Biomedical subjects

Clare J Wotton

Publications and source records attributed to Clare J Wotton.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Hospital admission for selected single virus infections prior to diabetes mellitus.

AIMS: To determine whether hospital admission for a range of specified virus infections was followed by a raised admission rate for diabetes mellitus; and, if raised, whether the increase is compatible with the hypothesis that virus infection is a cause of diabetes. METHODS: Analysis of a database of hospital statistics including admissions for people with diabetes mellitus before the age of 30 years. RESULTS: There was no evidence of excess risk of diabetes after measles, mumps, rubella, infectious mononucleosis, influenza, infectious hepatitis, varicella and herpes zoster, herpes simplex, aseptic meningitis or bronchiolitis. For example, of 1433 patients admitted for measles, 6 were later admitted with diabetes (risk ratio 1.32; 95% confidence interval 0.5-2.9); of 866 patients admitted for mumps, 2 were later admitted for diabetes (risk ratio 0.74; 0.1-2.7). Numbers of people with diabetes subsequent to infection were too few, however, to rule out the possibility of small effects. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that any of these virus infections initiate the processes that lead to the development of diabetes, or that these infections act as a trigger to precipitate active disease in those whose diabetes is already present but latent.

Cohort Studies↗

PubMed2005

Cancer and cardiovascular disease after vasectomy: an epidemiological database study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether vasectomy is associated with an increased long-term risk of cancer or cardiovascular disease. DESIGN: Analysis of database of linked statistical records of hospital admissions and deaths. SETTING: Health region in southern England. PATIENT(S): Men aged 20-59 years who were admitted to a hospital for vasectomy. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease compared with the corresponding rates in a reference cohort, expressed as a rate ratio. RESULT(S): We found no elevation of risk, after vasectomy, of prostate cancer (rate ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45-1.14) or other cancers. The rate ratio for coronary heart disease overall after vasectomy was 0.95 (95% CI 0.88-1.02); and the rate ratio > or =20 years after vasectomy was 0.98 (95% CI 0.80-1.19). CONCLUSION(S): Our findings add to the evidence that vasectomy is not associated with an increase in the long-term risk of these diseases.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Schizophrenia and cancer: an epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND: For decades there has been interest in the possibility that people with schizophrenia might have some protection against cancer, and that, if this were so, it might hold clues about aetiological mechanisms in schizophrenia. AIMS: To study cancer incidence in schizophrenia. METHOD: Cohort analysis of linked hospital and death records was used to compare cancer rates in people with schizophrenia with a reference cohort. RESULTS: We did not find a reduced risk for cancer overall (rate ratio 0.99,95% CI 0.90-1.08) or for most individual cancers. There was, however, a significantly low rate ratio for skin cancer (0.56,95% CI 0.36-0.83). CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence that schizophrenia confers protection against cancer in general. Low rates of cancer are consistent with the hypothesis that sun exposure may influence the development of schizophrenia, although other explanations are also possible.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Multiple sclerosis after infectious mononucleosis: record linkage study.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain if infectious mononucleosis is a risk factor for the development of multiple sclerosis (MS); and, if it is, whether its effect is close to or remote in time from the onset of MS. DESIGN: Analysis of database of linked abstracts of records of hospital admission and death. SETTING: Health region in central southern England. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Ratio of rate of MS in a cohort of people admitted to hospital with infectious mononucleosis to the rate in a comparison cohort. RESULTS: Considering all time intervals from admission with infection to admission with MS, there was a non-significant increase of risk of MS in the infectious mononucleosis cohort (rate ratio 2.17, 95% confidence intervals 0.79 to 4.77). At the interval of 10 years or more, there was a significant increase in risk of MS (rate ratio 4.01, 1.48 to 8.93). The mean time from infectious mononucleosis to first admission with MS was 14 years. CONCLUSION: This study adds support to the evidence that Epstein-Barr virus, the cause of infectious mononucleosis, is associated with MS. Its role is probably as an initiator of the disease process of MS, or as a contributor to its early development, rather than as an activator of latent, existing disease.

Adolescent↗