Smoking associates with increased BAFF and decreased interferon-γ levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: In SLE, smoking increases the burden of cutaneous disease and organ damage, and leads to premature mortality. However, the effect of smoking on disease manifestations and cytokine levels of patients with SLE is unclear. This study compared characteristics of patients with SLE across smoking status, and determined the association of smoking with serum cytokine levels.

Hospitalisation for systemic lupus erythematosus associates with an increased risk of mortality in Australian patients from 1980 to 2014: a longitudinal, population-level, data linkage, cohort study.

Objective: Mortality rates for patients with SLE have not been reported in Australia. This study determined the association between a hospitalisation for SLE with mortality.

Methods: Population-level cohort study of patients with SLE (n=2112; 25 710 person-years) and general population comparators (controls) (n=21, 120; 280 637 person-years) identified from hospital records contained within the WA Rheumatic Disease Epidemiological Registry from 1980 to 2013.

Identifying Differences in Nutrition-Related Learning Interests of Adolescent Students.

Background: In this study, we examined nutrition-related topics among adolescent students attending schools with different Indices of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA).

Method: Participating students (N = 206) from 5 schools in Western Australia completed a paper-based questionnaire on nutrition-related topics. Frequencies and independent chi-square tests were used to identify differences between sexes and school ICSEA.