Biomedical subjects
M Kaminski
Publications and source records attributed to M Kaminski.
["Active" and "passive" smoking of pregnant women and risks to the child].
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Alcohol consumption during pregnancy and infant birth weight.
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Conformity of Workers' and Occupational Health Physicians' Descriptions of Working Conditions.
To determine whether workers, describing their own work, and occupational physicians, describing typical workstations, would report the same working conditions, and whether the relationships between health status and working conditions described by these two sources would be similar. An epidemiologic survey was carried out in 1987-88 in 17 poultry slaughterhouses and six canneries in France. The data were collected in two ways: workers described their own working conditions, and occupational physicians described the working conditions at workstations in the same factories. The study included 507 workers who worked at fixed workstations that had been described by the 24 occupational physicians. Health data were obtained from the workers by the physicians during their annual visits. The agreement between workers and physicians in the descriptions of seven working conditions was analyzed. On the whole, the prevalences of exposures to the seven selected working conditions estimated by the two sources were similar. Nevertheless, the observed agreement was not necessarily high. When agreement existed about specific working conditions, the relationships observed between those conditions and workers' health were generally similar for the two sources. This result was stronger for physical health problems than for mental health problems. When both sources agreed that the worker was being exposed to a risk factor, the risk estimation was higher compared with the cases of discordant judgment. This study confirms the usefulness of information provided by experts but also the necessity to interview workers themselves about their working conditions.
[Effects of smoking during pregnancy on the fetus and infant: an objective review or a biased point of view?].
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[Psychological and social characteristics of women having repeated induced abortions. A French study in three centers].
Women having repeated induced abortions have social and affective difficulties. Pregnancy results from ineffective or erratic contraceptive practices. One woman out of two expresses the desire for a pregnancy and/or child. During childhood they frequently experienced unsatisfactory relationships with their parents and within the family.
Metal-antiferromagnetic insulator transition in the charge-transfer model.
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Change in alcohol, tobacco and coffee consumption in pregnant women: evolution between 1988 and 1992 in an area of high consumption.
OBJECTIVE: Analyse the evolution of alcohol, tobacco and coffee consumption during pregnancy in a population characterized by a high level of consumption and a low socioeconomic situation. STUDY DESIGN: Data were obtained from two studies done with the same protocol and questionnaire in the Roubaix Public Maternity Hospital in 1988 (176 women) and 1992 (235 women); the two periods were compared using univariate tests and multiple logistic regression to control for social factors. RESULTS: Between 1988 and 1992, there was a clear decrease in alcohol consumption, a slight decrease in coffee consumption and an increase in tobacco use. These changes affected usual consumption as well as consumption during pregnancy. The increase in tobacco use was no longer significant after controlling for social factors. However, the decrease in alcohol consumption affected all women regardless of sociodemographic characteristics, and remained significant after controlling for these characteristics. CONCLUSION: Several factors support the hypothesis that the decrease in the reported alcohol consumption is real, for consumptions in the low to moderate range. However, it is difficult to identify the role of the several factors involved in this evolution: behaviour of the general population, attitude among pregnant women, information and sensitization of prenatal care providers. Besides, one negative aspect needs to be considered: the stability of the incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome, probably reflecting the stability of the proportion of very heavy consumers.
Attitudes and behavior of pregnant women and health professionals towards alcohol and tobacco consumption.
The objective of this study was to identify those factors that influence pregnant women's behavior towards alcohol consumption, so that they could be taken into account when developing alcohol prevention programs in prenatal care. Tobacco use was also studied to identify similarities and differences in attitudes and behavior. A sample of 176 women was interviewed using a structured questionnaire in the prenatal clinics or post-partum wards. Most women were aware that alcohol and tobacco could be harmful to their babies; however heavy drinkers recognized the influence of alcohol in pregnancy less often than the others. Sixty percent of the women, even among the light drinkers, thought that two drinks per day was a reasonable level of consumption during pregnancy. When asked who could be helpful in decreasing their alcohol consumption, most women mentioned their husband, and the doctor or midwife. This is in contrast to our finding that less than 20% of heavy drinkers were advised to reduce alcohol consumption, as compared to 70% of heavy smokers. The results point to the potential for more active interventions on alcohol reduction by health personnel during prenatal care.
The circadian rhythm in activity of the periodic acid Schiff reaction and of the Mg and Ca content in rat liver in relation to age and season of the year.
The experiments were carried out on male Wistar rats aged 6, 12 and 24 months, over the four seasons of the year. Analysis of the results obtained in all age groups disclosed that changes in activity of the p.a.S (periodic acid Schiff) reaction and in concentrations of Mg and Ca in the liver showed rhythmic oscillations with a period of 12 hours. The maximal p.a.S reaction activity and of Ca and Mg levels were generally found to coincide throughout all seasons and in all age groups. The rhythms of change in these parameters in 12- and 24-month-old rats showed a phase shift as compared to the 6-month-old animals.
Multiple births in couples with infertility problems.
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Did preterm deliveries continue to decrease in France in the 1980s?
To study the trends in gestational age and birthweight in France, we compared data from three surveys that were based on representative samples of births in 10 French regions and were conducted in 1972, 1981 and 1988-89. Only single livebirths were considered in the analysis. The rate of preterm births decreased from 7.9% in 1972 to 5.8% in 1981 and 4.0% in 1988-89. The corresponding rates of children with a birthweight below 2500 g were 5.4, 4.3 and 4.7%. The mean birthweight of preterm babies born in 1988-89 was lower than the mean birthweight of those born in 1972 and 1981. The reduction in preterm births cannot be attributed to the improved accuracy of gestational age determination, but the general use of ultrasound may have played a major role in the apparent reduction of the mean birthweight of preterm babies.
Moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and psychomotor development at preschool age.
OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the effect of moderate prenatal alcohol exposure on psychomotor development of preschool-age children in a longitudinal study. METHODS: Pregnant women were interviewed about their alcohol consumption at their first visit to the maternity hospital in Roubaix, France. Alcohol consumption before pregnancy and during the first trimester was assessed with a structured questionnaire. The psychomotor development of 155 children of these women was assessed with the McCarthy scales of children's abilities when the children were about 4 1/2 years old. RESULTS: Consumption of 1.5 oz of absolute alcohol (approximately three drinks) or more per day during pregnancy was significantly related to a decrease of 7 points in the mean score on the general cognitive index of the McCarthy scales, after gender, birth order, maternal education, score for family stimulation, family status, maternal employment, child's age at examination, and examiner were controlled for. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that moderate to heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy, at levels well below those associated with fetal alcohol syndrome, has effects on children's psychomotor development.
Infertility, assisted reproduction programmes and public health.
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Randomised controlled trial of routine cervical examinations in pregnancy. European Community Collaborative Study Group on Prenatal Screening.
Preterm delivery is strongly associated with neonatal mortality and morbidity. In some European countries, cervical examinations are used routinely during pregnancy to identify women at risk of preterm delivery. We sought to evaluate the efficacy and secondary effects of these routine cervical examinations. We did a randomised controlled trial in seven European countries, comparing two policies--namely, an attempt to do a cervical examination at every prenatal visit (2803 women) and avoidance of cervical examination if possible (2799). The median number of cervical examinations was 6 in the experimental group and 1 in the controls. There were 6.7% preterm (< 37 weeks) deliveries in the experimental group and 6.4% in the control group (risk ratio 1.05 [95% confidence interval 0.85-1.29]; non-significant). The low birthweight rate was 6.6% in the experimental group and 7.7% in the controls (non-significant). Premature rupture of membranes was not significantly more frequent in the experimental group (27.1% vs 26.5%). Our findings do not support the routine use of cervical examinations during pregnancy.
Risk factors for high blood pressure among workers in French poultry slaughterhouses and canneries.
The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between the working conditions of employees in the food industry and blood pressure. An epidemiological survey was conducted between 1987 and 1988 in 17 poultry slaughterhouses and 6 canneries in the French regions of 'Bretagne' and 'Pays de Loire'. One thousand, four hundred and seventy-four workers were included in the study. Data was collected in the course of the medical visit organized annually for employees. Mean diastolic (DBP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were analyzed separately for male and female workers. The results indicate a significant relationship between blood pressure, and age and obesity. Amongst the various features of working condition studies, loud noise and the number of work breaks were found to be associated with heightened mean values of DBP or SBP in men only. Type and size of the factory was found to be associated with blood pressure readings for both sexes. A number of working conditions giving rise to heightened mental strain were found to be related to a lowering in mean blood pressure: for example, irregular work finishing times for men and production-line work for women. A discussion of these results reveals the complexity of the relationships which exist between physical and environmental factors in this type of setting and blood pressure of employees.
[Abdominal emergencies in patients with AIDS].
This is a report on five patients suffering from AIDS who underwent emergency abdominal surgery: One patient with gangrenous appendicitis, three with a small bowel perforation and a third with a colonic bleeding. The first outlived the appendectomy by seven month; the second and the third the small bowel resection by eight weeks resp. by 10 weeks. The fourth died four weeks after hemicolectomy and a relaparotomy with colonic resection for profuse bleeding. The fifth died because of infiltration of the heart by a malignant lymphoma. None of the patients developed any complications due to surgery. A review is given on emergencies caused by abdominal diseases which a surgeon must be aware of in patients with AIDS. The palliative character of surgery in these patients is stressed.
Effects of birth weight of alcohol and caffeine consumption during pregnancy.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of alcohol and caffeine consumption on birth weight and the possible interaction of these substances with smoking. The sample included 628 women who were interviewed at their first visit to the maternity hospital of Roubaix, France, in 1985-1986. A significant reduction in birth weight was found to be associated with an average daily alcohol consumption of three drinks or more after gestational age, infant sex, maternal age, parity, weight, and height, and cigarette smoking had been controlled for. There was no interaction between smoking and alcohol consumption on birth weight, but a significant relation between alcohol consumption and birth weight was observed among nonsmokers as well as heavy smokers. The relation observed between caffeine and birth weight disappeared after adjustment for smoking. Our results indicate that alcohol reduces birth weight, but do not support the hypothesis of an interaction between smoking and alcohol consumption.