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Biomedical subjects

O HORWITZ

Publications and source records attributed to O HORWITZ.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1964

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL BASIS OF TUBERCULOSIS ERADICATION. 2. DYNAMICS OF TUBERCULOSIS MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY.

In most countries there have been signs in recent years of an accelerated decline in tuberculosis, but only the most superficial knowledge exists of what underlies the remarkable changes. It is therefore imperative to document the changing picture of tuberculosis by means of parameters that are not only descriptive but will also serve as guidelines for the development of methods to eradicate the disease.The authors describe the present system of tuberculosis reporting and control in Denmark, where the requisite conditions for obtaining meaningful statistics are, to a large extent, fulfilled, discussing its potentialities for depicting the forces behind the recent changes and pointing out its inherent deficiencies.The advantages of the Danish system, in which rates for the prevalence and incidence of respiratory tuberculosis are broken down into those for new cases and those for relapses, are stressed, as is the significance of the recently introduced practice of reporting cures and thus obtaining cure rates on a nation-wide scale.As an indicator of the lethal effect of tuberculosis in a country, the mortality rate suffers from several limitations, which will play an increasingly important role as the downward trend in tuberculosis continues. The authors suggest that a more objective measure than the specific mortality rate would be the so-called "lethality index" - an index based on all deaths occurring among persons with active tuberculosis, irrespective of whether they were attributed directly to the disease.

Communicable Disease Control↗
PubMed1961

A follow-up study of tuberculosis incidence and general mortality in various occupational-social groups of the Danish population.

The aim of this study (which was prospective, as opposed to retrospective) was to determine, for the tuberculosis case-finding programme in Denmark, whether grouping the population in eight broad occupational-social classes would reveal groups with a high tuberculosis incidence. The procedure was to examine the incidence of respiratory tuberculosis in the various groups during a 6-year follow-up period. The study comprises the total male population outside the metropolitan area and aged 15-34 years in 1950-52.The incidence of respiratory tuberculosis was found to be lower among persons in agriculture than in the other groups. In other occupations and among persons not gainfully occupied or with occupation not stated, the rates were rather similar. Further break-down among those gainfully employed revealed, at most, only minor differences between wage-earners and self-employed persons. The current occupational-social classification in use in Denmark was thus of little help in pin-pointing high-risk groups.The general mortality rates were the same in agriculture and in other occupations, and in these groups the rates were much lower than among those not gainfully employed or with occupation not stated. Within the rural population a higher mortality was observed among wage-earners than among the self-employed.

Adult↗
PubMed1960

Comparison between attenders and non-attenders at the Danish mass tuberculosis campaign, 1950-52. Tuberculosis morbidity and general mortality in two groups during the first four years of follow-up.

A previous study by the Danish Tuberculosis Index reported the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis among attenders at the Danish mass campaign in 1950-52 during the first four years after the campaign. Since it is important to know whether the attenders can be regarded as representative of the general population, from the point of view of case-finding surveys after mass campaigns, a further study was undertaken in which the attenders at the campaign were compared with the persons who were invited to attend, but failed to do so.The first part of this study presents a comparison between attenders and non-attenders at the time of the mass campaign. Analysis according to sex, age, residence, occupation and previous vaccination with BCG showed a striking uniformity between attenders and non-attenders.The second part compares the tuberculosis morbidity and general mortality in the two groups after the mass campaign. The incidence of tuberculosis in a follow-up period of four years was found to be lower among the attenders. This is largely due to the case-finding during the mass campaign and cannot be regarded as indicating that the non-attenders form a "high risk" group. During the follow-up period, the general mortality was also higher among the non-attenders.

Follow-Up Studies↗