[Stressful experiences in social relationships and ill health].

Based on a large scale population study, associations between experienced non-reciprocity in social relationships and three health indicators (depressive symptoms, self-rated health, sleeping problems) are analysed. The norm of reciprocity is commonly defined as the obligation to return actions or services provided by another person. We use baseline survey data of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Women and men with coronary heart disease in three countries: are they treated differently?

Background: Nonmedical determinants of medical decision making were investigated in an international research project in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The key question in this paper is whether and to what extent doctors' diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in coronary heart disease (CHD) are influenced by patient gender.

Methods: A factorial experiment with a videotaped patient consultation was conducted.

Low socio-economic position is associated with poor social networks and social support: results from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Background: Social networks and social support are supposed to contribute to the development of unequal health within populations. However, little is known about their socio-economic distribution. In this study, we explore this distribution.

Factorial invariance and stability of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Scales: a longitudinal analysis of two samples with different time lags.

Background: Key measures of Siegrist's (1996) Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Model (i.e., efforts, rewards, and overcommitment) were psychometrically tested.

Paternal work stress and prolonged time to pregnancy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore an association between psychosocial stress at work in married men and their spouses' prolonged time to pregnancy (TTP).

Methods: All married male workers of a large Korean petrochemical enterprise and their wives fulfilling the selection criteria were included. Main selection criteria were lack of use of contraceptives and experienced pregnancy in recent past.

[Psychosocial stress and disease risks in occupational life. Results of international studies on the demand-control and the effort-reward imbalance models].

Given the far-reaching changes of modern working life, psychosocial stress at work has received increased attention. Its influence on stress-related disease risks is analysed with the help of standardised measurements based on theoretical models. Two such models have gained special prominence in recent years, the demand-control model and the effort-reward imbalance model.

Evaluation of quality of life and description of the sociodemographic state in adolescent and young adult patients with phenylketonuria (PKU).

Background: Normal intellectual and personal development can be expected in early-diagnosed and treated PKU patients. Aim of the study was to analyse quality of life and social status, which are important parameters for an overall estimation of success of treatment apart from intellectual outcome in adult PKU patients.

Methods: 67 patients completed a questionnaire on quality of life and social status.

Search for standard model Higgs bosons produced in association with W bosons.

We report on the results of a search for standard model Higgs bosons produced in association with W bosons from pp[over] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV. The search uses a data sample corresponding to approximately 1 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity.

When does work stress hurt? Testing the interaction with socioeconomic position in the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Study Objective: To study systematically the separate and combined effects of work stress and socioeconomic position on three measures of health in an unselected working population.

Design: Two exposures (high demand/low control ("job strain"); effort-reward imbalance at work) are related to angina pectoris, depression, and poor self-rated health in a cross-sectional study design in which socioeconomic position was measured by occupational position and educational level.

Setting: Baseline data of a prospective population-based cohort study in Germany, collected between 2000 and 2003.

Work stress and reduced health in young physicians: prospective evidence from Swiss residents.

Objectives: Job stress, investigated by the effort-reward model in various working environments in different countries, has been widely reported, yet studies addressing physicians are lacking. The present study investigated the perceived job stress, its association with the amount of working hours, and its impact on young physicians' self-reported health and their satisfaction with life during residency.

Methods: In a prospective study design, a cohort of Swiss medical school graduates was followed up, beginning in 2001.

Cardiovascular risk factors and signs of subclinical atherosclerosis in the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Introduction: Modern investigation modalities allow markers of atherosclerosis to be detected at a subclinical stage. The aim of the study was to analyze the prevalence of these markers in relation to traditional risk factors.

Methods: The population based study included 4814 participants, aged 45 to 75 years, with a response rate of 55.

Higher overcommitment to work is associated with lower norepinephrine secretion before and after acute psychosocial stress in men.

Background: Overcommitment (OC) is a pattern of excessive striving. In reaction to work stress, OC has been associated with higher sympathetic nervous system activation and cortisol release, but data on neuroendocrine reactivity to standardized stressors are scarce. We investigated whether OC is associated with differential levels of the stress hormones norepinephrine and cortisol in response to acute psychosocial stress.

Two models of job stress and depressive symptoms. Results from a population-based study.

Background: Evidence indicates that an adverse psychosocial work environment contributes to the explanation of depressive symptoms. Research was mainly informed by two theoretical models, the demand-control and the effort-reward imbalance model. Yet, a comparative analysis of the two models, using original scales, has not yet been conducted in an unselected working population.

[Influence of patient's age and gender on doctors' decision making about coronary heart disease].

Background: Studies from the United Kingdom und the United States show that there are variations in doctors' decision making regarding coronary heart disease (CHD) and that patient attributes as well as physician characteristics have an impact on medical decisions regardless of the presented symptoms. This study examines how gender and age of patients influence primary care doctors' diagnostic and management decisions regarding CHD in Germany.

Methods: An experimental design with portrayed videotapes is used.

Daily siesta, cardiovascular risk factors, and measures of subclinical atherosclerosis: results of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study.

Background: Several studies have assessed the association between siesta and cardiovascular outcomes. Concern exists that confounding might have distorted these results and contributed to discrepancies among them. This report examines the association between siesta habits and cardiovascular risk factors, including sleep disturbances at night, depressed mood, and measures of subclinical atherosclerosis such as coronary calcium score and ankle brachial index.

Effort-reward imbalance and relational injustice at work predict sickness absence: the Whitehall II study.

Objectives: Sickness absence is a major occupational health problem, but evidence for associations between potentially modifiable psychosocial work factors and sickness absence is still scarce. We studied the impact of relational justice and effort-reward imbalance on subsequent rates of sickness absence.

Methods: The Whitehall II prospective cohort study of British civil servants, 10,308 men and women, was established between 1985 and 1988.

Failed reciprocity in close social relationships and health: findings from the Whitehall II study.

Objective: To extend the model of effort-reward imbalance at work to close and more general social relationships and test the associations with different measures of health. Lack of reciprocity at work is associated with poorer health in a number of studies. However, few studies have analysed the effect of nonreciprocity in other kinds of social relationships on health.

Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and cardiovascular risk factors: a multilevel analysis of nine cities in the Czech Republic and Germany.

Background: Previous studies have shown that deprived neighbourhoods have higher cardiovascular mortality and morbidity rates. Inequalities in the distribution of behaviour related risk factors are one possible explanation for this trend. In our study, we examined the association between cardiovascular risk factors and neighbourhood characteristics.

[Injury prevention as the physician's challenge].

In Germany, more than 9 million individuals yearly sustain injuries and more than 30,000 fatal injuries. Based on estimations, preventive measures could avoid more than one half of all accidents and could influence the other half of the accidents such that the injuries caused are minor. The aim of an initiative of the Study Group on Injury Prevention of the German Trauma Society (DGU) is a complete inventory of all prevention programs from different expert groups in Germany.

Subclinical coronary atherosclerosis is more pronounced in men and women with lower socio-economic status: associations in a population-based study. Coronary atherosclerosis and social status.

Background: Social inequalities of manifest coronary heart diseases are well documented in modern societies. Less evidence is available on subclinical atherosclerotic disease despite the opportunity to investigate processes underlying this association. Therefore, we examined the relationship between coronary artery calcification as a sign of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, socio-economic status and established cardiovascular risk factors in a healthy population.

Psychometric properties of the Korean version of the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire: a study in a petrochemical company.

Objective: To evaluate the criterion validity, factorial validity, and internal consistency of Korean version of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) for the scales of effort, reward, and overcommitment as well as to examine the effect of psychosocial factors on physical and mental illness among petroleum refinery workers in South Korea.

Methods: The Korean version of ERI questionnaire was constructed using the translation and back-translation technique, and its psychometric properties were explored among 908 male workers in a large petroleum refinery in South Korea in 2002. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to test internal consistency.

A low-cost, disposable card for rapid polymerase chain reaction.

A low-cost, disposable card for rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed in this work. Commercially available, adhesive-coated aluminum foils and polypropylene films were laminated with structured polycarbonate films to form microreactors in a card format. Ice valves [1] were employed to seal the reaction chambers during thermal cycling and a Peltier-based thermal cycler was configured for rapid thermal cycling and ice valve actuation.

[Assessment of the natural history of coronary artery calcification and identification of its determinants. Rationale of the 2nd part of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study].

The Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, which was inaugurated in 2000, is an ongoing population-based study to evaluate the prediction of cardiovascular events by integrating new imaging and nonimaging modalities in risk assessment. A focus is the additional prognostic value of coronary artery calcification (CAC). Currently used risk stratification algorithms often describe the individuals' risk based on few established risk factors only inaccurately.

Sex related cardiovascular risk stratification based on quantification of atherosclerosis and inflammation.

Objectives: An ongoing population-based cohort study was used to assess the prevalence of risk factors, signs of inflammation based on the degree of high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and subclinical atherosclerosis using electron beam computed tomography for detection of coronary artery calcification (CAC). We evaluated the sex related cardiovascular risk stratification based on quantification of subclinical atherosclerosis and inflammation.

Background: The National Cholesterol Education Program in Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) suggests using CAC and hs-CRP in individuals at intermediate risk.

Effort-reward imbalance, procedural injustice and relational injustice as psychosocial predictors of health: complementary or redundant models?

Objective: Effort-reward imbalance at work is an established psychosocial risk factor but there are also newer conceptualisations, such as procedural injustice (decisions at work lack consistency, openness and input from all affected parties) and relational injustice (problems in considerate and fair treatment of employees by supervisors). The authors examined whether procedural injustice and relational injustice are associated with employee health in addition to, and in combination with, effort-reward imbalance.

Methods: Prospective survey data from two cohorts related to public-sector employees: the 10-Town study (n = 18 066 (78% women, age range 19-62) and the Finnish Hospital Personnel study (n = 4833, 89% women, age range 20-60).