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Biomedical subjects

M Koiranen

Publications and source records attributed to M Koiranen.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

Juvenile mortality, mental disturbances and criminality: a prospective study of the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort.

Mortality, criminality and mental illness among young adults were studied in an unselected birth cohort of 12 058 children born live in Northern Finland during 1966. The cohort members were followed up to the age of 27 years. The total number of all deaths was 117, and 79.5% of these deaths were from unnatural causes. The mortality of males was more than threefold higher than that of females. There was a significantly higher mortality risk in men with schizophrenia (OR, 9.31; 95% CI, 3.14-25.53), other psychoses (OR, 10.28; 95% CI, 2.40-37.02), personality disorders (OR, 4.28; 95% CI, 1.04-14.67) and combined personality disorders and criminality (OR, 3.27, 95% CI, 0.99-9.59). In the group of major mental disorders, 75% of deaths were suicides.

Accidents↗

A comparison of clinical and research DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophrenia in a Finnish national birth cohort. Clinical and research diagnoses of schizophrenia.

As a prerequisite to the use of the Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register in psychiatric epidemiological research, we studied the diagnostic reliability of the register in terms of the psychiatric morbidity experienced by a national birth cohort. We investigated all entries to the register for a sample based upon the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort at the age of 16 years (n = 11017). Until the end of 1993 (age 27 years), a total of 563 subjects had a register diagnosis indicating a psychiatric illness, 37 of them being schizophrenia. When operational criteria (DSM-III-R) were applied to clinical information in the available original hospital records for cases of psychosis, personality disorder and substance abuse (n = 249), 71 fulfilled criteria for schizophrenia, including all of the 37 cases in the register and an additional 34 (48% false-negatives), most frequently diagnosed in the register as schizophreniform or other psychosis. Despite the official use of DSM-III-R nomenclature, it appears that the clinical concept of schizophrenia in Finland, manifest within the register, remains very restrictive. The application of operational criteria is a necessary prerequisite for scientific research on schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗

Specific major mental disorders and criminality: a 26-year prospective study of the 1966 northern Finland birth cohort.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to examine the quantitative risk of criminal behavior associated with specific mental disorders. METHOD: An unselected 1966 birth cohort (N = 12,058) in Northern Finland was prospectively studied until the end of 1992. The investigation started during the mothers' pregnancy, and the data on the subjects' family characteristics, mental and physical development, living habits, psychiatric morbidity, and criminal records were gathered at various times. RESULTS: The prevalence of offenses was the highest among males with alcohol-induced psychoses and male schizophrenic subjects with coexisting alcohol abuse, and more than half of the schizophrenic offenders also had problems with alcohol. Eleven (7%) of the 165 subjects who committed violent crimes were diagnosed as psychotic. Male schizophrenic subjects had a moderately high risk for violent offenses, but the risk for other types of crimes was not elevated significantly. Odds ratios for criminal behavior were adjusted according to the socioeconomic status of the childhood family and were the same as or slightly lower than the crude odds ratios for all disorders except schizophrenia and mood disorders with psychotic features. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the risk of criminal behavior was significantly higher among subjects with psychotic disorders, even though the socioeconomic status of the childhood family was controlled. The higher risk for violent behavior was associated especially with alcohol-induced psychoses and with schizophrenia with coexisting substances abuse. The results suggest that schizophrenia without substance abuse may also be associated with a higher risk of offenses, but this finding is tentative and requires further investigation.

Alcoholism↗

A 28 year follow up of mortality among women who smoked during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate long term mortality among women who smoked during pregnancy and those who stopped smoking. DESIGN: A follow up of a geographically defined cohort from 1966 through to 1993. SUBJECTS: 11,994 women in northern Finland expected to deliver in 1966, comprising 96% of all women giving birth in the area during that year. Smoking habits were recorded during pregnancy but not later. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Mortality by cause (571 deaths). RESULTS: The mortality ratio adjusted for age, place of residence, years of education and marital status was 2.3 (95% confidence interval 1.8 to 2.8) for the women who smoked during pregnancy and 1.6 (1.1 to 2.2) for those who stopped smoking before the second month of pregnancy, both compared with non-smokers. Among the smokers the relative mortality was higher for typical diseases related to tobacco intake, such as respiratory and oesophageal cancer and diseases of the cardiovascular and digestive organs and also for accidents and suicides. CONCLUSION: The risk of premature death seems to be higher in women who smoke during pregnancy than in other women who smoke. This may be explained either by the low proportion of those who stop later and the high proportion of heavy smokers or by other characteristics of these subjects that increase the risk.

Cause of Death↗

Juvenile offenders, with special reference to sex differences.

Social and demographic background variables relevant to male and female juvenile offenders were studied prospectively in a geographically defined population of 6,007 males and 5,757 females in Northern Finland, together with the distribution of offences by type and number between the sexes. Up to the age of 25 years, 532 males (8.9%) and 60 females (1.0%) had committed at least one crime leading to a criminal record. An intelligence quotient (IQ) of 50-84, but not below 50, was most closely associated with delinquency, as was school performance, in that not only was poor attainment associated with an increased incidence of delinquency, but above-average attainment was also predictive of a lower incidence. This is not interpreted as a causal association but rather an indication of similarity between the demands of the educational system and demands regarding socially desirable behaviour. The demographic, social, educational and health factors predictive of delinquency were very similar for males and females, and the reasons for the difference in the incidence of delinquency between the sexes must be looked for among the general differences in cultural demands and biological factors.

Adolescent↗

Maternal build and pregnancy outcome.

The effect of maternal build on the outcome of pregnancy was studied in two birth cohorts in Northern Finland, for 1966 and 1985-86. Prospectively collected data were available for 10,969 women in the earlier cohort and 9128 in the later one. The women in the earlier cohort were on average 2.9 cm shorter but 0.2 kg thinner and had 0.7 kg/m2 greater BMI. 13% of the women in the earlier cohort had a BMI below 20, but 24% in the later one, while 96% in both cohorts had BMI below 30. The women with low BMI were on average taller than the others, and at all BMI levels the women of the earlier cohort were shorter and lighter than those of the later one. The outcome of pregnancy was measured by the incidence of pre-term births and perinatal plus childhood deaths up to the age of 4 years, and the association of maternal body measurements with low birth weight (< 2500 g) and small for gestational age (SGA) infants was also studied. An additive logistic regression model was fitted in each analysis, to determine the probability of the outcome separately in terms of BMI, weight and height, adjusting for maternal age, parity, smoking, marital status, father's social class and place of residence. No evidence was found that BMI values 20-25, commonly judged as optimum for the mother's own longevity, predicted a better prognosis for the child than values below 20.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Body Mass Index↗

Smoking or quitting during pregnancy: associations with background and future social factors.

Current and future social factors associated with smoking habits during pregnancy were assessed. Data on maternal smoking, social background and the family's development during the 21 years after delivery were gathered for a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 12,068 pregnant women and their children in Northern Finland in 1966 and for a second birth cohort of 9,362 mothers in 1985-86. The prevalence of smoking before pregnancy was 22% in the 1966 cohort (29% in 1985-86). 12% (18%) of the women continued smoking throughout their pregnancy. The following background factors were mainly associated with the mother's smoking and/or continuing during pregnancy in both cohorts when mother's age, parity, place of residence and social class were standardized: mother's age under 23, parity two or more, low social class, urban dwelling, unmarried, gainful employment and heavy smoking. The follow-up responses after 14 and 21 years, respectively, were mostly more favourable among the non-smoking mothers and those who quit smoking during pregnancy-e.g. stable family structure, child's smoking and drinking habits and application for intermediate education. Smoking throughout pregnancy or quitting of smoking late in pregnancy were associated with undesirable future development of the child and family in most of these aspects.

Female↗

Teenage alcohol drinking and non-standard family background.

The teenage alcohol drinking in 1980 is described in a cohort of 12,058 subjects born in Northern Finland in 1966, with special reference to non-standard families (with one or both parents absent). The percentage of boys (girls) who had been drinking alcohol at the age of 14 years, was 59.1 (58.3)%, being 57.5 (55.6%) in standard, full families and 66.0 (69.0)% in non-standard families. The percentage of having been drunk was 25.2 (25.1)%, or 22.8 (22.1)% in full families and 36.1 (37.1)% in the non-standard families. When adjusted for the maternal age at birth, place of residence, social class and child's status in the family (firstborn or not, only child or not) by means of regression modelling, the risk of alcohol drinking/having been drunk was still increased in non-standard families, especially in cases of divorce or same-sex parental death, the risk differences as compared to the standard family usually being between 10-20%. The results suggest that a non-standard family structure is associated with early juvenile alcohol drinking. Parental loss or absence may constitute one important factor leading to excessive haste in adopting the adolescent culture, including its potentially destructive habits.

Adolescent↗

The relation between teenage smoking and drinking, with special reference to non-standard family background.

Associations between simultaneous teenage drinking and smoking are considered in a birth cohort born in Northern Finland in 1966 (n = 12,058), especially in non-standard, mainly single parent families. Data were collected from pregnancy until the age of 14. ROC (receiver operating characteristic curve) analysis was used to assess how well smoking predicts use of alcohol. Smoking and drinking were more interconnected in the non-standard families among both boys (p = 0.007) and girls (p = 0.018), but only among boys (p = 0.064) when the data were standardized for social class and place of residence and not among girls (p = 0.191). A similar relation between smoking and having been drunk was found among boys in non-standard families (p = 0.016), even when adjusted as above (p = 0.029), but not among girls (unadjusted p = 0.235, adjusted p = 0.469). The findings suggest that the adolescent boy's self-protective behaviour with respect to the commencement of combined experimentation with smoking and drinking is more restricted in non-standard families than in standard families.

Adolescent↗

Association of perinatal events, epilepsy, and central nervous system trauma with juvenile delinquency.

The association of perinatal events, childhood epilepsy, and central nervous system trauma with juvenile delinquency was studied prospectively in a geographically defined population of 5966 males in northern Finland. Those who had obtained a criminal record up to the age of 22 years, totalling 355, or 6.0%, were defined as delinquents. The incidence of delinquency was not increased in males with a birth weight less than 2500 g or greater than 4000 g, preterm births < 37 weeks' gestation, or those with perinatal brain damage or having epileptic seizures before 14 years of age. The incidence was increased by 6.8% in the group of males with birth weights less than 3500 g, but not significantly increased after standardisation for a number of social and demographic background variables. The incidence was increased by 10.3% among the males who had had a central nervous system trauma by the age of 14 years, however, and this factor remained significant when social and demographic factors were standardised by regression analysis, with an odds ratio of 1.9 for all males with a criminal record and an odds ratio of 3.15 for those who had committed a violent crime. Previous central nervous system trauma may be a cause of delinquency, or another possibility is that the type of behaviour pursued by males who are likely to commit a violent crime will expose them more often to accidents which can result in central nervous system trauma.

Adolescent↗

Fitting mixture models to birth weight data: a case study.

Birth weights by gestational age are compared in two birth cohorts from Northern Finland, the first from 1966 and the second from 1985-1986. A curious fact in the data is that mean birth weight before the 39th week was lower in the latter series although the mean birth weight for the total series was higher. Similar findings have been reported in other series. A mixture model with the nonparametric regression function is proposed for studying the hypothesis that the difference was caused by more frequent gross errors in gestational assessment in the earlier cohort. The probability of an error in gestational assessment then greatly depends on the observed gestational age, which makes the mixture model nonstandard. Maximum likelihood solutions to the parameters in the proposed model were computed employing the general expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. A technique for studying the effect of errors on the intrauterine weight gain curve is proposed and applied to our two birth cohorts. The risk of underestimation of gestational age seems to be larger in the previous series and the differences between the growth curves almost totally vanish when "corrected" by means of the mixture model.

Algorithms↗

Neurological handicaps among children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

Neurological handicaps among children up to age 14 whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy (N = 1,819) and control children born in Northern Finland in 1966 were studied. Altogether, 78 children of smokers and 62 controls had mental retardation (IQ less than 85), cerebral palsy, and/or epilepsy, either current or past. Neither the number of handicapped children nor the numbers of the various handicaps differed significantly with respect to maternal smoking, although the figures were higher among smokers. The children of the smokers had perinatal diseases and conditions known to cause long-term neurological sequelae significantly more often, but the actual number of such cases did not increase. Mortality up to the age of 14 years was statistically significant among children born to smokers.

Adolescent↗