When authorship fails. A proposal to make contributors accountable.

A published article is the primary means whereby new work is communicated, priority is established, and academic promotion is determined. Publication depends on trust and requires that authors be held to standards of honesty, completeness, and fairness in their reporting, and to accountability for their statements. The system of authorship, while appropriate for articles with only 1 author, has become inappropriate as the average number of authors of an article has increased; as the work of coauthors has become more specialized and relationships between them have become more complex; and as both credit and, even more, responsibility have become obscured and diluted.

Major genetic effect on forced vital capacity: the Humboldt Family Study.

Familial correlation and segregation analyses of forced vital capacity (FVC) were performed on data from 309 nuclear families with 1,045 individuals in the town of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in 1993. FVC was preadjusted for age, height, and weight in four separate groups (mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons). Residual FVC was standardized within the four groups.

Charges for obstetric liability insurance and discontinuation of obstetric practice in New York.

Background: The study objective was to determine whether New York physicians facing higher charges for obstetric liability insurance coverage are more likely to discontinue obstetric practice than physicians experiencing lower levels of increases in liability insurance charges.

Methods: We performed a physician-level analysis of factors predicting discontinuation of hospital-based obstetric practice by 1989 for physicians active in obstetrics in 1980. We examined both physicians who became completely clinically inactive in New York between 1980 and 1989, and physicians who remained clinically active but restricted their hospital practice to areas other than obstetrics.

Influence of environmental tobacco smoke on asthma in nonallergic and allergic children.

The relation between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and childhood asthma is not clear. A 1993 study of 892 subjects age 6-17 years (87.5% of 1,019 eligible subjects) living in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, showed that a lifetime history of asthma and asthma attack during the past 12 months were more common among allergic children than among non-allergic children.

Influences on the quality of published drug studies.

To practice evidence-based medicine, physicians need data on the clinical effectiveness, toxicity, convenience, and cost of new drugs compared with available alternatives. We give examples of published drug studies that are defective, sometimes because pharmaceutical industry funding has affected their content and quality. We make recommendations on how to avoid these defects.

Segregation analysis of two lung function indices in a random sample of young families: the Humboldt Family Study.

The Humboldt Family Study was conducted in the town of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in 1993. Familial correlations and segregation analyses of lung function were carried out in 799 individuals in 214 nuclear families that included 214 fathers, 214 mothers, and 371 children. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and maximal mid-expiratory flow rate (MMFR) were first regressed on age, height, weight, and their quadratic and cubic terms as well as on smoking status in four groups separately (mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons), with terms significant at the 0.

Age-related association between body mass index and blood pressure: the Humboldt Study.

Objective: To investigate how age modifies the relation between body mass and blood pressure.

Design: Community based cross-sectional study.

Subjects: 2865 residents aged 6 to 74 years (85.

Perimenstrual depression: its relationship to pain, bleeding, and previous history of depression.

Daily ratings of depression, pain, and menstrual blood loss, as well as past history of treated depression, were analyzed in 210 women attending a Premenstrual Syndrome Clinic. Severity and duration of perimenstrual depression was strongly associated with the severity of premenstrual and menstrual pain, raising the possibility of a causal relationship. It is not yet clear whether the occurrence of depression alters a woman's perception of pain, pain aggravates a tendency to perimenstrual depression, or some common factor aggravates both.

Health education models and food hygiene education.

Education of food industry personnel in hygiene matters has been recommended as a means of improving food handling practices and thus the safety of food. Provision has been made within the Food Safety Act 1990 for the making of regulations to specify the nature and extent of such training. There is, however, a lack of documentary evidence of improvements in food hygiene standards which can be directly related to education or training.