Self-efficacy and social support enable women to protect their pelvic floor health: A nonrandomized controlled trial in rural Nepal.

Carrying heavy loads increases the risk of pelvic organ disorders, particularly in low-income countries. Low self-efficacy hampers adoption of pelvic-floor-protective behaviors. The enabling hypothesis suggests that social support may strengthen women's behavioral self-efficacy.

Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts: asbestos related mortality by industrial sector and cumulative exposure.

Objective: Italy has been a large user of asbestos and asbestos containing materials until the 1992 ban. We present a pooled cohort study on long-term mortality in exposed workers.

Methods: Pool of 43 Italian asbestos cohorts (asbestos cement, rolling stock, shipbuilding, glasswork, harbors, insulation and other industries).

Role of asbestos clearance in explaining long-term risk of pleural and peritoneal cancer: a pooled analysis of cohort studies.

Objectives: Models based on the multistage theory of cancer predict that rates of malignant mesothelioma continuously increase with time since first exposure (TSFE) to asbestos, even after the end of external exposure. However, recent epidemiological studies suggest that mesothelioma rates level off many years after first exposure to asbestos. A gradual clearance of asbestos from the lungs has been suggested as a possible explanation for this phenomenon.

Cancer mortality and exposure to nickel and chromium compounds in a cohort of Italian electroplaters.

Background: Nickel and chromium-VI compounds are carcinogens for lung cancer, although it is still debated if there is an increased risk at low levels of exposure and for other cancers.

Methods: In a cohort of 2991 Italian electroplaters, a proportion of whom were exposed to low levels of nickel and/or chromium, cumulative exposure to their compounds was obtained by multiplying average concentrations of the metals in each electroplating tank by duration of employment in the company. The association of exposure to compounds with mortality was assessed by multivariable Cox models.

[Mortality study update of workers exposed to vinyl chloride in plants located in Ferrara and Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna Region, Northern Italy)].

Objectives: to update the mortality study of subjects exposed to vinyl chloride in the phases of synthesis of the monomer and polymerization in the plants of Ferrara and Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna Region, Northern Italy).

Design: both for the whole cohort and for the two plants, standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI), were calculated for different death causes, then stratified by duration and latency, periods of the beginning of work and cumulative exposure (ppm-years).

Setting And Participants: the cohort includes 1,540 subjects (469 in Ferrara hired from 1953 to 1999; 1,071 in Ravenna hired from 1959 to 2000), with at least six months of work.

Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts: mortality trends of asbestos-related neoplasms after long time since first exposure.

Objective: Asbestos is a known human carcinogen, with evidence for malignant mesothelioma (MM), cancers of lung, ovary, larynx and possibly other organs. MM rates are predicted to increase with a power of time since first exposure (TSFE), but the possible long-term attenuation of the trend is debated. The asbestos ban enforced in Italy in 1992 gives an opportunity to measure long-term cancer risk in formerly exposed workers.

[Mortality study in a cohort of workers employed in the hot working processing of plastics and rubber].

Objectives: to study mortality rates among workers in companies manufacturing thermoplastic and rubber articles (excluding tyres).

Design: cohort study.

Setting And Participants: the cohort includes 4,543 workers employed up to 2000 in 131 companies in the Province of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna Region, Northern Italy) exposed to emissions from hot processing of plastics (3,937) and rubber (606).

[Time trend in mesothelioma and lung cancer risk in asbestos workers in Italy].

This study aims at investigating, in asbestos exposed workers, the time trend of their risk of mesothelioma and of other neoplasm after very long latency and after the cessation of asbestos exposure. We pooled a large number of Italian cohorts of asbestos workers and updated mortality follow-up. The pool of data for statistical analyses includes 51,988 workers, of which 6,058 women: 54.

[Mortality study in metal electroplating workers in Bologna (Northern Italy)].

Aim: to investigate general and cause-specific mortality of workers exposed to metals and other chemicals in the electroplating industry in Bologna Province.

Materials And Methods: factory records of workers employed in 90 electroplating companies present in 1995 were used to build a cohort of subjects potentially exposed to carcinogenic and other substances in this industry, defined as "revised cohort", which was followed-up for mortality from 1960, or since first employment in an electroplating company if later, to 2008. Mortality risk was also examined separately in a subset of the cohort, composed of workers with at least one year of employment in electroplating, denominated "final cohort".

Air pollution and multiple acute respiratory outcomes.

Short-term effects of air pollutants on respiratory mortality and morbidity have been consistently reported but usually studied separately. To more completely assess air pollution effects, we studied hospitalisations for respiratory diseases together with out-of-hospital respiratory deaths. A time-stratified case-crossover study was carried out in six Italian cities from 2001 to 2005.

[Mortality in a cohort of railway rolling stock construction and repair workers in Bologna].

Background: A private company in Bologna worked for the Italian State Railways (FS) from 1919 to 1998; since the early '60s it used asbestos for new carriage insulation and renovation of carriages already circulating which were entirely spray-coated with asbestos.

Objectives: The study aimed to investigate all causes mortality, in particular mortality from asbestos-related neoplasms in blue-collar workers.

Methods: The cohort consisted of 1,849 people, active in 1960 or hired in 1960-86: 1,704 (92.

The relationship between ambient particulate matter and respiratory mortality: a multi-city study in Italy.

The association of air pollutants with natural and respiratory mortality has been consistently reported. However, several aspects of the relationship between particulate matter with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm (PM(10)) and respiratory mortality require further investigation. The aim of the present study was to assess the PM(10)-respiratory mortality association in Italy and examine potentially susceptible groups.

[Environmental indicators in ten Italian cities (2001-2005): the air quality data for epidemiological surveillance].

Objective: to produce environmental indicators suitable for an epidemiological surveillance in 10 Italian cities part of the EpiAir Project (2001-2005).

Methods: the environmental parameters that correlate to relevant health effects are the particles with diameters less than or equal to 10 micrometers (PM10), the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and the ozone (O3). The necessary meteorological data are: temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure and apparent temperature.

Vulnerability to heat-related mortality: a multicity, population-based, case-crossover analysis.

Background: Although studies have documented increased mortality during heat waves, little information is available on the subgroups most susceptible to these effects. We evaluated the effects of summertime high temperature on daily mortality among population subgroups defined by demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and episodes of hospitalization for various conditions during the preceding 2 years.

Methods: We studied a total of 205,019 residents of 4 Italian cities (Bologna, Milan, Rome, and Turin) age 35 or older who died during 1997-2003.