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Biomedical subjects

L E Aarø

Publications and source records attributed to L E Aarø.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Decline in respiratory symptoms in service workers five months after a public smoking ban.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a total ban on smoking indoors in restaurants and other hospitality business premises in Norway, on respiratory symptoms among workers in the industry. METHODS: Phone interviews with 1525 employees in the hospitality business were conducted immediately before the enacting of the law. In a follow-up study five months later, 906 of the workers from the baseline sample participated. Questions were asked on demographic variables, passive smoking exposure, personal smoking, attitudes towards the law, and five respiratory symptoms. Change in symptom prevalence was analysed with McNemar's test and with analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures. RESULTS: The prevalence of all five symptoms declined after the ban; for morning cough from 20.6% to 16.2% (p < 0.01); for daytime cough from 23.2% to 20.9%; for phlegm cough from 15.3% to 11.8% (p < 0.05); for dyspnoea from 19.2% to 13.0% (p < 0.01); and for wheezing from 9.0% to 7.8%. ANOVA showed that the largest decline in symptom prevalence was seen among workers who themselves gave up smoking, and subjects with a positive attitude towards the law before it took effect. CONCLUSION: A significant decrease in respiratory symptoms among service industry workers was found five months after the enacting of a public smoking ban.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

[Psychological and somatic complaints among adolescents].

BACKGROUND: Health promotion and disease prevention among adolescents should include efforts to reduce the burden of health complaints. In order to develop systematic preventive approaches, epidemiological research is needed. This study focuses on prevalence, gender differences, and intercorrelations among such complaints. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data were drawn from a nationwide (Norwegian) survey among pupils in compulsory school grades 6, 8, and 10 (age 11, 13, and 15); response rate 79%. RESULTS: Among 15-year-olds, most health complaints were more prevalent among girls than among boys. A principal components analysis revealed a dimension from primarily psychological to primarily somatic complaints. Among 15-year-olds, 18% reported at least one daily psychological complaint and 14% reported at least one daily somatic complaint. Sum-scores for psychological and somatic complaints were constructed, the intercorrelation being 0.56 among 15-year-olds. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on both sum-scores. Among girls there was a marked increase in scores with age (particularly for somatic complaints). INTERPRETATION: The high prevalence of complaints among both genders and the increase with age among girls implies that preventive action is needed. The intercorrelations among complaints indicate common etiological processes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Tobacco use by early adolescents in Norway.

BACKGROUND: This study examined trends in the prevalence of smoking and snuff use among Norwegian adolescents in lower secondary school (ages 13-15 years) from a national survey conducted every 5 years between 1975 and 1995. METHODS: Pupils completed a brief written questionnaire on tobacco use and related information. Local school administrators coordinated data collection and forwarded a sample of completed questionnaires to the National Council on Tobacco and Health for compilation and analysis. Effects for age, gender and survey year were examined using logistic regression analysis. Overall, 24,127 pupils in five different cohorts were included. RESULTS: Smoking was highest in 1975 when 45.5% of youth reported smoking either daily or occasionally (figures adjusted for age and gender). Smoking declined each year thereafter through to 1990 (23.6%) but increased in 1995 (26.0%), primarily due to an increase in occasional smoking. Like smoking, snuff use declined between 1985 and 1990 but increased in 1995. All changes across survey years were statistically significant. Smoking was higher among girls than boys, while snuff use was much higher among boys. CONCLUSION: Several hypotheses that might account for the recent increase were examined with the most likely factor being Norway's low allocation of resources for educational interventions and public information campaigns during the years studied. However, in the past 2 years Norway has undertaken a number of new tobacco control initiatives that may result in reversal of the most recent trends.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Injury registration in a developing country. A study based on patients' records from four hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: A recent study conducted in some parts of Tanzania has revealed that injuries rank as the third major leading cause of death among the adult population only after tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Critical to any injury prevention activities is a reliable surveillance system. Such a system may for instance be based on hospital registration of injuries. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate available hospital records for the purpose of describing the epidemiology of injuries among inpatients in four hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. METHODS: The study utilized patients' medical records for the year 1998. The final sample included 1098 cases from four hospitals. Data handling and analysis was performed using statistical software SPSS for windows version 10.0. Cross tabulations with Chi-square testing for independence, t-test for difference between means (independent groups) and one way analysis of variance was used. RESULTS: The age group 21 to 30 years formed the largest proportion of injury-related admissions. The male to female ratio was 2.3 to 1. The largest categories of injuries were road traffic injuries (43.7%), violence and assaults (23.5%), and falls (13.8%). Burns accounted for 6.5% of the cases. The following variables were routinely recorded in case notes: gender (100%), nature of injury/principal diagnosis (99.6%), body part injured (99.4%), and age (96.4%). CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for improving the way injuries are recorded in hospitals. Hospitals' records could provide a useful tool for monitoring injury preventive activities in developing countries like Tanzania.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Effects of a school-based smoking prevention program among subgroups of adolescents.

In autumn 1995 The Norwegian Cancer Society in cooperation with The Research Center for Health Promotion, University of Bergen started a study of school-based interventions aiming at preventing smoking among pupils in Norwegian secondary schools. The study comprised a nationwide sample of 4441 students at 99 schools (195 classes). This panel of students is followed through annual data collections till they graduate in spring 1997. Written consensus from students and parents was obtained from 95%. Schools were systematically allocated to one of four groups: Group A, control; Group B, intervention, containing classroom program, involvement of parents and teacher courses; Group C, like B, but without teacher courses; Group D, like B, but without parental involvement. Baseline data were collected by questionnaires administered in class in November 1994 and the first follow-up survey was carried out in May 1995. At follow-up the proportion of smokers had increased by 8.3 percentage points in Group A (control) and by 1.9 percentage points in Group B (most extensive intervention). As expected, the recruitment of smokers was higher in Groups C and D than in the ideal intervention, but lower than in the control group. Effects of the most extensive program among subgroups of students were examined by comparing Groups A and B. Students are categorized as high risk or low risk based on scores on scales measuring sensation seeking, physical maturity, antisocial behavior and parental smoking. The effect of the program on recruitment of smokers seems to have been at least as strong or even stronger among 'high-risk' students than among other students.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Evaluation of the Norwegian campaign against the illegal spirits trade.

In 1993, a 21m NOK (3m US$) national campaign against trade with illegal spirits (homebrewed or smuggled) was launched in Norway. This article reports results of its evaluation study. Surveys covering the age range 16-80 were carried out just before the campaign started and 1 year later. Half of those responding at baseline as well as a new sample were surveyed after 1 year. While at baseline 48% reported to have drunk and 16% to have bought illegal spirits during the last 12 months, the corresponding figures after 1 year were 42 and 14%. Significant associations between being exposed to the campaign and reduced use and buying of illegal spirits were found. Further, use and buying of illegal spirits at baseline, and stopping to use and buy illegal spirits from baseline to follow-up were analyzed in bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. In the multivariate prediction of stopping to use illegal spirits, only behavioral norms and significant others' opinions (both measured at baseline) obtained significance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Effectiveness of postal smoking cessation advice: a randomized controlled trial in young men with reduced FEV1 and asbestos exposure.

There have been few community-based randomized, controlled intervention trials for cessation in high-risk smokers. In such a trial we evaluated the effects of postal smoking cessation advice in smokers with asbestos exposure and/or reduced forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). All men aged 30-45 yrs (n=22,392) living in 34 municipalities in western Norway were invited to a cross-sectional community survey. Information on smoking habits and occupational asbestos exposure were obtained from self-administered questionnaires and measurements of FEV1 were performed with dry-wedge bellow spirometers. Among 16,393 participants we identified a group of 2,610 smokers with previous occupational asbestos exposure and/or adjusted FEV1 in the lowest quartile. A random half (n=1,300) received a mailed personal letter from a respiratory physician with a person-specific health advice to quit smoking and a pamphlet on smoking cessation. The remaining smokers (n=1,310) acted as controls and did not receive any information. Twelve months after the intervention, information on smoking habits was re-examined using a postal questionnaire. Among the respondents (n=2,282), smoking cessation was reported altogether by 13.7% in the intervention group versus 9.9% in the control group (p<0.01). The 1 yr sustained quit rate (no smoking at all during the last year) was 5.6 versus 35% (p<0.05), respectively. Measurements of carbon monoxide in expired air (with < or = 10 parts per million) confirmed self-reported nonsmoking in samples of the two groups. In a community this simple postal smoking cessation advice from a respiratory physician based on person-specific risk factors improved the 1 yr sustained success rate by 60% in identified high-risk smokers.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Provocative appeals in anti-smoking mass media campaigns targeting adolescents--the accumulated effect of multiple exposures.

This paper reports findings from a longitudinal study that evaluated the accumulated effect of three consecutive mass media campaigns using provocative and dissonance arousing appeals to prevent cigarette smoking by adolescents. In the spring of 1992, all eligible adolescents aged 14 and 15 in one intervention county (N = 4898) and one control county (N = 5439) in Norway were included in the study, and were followed until they were 17 and 18 years of age in 1995. Only students who completed questionnaires both in 1992 and 1995 were included in the analyses. Among the non-smokers at baseline, a significantly lower proportion of adolescents of both genders had started to smoke in the intervention county compared to the proportion in the control county. Among those who were smokers at baseline, significantly more girls in the intervention county had stopped smoking than in the control county, while no significant difference between the counties was detected among boys. Our findings suggest that provocative and dissonance arousing appeals that create affective reactions and lead to interpersonal communication should be given more attention in campaigns designed to influence adolescent smoking. However, such appeals may easily produce negative reactions and the normative context should be thoroughly considered when using such appeals in future interventions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Predicting adolescents' intentions to drink alcohol: outcome expectancies and self-efficacy.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines the relationship between intention to drink alcohol, alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol-related self-efficacy among Norwegian adolescents. The relationship of expectancies, intention and self-efficacy was assessed for respondents of different ages and different drinking experience. METHOD: Data were collected from all seventh and ninth graders in 12 randomly selected schools in Norway. The self-administered questionnaire contained a short version of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents and measures of intentions to drink in the next 12 months, current alcohol use and alcohol-related self-efficacy (e.g., ability to refuse alcohol). RESULTS: Results showed that both alcohol outcome expectancies and previous experience with alcohol were related to intentions to drink alcohol in the near future. Drinking experience had a larger impact than a 2-year age difference on the associations between alcohol outcome expectancies, alcohol-related self-efficacy and intention to drink. A significantly higher proportion of adolescents with drinking experience reported positive alcohol expectancies, poor alcohol-related self-efficacy and strong intention to drink alcohol than did those adolescents without drinking experience. CONCLUSIONS: Personal drinking experience was a stronger predictor of drinking intentions than was age. Still, both alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol-related self-efficacy are significant predictors of intention to drink among both seventh and ninth graders, independent of previous drinking experience. This study indicates that postponing the onset of alcohol experimentation could be a major goal in primary alcohol prevention among adolescents, although longitudinal confirmation of these results is needed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Is smoking intervention in general practice more successful among pregnant than non-pregnant women?

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a simple smoking intervention programme, carried out by a large number of general practitioners (GPs) among pregnant and non-pregnant women. Four groups of women were defined by the dichotomies pregnant versus non-pregnant and intervention versus control. The intervention was semistructured, using a flip-over and a booklet, and it was implemented in an ordinary sequence of consultations. The study involved 187 GPs in western Norway. The subjects were 350 daily smoking pregnant women and 274 daily smoking non-pregnant women, 18-34 years of age. The point prevalence abstinence rate at 18 months was 15 and 20% for pregnant and non-pregnant women, respectively, in the intervention groups, and 7% in the control groups (Ppregnant = 0.06, Pnon-pregnant = 0.006). Twenty-five per cent of the pregnant women and 34% of the non-pregnant women reported that they had reduced their cigarette consumption, but had not stopped smoking entirely. If we include all drop-outs as smokers, the continuous abstinence rate during 15 months was 6%/0% among pregnant women (intervention/control) and 5%/1% among non-pregnant women. Stopping smoking was associated with having a non-smoking partner (P = 0.001), and being encouraged to do so by their partner (P = 0.004). The prevalence of both pregnant and non-pregnant women who stopped smoking was higher in the intervention than in the control groups. Pregnant women stopped smoking as frequently as non-pregnant individuals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Pregnancy--a golden opportunity for promoting the cessation of smoking?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether daily-smoking pregnant women are more motivated to reduce their cigarette consumption than daily-smoking non-pregnant women. DESIGN: Prospective study with self-administered questionnaires at inclusion and 18 months later. SETTING: 116 general practitioners in western Norway. SUBJECTS: 83 pregnant and 107 non-pregnant women. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Non-anonymous questionnaires focusing on smoking habits and attitudes to smoking cessation. RESULTS: Pregnant women were more often encouraged to stop smoking by their partners than non-pregnant women (p < 0.01). More pregnant than non-pregnant women totally agreed that their GP should try to motivate their patients to stop smoking (p < 0.001). Pregnant women also predicted that they would be non-smokers in five years more often than non-pregnant women (p < 0.001). Eighteen months later no such difference was found. A reduced cigarette consumption, verified by serum thiocyanate, was found among women early in pregnancy. The reduced consumption found later in pregnancy and the first year after delivery may be explained to some extent by systematic underreporting. At the end of the study eight per cent of both pregnant and non-pregnant women had stopped smoking. CONCLUSION: We need to develop strategies for utilizing the unique opportunity which pregnancy provides for the motivation of cessation of smoking.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[The life style of Morgan Kane].

A series of 83 paperbacks describing the dramatic life of Morgan Kane was published in Norway in the period 1966-1982. Morgan Kane was born in 1855 on the Santa Fé trail in the United States. He became one of the fastest gunmen of his time, and as Texas ranger, US Marshal and Pinkerton agent was frequently involved in gunfights and violence. In terms of sales statistics, this series is one of the greatest successes in popular literature ever experienced in Norway. The present manuscript describes and discusses the health-related habits of Morgan Kane; his smoking habits, use of alcohol, gambling, food habits, sexual promiscuity and injury-related patterns of behaviour. In population surveys most of the health-related behaviours that are characteristic of Morgan Kane are found to be moderately, but consistently correlated. It is hypothesized that the direct impacts on the health behaviour of the readers are negligible. Furthermore, it is proposed that the cluster of health compromising behaviours which are typical of Morgan Kane contributes to an image which has considerable appeal.

Famous Persons↗
PubMed1993

[Theory of behavior and preventive health care in medical practice].

A number of theories and models of special relevance to individual health education are presented, such as: the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice model; Social Learning Theory and Health Locus of Control; the Health Belief Model; the Theory of Reasoned Action; and Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. Recently, promising attempts have been made to integrate several of the models. Across the models, the most important regulatory factors for behaviour seem to be social norms, personal expectations and environmental reinforcements. These factors should be considered by the doctor in attempts to induce changes in patients' health-related behaviour. In the future development of health behaviour models, social and environmental factors will probably be given even more attention.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1993

Smoking habits in early pregnancy related to age of smoking debut.

During 1 year, 187 general practitioners in western Norway recruited 530 daily smoking, pregnant women for a smoking cessation study. At the first medical check-up in pregnancy each woman filled in a questionnaire. Women who had started smoking within 15 years of age reported more heavy smoking the last 3 months before pregnancy (P < 0.0001) and at the first check-up in pregnancy (P < 0.01) than those who had started smoking later. They also reported less reduction in smoking habits during earlier pregnancies (P < 0.0001) and more serious tobacco addiction judged by starting smoking early in the morning (P < 0.005). However, even those who had started smoking before 15 years of age reported a reduction of 30% in cigarette consumption during the first few weeks of the present pregnancy. In addition to increasing the antismoking efforts among pregnant women, health education among girls 12-15 years of age to prevent smoking initiation should be intensified.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

The effects of tobacco sales promotion on initiation of smoking--experiences from Finland and Norway.

Norway and Finland were among the first countries to adopt a total ban on tobacco sales promotion. Such legislation came into force in Norway and Finland in 1975 and 1978 respectively. These two countries are sometimes referred to as illustrations that such legislation has been successfully used as a means to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco industry spokesmen seem to interpret available evidence in the opposite way and maintain that the prohibition has not contributed to reducing the use of tobacco. Among the publications referred to and misused by tobacco industry spokesmen are publications from the authors of the present report. The effects of a ban on advertising can only be properly examined after describing a reasonable conceptual model. Such a model has to take into account (i) other social and cultural predictors of smoking, (ii) tobacco sales promotion in the contexts of all other mass communication, (iii) control measures other than a ban, and (iv) the degree of success in implementing the ban on advertising. Like any other kind of mass communication tobacco advertising influences the individual in a rather complex way. Behaviour change may be regarded as the outcome of an interpersonal and intrapersonal process. Social science research on tobacco advertising and the effects of banning such advertising has a short history, most studies having been carried out in the late 1980s. After examining available evidence related to the effects of tobacco advertising on the smoking habits of adolescents we conclude as follows: the few scientifically valid reports available today give both theoretical and empirical evidence for a causal relationship. Tobacco sales promotion seems both to promote and to reinforce smoking among young people. The dynamic tobacco market represented by children and adolescents is probably the main target of tobacco sales promotion. In Finland, there have been few studies explicitly addressing the causal links between tobacco sales promotion and the smoking habits of adolescents. In Norway, no such studies have been carried out. If we examine the changes in the use of tobacco over time, the data available do not lend support to the conclusions drawn by the tobacco industry spokesmen. In Norway the prevalence of daily smokers was higher in 1975, when the ban on tobacco advertising came into force than either before or after. The strongest decrease in the prevalence of daily smokers took place during the first five-year period after the ban was introduced.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adolescent↗