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M Kornitzer

Publications and source records attributed to M Kornitzer.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

Physical activity, physical fitness and cardiovascular diseases: design of a prospective epidemiologic study.

From November 1976 to September 1978, a total of 3,179 active men, 40-55 years old, were screened for established or possible risk factors. Standard questionnaires were administered to assess psycho-social behavior and physical activity on and off the job. Physical fitness was determined by means of a graded sub-maximal exercise test. Information on coronary heart disease incidence will be collected over a 6-year period. The main objective of the study is to establish prospectively if physical activity and/or physical capacity are independent risk factors. Intercorrelations between fitness, physical activity and other measured variables will bae analyzed. Doppler ultrasound and 24-hour ECG recording for detecting peripheral vascular disease and rhythm disturbances have also been used; their value and role in screening for cardiovascular disease is further discussed.

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Physical activity and physical fitness levels of Belgian males aged 40-55 years.

Physical activity during leisure time and on the job have been measured with standardized interview techniques in 1,513 normal men, aged 40-55 years, who were regularly employed in different industries. Physical fitness was simultaneously estimated by measuring the work load at which a heart rate of 150 bpm was reached on a standardized exercise test. The median energy expenditure from leisure time activities above the basal metabolic rate was 195 kcal/day; 19% of these activities were classified as heavy, 37% as moderate and 43% as light intensity. The median energy expenditure from job physical activity was 1,676 kcal/day including basal metabolic rate. The median physical fitness level was 125 W. The leisure time activity score was significantly related to physical fitness through the light and the heavy intensity subscores. Independently, job physical activity was also significantly related to physical fitness. However, both activity scores accounted for only 2% of the variance in physical fitness. The data illustrate an overall low energy expenditure profile of middle-aged normal men and a low order relationship between physical activity pattern and physical fitness.

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[The Belgian Heart Disease Prevention Project (author's transl)].

The Belgian Heart Disease Prevention Project is a controlled multifactorial preventive trial. It is basal on the well-documented epidemiologic notion of major coronary risk-factors: hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, smoking and obesity. This Project has been executed in industries, in males aged 40-59 yrs at the base-line screening. It is part of the WHO European Collaborative Trial including the United-Kingdom, Italy, Poland and Spain. This trial should verify a double work-hypothesis: 1 degree it is possible to modify significantly the coronary risk profile in middle-aged males through a comprehensive intervention program, 2 degrees this modification should, in turn, significantly reduce total mortality as compared to a control group. The authors discuss the pros and cons of a preventive trial in industry and review the numerous problems raised by the difficulties in modifying well-established life-styles as well as those related to the follow-up morbidity and mortality. Final screening took place in 1979-80 and results regarding incidence should be available by 1981.

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Coronary heart disease and job stress in two cohorts of bank clerks.

Two cohorts of Belgian bank clerks were observed during 10 years, with follow-up examinations at 5 and 10 years. Cohort I consisted of 447 males, aged 40-59, free of coronary heart disease at entry. They belong to a private bank whereas the 768 males of cohort II work in semipublic savings bank. 5 and 10 years' incidence of new "hard' coronary events (sudden deaths, myocardial infarction fatal or nonfatal) were significantly higher for cohort I as compared to cohort II. These differences are not explained through the major coronary risk factors introduced in a multiple logistic function, as expected hard events in cohort I were 50% higher than predicted by the MLF computed for cohort II.

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The Belgian heart disease prevention project. Modification of the coronary risk profile in an industrial population.

The Belgian Heart Disease Prevention Project is a controlled, multifactorial prevention trial involving 19,390 males aged 40-59 years employed by 30 Belgian industries. These industries were paired and randomized into a control or intervention unit. In each intervention factory, the subjects from the two highest deciles of a coronary risk-score distribution curve were given individual advice twice a year. A health education campaign was also organized in each intervention factory. In the control group, 10% of randomly chosen subjects had the same baseline examination as the whole of the intervention group. After 2 years, high-risk subjects and random samples of the control and intervention group were compared regarding the coronary risk profile by means of a multiple logistic function (MLF). In the intervention high-risk group, the MLF showed a decrease of 20%, and in the control group there was an increment of 12.5% (p less than 0.001). Comparing the random samples an increment of 25% was found in the control group vs a drop of 2.26 in the intervention group (p less than 0.001). The coronary risk profile can be altered in a middle-aged male working population through mass media health education supplemented by face-to-face counseling in high-risk subjects.

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Regional differences in risk factor distributions, food habits and coronary heart disease mortality and morbidity in Belgium.

Belgium can be divided in 4 major geographical areas: two Dutch speaking areas in the north (Campine and Flanders), a French speaking area in the south (Wallonia) and the Brussels area in between. Significant differences in mean serum cholesterol levels were observed with the lowest level in Campine, intermediate in Flanders and Brussels, and the highest level in Wallonia. Similar differences were observed in the prevalence of CHD and mortality from CHD is also higher in the French speaking part of the country. A survey of food habits since 1959 shows a higher butter and lower soft margarine consumption in the south. However, differences in smoking habits and personality traits also exist.

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Intermittent claudication--epidemiology and natural history.

Epidemiological information on the prevalence, incidence and natural history of intermittent claudication and peripheral vascular disease is limited, partially by the limitation of techniques of their study. The available data from the literature are review and supplemented by results from an on-going survey the ankle blood pressure measurement with Doppler ultrasound.

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Two methods of assessing the type A coronary-prone behavior pattern in Belgium.

Two methods developed in U.S.A. for measuring the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern--the Structured Interview and the self-administered Activity Survey, were translated into French and Flemish and utilized in a large preventive cardiology study in Belgium. The distribution of behavior-type judgments made by trained interviewers were compared to similar data from North America and found to be similarly symmetrical but clustering more toward central categories in Belgium. The Activity Survey, when scored by the scoring key developed in California, yielded averages for this Belgian group which appeared to be more in the Type B direction than the California sample, particularly in terms of Job-Involvement and tendencies toward haste and impatience. The Activity Survey scales and Structured Interview judgments showed a strong correspondence, with a 70% agreement observed between the Interview and Type A scores. This comparability between findings in Belgium and U.S.A. suggests that the concept of the Type A behavior pattern has sufficient cross-cultural validity to permit the derivation of reliable measurements and to make feasible the determination of whether Type A behavior is a risk factor for coronary disease internationally.

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