Body silhouettes as a tool to reflect obesity in the past

<div><p>Life course data on obesity may enrich the quality of epidemiologic studies analysing health consequences of obesity. However, achieving such data may require substantial resources.</p><p>We investigated the use of body silhouettes in adults as a tool to reflect obesity in the past. We used large population-based samples to analyse to what extent self-reported body silhouettes correlated with the previously measured (9–23 years) body mass index (BMI) from both measured (European Community Respiratory Health Survey, N = 3 041) and self-reported (Respiratory Health In Northern Europe study, N = 3 410) height and weight. We calculated Spearman correlation between BMI and body silhouettes and ROC-curve analyses for identifying obesity (BMI ≥30) at ages 30 and 45 years. Spearman correlations between measured BMI age 30 (±2y) or 45 (±2y) and body silhouettes in women and men were between 0.62–0.66 and correlations for self-reported BMI were between 0.58–0.70. The area under the curve for identification of obesity at age 30 using body silhouettes <i>vs</i> previously measured BMI at age 30 (±2y) was 0.92 (95% CI 0.87, 0.97) and 0.85 (95% CI 0.75, 0.95) in women and men, respectively; for previously self-reported BMI, 0.92 (95% CI 0.88, 0.95) and 0.90 (95% CI 0.85, 0.96). Our study suggests that body silhouettes are a useful epidemiological tool, enabling retrospective differentiation of obesity and non-obesity in adult women and men.</p></div

Additional file 1: Table S1. of A follow-up study of airway symptoms and lung function among residents and workers 5.5 years after an oil tank explosion

Comparing characteristics, airway symptoms and lung function at baseline (2008/2009) between participants in follow-up and participants only at baseline (lost follow-up), exposed and non-exposed separately. (DOCX 25 kb

Risk factors for premenstrual asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

<p><b>Introduction:</b> Asthma in women can deteriorate in specific phases during the menstrual cycle. Deterioration in the premenstrual phase (increase in symptoms or deterioration in peak flow measurements) is known as premenstrual asthma. The etiology remains mostly unknown.</p> <p><b>Areas covered:</b> This paper systematically reviews risk factors for premenstrual asthma. Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS and secondary sources were searched. The selection criteria were met by 20 articles.</p> <p><b>Expert commentary:</b> Women with pre-menstrual asthma are older, have more severe asthma, a higher body-mass index, a longer duration of asthma and a greater likelihood of aspirin sensitive asthma. They more often have dysmenorrhea, premenstrual syndrome, shorter menstrual cycles, and longer menstrual bleeding. The role of hormone levels and systemic inflammation remains unclear.</p

Bland-Altman plot for birth weight showing the paired difference between mothers reported birth weight and birth weight in the MBRN plotted against the average of the paired birth weights.

<p>The mean difference is plotted as a dashed line. Systematic bias is indicated by the distance between the dashed line and y = 0. Limits of agreement is calculated as mean difference ± 1.96 times the standard deviation of the paired differences, corrected for clustering within mother’s.</p

Difference between mother’s recall of birth weight and birth weight in the MBRN in 1464 children with birth weight registered both in the questionnaire and the MBRN).

<p>Difference between mother’s recall of birth weight and birth weight in the MBRN in 1464 children with birth weight registered both in the questionnaire and the MBRN).</p

Flowchart for the definition of the study population of mothers in RHINE III.

<p>Flowchart for the definition of the study population of mothers in RHINE III.</p

Paired difference between mothers reported birth weight and birth weight in the MBRN plotted against the number of recall years for the mother in 1464 children with valid data in both data sources.

<p>Paired difference between mothers reported birth weight and birth weight in the MBRN plotted against the number of recall years for the mother in 1464 children with valid data in both data sources.</p

The validity of mother’s recall of birth weight in terms of Pearson correlation coefficients and paired t-test with stratification on mother’s level of education, number of children reported by the mother and birth cohort.

<p>The validity of mother’s recall of birth weight in terms of Pearson correlation coefficients and paired t-test with stratification on mother’s level of education, number of children reported by the mother and birth cohort.</p

Prevalence of AR in ECRHS I Screening by Centre

<p>Centres are sorted by increasing geographical latitudes from left to right.</p

World Map and European Map of Study Centres

<p>World Map and European Map of Study Centres</p