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At least 1,603 records · Page 89Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

[Oral hygiene habits among Brazilian adults in an urban area of southern Brazil].

AIMS: This study sought to analyse the oral hygiene habits (toothbrushing frequency, use of toothpick and dental floss), of a group of Brazilian adults, in relation to socio-demographic variables. The level of dental plaque and number of teeth with gums bleeding after probing were also investigated. METHODOLOGY: The sample was composed of 234 women and 237 men, from two socioeconomic status. The age range was from 24 to 44 years. Data was collected through structured interviews and clinical examinations. RESULTS: Daily toothbrushing was frequent. The median and mode were three, and it was associated with sex and socio-economic status. The majority of the sample population (67.5%), reported using dental floss and its use was associated with sex and socio-economic status. The use of toothpicks was frequent: 54.6% of the study group used them, and their use was also associated with sex, age and social class. The majority of the sample population had a moderate level of dental plaque (62.6%). The level of dental plaque was associated with social class. A quarter of the subjects did not have teeth with gums bleeding after probing. Bleeding gums were associated with age and social class. CONCLUSION: Oral hygiene habits were considered good for most of the participants of the study. However, improvements, are necessary among men and members of low social class.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Making sense of inequalities: a response to Peter Townsend.

This article addresses the continuing controversy generated by the Black Report on Inequalities in Health, published in Britain in 1980, in response to the defense offered by Professor Peter Townsend. The author argues that Townsend's riposte to the critics of the Black Report is flawed in at least two respects. First, Townsend fails to acknowledge that the Black Report was as much an exercise in policy advocacy as in scholarly analysis, making rather large assumptions about the links in the reasoning leading to its recommendations for a massive program of income redistribution. Second, Townsend's defense of Black's use of social class as its main tool for analyzing health inequalities dismisses too easily much of the evidence; for example, the effects of social mobility and the historical dimension. Moreover, by concentrating on social class, a heterogeneous category, analysis may ignore what is most relevant for policy-making: i.e., specific factors associated with specific forms of deprivation, located within social classes or particular geographical communities. It would therefore be more constructive if scholars were to accept and research this complexity, rather than defending the Black Report as though it were a definitive (not to say sacred) text.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

General and specific self-esteem in late adolescent students: race x gender x SES effects.

This study assessed the effects of gender, race, and social class on the general and area-specific self-esteem of high school students. One hundred and ninety-five high school students served as subjects in a 2 (gender: male, female) X 2 (race: black, white) X 3 (social class: low, middle and high) factorial design. The Rosenberg General Self-Esteem, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept, and the Brookover Self-Concept of Ability and School Achievement scales were the measures of either general or specific self-esteem. Females, whites, and lower social class adolescents were consistently lower in their self-esteem scores than were males, blacks, and upper social class teenagers, respectively. White females were found to be lower in general and happiness self-esteem than all other gender by race subgroups. High SES white students were lower on the happiness and behavior self-esteem measures than black students and white middle-class students. Black males and white females were less confident in their school ability than were black females and white males.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Study of non-participation in the breast cancer screening program in the city of Valencia (Spain)].

AIM: To determine the reasons for non-participation of women in a breast cancer screening program. METHODS: We performed an observational, cross-sectional study in women who were invited to participate in the breast cancer screening program in the city of Valencia and who failed to attend. The women were interviewed in their homes through a questionnaire consisting of 25 questions grouped as follows: knowledge of the program, reasons for nonparticipation, attitudes or beliefs and characteristics of the interviewees (socioeconomic and educational variables and age). A descriptive analysis was performed. Differences in the characteristics of women were evaluated through bivariate analysis. Multivariate analysis was performed through logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 783 addresses were used, 411 questionnaires were completed and 361 were analyzed. The 50 questionnaires used in the pilot study were excluded because, as a consequence of this study, the questionnaire had been modified. Most of the women (93.4%) (CI: 90.3-95.7) remembered having an appointment. The main reason for not attending was being screened in another health service in 48.8% (CI: 43.6-53.9), followed by various personal reasons in 16.1% (CI: 12.3-19.9) and inability to keep the appointment at the specified time in 15.5% (CI: 11.8-19.2). Comparison of women in the middle and upper social classes with those in the lower classes revealed important differences. Middle and upper class women had a higher probability of knowing about the program and of being on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and the most frequent reason for non-attendance was attendance at another program run by another health service. In lower class women the reasons for non-attendance were fear, not believing the program to be important to health and inability to keep the appointment at the specified time. In the multivariate analysis, the variables that entered the model were HRT, social class and education. Thus, middle or upper class women undergoing HRT and with secondary or higher education had a higher probability of being screened. CONCLUSIONS: The profile of non-participating women belongs on the one hand to those in the middle or upper social classes, undergoing HRT and being screened by other health services and, on the other, to a group of women of low social class, whose reason for non-participation is fear and timetable difficulties.

Aged↗
PubMed1978

Some determinants of temporal experience in the retired and its correlates.

The effects of physical health status, attitude toward retirement, and social class on temporal experience were studied in 70 male Ss, aged 52--74. A semistructured interview was utilized, and a content analysis by independent raters was performed on the resulting interview material. In general, it was found that chronic illness had a differential effect on experience, depending upon social class, for certain temporal variables. Among the healthy retirees it was also found that willingness to retire interacted with social class, and that blue collar workers who had resisted retirement resembled the chronically ill in terms of affect and temporal experience. The possibility for adjustment in retirement was linked to variations in temporal experience, and implications were drawn for preretirement intervention with specific social class target populations. Finally, psychological and behavioral consequences of variations in temporal experience were discussed, and the possibility of developing methods of altering temporal experience as a means of helping the elderly to adjust to life transitions was explored.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Survey of population coverage in cervical cancer screening in the Oxford region.

A postal survey of a random sample of 3307 women aged 18-64 years living in the Oxford region (the Oxford healthy life survey) revealed age and social class differences in the proportion of women reporting an up-to-date cervical smear test. Although 86% of women in the 25-34 years age group reported a test in -the previous five years, the proportion dropped to 53% among the 55-64 year olds. Women in social classes 4 and 5 were significantly less likely to report a recent smear test (P<0.01) than women in higher social classes. An audit of the general practice notes of 176 of the respondents suggested that these self-reported results are likely to be reasonably accurate.A reduction in the number of deaths from cervical cancer will largely depend on the efforts of primary health care teams to screen women who are at relatively high risk of developing the disease, namely older women and those of lower social class.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Social circumstances and education: life course origins of social inequalities in metabolic risk in a prospective national birth cohort.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the relative importance of education and childhood and adult social class in the risk of metabolic syndrome. METHODS: We conducted a prospective birth cohort study of 1311 men and 1318 women aged 53 years in 1999, when metabolic syndrome components were measured. Logistic regression analyses were used to calculate relative index of inequality estimates. RESULTS: Relative to men and women at the highest education levels, men (odds ratio [OR]=2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.2, 3.2) and women (OR=2.7; 95% CI=1.5, 4.6) with the least education were at twice the risk or more of having the metabolic syndrome. Adjustment for childhood and adult social class strengthened this result among men and weakened it among women. Childhood social class was independently associated with the metabolic syndrome in women (OR=2.0; 95% CI=1.1, 3.6) but not in men (OR=1.1; 95% CI= 0.7, 1.8). Associations between adult social class and the metabolic syndrome or its components were largely accounted for by childhood socioeconomic measures. CONCLUSIONS: Educational differences should be considered in the design of interventions aimed at reducing the burden of the metabolic syndrome in socially disadvantaged groups.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1984

Changes in the reported prevalence of childhood eczema since the 1939-45 war.

Rates of reported eczema during early childhood were studied in 3 national cohorts of children born in 1946, 1958, and 1970. Overall rates rose from 5.1% in children born in 1946, to 7.3% in those born in 1958, to 12.2% in the 1970 cohort. In the 1958 and 1970 cohorts there was a positive association between eczema and breastfeeding. This relationship remained significant after allowing for parental history of allergy and socioeconomic status. Social classes I and II children born in 1946 were less likely to be reported as having eczema, compared with children from lower social classes, whereas children born into higher social classes in 1958 and 1970 had higher rates. These findings may reflect secular changes in the diagnosis of eczema or may represent a real increase in the disorder. The positive association with breastfeeding in the more recent cohorts suggests a new environmental agent may be crossing in breast-milk. The agent(s) may well be in other infant foods, since the rate of reported eczema in non-breastfed children rose from 5.7% in the 1946 and 1958 cohorts to 11.1% of children born in 1970.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Importance of childhood socioeconomic status on the current prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Helicobacter pylori infection is commoner in black and Hispanic people compared with age matched white people. H pylori status was evaluated using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for anti-H pylori IgG in 150 healthy black and Hispanic people aged between 19 and 49 years. All were employed and had completed high school at least. Socioeconomic status during childhood was estimated from the parents' education and occupation(s) using a modified Hollingshead index and family income. Five social classes were defined (class I = lowest, V = highest). The H pylori prevalence was inversely related to the social class during childhood. It was 85% for class I, 52% for combined classes II and III, and 11% for classes IV and V combined. The inverse correlation remained after adjustments were made for the present social class and age. H pylori infection was also related to crowded living conditions (odds ratio 4.5: 95% confidence interval 3.3, 5.7) for those who had had the most crowded living conditions during childhood). The increased prevalence of H pylori in black and Hispanic people seems to be related to low socioeconomic status in childhood. These data are also consistent with the suggestion that childhood is a period of major risk for H pylori infection.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Orthodontic treatment need and demand in a group of Nigerian adults: a teaching hospital-based study.

Adults may be less influenced by peer perceptions and are, generally, more stable in their concerns about appearance compared to adolescents. This study aimed at assessing the level of objective orthodontic treatment need and demand for such care among the Nigerian adults in a referral centre (University College Hospital, Ibadan) as well as their social class. The Dental Aesthetic Index was used to assess the objective orthodontic treatment need while the social class of the subjects was according to the Registrar General's social class. During the study period (January 2001-September 2002), 49 adults aged 20-55 years with mean age of 25+ 6.3 (SD) years accounting for 27.5% of all orthodontic patients were seen. Equal proportions of the subjects had normal or minor malocclusions needing no treatment or slight treatment need and very severe or handicapping malocclusions with treatment considered mandatory (32.6% each). Next were severe malocclusions with treatment highly desirable accounting for 20.4%, followed by definite malocclusions with treatment elective (14.3%). Majority (71.4%) of the subjects was of the middle class families.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Children hospitalized with child abuse and neglect: a case-control study.

A case-control study of 45 hospitalized abused children was conducted to reassess the risk factors for child abuse when confounding by social class was minimized. Cases were matched for age, sex, family structure, and social class with children admitted to hospital for an acute illness. Abused children were more likely to have younger parents, fewer siblings, and to have been separated from their mothers during the first year of life. Their parents were more likely to have been abused as children and to have a poor relationship with the child's other parent. The families of abused children had encountered more stressful life events in the preceding 12 months. Other previously recognized "risk factors" were not shown to have a statistically significant association with child abuse. Because child abuse is more prevalent in lower socioeconomic families, the association with many of these factors has been accepted as implying a causal relationship. Matching procedures which attempted to eliminate confounding by social class and family structure cast doubts on some previously held beliefs about the risk factors for child abuse.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Temper tantrums. Prevalence and etiology in a non-referral outpatient setting.

Of a total of 800 children (aged 3-12 years) attending a pediatric outpatient department, 182 (22.8%) were found to be having temper tantrums (mean age, 4.7 years). Temper tantrums were found to be most common at 3-5 years (75.3%), less common at 6-8 years (20.8%), and least common at 9-12 years (3.9%). Children aged 3-5 years were more likely to be of a lower social class (p less than 0.01), whereas in other age groups (6-8 years and 9-12 years) children were more likely to be of an upper social class. Boys dominated the study significantly: the ratio of boys to girls was 3.1:1. Boys having temper tantrums were more likely to be of an upper social class (p less than 0.001) compared with girls, who tended to be of a lower social class (p less than .01). Children showed a higher incidence of history of postnatal trauma and seizure disorder compared with the control group (p less than 0.05). Parental overprotection and marital discord were found to be stress factors in a significantly higher number of boys than girls (p less than 0.01); parental negligence was a significant stress factor for girls (p less than 0.01). Associated behavioral problems, such as thumb sucking, enuresis, tics, head banging, sleep disturbances, and hyperkinesis were found to be significantly higher among children with tantrums.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Agoraphobics and social phobics: differences in background factors, syndrome profiles and therapeutic response.

Seventy-three agoraphobic and 31 social phobic women, all rated unsuitable for insight-oriented psychotherapy, were compared regarding family and personal history, intelligence, personality and factors pertaining to the disorder. The same patients, with 11 men included in the social phobic group, were also compared regarding response to four randomly assigned types of treatment given over a 3 month period, with a 9 months' follow-up. The following differences were revealed: 1) Social phobias were associated with a higher social class of the parental home, higher education, higher scores on verbal intelligence, and a higher social class of the patient. 2) Social phobics scored higher on the personality factor, aggressive non-conformance, otherwise there were no differences in the personality factor. 3) Agoraphobias were associated with mother working outside home during the patient's childhood, neurotic symptoms in childhood, and current economic difficulties. Agoraphobics more often gave experience of death as a cause of the disorder. 4) Social phobias started at an earlier age. 5) Target phobia and the global rating were of equal severity in the two syndromes, but the agoraphobics had higher ratings on free anxiety and depersonalization. 6) Social phobics responded better to prolonged exposure in vivo, while agoraphobics responded better to supportive therapy of dynamic type, or to a simple basal therapy. Social phobics more often wanted the therapists to give advice and guidance.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Relative contribution of early life and adult socioeconomic factors to adult morbidity in the Whitehall II study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the relative contribution of adult compared with early life socioeconomic status as predictors of morbidity attributable to coronary heart disease (CHD), chronic bronchitis and depression in the Whitehall II study of British civil servants. DESIGN: Prospective observational study with mean 5.3 years (range 3.7-7.6) follow up. SETTING: 20 civil service departments originally located in London. PARTICIPANTS: 6895 male and 3413 female office-based civil servants aged 35-55 years at baseline. OUTCOME MEASURES: New cases at follow up of CHD, chronic bronchitis and depression defined using validated questionnaires. MAIN RESULTS: Employment grade was inversely associated with CHD, chronic bronchitis and depression in men (odds ratio per unit decrease in grade 1.30, 1.44 and 1.20 respectively). Employment grade was strongly related to father's social class. Chronic bronchitis, in women, and depression, in men, were more common among those with fathers of higher social class. When mutual adjustment was made for father's social class, grade at entry to the civil service and current grade, the strongest effects on adult morbidity were found for current grade. Among participants in whom neither parent had died < or =70 years of age the inverse association with adult SES was maintained. CONCLUSIONS: Adult socioeconomic status was a more important predictor of morbidity attributable to coronary disease, chronic bronchitis and depression than measures of social status earlier in life. In this population, the importance of social circumstances early in life may be in the way they influence employment and social position and thus exposures in adult life.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Early life predictors of childhood intelligence: evidence from the Aberdeen children of the 1950s study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the early life predictors of childhood intelligence. DESIGN: Cohort study of 10 424 children who were born in Aberdeen (Scotland) between 1950 and 1956. RESULTS: Social class of father around the time of birth, gravidity, maternal age, maternal physical condition, whether the child was born outside of marriage, prematurity, intrauterine growth, and childhood height were all independently associated with childhood intelligence at ages 7, 9, and 11. The effect of social class at birth was particularly pronounced, with a graded linear association across the distribution even with adjustment for all other covariates (p<0.001 for linear trend). Those from the lowest social class (V) had intelligence scores that were on average 0.9-1.0 of a standard deviation lower than those from the higher groups (I and II) at each of the three ages of intelligence testing. Collectively, the early life predictors that were examined explained 16% of the variation in intelligence at each age. CONCLUSIONS: Father's social class around the time of birth was an important predictor of childhood intelligence, even after adjustment for maternal characteristics and perinatal and childhood factors. Studies of the association of childhood intelligence with future adult disease need to ensure that the association is not fully explained by socioeconomic position.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Introduction to the epidemiological study of five years of extra-hospital psychosocial practice at Ixelles].

This work is aimed at encompassing five years (1969-1973) of extra-hospital psychosocial activity performed by a multidisciplinary team of the sector of the population of Ixelles (85.000 inhabitants). Apart from a population study, we have focused on all consultants (676 patients) in a statistical frame. We have defined three directions: 1. Obtaining a complete picture of the consulting population according to epidemiological and clinical variables. 2. The control in our daily practice of three classical goals which underline the work in sector (permanence -- multidisciplinary team work -- priority to psychotics). 3. The attempt to verify some common assertions in psychiatry, general and social: relationship between season and pathology, between obligation to consults (for the patient) and social class, between type of pathology and social class. Our results for the two last issues differ from those of Hollingshead and Redlich.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cardiovascular risk factors and hearing loss. A study of 1,000 fifty-year-old men.

The hypothesis that cardiovascular risk factors might be of importance in the development of sensori-neural hearing loss was tested in a material of 1000 fifty-year-old men. No significant correlations were found. The present study confirmed the well-known observation that the left ear usually is poorer than the right. Hearing loss in the right ear was found to be related to the smoking habits in the groups with no history of noise exposure. The explanation for this is discussed. Hearing loss was more common in social class 3 than in the other social classes. This difference was principally referable to noise exposure but also to conductive hearing loss. A prospective study of this material will further analyze the question concerning a possible relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and hearing loss.

Audiometry↗
PubMed1984

Surgery for glue ear--a modern epidemic.

Analysis of routine hospital statistics confirms anecdotal reports of an epidemic of surgery for glue ear. The surgical rate rose by 74% in Oxford Region between 1975 and 1981. The peak ages for surgery are 5-7 years, and the rates are higher in boys than in girls (1.4:1.00). The relative risk is high in social class I (1.16) and low in social class V (0.61). Although the prevalence of glue ear is hard to ascertain, the current surgical epidemic probably reflects an increase in apparent prevalence rather than a real increase in morbidity.

Adenoidectomy↗