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Biomedical subjects

J Olsen

Publications and source records attributed to J Olsen.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

The concept of multifactorial etiology of cancer.

The concept of causes is not just for professional philosophers to discuss. The epidemiologists also have to clarify how the concept is used since its meaning has profound implications for understanding basic measures of exposure-disease association. The concept of cause also has importance when designing a study or when analyzing epidemiological data. The paper describes the components cause model and its relationship with the mechanism of disease action. A measure of interaction is also presented which is based upon the components cause model. The common sense concept of causes also plays a fundamental role for the success of a health preventive programme according to the Health Belief Model. The component cause model may clarify causal patterns in situations when only a few of the exposed get the disease which the programme tends to prevent.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Variability of self reported measures of alcohol consumption: implications for the association between drinking in pregnancy and birth weight.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To describe the intra-subject variability of self reported maternal alcohol consumption using different ways of collecting information and to analyse the implications of this variability for research into the effect of low to moderate maternal alcohol consumption on birth weight. DESIGN: This was a longitudinal study. Self reported maternal alcohol consumption before, during, and after pregnancy was assessed on four occasions over two years. The data were collected by two self administered questionnaires and during two personal interviews (one by phone and another face to face). SETTINGS: The Obstetrics Department, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Fünen, Denmark. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2880 pregnant women were recruited consecutively from the hospital catchment area. Altogether 328 pregnant women and their babies were selected. All women who reported an average alcohol consumption of five drinks or more per week were recruited to the study (164 women) and a 1:1 control group was selected from the remaining women based upon two matching criteria: expected date of delivery and the women's year of birth. Some 279 women (85%) completed the study. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Self reported alcohol consumption (number of drinks per week) and birth weight (g) were the main outcomes. Women's self reported alcohol consumption varied over time and according to the data collection method. When different methods of data collection were used to assess alcohol intake in similar periods of time, significant differences in reporting were found despite the relatively high correlations between the measurements. Although a consistent reduction in birth weight with increasing consumption of alcohol was found, there were differences in the shape and strength of this association when comparing the six available alcohol measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The type of questions used, the way the data were collected, the period of time referred to, and the time the questions were asked, should be taken into consideration when describing the drinking pattern of pregnant women. Furthermore, birth weight results from studies that have used different alcohol measures should be interpreted or compared with caution because of possible large differences resulting from the differing methods of assessing fetal exposure to alcohol.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1993

Social differences in reproductive health. A study on birth weight, stillbirths and congenital malformations in Denmark.

AIM: To describe differences in life style variables according to socioeconomic groupings and to analyse the association between birth weight, stillbirth and congenital malformation according to the socioeconomic grouping for the father as well as the mother. METHOD: Follow-up of 11,888 pregnant women in Odense and Aalborg, Denmark who were consecutively enrolled in the study from April 1984 to April 1987 as part of a community trial. DATA: Information on socioeconomic group and life-style factors were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires in the 36th week of gestation. Data on pregnancy outcomes were collected from birth certificates and medical records according to standardized search routines. RESULTS: Women in the lower socioeconomic groups were younger, smaller, had a higher prepregnancy weight, smoked more and had a higher intake of coffee during pregnancy than women in higher socioeconomic groups. Better off women, on the other hand, had a higher consumption of alcohol, fish, and vegetables. Low birth weight was found to be negatively correlated with socioeconomic grouping. The lowest birth weights were found among babies born to unskilled and unemployed women even after adjustment for smoking habits, prepregnancy height and weight and a number of other potential confounders. Stillbirth and the prevalence of congenital malformations was not associated with socioeconomic grouping, but the amount of information was very limited regarding these outcomes.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Predictors of smoking cessation in pregnancy.

Smoking cessation is difficult to obtain, even among pregnant women who should be highly motivated to quit. Identification of predictors of unsuccessful smoking cessation may be of help in identifying pregnant smokers who need special attention in order to reduce or eliminate the intrauterine tobacco smoke exposure. The study was done in two consecutive samples of pregnant women in Odense and Aalborg, Denmark. Altogether 13,815 pregnant women participated in the study by reporting detailed information on their lifestyle during pregnancy and before pregnancy. Recruitment of pregnant women started in 1984 and ended in 1987. The study is based upon self-administered questionnaires filled out in the 36th week of gestation. Only those who were smokers prior to the pregnancy are included in the study (5,724). The study showed that the strongest predictors of unsuccessful smoking cessation were: the level of smoking prior to pregnancy, coffee consumption, and the partners smoking habits. Parity, school education, and social status also played a role but were less strongly associated with continuous smoking in pregnancy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Design options and methodological fallacies in the studies of reproductive failures.

Reproductive failures are at first sight well suited for epidemiologic research. The time of pregnancy is closely monitored, and failures such as spontaneous abortions and subfecundity are rather frequent. Although epidemiologists' interest in the field has been growing, there is still disappointingly little new information of relevance for prevention. A number of methodologic shortcomings may explain this. A large part of disease classification is not well suited for etiologic research, reduced fertility has diminished the populations at risk, close medical monitoring tends to mask causal links, and many scientific problems related to this area bring limitations to the research field. Still, much more could be learned from a systematic use of epidemiologic knowledge, existing registers, and the joint effort between different research groups.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗
PubMed1993

Multifocal amplification, a decisive step in recruitment compensation.

After several years of intense research the people at the Eriksholm Research Center in Denmark have found a new amplification principle that compensates for Loudness Recruitment in sensorineural hearing losses. This new amplification principle has been the basis for the development of the world's first fully automatic non-linear hearing aid: MultiFocus. The non-linear amplification has been found superior to the traditional linear amplification in every sense and improves life quality for the hearing impaired due to: increased listening range, improved speech intelligibility in noise, less or no problems with own voice, less occlusion problems, always correct loudness in different listening situations. One may conclude that from now on the hearing impaired can concentrate on what they hear rather than concentrate on hearing. Though simple, the fitting method for a non-linear hearing aid is different from that of a linear hearing aid. For the hearing aid fitters the challenge is to get familiar with this new way of fitting.

Amplifiers, Electronic↗
PubMed1993

Cancer incidence in the Danish reinforced plastics industry.

Increased occurrences of malignancies of the lymphatic and haematopoietic tissues have been reported from industries in which employees are potentially exposed to styrene. The aim of the study reported here was to describe cancer incidence in the reinforced plastics industry in Denmark. A total of 64,000 employees of 552 Danish companies assessed to have produced reinforced plastics at any time since the 1960s were identified from a public administrative registry of all Danish employers and wage earners. Cancer incidence in the population was compared with similar rates for the population at large. No excess risk for all neoplasms was observed. Among male employees, increased risks were found for cancer of the lung (396 cases; relative risk [RR], 1.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.27), of the pleura (20 cases; RR, 2.33; 1.42-3.60), of the nasal cavities (nine cases; RR, 1.55; 0.71-2.94), of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (61 cases; RR, 1.27; 0.97-1.63) and for leukaemia (61 cases; RR, 1.15; 0.88-1.48). Among female employees, a reduced risk for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was observed (one case; RR, 0.16; 0.00-0.88). Some support was thus found for previous reports of increased risk for respiratory cancers and for malignancies of the lymphatic and haematopoietic tissues. The results must be interpreted with caution, however, owing to shortcomings in the design of the study.

Denmark↗
PubMed1993

Changes in knowledge of HIV/AIDS, sexual behaviour and practice among STD patients in Greenland 1990-1992. Monitoring the Stop-AIDS campaign in Greenland.

Due to a high incidence of STDs Greenland is considered to be a high risk area for an AIDS epidemic, and a close monitoring system has been set up to monitor the spread of HIV and changes in knowledge and sexual norms. This is the second report from surveys of knowledge, sexual behaviour and practice and STD patients i Greenland. Data were collected by means of self administered questionnaires in 1990 to 1992 in Nuuk, Sisimiut and Angmagssalik. The results from Nuuk in 1992 are compared with results from a similar survey from 1990.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

A novel intestinal trans-factor (NF-LPH1) interacts with the lactase-phlorizin hydrolase promoter and co-varies with the enzymatic activity.

The promoter of the pig lactase-phlorizin hydrolase was cloned and showed to be functional in the human intestinal cell line Caco2. The proximal promoter was analyzed for binding of nuclear proteins from small intestine and liver. DNase I footprinting and electrophoretic mobility shift assays show, that an intestinal nuclear factor (NF-LPH1) binds to a sequence (-40 to -54) located close to the TATA-box. Enterocytes from newborn pigs with high lactase activity contain high amounts of NF-LPH1, whereas enterocytes from adult pigs with low lactase activity contain low amounts of NF-LPH1. The liver does not contain lactase activity, and NF-LPH1 is not present in liver nuclear extracts in detectable amounts. This indicates that NF-LPH1 is involved in the decline of lactase at weaning and may be of importance for the molecular explanation of hypolactasia in humans. It was demonstrated by transfection of two different promoter-reporter gene constructs into Caco2 cells, that there are additional cis-element(s) in the region -142 to approximately -980, which are important for the transcription of the lactase-phlorizin hydrolase gene.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Description of conidia from submerged cultivation of Thermomyces lanuginosus for use as a uniform inoculum.

Conidia produced by submerged cultivation of the thermophilic fungus Thermomyces lanuginosus were superior to conidia from agar plates when used as inoculum, due to a faster and more synchronous germination. With conidia derived from submerged liquid culture at 40-45 degrees C more than 90% germination was achieved at 50 degrees C within 3 h whereas the same percentage germination was only achieved after 5 h incubation of conidia produced on agar plates. The temperature during conidial formation, and conidial age at the time of harvesting, were factors influencing germination of the conidia.

Culture Media↗
PubMed1992

[Study of the Danish Malformation Registry for the incidence of cleft lip and palate during 1983-1987].

The Danish Register of Congenital Malformations at the National Board of Health is used for surveillance and research. More than 10% of all patients registered have oral cleft diagnoses. This report evaluates the completeness of the Register of Congenital Malformations as regards registration of oral cleft patients born in Denmark in the period 1983-1987. The register is limited to congenital anomalies diagnosed in hospitals in the child's first year of life. The investigation shows, that the register is suitable for surveillance of clefts, because the completeness of registration was constant during the five-year period 1983-1987. The completeness was more than 90% of all known cases, and probably higher for severe clefts and cases with associated anomalies. Identical diagnosis was found in 93% of all patients registered in The Register of Congenital Malformations with at least one other source of ascertainment. In addition, the investigation disclosed misclassification of a small oral-cleft-subgroup and the need for an additional diagnosis in the coding. The register can only be used for surveillance and research in congenital anomalies, which are usually diagnosed in the child's first year of life.

Cleft Lip↗