Law enforcement duties and sudden cardiac death among police officers in United States: case distribution study.

Objective: To assess the association between risk of sudden cardiac death and stressful law enforcement duties compared with routine/non-emergency duties.

Design: Case distribution study (case series with survey information on referent exposures).

Setting: United States law enforcement.

Obstructive sleep apnea and psychomotor vigilance task performance.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent disorder with considerable morbidity and mortality. Vigilance and attentiveness are often impaired in OSA patients. In occupational medicine settings, subjective reports of sleepiness are notoriously inaccurate, making the identification of objective measures of vigilance potentially important for risk assessments of fitness for duty.

Genotype misclassification in genetic association studies of the rs1042522 TP53 (Arg72Pro) polymorphism: a systematic review of studies of breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, and endometrial cancer.

Preferential loss of heterozygosity at the rs1042522 locus of the tumor protein 53 gene (TP53) (Arg72Pro) is observed in several tumors. Genetic association studies in oncology often use tumor tissue rather than unaffected tissue for genotyping; in such cases, loss of heterozygosity at the TP53 locus could lead to differential misclassification and could bias estimates of association. We searched multiple databases (through March 8, 2011) for studies investigating the association of Arg72Pro with breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, or endometrial cancer.

Obesity is associated with the future risk of heavy truck crashes among newly recruited commercial drivers.

This study estimates the dose-response relationship between body mass index (BMI) and crash risk in operators of heavy commercial motor vehicles. Intake data were collected during the first two weeks of instruction from 744 new truck drivers training for their commercial driver's licenses at a school operated by the cooperating trucking firm. Drivers were then followed prospectively on the job using the firm's operational data for two years, or until employment separation, whichever came first.

Employer-mandated sleep apnea screening and diagnosis in commercial drivers.

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common among commercial drivers and associated with health/safety risks, leading several trucking firms to mandate OSA screening.

Methods: A total of 19,371 commercial drivers were screened for OSA with an online questionnaire (Somni-Sage reg) through employer mandates. Questionnaire and polysomnography results were analyzed retrospectively.

Do observational studies using propensity score methods agree with randomized trials? A systematic comparison of studies on acute coronary syndromes.

Aims: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for assessing the efficacy of therapeutic interventions because randomization protects from biases inherent in observational studies. Propensity score (PS) methods, proposed as a potential solution to confounding of the treatment-outcome association, are widely used in observational studies of therapeutic interventions for acute coronary syndromes (ACS). We aimed to systematically assess agreement between observational studies using PS methods and RCTs on therapeutic interventions for ACS.

A review of genetic association studies of obstructive sleep apnea: field synopsis and meta-analysis.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a multifactorial disorder with a heritable component. We performed a field synopsis of genetic association studies of OSA to synthesize the available evidence.

Design: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

Psychomotor vigilance testing of professional drivers in the occupational health clinic: a potential objective screen for daytime sleepiness.

Objective: Psychomotor vigilance testing (PVT) rapidly assesses attention, reaction time (RT), and abnormal vigilance. Thus, PVT may be an adjunct to screening drivers for high-risk obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)/excess daytime sleepiness (EDS).

Methods: Commercial drivers and emergency responders undergoing occupational examinations took a 10-minute PVT and were instructed to achieve their fastest possible RTs.

TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and colorectal cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The TP53 rs1042522 polymorphism (c.215C>G, Arg72Pro) has been extensively investigated as a potential risk factor for colorectal cancer, but the results have thus far been inconclusive.

Methods: We searched multiple electronic databases to identify studies investigating the association between the Arg72Pro polymorphism and colorectal cancer.