Changes in physical health among participants in a multidisciplinary health programme for long-term unemployed persons

Background  

The relationship between poor health and unemployment is well established. Health promotion among unemployed persons may improve their health. The aims of this study were to investigate characteristics of non-participants and drop-outs in a multidisciplinary health promotion programme for long-term unemployed persons with health complaints, to evaluate changes in physical health among participants, and to investigate determinants of improvement in physical health.     

Ageing appearance in China: biophysical profile of facial skin and its relationship to perceived age

Background Perceived age is important to women and is a primary driver for topical product use and facial cosmetic surgery. Changes in facial features and biophysical skin parameters with chronological age and their associations with perceived age have not been described in Asian populations. Objective To investigate the relationship between biophysical properties of the skin, visual features of skin ageing and perceived facial age in Chinese women. Methods Facial photographs were collected of 250 Chinese women, aged 25–70 years in Shanghai, China. The perceived facial age was determined and related to the chronological age for each participant and to a range of visual assessments of skin appearance and objective biophysical measurements of the skin. The profile of changes in these parameters with age was investigated together with the differences in those parameters for women judged to look younger than their chronological age and those judged to look older than their chronological age. Results Large discrepancies in perceived age (up to 29 years) were found in women of the same chronological age. Each objective skin measure and visual assessment parameter had a stronger correlation with perceived age than with chronological age. The strongest relationships to perceived age were for wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. Skin colour, hydration and trans‐epidermal water loss (TEWL) had weaker associations with perceived age. Women judged to look older than their chronological age had significantly higher scores than those judged to look younger for coarse wrinkles and hyperpigmentation across all age groups. The appearance differences between these groups were evident in composite facial images of the same average chronological age. Conclusions We have identified the skin attributes which differ with perceived age in Chinese women. Perceived age is a better measure of the biological age of facial skin than is chronological age in this population.     

Sex ratio of congenital abnormalities in the function of maternal age: A population‐based study

Maternal age effect is well‐known in the origin of numerical chromosomal aberrations and some isolated congenital abnormalities (CAs). The sex ratio (SR), i.e. number of males divided by the number of males and females together, of most CAs deviates from the SR of newborn population (0.51). The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the possible association of maternal age with the SR of isolated CAs in a population‐based large dataset of the Hungarian Case‐Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities, 1980–1996. First, SR of 24 CA entities/groups was estimated in 21 494 patients with isolated CA. In the next step SR of different maternal age groups was compared to the mean SR of the given CA‐groups. The SR of four CA‐groups showed some deviation in certain maternal age groups. Cases with anencephaly had female excess in young mothers (<25 years). Cases with skull's CAs particularly craniosynostosis had a male excess in cases born to women over 30 years. Two other CA groups (cleft lip ± palate and valvar pulmonic stenosis within the group of right‐sided obstructive defect of heart) had significant deviation in SR of certain maternal age groups from the mean SR, but these deviations were not harmonized with joining age groups and thus were considered as a chance effect due to multiple testing. In conclusion, our study did not suggest that in general SR of isolated CAs might be modified by certain maternal age groups with some exception such as anencephaly and craniosynostosis.     

A population-based case-control study of oral griseofulvin treatment during pregnancy

AIM: To study the teratogenicity of oral griseofulvin during pregnancy. METHODS: The data of the population-based Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities between 1980 and 1996 and the Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry between 1970 and 2002 were evaluated. RESULTS: In total, 38,151 pregnant women who delivered newborn infants without any defects (control group) and 22,843 pregnant women who had fetuses or newborns with congenital abnormalities were included in the study. Seven (0.03%) case and 24 (0.06%) control pregnant women were treated with the griseofulvin (crude odds ratio with 95% confidence interval: 0.49, 0.21-1.13). A teratogenic potential of griseofulvin was not indicated by a comparison of the expected and observed number of different congenital abnormalities. A higher mean birth weight was found in control newborn infants born to mothers with griseofulvin treatment compared with the data of control newborn infants without this treatment. In addition, 55 conjoined twins were evaluated in the data set of the Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry, and no conjoined twins had mother with griseofulvin treatment during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Our data do not indicate a detectable teratogenic risk of oral griseofulvin treatment during pregnancy; however, the numbers of cases and controls were limited. Therefore, international collaboration is needed for the final conclusion.     

A teratological study of aminoglycoside antibiotic treatment during pregnancy

The aim of this study was to investigate the teratogenicity of aminoglycoside antibiotics, such as parenteral gentamicin, streptomycin, tobramycin and oral neomycin, during pregnancy. Pair analysis of cases with congenital abnormalities and matched healthy controls was carried out. The setting was the population-based dataset of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities, 1980-96. In total, 38,151 pregnant women who had newborn infants without any defects (control group) and 22,865 pregnant women who had foetuses or newborns with congenital abnormalities were included in the study. 38 (0.16%) and 42 (0.11%) pregnant women in the case and control groups, respectively, were treated with the aminoglycosides studied. A teratogenic potential of gentamicin and neomycin was not indicated by a comparison of the occurrence of aminoglycoside antibiotic treatments in the total control group as referent with the figures of different congenital abnormality groups. In addition, the case-control pair analysis during the second-third months of pregnancy did not show a teratogenic risk of gentamicin and neomycin. The conclusion of this study is that treatment with parenteral gentamicin and oral neomycin during pregnancy presents no detectable teratogenic risk to the foetus, when restricted to structural developmental disturbances.