Long-term ambient concentrations of total suspended particulates and oxidants as related to incidence of chronic disease in California Seventh-Day Adventists.
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Cancer incidence and mortality in a cohort of 6000 nonsmoking California Seventh-Day Adventists were monitored for a 6-year period, and relationships with long-term cumulative ambient air pollution were observed. Total suspended particulates (TSP) and ozone were measured in terms of numbers of hours in excess of several threshold levels corresponding to national standards as well as mean concentration. For all malignant neoplasms among females, risk increased with increasing exceedance frequencies of all thresholds of TSP except the lowest one, and those increased risks were highly statistically significant. For respiratory cancers, increased risk was associated with only one threshold of ozone, and this result was of borderline significance. Respiratory disease symptoms were assessed in 1977 and again in 1987 using the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute respiratory symptoms questionnaire on a subcohort of 3914 individuals. Multivariate analyses which adjusted for past and passive smoking and occupational exposures indicated statistically significantly (p less than 0.05) elevated relative risks ranging up to 1.7 for incidence of asthma, definite symptoms of airway obstructive disease, and chronic bronchitis with TSP in excess of all thresholds except the lowest one but not for any thresholds of ozone. A trend association (p = 0.056) was noted between the threshold of 10 pphm ozone and incidence of asthma. These results are presented within the context of standards setting for these constituents of air pollution. (+info)
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.
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"Pieter Bruegel was the most perfect of his century," said Flemish cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius eulogizing his friend, who "was taken from us while still in his full manhood." Both men observed and delineated new and original angles of reality, Ortelius in his great atlas (Theater of the World), Bruegel in his paintings, which described, in astonishingly modern terms, the lives of ordinary people. "When asked which of his predecessors he followed, the painter Eupompos is said to have declared that he followed nature herself, not an artist. This agrees with our Bruegel .... Indeed, I would not call him the best of painters, but rather the very nature of painters. So I think that he is worthy of being followed by all," noted Ortelius, not alone in his praise. (+info)
A comparison of a spiritually based and non-spiritually based educational intervention for informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among church-attending African-American men.
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INTRODUCTION: Health communication interventions have been modestly effective for increasing informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among African-American men; however, knowledge and informed decision making is still questionable even with screening. Church-based programs may be more effective if they are spiritually based in nature. OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present study were to implement and provide an initial evaluation of a spiritually based prostate cancer screening informed decision making intervention for African-American men who attend church, and determine its efficacy for increasing informed decision making. DESIGN AND METHOD: Churches were randomized to receive either the spiritually based or the non-spiritual intervention. Trained community health advisors, who were African-American male church members, led an educational session and distributed educational print materials. Participants completed baseline and immediate follow-up surveys to assess the intervention impact on study outcomes. RESULTS: The spiritually based intervention appeared to be more effective in areas such as knowledge, and men read more of their materials in the spiritually based group than in the non-spiritual group. CONCLUSIONS: Further examination of the efficacy of the spiritually based approach to health communication is warranted. (+info)
The neural correlates of religious and nonreligious belief.
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Correlates of support for living donation among African American adults.
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CONTEXT: Living donation is studied with much less intensity among African Americans than among the general population. Examination of barriers to living donation can lead to effective strategies to educate dialysis patients and their families about this alternative. OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlates of likelihood of becoming a living donor among community-recruited African American adults. DESIGN/PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional data were gathered via self-administered questionnaire from 425 African American adults, age 18 years and older, who were recruited from 9 churches in Atlanta. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported likelihood of becoming a living donor to a close family member, an extended family member or friend, or a stranger. RESULTS: More than three-quarters of participants were willing to act as living donors to a close family member or spouse and two-thirds to friends or extended family. For likelihood of donating to a friend or extended family member, only willingness to engage in deceased donation was significantly associated; to a stranger, both willingness to engage in deceased donation and attitudes toward donation were significantly associated. Knowledge of and personal experiences with donation and/or transplantation were not significantly associated with likelihood of any type of living donation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate widespread support for living donation to a close family member or spouse. These findings have important implications for dialysis patients who must decide whether to approach friends and/or family about the possibility of serving as a living donor and emphasize the need for interventions to help facilitate this process. (+info)
Sequence variation in IGF1R is associated with differences in insulin levels in nondiabetic Old Order Amish.
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