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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Long-term health impacts of forced early retirement among steelworkers.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies of the health impacts of retirement have not investigated the effects of forced early retirement following plant closings. METHODS: Using a geriatric database representative of elderly people, the health impacts on employees forced to take early retirement from steel mills in the Youngstown, Ohio, area were assessed. A study group of forced early retirees was compared with two control groups: (1) regular steel industry retirees, and (2) regular retirees from jobs outside the steel industry. Utilizing multivariate analysis techniques, the effects of retirement on a number of different health measures were isolated. RESULTS: Over the long term, the health of forced retirees does not seem adversely affected by sudden job loss and unexpected retirement, at least in the steel industry. CONCLUSIONS: Continuity theories of retirement--that workers do not experience abrupt catastrophic changes in lifestyle and in health--best explain the lack of negative health impacts.

Aged

Health impact evaluation of improved water supplies and hygiene practices in Sri Lanka: background and methodology.

Between January 1987 and March 1988 a Health Impact Evaluation (HIE) of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (RWSSP) was conducted in Kurunegala District. Four related activities were undertaken: 6598 children were recruited into a case-control study of diarrhoea morbidity conducted in five hospitals; an additional 1649 children from the catchment areas of three of the five hospitals were recruited as a community comparison group; environmental microbiology was performed on water samples collected during 3092 visits to the homes of children recruited into the study; diagnostic stool microbiology was performed for 371 children with diarrhoea and 121 controls. In this paper the seasonality of reported diarrhoea and the socio-demographic characteristics and health-related behaviours of each study group are examined. Cases, clinic controls and the community comparison group were all drawn from the essentially rural settlements typical of the southern part of the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The majority of households in these settlements are Sinhalese buddhist, and the main economic activity is subsitence farming. There was some evidence of differences between the three groups, community recruits tending to come from larger and wealthier households than the children recruited at the hospitals. Issues arising in the design and analysis of this Health Impact Evaluation are discussed. In particular, potential sources of bias are examined and the question of validity investigated.

Case-Control Studies

Evaluating Patient Satisfaction and Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14): A Multicenter Crossover Study Comparing Selective Pressure Impression Conventional Dentures with Mucostatic Digital Dentures.

PURPOSE: To compare patient satisfaction and oral health impact between individuals receiving complete dentures made by digital methods and those using conventional techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this randomized crossover clinical trial, 23 patients aged 40 years and older with completely edentulous arches were enrolled at three treatment centers. Each participant received two sets of complete dentures: one set created using conventional methods (selective pressure impression) and the other through digital techniques (mucostatic digital impression). The order of denture placement was randomized, with each set used for 4 weeks. A trained specialist administered treatments alongside research tools, including a general information questionnaire, a denture satisfaction survey, and the OHIP-14 interview tool. Statistical analysis was conducted using Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Participants with digital dentures reported significantly higher satisfaction regarding treatment duration, comfort, confidence, chewing ability, esthetics, and overall satisfaction compared to those with conventional dentures. There were no significant differences in satisfaction concerning speech and pronunciation. Overall, the oral health impact on quality of life was similar between denture types, but participants indicated improved quality of life while using dentures compared to being edentulous. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with digital dentures exhibited greater satisfaction across various domains compared to those with conventional dentures, despite similar satisfaction levels in speech and pronunciation. The impact on quality of life was comparable between both types, as measured by the OHIP-14.

Humans

Workshop on human health impacts of halogenated biphenyls and related compounds.

A workshop on the Human Health Impacts of Halogenated Biphenyls and Related Compounds was held to assess the state of current research on these chemicals and to make recommendations for future studies. Participants discussed results from laboratory animal experiments on PCBs, PBBs, dioxins, and dibenzofurans which demonstrate a common mode of toxicological action while also revealing large variations in toxicological potency both within and between these chemical families. These variations demonstrate the importance of congener-specific analyses in future studies of effects of exposure to these compounds. Results from epidemiological studies of environmentally exposed adult and pediatric populations from the U.S., Japan, and Taiwan and occupationally exposed cohorts from around the world were considered. It was concluded that available evidence did not demonstrate serious adverse effects such as cancer, in exposed adult cohorts but did provide indications of possible neurobehavioral effects in children exposed in utero. In addition, workshop participants described newly developed markers of exposure and techniques for assessing endocrinological, immunological, and neurological effects and suggested these be applied to epidemiological studies of the effects of polyhalogenated compounds. Other recommendations included identification of other cohorts and development of a large registry of exposed individuals; performance of detailed studies of reproductive function and outcomes in exposed populations; and follow up of neurobehavioral effects in offspring of exposed women.

Biphenyl Compounds

Mumps disease and its health impact: an outbreak-based report.

An outbreak of mumps in a middle school (grades 6 to 8) in Ohio during 1981 was investigated to describe the clinical findings, health impact, and costs. Individuals with clinical mumps in the middle school and in family members were questioned concerning symptoms, complications, hospitalizations, school days absent, and parental work days missed. There were 62 cases of clinical mumps in the middle school and 13 cases among family members. Parotitis lasted an average of 7.4 days and fever (if present) lasted an average of 2.5 days with a mean temperature of 38.6 degrees C (101.4 degrees F). The duration of parotitis and fever increased with age. Complications included encephalitis, aseptic meningitis, orchitis, oophoritis, mastitis, and pancreatitis. Visits to physicians were made by 62.7% (47/75) of the individuals with mumps for a total of 63 visits, and two patients were hospitalized for a total of six days. Persons who attended middle school missed an average of 4.9 days of school. The estimated direct and indirect costs associated with this outbreak were $2,460 and $1,353, respectively, or $51 per case. States lacking mumps immunization requirements experienced a three-times greater incidence of mumps in 1982 than States that required all school pupils to be immunized. We recommend that all States institute compulsory mumps school immunization laws for all school children.

Absenteeism

Emergency health impact of a severe storm.

A severe, premature snow storm resulted in widespread loss of power, communications, and transportation in a populous region of the Northeast. Staff in hospital emergency departments centered in the path of the storm reported a large number of injuries and many unexpected health effects related to the storm. A retrospective survey of the five major hospital emergency departments serving the most heavily affected urban and suburban areas was undertaken to determine the emergency health impact of the storm and resulting operational problems. Expected findings included a decrease in emergency department visits the day of the storm, followed by a sharp increase the day after. Clean-up activities accounted for a large number of the injuries, most of which were preventable. Unexpected findings include a large number of carbon monoxide poisonings and disposition and staffing problems created by caring for many patients who lost access to customary home health care services. Emergency department staff are encouraged to engage in public education efforts that may reduce serious illness or injury related to severe weather and its aftermath. Moreover, traditional disaster plans may need to be supplemented in anticipation of the disposition and staffing problems created by a growing population of elderly patients who will be cut off from vital home health care services by severe weather.

Aged

Ecological upheavals with special reference to desertification and predicting health impact.

This paper begins with an introduction that touches on the ecological upheavals of earthquakes, floods, as well as other upheavals that result from sudden huge crowding of people in one place such as in refugee situations and situations of a famine disaster. The point is made that for sudden emergencies the health impact will very much depend on the nature of traumatic physical damage on the people's bodies and property as well as the capacity with which response is organised for assessment of damage and medical management. A number of texts are mentioned with respect to management in emergencies, including health, feeding and water and the point made that familiarity with these texts provides a starting point in responding to emergencies. These have put together information on how one goes about organising the response to save lives. Also mentioned are the consequences of the approach taken to providing food in these situations; whether it is through distribution of dry ration to be taken home, or whether one is dealing with shelter situations. In this introduction, land degradation/desertification is mentioned as being the largest and possibly the most devastating ecological upheaval. The rest of the paper goes on to address this ecological upheaval of land degradation/desertification. The magnitude of this upheaval is presented. The contribution of overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and irrigation to desertification are discussed. The health consequence of this process is then presented and finally, there is a discussion on the challenges that social scientists and health professionals could help to address in order to bring about some appropriate interventions that would contribute to arresting and possibly reversing the desertification process.

Africa

Environmental health impacts associated with rapid urbanisation in South Africa.

There is an urgent need for epidemiological assessments of environmental factors associated with rapid urbanisation in developing countries. Unlike the process in developed countries, urbanisation in the developing world is often associated with urban poverty, particularly on the periphery of the city where informal settlement areas develop. Population growth rates in these areas are frequently higher than in the city itself, and access to basic environmental amenities is frequently lacking. In Africa, ill-health conditions associated with rapid urbanisation, such as diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections, continue to be major causes of childhood deaths. An account is given of research being conducted in South Africa to address such problems, as well as problems related to inner-city decay, such as childhood lead exposure. There is a critical need for better inter-sectoral co-ordination between the health sector and other sectors such as housing and planning, in preventing negative health impacts associated with rapid urbanisation in the future.

Child

The prevalence and health impact of shiftwork.

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics National Survey of Personal Health Practices and Consequences were analyzed to determine the impact of variable shift schedules on health-related behaviors of persons in the United States labor force. Twenty-six per cent of men and 18 per cent of women in the US labor force reported working a variable shift in Spring 1980. As compared to men working non-variable work schedules, those working variable shifts exhibited higher rates of heavy drinking, job stress, and emotional problems. Female variable shift workers reported higher rates of sleeping pill, tranquilizer, and alcohol use, as well as lower social network scores, more job stress, and more emotional problems.

Adult

Assessing the health impact of urbanization.

Several components of urbanization influence health status, but it is difficult to attribute changes in health status to any particular component. The overall impact may be estimated by relating the degree of urbanization of populations to some proxy measure, like the under-5 mortality rates. In this respect the net effect of urbanization is shown to be beneficial. A variety of survey and computational methods have been used to clarify the relationship. Some illustrate the effects of urbanization upon particular clinical conditions, such as promoting the eradication of leprosy, others of particular components, such as overcrowding and pollution, on infant mortality. To help set goals, excess or avoidable mortality may be computed for a country or region by relating its experience to current mortality levels in a developed country; and changes in the levels of avoidable mortality from sentinel conditions such as infectious diseases may be related to changes in particular aspects of urbanization, e.g. improvements in levels of sanitation. Migration to the urban environment imparts the tendency to acquire the health characteristics of the host population. Rapid urbanization causes problems of psychosocial adjustment for older children. Urbanization may impact upon the incidence and prevalence of disability. Where sex-age disability-survey data exist, they may be combined with age-specific mortality data to construct an index of disability-free life expectancy, a more subtle measure for assessing the progressive impact of urbanization. Up to now, however, there have been no international studies of how levels of disability change according to the progress of urbanization, and there are no international census or survey recommendations for harmonizing the classification of disabled people.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Birth Rate

Emotional and health impact of home monitoring on mothers: a controlled prospective study.

The psychologic and health effects of home monitoring were evaluated in mothers, whose infants (epidemiologically not at high risk for sudden infant death syndrome) were placed on electronic surveillance because of results obtained from a laboratory sleep study conducted at 4 weeks of age. Mothers of these infants were studied prospectively at several periods following the infants' births: 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 1 year. The initial sample consisted of 56 mothers. Evaluation procedures included the Neonatal Perception Inventories, Anxiety Inventory (State and Trait), Depression Inventory, Brief Symptom Inventory, and a Recent Life Changes Questionnaire. The results obtained from these women were compared with those of women who had delivered at about the same time but whose infants were not placed on a home monitoring program. A total of 57 women started in the control group. Very few statistically significant group differences were observed between the two subject groups: 2 weeks after initiating the home monitoring program, monitor mothers (when compared to nonmonitor mothers) perceived their infant's behavior differently (although not more bothersome) and had an increased degree of situational anxiety (although not to an abnormal degree). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups 12 weeks or 1 year after giving birth. These results suggest that a home monitoring program, which includes an aggressive and readily available support system, does not impose a marked health hazard to mothers.

Analysis of Variance