Shiftwork in the Norwegian petroleum industry: overcoming difficulties with family and social life – a cross sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Continuous shift schedules are required in the petroleum industry because of its dependency on uninterrupted production. Although shiftwork affects health, less is known about its effects on social and domestic life.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Consequently, we studied these relationships in a sample of 1697 (response rate 55.9%) petroleum workers who worked onshore and offshore for a Norwegian oil and gas company. We also examined the roles of coping strategies and locus of control for handling self-reported problems with social and domestic life. A questionnaire containing scales from the Standard Shiftwork Index and Shiftwork Locus of Control was answered electronically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In general, only a few participants reported that their shift schedule affected their social and domestic/family life, and several participants had enough time to spend by themselves and with their partner, close family, friends, and children. Despite this general positive trend, differences were found for shift type and individual factors such as locus of control and coping strategies. Internal locus of control was associated positively with all the dependent variables. However, engaging problem-focused coping strategies were associated only slightly with the dependent variables, while disengaging emotion-focused coping strategies were negatively associated with the dependent variables.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Since most participants reported few problems with social and domestic/family life, the availability of more leisure time may be a positive feature of shiftwork in the Norwegian petroleum industry. Locus of control and the use of coping strategies were important for shiftworkers' social and domestic/family life.</p

Temporal changes in sugar-sweetened soft drink intake and variation across municipalities in the Capital Region of Denmark

We aimed to examine the changes in sugar-sweetened soft drink intake across the Capital Region of Denmark from 2007 to 2013 and to examine the association between intake and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. The study included data from three health surveys in 2007 (n = 30,426), 2010 (n = 42,218) and 2013 (n = 34,330) in the Capital Region of Denmark. Frequency of soft drink intake was derived from questionnaires among residents aged 25–79 years and linked with information from central registers. Municipality social groups (MSG) 1–4 of decreasing affluence were defined as a composite measure. Logistic regression analyses were conducted for individuals with an appropriate soft drink intake (&lt; once/week) and for individuals with a frequent soft drink intake (≥ 3 times/week). The proportion of individuals reporting an appropriate soft drink intake increased by 71% during 2007–2013 (p &lt; 0.0001). A corresponding decrease was found in the proportion of individuals reporting a frequent soft drink intake. Compared to MSG 1, odds of an appropriate soft drink intake were significantly lower in MSG 3–4: OR = 0.87 (95%CI 0.83–0.91) and OR = 0.89 (95%CI 0.85–0.92), respectively. Compared to MSG 1, odds of a frequent soft drink intake were significantly higher in MSG 3–4: OR = 1.24 (95%CI 1.63–1.31) and 1.17 (95%CI 1.10–1.25), respectively. A significant interaction between MSG and educational level was found among individuals reporting a frequent soft drink intake (p = 0.02). The results show an encouraging reduction in frequency of soft drink intake among capital residents in the period of 2007–2013. A social gradient was observed in soft drink intake across MSG.</p

The effect of adding group-based counselling to individual lifestyle counselling on changes in dietary intake. The Inter99 study – a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few studies have investigated the specific effect of single intervention components in randomized controlled trials. The purpose was to investigate the effect of adding group-based diet and exercise counselling to individual life-style counselling on long-term changes in dietary habits.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was a randomized controlled intervention study. From a general Danish population, aged 30 to 60 years (n = 61,301), two random sample were drawn (group A, n = 11,708; group B, n = 1,308). Subjects were invited for a health screening program. Participation rate was 52.5%. All participants received individual life-style counselling. Individuals at high risk of ischemic heart disease in group A were furthermore offered group-based life-style counselling. The intervention was repeated for high-risk individuals after one and three years. At five-year follow-up all participants were invited for a health examination. High risk individuals were included in this study (n = 2 356) and changes in dietary intake were analyzed using multilevel linear regression analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At one-year follow-up group A had significantly increased the unsaturated/saturated fat ratio compared to group B and in men a significantly greater decrease in saturated fat intake was found in group A compared to group B (net change: -1.13 E%; P = 0.003). No differences were found between group A and B at three-year follow-up. At five-year follow-up group A had significantly increased the unsaturated/saturated fat ratio (net change: 0.09; P = 0.01) and the fish intake compared to group B (net change: 5.4 g/day; P = 0.05). Further, in men a non-significant tendency of a greater decrease was found at five year follow-up in group A compared to group B (net change: -0.68 E%; P = 0.10). The intake of fibre and vegetables increased in both groups, however, no significant difference was found between the groups. No differences between groups were found for saturated fat intake in women.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Offering group-based counselling in addition to individual counselling resulted in small, but significantly improved dietary habits at five-year follow-up and a tendency of better maintenance, compared to individual counselling alone.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>The Inter99 study was approved by the local Ethics Committee (KA 98 155) and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number: NCT00289237).</p

Unravelling networks in local public health policymaking in three European countries:a systems analysis

Background: Facilitating and enhancing interaction between stakeholders involved in the policymaking process to stimulate collaboration and use of evidence, is important to foster the development of effective Health Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) policies. Performing an analysis of real-world policymaking processes will help reveal the complexity of a network of stakeholders. Therefore, the main objectives were to unravel the stakeholder network in the policy process by conducting three systems analyses, and to increase insight into the similarities and differences in the policy processes of these European country cases.Methods: A systems analysis of the local HEPA policymaking process was performed in three European countries involved in the 'REsearch into POlicy to enhance Physical Activity' (REPOPA) project, resulting in three schematic models showing the main stakeholders and their relationships. The models were used to compare the systems, focusing on implications with respect to collaboration and use of evidence in local HEPA policymaking. Policy documents and relevant webpages were examined and main stakeholders were interviewed.Results: The systems analysis in each country identified the main stakeholders involved and their position and relations in the policymaking process. The Netherlands and Denmark were the most similar and both differed most from Romania, especially at the level of accountability of the local public authorities for local HEPA policymaking. The categories of driving forces underlying the relations between stakeholders were formal relations, informal interaction and knowledge exchange.Conclusions: A systems analysis providing detailed descriptions of positions and relations in the stakeholder network in local level HEPA policymaking is rather unique in this area. The analyses are useful when a need arises for increased interaction, collaboration and use of knowledge between stakeholders in the local HEPA network, as they provide an overview of the stakeholders involved and their mutual relations. This information can be an important starting point to enhance the uptake of evidence and build more effective public health policies

Social support and risk of mortality in liver cirrhosis: A cohort study

Background & AimsThe function and structure of social relationships influence mortality in individuals within the general population. We compared aspects of social relationships in patients with cirrhosis and a matched comparison cohort and studied their association with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and mortality in cirrhosis.MethodsPatients with cirrhosis and comparators were identified among participants of the Danish National Health Surveys 2010-2017. The surveys included questions on functional (social support and loneliness) and structural (living alone/cohabitating and frequency of contacts with relatives and friends) aspects of social relationships and HRQoL (Short-Form 12). We estimated associations of aspects of social relationships in cirrhosis patients with HRQoL and all-cause mortality through 2020.ResultsOf 541 cirrhosis patients and 2,157 comparators, low social support (22% in cirrhosis vs 13% in comparators), loneliness (35% vs 20%), and living alone (48% vs 22%) were more frequent in cirrhosis than comparators, whereas the frequency of contacts with relatives and friends was similar. Except for living alone, weak functional and structural social relationships were associated with lower mental HRQoL in cirrhosis patients. Physical HRQoL was only marginally associated with social relationships. During 2,795 person-years of follow-up, 269 cirrhosis patients died. Functional and not structural aspects of social relationships were associated with risk of mortality in cirrhosis. Specifically, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1-1.9), p = 0.011, for low vs moderate-to-high social support (functional aspect), and 1.0 (0.8-1.3), p = 0.85 for living alone vs cohabitating (structural aspect).ConclusionsPatients with cirrhosis have weaker functional and structural social relationships than matched comparators. Weak functional relationships are associated with lower mental HRQoL and increased risk of mortality in cirrhosis.Lay summaryThis study investigated the prevalence of weak social relationships in cirrhosis and their influence on health-related quality of life and risk of mortality. Patients with cirrhosis were nearly twice as likely to report low social support, loneliness and to live alone than a matched comparison cohort. Low social support and loneliness were associated with lower mental health-related quality of life and increased risk of mortality risk in cirrhosis, when adjusting for known confounders

Determinants of the urinary and serum metabolome in children from six European populations

Background Environment and diet in early life can affect development and health throughout the life course. Metabolic phenotyping of urine and serum represents a complementary systems-wide approach to elucidate environment–health interactions. However, large-scale metabolome studies in children combining analyses of these biological fluids are lacking. Here, we sought to characterise the major determinants of the child metabolome and to define metabolite associations with age, sex, BMI and dietary habits in European children, by exploiting a unique biobank established as part of the Human Early-Life Exposome project (http://www.projecthelix.eu). Methods Metabolic phenotypes of matched urine and serum samples from 1192 children (aged 6–11) recruited from birth cohorts in six European countries were measured using high-throughput 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and a targeted LC-MS/MS metabolomic assay (Biocrates AbsoluteIDQ p180 kit). Results We identified both urinary and serum creatinine to be positively associated with age. Metabolic associations to BMI z-score included a novel association with urinary 4-deoxyerythronic acid in addition to valine, serum carnitine, short-chain acylcarnitines (C3, C5), glutamate, BCAAs, lysophosphatidylcholines (lysoPC a C14:0, lysoPC a C16:1, lysoPC a C18:1, lysoPC a C18:2) and sphingolipids (SM C16:0, SM C16:1, SM C18:1). Dietary-metabolite associations included urinary creatine and serum phosphatidylcholines (4) with meat intake, serum phosphatidylcholines (12) with fish, urinary hippurate with vegetables, and urinary proline betaine and hippurate with fruit intake. Population-specific variance (age, sex, BMI, ethnicity, dietary and country of origin) was better captured in the serum than in the urine profile; these factors explained a median of 9.0% variance amongst serum metabolites versus a median of 5.1% amongst urinary metabolites. Metabolic pathway correlations were identified, and concentrations of corresponding metabolites were significantly correlated (r > 0.18) between urine and serum. Conclusions We have established a pan-European reference metabolome for urine and serum of healthy children and gathered critical resources not previously available for future investigations into the influence of the metabolome on child health. The six European cohort populations studied share common metabolic associations with age, sex, BMI z-score and main dietary habits. Furthermore, we have identified a novel metabolic association between threonine catabolism and BMI of children