.

Setting: Not applicable.

Age-specific cancer rates: a bird's-eye view on progress.

Purpose: We aim to shed light on progress in cancer medicine through studying time trends in age-specific rates of cancer incidence and mortality over the last quarter century.

Methods: We analyzed age-specific incidence and mortality rates of all cancer sites combined using the high-quality population-based databases of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands for the period 1990-2016.

Results: Over these 26 years, cancer incidence rates increased in all investigated countries irrespective of age by about 22%.