Physically and psychologically hazardous jobs and mental health in Thailand.

This paper investigates associations between hazardous jobs, mental health and wellbeing among Thai adults. In 2005, 87 134 distance-learning students from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University completed a self-administered questionnaire; at the 2009 follow-up 60 569 again participated. Job characteristics were reported in 2005, psychological distress and life satisfaction were reported in both 2005 and 2009.

Lifecourse Urbanization, Social Demography, and Health Outcomes among a National Cohort of 71,516 Adults in Thailand.

We examine the influence of urbanization on household structure, social networks, and health in Thailand. We compare lifetime urban or rural dwellers and those who were rural as children and urban as adults. Data derived from a large national cohort of 71,516 Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University adult students participating in an on-going longitudinal study of the health-risk transition in Thailand.

Association between occupational heat stress and kidney disease among 37,816 workers in the Thai Cohort Study (TCS).

Background: We examined the relationship between self-reported occupational heat stress and incidence of self-reported doctor-diagnosed kidney disease in Thai workers.

Methods: Data were derived from baseline (2005) and follow-up (2009) self-report questionnaires from a large national Thai Cohort Study (TCS). Analysis was restricted to full-time workers (n = 17 402 men and 20 414 women) without known kidney disease at baseline.

Social capital and health in a national cohort of 82,482 Open University adults in Thailand.

We report associations between social capital and health among 82,482 adults in a national cohort of Open University students residing throughout Thailand.After adjusting for covariates, poor self-assessed health was positively associated with low social trust (OR = 1.88; 95% CI 1.

Has universal health insurance reduced socioeconomic inequalities in urban and rural health service use in Thailand?

This study analyses urban and rural health service use before and after the introduction of the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS). Using data from the Thai national health surveys of 2001 and 2005, the study utilises age-sex adjusted concentration indices to measure within-area differences in use of health services among populations distinguished by socioeconomic status. Between 2001 and 2005, the UCS substantially reduced Thailand's uninsured population (from 42.

Used and foregone health services among a cohort of 87,134 adult open university students residing throughout Thailand.

There are limited data on the frequency of foregone health service use in defined populations. Here we describe Thai patterns of health service use, types of health insurance used and reports of foregone health services according to geo-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Data on those who considered they had needed but not received health care over the previous year were obtained from a national cohort of 87,134 students from the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU).

The association between overall health, psychological distress, and occupational heat stress among a large national cohort of 40,913 Thai workers.

Background: Occupational heat stress is a well-known problem, particularly in tropical countries, affecting workers, health and well-being. There are very few recent studies that have reported on the effect of heat stress on mental health, or overall health in workers, although socioeconomic development and rapid urbanization in tropical developing countries like Thailand create working conditions in which heat stress is likely.

Objective: This study is aimed at identifying the relationship between self-reported heat stress and psychological distress, and overall health status in Thai workers.

Associations between urbanisation and components of the health-risk transition in Thailand. A descriptive study of 87,000 Thai adults.

Background: Social and environmental changes have accompanied the ongoing rapid urbanisation in a number of countries during recent decades. Understanding of its role in the health-risk transition is important for health policy development at national and local level. Thailand is one country facing many of the health challenges of urbanisation.

Socioeconomic status, sex, and obesity in a large national cohort of 15-87-year-old open university students in Thailand.

Background: As obesity increases, middle-income countries are undergoing a health-risk transition. We examine the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and emerging obesity in Thailand, and ascertain if an inverse relationship between SES and obesity has appeared.

Methods: The data derived from 87 134 individuals (54% female; median age, 29 years) in a national cohort of distance-learning Open University students aged 15-87 years and living throughout Thailand.

Tracking and decomposing health and disease inequality in Thailand.

Purpose: In middle-income countries, interest in the study of inequalities in health has focused on aggregate types of health outcomes, like rates of mortality. This work moves beyond such measures to focus on disease-specific health outcomes with the use of national health survey data.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from the national Health and Welfare Survey 2003, covering 52,030 adult aged 15 or older, were analyzed.

Multicenter randomized controlled trial of a home walking intervention after outpatient cardiac rehabilitation on health-related quality of life in women.

Background: Poor health-related quality of life (HRQL) has been shown to be predictive of adverse outcomes in cardiac patients. As women with coronary heart disease have been shown to have lower HRQL than men with coronary heart disease, women are at greater risk of a poor clinical outcome. This study tested the effect of a 12-week home walking intervention after completion of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (OCR) on HRQL and maintenance of physical activity among women.

Thai SF-36 health survey: tests of data quality, scaling assumptions, reliability and validity in healthy men and women.

Background: Since its translation to Thai in 2000, the SF-36 Health Survey has been used extensively in many different clinical settings in Thailand. Its popularity has increased despite the absence of published evidence that the translated instrument satisfies scoring assumptions, the psychometric properties required for valid interpretation of the SF-36 summated ratings scales. The purpose of this paper was to examine these properties and to report on the reliability and validity of the Thai SF-36 in a non-clinical general population.

Infant sleeping environment and asthma at 7 years: a prospective cohort study.

Objectives: We investigated the role of infant bedding items, as part of a composite bedding environment, in the development of childhood wheezing.

Methods: This prospective cohort investigation involved 863 children who participated in an infant survey in 1988 and an asthma study in Tasmania, Australia, in 1995. The derived 3 composite infant bedding categories corresponded to increasing numbers of house dust mite (HDM)-rich bedding items used.

Job strain, job insecurity, and health: rethinking the relationship.

Job strain (high demands and low control) is a widely used measure of work stress. The authors introduce a new way of looking at work stress by combining job strain with job insecurity, a combination increasingly prevalent in contemporary economies, using data from a cross-sectional survey (N = 1,188) of mid-aged Australian managers and professionals. Those reporting both strain and insecurity showed markedly higher odds for mental and physical health problems (depression: odds ratio [OR] 13.

Around-the-clock: parent work schedules and children's well-being in a 24-h economy.

Family life in developed economies has undergone a fundamental change--shifting from single-breadwinner households (typical of the post war decades) to families where both parents are employed. Equally dramatic has been the emergence of around-the-clock economies, altering the way work is organised, especially working time. Many more children now live in households where one or both parents work non-standard hours (evenings, nights or on weekends).

A prediction model of 1-year mortality for acute ischemic stroke patients.

Objective: To develop a prediction model for 1-year mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke, with the model to be at least as useful and accurate as other previously developed prediction models.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Neurology department at an Australian tertiary teaching hospital.

Ecologic analysis of some immune-related disorders, including type 1 diabetes, in Australia: latitude, regional ultraviolet radiation, and disease prevalence.

The apparent immune-suppressive effect of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) has suggested that this environmental exposure may influence the development of immune-related disorders. Self-reported prevalence rates of type 1 diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), eczema/dermatitis, and asthma, from the 1995 Australian National Health Survey, were therefore examined by latitude and ambient level of UVR. A positive association of type 1 diabetes mellitus prevalence was found with both increasing southern latitude of residence (r = 0.

Attitudes of developing world physicians to where medical research is performed and reported.

Background: Little is known about the influence of the site of research or publication on the impact of the research findings on clinical practice, particularly in developing countries. The International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) is dedicated to improving the quality of health research in the Developing World through institutional capacity building for evidence based medicine, and provided the opportunity to examine the likely impact of research location and journal location on physicians' practice in a number of the participating countries.

Methods: Physicians from secondary and tertiary hospitals in six cities located in China, Thailand, India, Egypt and Kenya were enrolled in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

The health of the Australian workforce: 1998-2001.

Objective: To describe the health of the Australian workforce in relation to occupational status.

Methods: Data on 9,167 workers, collected between 1998 and 2001, were obtained from the Campbell National Health Monitor, a cross-sectional national, health survey. Professional, white-collar and blue-collar workers were compared on five health outcomes: self-rated health, long-and short-term conditions, reduced activity days and work absences.

The MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life instrument: reference data for users.

Objective: To report reference data for the heart-specific MacNew Heart Disease Health-Related Quality of Life instrument.

Methods: One thousand five hundred and six patients with myocardial infarction (n = 346), heart failure (n = 201), and ischaemic heart disease (IHD, n = 959) were surveyed 4 months after hospital discharge. Quality of life scores were determined, stratified by diagnostic category, age and sex.