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Biomedical subjects

C Hennekens

Publications and source records attributed to C Hennekens.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Randomised trial of prophylactic daily aspirin in British male doctors.

A six year randomised trial was conducted among 5139 apparently healthy male doctors to see whether 500 mg aspirin daily would reduce the incidence of and mortality from stroke, myocardial infarction, or other vascular conditions. Though total mortality was 10% lower in the treated than control group, this difference was not statistically significant and chiefly involved diseases other than stroke or myocardial infarction. Likewise, there was no significant difference in the incidence of non-fatal myocardial infarction or stroke--indeed, disabling strokes were somewhat commoner among those allocated aspirin. The lower confidence limit for the effect of aspirin on non-fatal stroke or myocardial infarction, however, was a substantial 25% reduction. Migraine and certain types of musculoskeletal pain were reported significantly less often in the treated than control group, but as the control group was not given a placebo the relevance of these findings was difficult to assess. There was no apparent reduction in the incidence of cataract in the treated group. The lack of any apparent reduction in disabling stroke or vascular death contrasts with the established value of antiplatelet treatment after occlusive vascular disease.

Aspirin↗
PubMed1987

Smoking behavior among participants in the nurses' health study.

We analyzed smoking behavior of 91,651 married female nurses, aged 30-55 years in 1976. The prevalence of smoking was similar among all birth cohorts. The largest percentage increase in starting to smoke occurred between ages 15 and 25 years; by age 25, 50 per cent had started smoking. The cessation rate was lowest in earlier birth cohorts and among nurses starting to smoke at earlier ages. The cessation rate increased substantially between 1963-73 compared with the period 1948-58.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Qualitative overview of randomized trials of aminoglycosides.

A qualitative overview was conducted of randomized clinical trials comparing two or more of the following aminoglycoside antibiotics--amikacin. gentamicin, netilmicin, sisomicin, and tobramycin--with respect to efficacy, nephrotoxicity, or auditory toxicity. Design features considered included number of participants in each treatment arm, proportion of randomized participants available for analysis, blinding of evaluators, and report of statistically significant results. The proportion of participants eligible for analysis was less than or equal to 75 percent for 66 percent of the comparisons regarding nephrotoxicity, 43 percent regarding efficacy, and 19 percent regarding auditory toxicity. Twenty-nine percent of the trials reported that evaluators were blinded to treatment group assignments. The results of most trials showed no significant differences, although sample sizes were, in general, smaller than necessary to detect moderate differences. Quantitative overviews may be a useful means of detecting real differences in risk that are not apparent from the results of several individual small trials.

Amikacin↗
PubMed1985

An investigation of bias in a study of nuclear shipyard workers.

The authors examined discrepant findings between a 1978 proportional mortality study and a 1981 cohort study of workers at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Naval Shipyard to determine whether the healthy worker effect, selection bias, or measurement bias could explain why only the proportional mortality study found excess cancer deaths among nuclear workers. Lower mortality from noncancer causes in nuclear workers (the healthy worker effect) partly accounted for the observed elevated cancer proportional mortality. More important, however, was measurement bias which occurred in the proportional mortality study when nuclear workers who had not died of cancer were misclassified as not being nuclear workers based on information from their next of kin, thereby creating a spurious association. Although the proportional mortality study was based on a small sample of all deaths occurring in the cohort, selection bias did not contribute materially to the discrepant results for total cancer deaths. With regard to leukemia, misclassification of occupation in the proportional mortality study and disagreement about cause of death accounted for some of the reported excess deaths.

Epidemiologic Methods↗