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Growth-associated traits in parental and F1 populations of chickens under different feeding programs. 4. Growth and thyroid hormones.

Plasma levels of growth hormone (GH), triiodotyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) were compared at 25 and 61 days of age in parental lines and F1 crosses between parental lines under ad libitum and alternate day feeding. Parental lines included White Rocks selected for high and low body weight and a White Leghorn population. Differences among populations for hormone levels were more pronounced at 61 than at 25 d of age. Growth hormone decreased and T4 increased with age in all populations except the line selected for low body weight, whereas the pattern for T3 varied with genetic stock. On days when chicks were not fed, plasma GH and T4 increased and T3 decreased. On days of feeding, GH and T4 returned to the level of chicks fed ad libitum while T3 was either identical to or higher than that for the ad libitum chicks. Population by feeding regimen interactions were not significant at either age for any of the hormones measured showing that responses to the feeding regimens were similar for all populations.

Aging↗

Diagnostic testing for coronary artery disease in a large population.

Extensive public health programs are often proposed without a full appreciation of their effects on the target population. There is often a problem of confusing medical care that may be of benefit to an individual with care that may be of benefit to a population: care that may be highly beneficial for a selected patient may be substantially less effective for an unselected population. Exposing a large, asymptomatic population to diagnostic screening for coronary artery disease has cost and risk ramifications far beyond those of discovering people who might benefit from treatment of previously unsuspected disease. A program to screen 20 million people, and treat the most severely affected with coronary artery bypass graft, would cost nearly +9.2 billion. About +21,000 is spent to find each person with disease, while the cost is more than +169,000 for each person surviving surgical therapy. The cost per year of life extended is over +43,000. In excess of 8,000 persons have major complications and nearly 2,000 die from diagnostic testing and therapy. About half of major complications and deaths occur in persons without disease. This model integrating epidemiologic, economic, and decision analytic methods is presented to illustrate the potential use of myriad techniques in addressing population-based medical care and policy options; it does not provide the definitive answer, however, to the complex problem.

Adult↗

Cost-efficient vision screening for astigmatism in native american preschool children.

PURPOSE: To design and test a cost-efficient, community-based vision screening program for a population of Native American preschool children in which there is a high prevalence of astigmatism. METHODS: Based on analysis of vision screening and eye examination data from a preschool population with a 33% prevalence of astigmatism, comparative costs to conduct a 1000-child screening program with a target sensitivity of 90% were estimated for photoscreening, noncycloplegic autorefraction, autokeratometry, and Lea symbols distance visual acuity testing. Results of the cost analysis and examination of sensitivity and specificity data from the preschool population led to development of a hybrid screening program of autokeratometry and visual acuity screening with referral thresholds of 2.25 D of corneal astigmatism or inability to read a 20/63 Lea symbols line on two separate attempts. The screening program was prospectively implemented in a community-based screening of a similar cohort of 167 children, and its efficiency was evaluated by comparison to results of cycloplegic refraction. RESULTS: The community-based screening showed 96.8% sensitivity and 79.2% specificity for detecting the presence of refractive astigmatism of 1.50 D or more. CONCLUSIONS: Referring children who have at least 2.25 D of corneal astigmatism or acuity worse than 20/63 on two attempts, provides the high sensitivity and specificity associated with automated keratometry while maintaining an acuity component that can detect other causes of reduced acuity in the absence of astigmatism.

Astigmatism↗

An assessment of the influence of clinical breast examination reports on the interpretation of mammograms in a breast screening program. Ontario Breast Screening Program Radiologists Research Group.

The population-based Ontario Breast Screening Program (OBSP) provides two-yearly screening by both nurse examiner clinical breast examination (CBE) and two-view mammography to women aged 50 to 69. CBE alone accounts for about 5% of cancer detection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether CBE information affects radiologists' interpretation of mammography. Interpretation was defined by 1) radiologists' referral rates for diagnostic evaluation and 2) radiologists' accuracy in distinguishing cancer from non-cancer on mammograms. Mammograms were obtained from women randomly selected from those screened in the OBSP between 1990 and 1992. Selection was stratified by whether or not the nurse examiner had independently referred for diagnostic evaluation. Additional women diagnosed with breast cancer were selected to increase the precision of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Each participating OBSP radiologist read a set of mammograms twice, approximately three weeks apart. The first reading was based on mammograms alone. At the second reading, the CBE report was included on the reporting form. Among 620 women referred by the nurse, radiologist referral rate increased from 37.7% to 40.8% (p = 0.079) when CBE information was available. Among the 637 not referred by the nurse, radiologist referral rate decreased from 29.8% to 25.6% (p = 0.005). There was little effect on the sensitivity and specificity of radiologist referral and the areas under the two ROC curves (with and without CBE information) were not significantly different (p = 0.571). Although there was some effect of CBE information on radiologists' pattern of referral, there was no effect on accuracy of cancer detection.

Breast Neoplasms↗

Epidemiologic support to state and local sexually transmitted disease control programs. Perceived need and availability. The Field Epidemiology Network for STDs (FENS).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) comprise the majority of national infectious disease morbidity reported, yet the number of epidemiologists working in state and local STD programs is estimated to be small. Even less is known about the training and activities of those epidemiologists. GOALS: To determine the number, training, and affiliation of epidemiologists working with STD programs and the level of satisfaction with epidemiologic support available. STUDY DESIGN: Survey of 65 program managers in state and local health departments. RESULTS: Program managers named 146 people working on epidemiologic activities, and 84 of those people were classified as "epidemiologist" by the criteria we applied. The median number of full-time equivalent (FTE) epidemiologists working in or with STD programs was 0.5; one quarter of all STD program had no epidemiologists. There was a significant association between number of FTE epidemiologist and population, with most programs with more than 0.5 epidemiologists located in areas with at least 1,000,000 population. State Epidemiologists do not provide technical support to most state STD programs. Almost half (45%) of all program managers indicated that they have inadequate epidemiologic support for routine program activities. CONCLUSIONS: The current level of epidemiologic support available to most STD programs is inadequate to perform surveillance and data analyses, interpret data to develop program objectives, and perform program evaluation. An essential next step is the delineation of a set of critical, analytic STD field epidemiology functions to define appropriate standards against which epidemiologic capacity can be more precisely measured.

Epidemiology↗

Breast-feeding promotion in a diarrhoea programme in rural communities.

Breast-feeding promotion is an important intervention for the control of infant diarrhoea. This study assesses the impact of a breast-feeding counselling programme on the prevalence of exclusive breast feeding in rural communities in Nigeria. Mothers attending primary care facilities because their infants had acute diarrhoea were randomised into two groups. The study group (n = 82) received individual, focused breast-feeding counselling, while the controls (n = 79) had routine advice for diarrhoea. Both groups were monitored and followed with home visits to determine infant-feeding practices. The results showed marked increases in exclusive breast-feeding prevalence for the intervention group at day 7 (49% vs. 6% control; p < 0.0001) and day 21 (46% vs. 8%; p < 0.0001). Moreover, diarrhoea re-occurrence at day 21 was less in the intervention group (12%) than controls (18%). It is concluded that focused breast-feeding counselling can increase exclusive breast feeding and reduce the prevalence of diarrhoea in rural communities.

Adolescent↗

[Support program for the implementation of the Bamako initiative: analysis of the creation of eight health districts, Gnagna province].

The implementation of the Bamako initiative is a central pillar of the health policy of Burkina Faso. The NGO, ASI, working with the health authorities, has set up a program involving the creation of eight health districts in the province of Gnagna. The program covers a population of 115,000 inhabitants in 134 villages and was progressively established between 1994 and 1997. The health districts were set up in phases (2 in the first year and 3 in each of the following two years). The method used to select the members of the village management committees is one of the key aspects of the program. It required a large amount of effort to increase the awareness of villages, and much activity because each committee is elected by the various villages of the district. The training of the managers of these committees and of the managers of the pharmaceutical warehouses in each district is also a key element. In our initial assessment, we noted balance in the accounting of the pharmaceutical warehouses of each district, adhesion of the population to the program, dynamics in the management committees and, above all, the autonomy of the committees. The first results in terms of health are very fragmentary and difficult to interpret because the program has been running for such a short time. We considered the long-term elements of the program, the necessity to set up a system for monitoring activities and the quality of care. An initial assessment showed a clear improvement in the availability of drugs in the 8 districts. Health promotion activities have not yet been developed in these districts. This type of program requires the follow up and support of the management committees, and will be the object of the second phase, begun in 1998.

Burkina Faso↗

The readiness of health profession students to comply with a hypothetical program of forced migration of a minority population.

The readiness of Jewish Israeli medical, psychology, and social work students to cooperate in a hypothetical government program involving expulsion of Arabs from Israel was explored via research scenarios that pointedly used terms reminiscent of Holocaust events. Strong moral sensitivity was expected on the part of the study subjects as both Jewish Israelis and vocationally committed to human welfare. The authors argue that the readiness of as many as one-third of the sample to "follow orders" is a disturbing sign, calling for greater vigilance in defense of human rights and values.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

The desirability of involving adolescents in sex education planning.

In summary, several points which indicate the desirability of involving adolescents in sex education planning need to be reiterated. First, without adolescent representation, adults tend to lack an awareness of teenagers' needs for sex information services. The negative consequences of not serving these needs are well-documented. A second important consideration is that without adolescent input there is less chance the sex education programs will be tailored to fit the target population. The data from the Detroit program are useful for making people aware of teenagers' needs for sex education. These data can form a basis for beginning program planning, but they should be strengthened with input from the specific target population the program is intended to serve. And third, getting adolescent health consumers involved in program planning and operation by giving them meaningful responsibility is important to their growth and development. It is hoped increased representation of teenagers in the planning process will improve the quality of sex education programs available to them to the point where the current situation will be reversed so that the majority of sexually active teenagers will not have engaged in intercourse without using contraception because of inaccurate knowledge or difficulty in obtaining birth control. Adolescents must be regarded as people with important things to say and must be included in sex information programs not just as passive receivers, but as active partners in policy formulation and operation.

Adolescent↗

Large-scale admixture mapping in the All of Us Research Program improves the characterization of cross-population phenotypic differences.

Admixed individuals have largely been understudied in medical research due to their complex genetic ancestries. However, the consideration of admixture can help identify ancestry-enriched genetic associations, delineating some of the genetic underpinnings of cross-population phenotypic variation. To this end, we performed local ancestry inference within the All of Us Research Program to identify individuals with recent admixture between African (AFR) and European (EUR) populations (N=48,921). We identified evidence of local AFR ancestry enrichment at the HLA locus, suggestive of putative selection since admixture. Furthermore, we performed the largest admixture mapping (ADM) efforts in AFR-EUR Admixed individuals for 22 traits, identifying 71 associations between inferred local AFR ancestries and a trait. Variants from published GWAS could only account for 18 (25%) of the ADM associations, highlighting novel loci where ancestral haplotypes explained some phenotypic variation. Previous studies likely have not identified these loci due to the low availability of high-powered GWAS in populations genetically similar to AFR. One such loci was 9q21.33, associated with 1.4-fold risk of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) for carriers of inferred local AFR ancestries at the region. This locus contains the gene SLC28A3, which has previously been linked to kidney function but has never been associated with cross-population ESKD prevalence differences. Together, our results expand upon the existing literature on phenotypic differences between populations, highlighting loci where genetic ancestries play a critical role in the genetic architecture of disease.

Journal Article↗