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Bjørgulf Claussen

Publications and source records attributed to Bjørgulf Claussen.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Relation between concentration of air pollution and cause-specific mortality: four-year exposures to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter pollutants in 470 neighborhoods in Oslo, Norway.

This study investigated the concentration-response relation between air pollution (nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter pollutants PM(10) and PM(2.5)) and cause-specific mortality. The population included all inhabitants of Oslo, Norway, aged 51-90 years on January 1, 1992 (n = 143,842) with follow-up of deaths from 1992 to 1998. An air dispersion model (AirQUIS; Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Oslo, Norway) was used to estimate levels of exposure in 1992-1995 in all 470 administrative neighborhoods. These data were linked to census, education, and death registries. A consistent effect on all causes of death was found for both sexes and age groups by all indicators of air pollution. The effects appeared to increase at nitrogen dioxide levels higher than 40 micro g/m(3) in the youngest age group and with a linear effect in the interval 20-60 micro g/m(3) for the oldest. An effect of all indicators on cardiovascular causes, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was also found in both age groups and sexes. The effects were particularly strong for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which appeared to have linear effects, whereas cardiovascular causes and lung cancer seemed to have threshold effects. Results show that vulnerable persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the elderly seem to be susceptible to air pollution at lower levels than the general population.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

Psychosocial factors and distress: a comparison between ethnic Norwegians and ethnic Pakistanis in Oslo, Norway.

BACKGROUND: In the Norwegian context, higher mental distress has been reported for the non-Western immigrants compared to the ethnic Norwegians and Western immigrants. This high level of distress is often related to different socio-economic conditions in this group. No efforts have been made earlier to observe the impact of changed psychosocial conditions on the state of mental distress of these immigrant communities due to the migration process. Therefore, the objective of the study was to investigate the association between psychological distress and psychosocial factors among Pakistani immigrants and ethnic Norwegians in Oslo, and to investigate to what extent differences in mental health could be explained by psychosocial and socioeconomic conditions. METHOD: Data was collected from questionnaires as a part of the Oslo Health Study 2000-2001. 13581 Norwegian born (attendance rate 46%) and 339 ethnic Pakistanis (attendance rate 38%) in the selected age groups participated. A 10-item version of Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) was used as a measure of psychological distress. RESULTS: Pakistanis reported less education and lower employment rate than Norwegians (p < 0.005). The Pakistani immigrants also reported higher distress, mean HSCL score 1.53(1.48-1.59), compared to the ethnic Norwegians, HSCL score 1.30(1.29-1.30). The groups differed significantly (p < 0.005) with respect to social support and feeling of powerlessness, the Pakistanis reporting less support and more powerlessness. The expected difference in mean distress was reduced from 0.23 (0.19-0.29) to 0.07 (0.01-0.12) and 0.12 (0.07-0.18) when adjusted for socioeconomic and social support variables respectively. Adjusting for all these variables simultaneously, the difference in the distress level between the two groups was eliminated CONCLUSION: Poor social support and economic conditions are important mediators of mental health among immigrants. The public health recommendations/interventions should deal with both the economic conditions and social support system of immigrant communities simultaneously.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Physical activity among elderly people in a city population: the influence of neighbourhood level violence and self perceived safety.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To study the associations between neighbourhood level violence/fear of violence and physical activity among elderly people, accounting for somatic health. DESIGN: Self reported data from the Oslo health study, a cross sectional study conducted in 2000, were linked with sociodemographic and social security data from Statistics Norway. A multilevel regression analysis was conducted by MlwiN using contextual level variables provided by the Oslo City Council. SETTING: Oslo, Norway. PARTICIPANTS: 3499 inhabitants aged 74/5 (53.2% of all invitees). MAIN RESULTS: 20.5% of the elderly were physically active less than one hour a week. Somatic health was clearly associated with physical activity among both men and women. Neighbourhood level violence was associated with physical activity only for men, while fear of violence was only associated with physical activity for women. Differences in somatic health did not explain differences in physical activity between neighbourhoods. These differences were explained by socioeconomic variables, and neighbourhood level violence/fear of violence. CONCLUSIONS: In a sample of presumably healthy 75/76 year olds in Oslo, the associations between neighbourhood level violence and physical activity (among men), and fear of violence and physical activity (among women), are of the same sizes as those between somatic health and physical activity. These two dimensions of violence have, in contrast with somatic health, an explanatory function in exploring differences in physical activity between neighbourhoods in Oslo.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Is birth history the key to highly educated women's higher breast cancer mortality? A follow-up study of 500,000 women aged 35-54.

A positive relationship has been found between high levels of education and breast cancer mortality. The aim of our study is to determine if the educational gradient in breast cancer mortality persists after adjustment for reproductive history. Register data including the total adult population in Norway were used. A total of 512,353 Norwegian women 35-54 years of age at the Norwegian Census in 1990 were followed with respect to breast cancer deaths until December 31, 2001. The analysis included 2,052 breast cancer deaths in 5.6 million person years. Educational differences in breast cancer mortality were analysed using Cox regression. The age adjusted relative risk of dying from breast cancer for women with >12 years of education compared to women with <10 years was 1.25 (95% confidence limits [CI] = 1.10-1.41). Adjustment for age at first birth with nulliparous as reference category reduced this difference to 1.08 (95% CI = 0.95-1.23). For parous women, age at first birth explained all the educational difference in breast cancer mortality. Among nulliparous women there was a larger positive educational gradient in breast cancer mortality than among parous women (relative risk [RR] = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.15-2.13), indicating that there were differences in other confounders than birth history among the childless.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Long-term botulinum toxin treatment increases employment rate in patients with cervical dystonia.

We examined the impact of cervical dystonia (CD) and long-term botulinum toxin (BTX) treatment on employment status. Data on employment status at onset of CD, at initiation of BTX treatment, and at evaluation of long-term treatment were obtained from 62 CD patients aged 31-66 years (median, 53 years; 61% females) who had been treated for a median of 5 years (range, 1.5-10 years). The employment rate fell from 84% at the onset of CD to 47% before initiation of BTX treatment. With long-term BTX treatment, 72% of those who worked at the initiation of treatment stayed employed, and 67% of those on sick leave returned to work. A younger age and a higher level of education increased the probability of being employed and avoiding disability benefits. Among those who were younger than 55 years at evaluation of BTX treatment (n = 40), the employment rate increased from 47% to 65% with treatment, and among the male patients, it reached the level of the general population (86%). About half of the 34% who received disability benefits did so already before the BTX treatment was initiated.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Bodily pain and associated mental distress among immigrant adolescents. A population-based cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe differences among immigrant groups in bodily pain, and analyze its association with mental distress. METHOD: A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out involving tenth grade pupils in Oslo. Of the 7,343 pupils that participated, one-quarter were first- or second-generation immigrants. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-10 was used to measure mental distress. All information on pain and mental distress was self-reported. RESULTS: Girls reported more bodily pain from all types of pain. Headache was the most prevalent pain site across gender and immigrant groups. Strong associations between mental distress and number of pain sites were found for all immigrant groups. Neck and shoulder pain yielded the highest odds ratio (OR) for mental distress among the majority of the immigrant groups. The Sub-Saharan African group had the highest adjusted OR for mental distress [OR=9.8 (1.1-82.7)] when reporting three or more pain sites, and the Indian Subcontinent the lowest [OR=4.0 (1.8-8.8)]. CONCLUSION: The differences in number and types of pain were small, though significant between the different immigrant groups. Adolescents from Sub-Saharan Africa seem to react with more mental distress to bodily pain than adolescents emigrating from the Indian Subcontinent.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Four indicators of socioeconomic position: relative ranking across causes of death.

OBJECTIVE: A study was undertaken to examine the relative ability of occupational class, education, household income, and housing conditions to discriminate all cause and cause-specific mortality-risk in Oslo, and to see if this relative ability is consistent across the 12 most common causes of death. DESIGN AND SETTING: Census records of inhabitants in Oslo 1990 aged 45 to 64 were linked to death records 1990-98 (n?=?88,159). All inhabitants were included except those who lacked census data on the independent variables. The relative index of inequality (RII) for each indicator was calculated. MAIN RESULTS: Education, occupation, and housing conditions had similar RIIs for all-cause mortality in both sexes. Household income had low RIIs, particularly in men. For the 12 most common causes of death some heterogeneity in the relative ranking between the four indicators was observed, with causes of death known to be related to early-life social circumstances (stomach cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) being particularly strongly related to education, and causes of death which were likely to be determined by adult social circumstances (violence, sudden unexpected death) being particularly strongly related to occupation and housing conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Education, occupational class, and housing conditions all seemed to discriminate all-cause mortality to a similar degree. However, the cause-specific analysis revealed a heterogeneous pattern.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed2004

Cumulative deprivation and cause specific mortality. A census based study of life course influences over three decades.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether increasing cumulative deprivation has an incremental effect on total as well as cause specific mortality. DESIGN: Census data on housing conditions as indicators of deprivation from 1960, 1970, and 1980 were linked to 1990-98 death registrations. Relative indices of inequalities were computed for housing conditions to measure the cumulative impact of differences in social conditions. PARTICIPANTS: 97 381 (71.1%) 30-49 year old and 70701 (80.0%) 50-69 year old inhabitants of Oslo, Norway, in 1990 with census information on housing conditions and recorded length of education. MAIN RESULTS: Mortality risk was increased when all censuses' housing conditions were summed in both age groups and sex. The cause specific analysis indicated such an effect particularly for coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, and smoking related cancers. Violent deaths were essentially associated with housing conditions closer to the time of death in men in both age groups and in young women. CONCLUSIONS: To fully account for socially mediated risk of death, a full life course approach should be adopted. The relative importance of each stage seems to vary by cause of death.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

[Increasing psychological stress among young adults in Norway, 1990-2000].

BACKGROUND: Between 1990 and 2000, the number of disability benefit recipients in Norway increased by 19.3%. We wanted to examine changes in the way people cope with society's demands, our hypothesis being that changing demands increase psychological stress; this again leads to increasing numbers of disability benefit recipients with a psychiatric diagnosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We examined the ability to support oneself financially among the 20 to 39-year-olds, traditionally the period in people's lives when they are at their most adaptive. We used data for the 1990-2000 period on sickness absence of one year or more, medical or occupational rehabilitation, long-term unemployment, welfare payments without entitlement, and disability benefits. We examined the diagnoses used for one-year sickness absence, medical rehabilitation and disability benefit status. Data were obtained from the relevant public-sector registers. RESULTS: The prevalence of social security clients in the 20-39 age group was up from 6.4% in 1994 to 7.7% in 2000, an increase of 20%. The biggest increases (1992 to 2000 data) were related to minor psychiatric disorders, 152%, and milder forms of musculoskeletal disorders, 111%. INTERPRETATION: Changing demands in the workplace have increased the load of psychological stress in society, but changing demands in people's private lives are a contributing factor. The results imply an increasing mismatch between the adaptation required in our society and people's resources for coping with what is expected of them. Our health care and social security systems in their present form cannot properly come to grips with this situation; they may even exacerbate it by demanding too little of patients and thereby socialising them into the patient role.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

[Mortality in Oslo by inequalities in occupational class].

BACKGROUND: We know very little about social inequalities in mortality in Norway. The "Urban Health" project opens up the possibility of studying this issue for the whole population of Oslo. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a linked file of all deaths in 1990-94 and the census of 1980 for all inhabitants in Oslo we have calculated death rates across five occupational classes in the age group 50-69 years. In order to compare with class-specific mortality in England and Wales we obtained similar data from National Statistics. RESULTS: Unskilled workers had considerably higher mortality rates than high-ranked employees in this population, 1.60 times higher for women and 1.92 times higher for men. In the three strata in between, mortality showed a smooth stepwise pattern which was steepest for age groups 35-69 for men and 50-69 for women. INTERPRETATION: Social inequalities in mortality are distinct in Oslo. For men the results were strikingly similar in Oslo and Britain; for women the inequality was smaller in Oslo. Comparing a city with a whole country is of limited interest, but the results are remarkable and call for further research. Some possible explanations of these similarities and dissimilarities in mortality in the two areas are discussed.

Aged↗