Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of adult mortality in low-income countries but data on the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension are scarce, especially in ...sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study aims to assess the prevalence of hypertension and determinants of blood pressure in four SSA populations in rural Nigeria and Kenya, and urban Namibia and Tanzania.
We performed four cross-sectional household surveys in Kwara State, Nigeria; Nandi district, Kenya; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Greater Windhoek, Namibia, between 2009-2011. Representative population-based samples were drawn in Nigeria and Namibia. The Kenya and Tanzania study populations consisted of specific target groups. Within a final sample size of 5,500 households, 9,857 non-pregnant adults were eligible for analysis on hypertension. Of those, 7,568 respondents ≥ 18 years were included. The primary outcome measure was the prevalence of hypertension in each of the populations under study. The age-standardized prevalence of hypertension was 19.3% (95%CI:17.3-21.3) in rural Nigeria, 21.4% (19.8-23.0) in rural Kenya, 23.7% (21.3-26.2) in urban Tanzania, and 38.0% (35.9-40.1) in urban Namibia. In individuals with hypertension, the proportion of grade 2 (≥ 160/100 mmHg) or grade 3 hypertension (≥ 180/110 mmHg) ranged from 29.2% (Namibia) to 43.3% (Nigeria). Control of hypertension ranged from 2.6% in Kenya to 17.8% in Namibia. Obesity prevalence (BMI ≥ 30) ranged from 6.1% (Nigeria) to 17.4% (Tanzania) and together with age and gender, BMI independently predicted blood pressure level in all study populations. Diabetes prevalence ranged from 2.1% (Namibia) to 3.7% (Tanzania).
Hypertension was the most frequently observed risk factor for CVD in both urban and rural communities in SSA and will contribute to the growing burden of CVD in SSA. Low levels of control of hypertension are alarming. Strengthening of health care systems in SSA to contain the emerging epidemic of CVD is urgently needed.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Understanding the relationship between adolescent pregnancy and adult education and employment outcomes is complicated due to the endogeneity of fertility behaviors and socio-economic functioning. ...Studies exploring adolescent pregnancy have often relied on limited data to measure adolescent pregnancy (i.e. birth during adolescence or self-reports) and lack access to objective measures of school performance during childhood.
We use rich administrative data from Manitoba, Canada, to assess women's functioning during childhood (including pre-pregnancy academic performance), fertility behaviors during adolescence (live birth, abortion, pregnancy loss, or no history of pregnancy), and adult outcomes of high school completion and receipt of income assistance. This rich set of covariates allows calculating propensity score weights to help adjust for characteristics possibly predictive of adolescent pregnancy. We also explore which risk factors are associated with the study outcomes.
We assessed a cohort of 65,732 women, of whom 93.5% had no teen pregnancy, 3.8% had a live birth, 2.6% had abortion, and < 1% had a pregnancy loss. Women with a history of adolescent pregnancy were less likely to complete high school regardless of the outcome of that pregnancy. The probability of dropping out of high school was 7.5% for women with no history of adolescent pregnancy; after adjusting for individual, household, and neighborhood characteristics, the probability of dropping out of high school was 14.2 percentage points (pp) higher (95% CI 12.0-16.5) for women with live birth, 7.6 pp. higher (95% CI 1.5-13.7) for women with a pregnancy loss, and 6.9 pp. higher (95% CI 5.2-8.6) for women who had abortion. They key risk factors for never completing high school are poor or average school performance in 9th grade. Women who had a live births during adolescence were much more likely to receive income assistance than any other group in the sample. Aside from poor school performance, growing up in poor households and in poor neighborhoods were also highly predictive of receiving income assistance during adulthood.
The administrative data used in this study enabled us to assess the relationship between adolescent pregnancy and adult outcomes after controlling for a rich set of individual-, household-, and neighborhood-level characteristics. Adolescent pregnancy was associated with higher risk of never completing high school regardless of the pregnancy outcome. Receipt of income assistance was significantly higher for women having a live birth, but only marginally higher for those who had a pregnancy that ended in loss or termination, underlining the harsh economic consequences of caring for a child as a young mother. Our data suggest that interventions targeting young women with poor or average school marks may be especially effective public policy priorities.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper examines the long-run regional economic effects within South Africa of changing the electricity-generation mix towards less coal. To do so, a regional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) ...model of South Africa is employed for the analysis. The overall result stemmed from all scenarios suggest that the effect of a transition to an energy supply mix with smaller share of coal generation is sensitive to other economic and policy conditions, in particular the reaction of the global coal market and hence, South Africa’s coal exports. Under conditions in which surplus coal resulting from lower domestic demand cannot be readily exported, the economies of coal-producing regions in South Africa such as the Mpumalanga province are the most severely affected. The subsequent migration of semi-skilled labour from that province to others within the country require appropriate and timeous planning by energy policymakers and urban planners.
•The transition to low-carbon supply mix in South Africa is inevitable.•Not all provinces will have the same labour and production impact.•The impact depends on global coal markets too, as well as, immigration of skills.•Need for policies to assist areas, i.e. Mpumalanga with higher negative impacts.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with encephalitis were prepared by an Expert Panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The guidelines are intended for use by health ...care providers who care for patients with encephalitis. The guideline includes data on the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of many viral, bacterial, fungal, protozoal, and helminthic etiologies of encephalitis and provides information on when specific etiologic agents should be considered in individual patients with encephalitis.
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We present an up-to-date profile of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix with emphasis on the interpretation of recent CP-violation results from the B factories. For this purpose, we review all ...relevant experimental and theoretical inputs from the contributing domains of electroweak interaction. We give the “standard” determination of the apex of the Unitarity Triangle, namely the Wolfenstein parameters \(\overline\rho\) and \(\overline\eta\), by means of a global CKM fit. The fit is dominated by the precision measurement of \(\sin 2 \beta\) by the B factories. A detailed numerical and graphical study of the impact of the results is presented. We propose to include \(\sin 2\alpha\) from the recent measurement of the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in \(B^0\to\rho^ + \rho^-\), using isospin relations to discriminate the penguin contribution. The constraint from \(\varepsilon^\prime/\varepsilon\) is discussed. We study the impact from the branching fraction measurement of the rare kaon decay \(K^ + \to\pi^ + \nu\overline\nu\), and give an outlook into the reach of a future measurement of \(K^0_L\to\pi^0\nu\overline\nu\). The B system is investigated in detail. We display the constraint on \(2\beta + \gamma\) and \(\gamma\) from \(B^0\to D^{(*)\pm}\pi^\mp\) and \(B^ + \to D^{(*)0}K^ + \) decays, respectively. A significant part of this paper is dedicated to the understanding of the dynamics of B decays into \(\pi\pi\), \(K\pi\), \(\rho\pi\), \(\rho\rho\) and modes related to these by flavor symmetry. Various phenomenological approaches and theoretical frameworks are discussed. We find a remarkable agreement of the \(\pi\pi\) and \(K\pi\) data with the other constraints in the unitarity plane when the hadronic matrix elements are calculated within QCD Factorization, where we apply a conservative treatment of the theoretical uncertainties. A global fit of QCD Factorization to all \(\pi\pi\) and \(K\pi\) data leads to precise predictions of the related observables. However sizable phenomenological power corrections are preferred. Using an isospin-based phenomenological parameterization, we analyze separately the \(B\to K\pi\) decays, and the impact of electroweak penguins in response to recent discussions. We find that the present data are not sufficiently precise to constrain either electroweak parameters or hadronic amplitude ratios. We do not observe any unambiguous sign of New Physics, whereas there is some evidence for potentially large non-perturbative rescattering effects. Finally we use a model-independent description of a large class of New Physics effects in both \(B^0\overline B^0\) mixing and B decays, namely in the \(b\to d\) and \(b\to s\) gluonic penguin amplitudes, to perform a new numerical analysis. Significant non-standard corrections cannot be excluded yet, however Standard Model solutions are favored in most cases. In the appendix to this paper we propose a frequentist method to extract a confidence level on \(\Delta m_s\) from the experimental information on \(B^0_s \overline B_s^0\) oscillation. In addition we describe a novel approach to combine potentially inconsistent measurements. All results reported in this paper have been obtained with the numerical analysis package CKMfitter, featuring the frequentist statistical approach Rfit.
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DOBA, FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Understanding the processes across childhood and adolescence that affect later life inequalities depends on many variables for a large number of individuals measured over substantial time periods. ...Linkable administrative data were used to generate birth cohorts and to study pathways of inequity in childhood and early adolescence leading to differences in educational attainment. Advantages and disadvantages of using large administrative data bases for such research were highlighted.
Children born in Manitoba, Canada between 1982 and 1995 were followed until age 19 (N = 89,763), with many time-invariant measures serving as controls. Five time-varying predictors of high school graduation-three social and two health-were modelled using logistic regression and a framework for examining predictors across the life course. For each time-varying predictor, six temporal patterns were tested: full, accumulation of risk, sensitive period, and three critical period models.
Predictors measured in early adolescence generated the highest odds ratios, suggesting the importance of adolescence. Full models provided the best fit for the three time-varying social measures. Residence in a low-income neighborhood was a particularly influential predictor of not graduating from high school. The transmission of risk across developmental periods was also highlighted; exposure in one period had significant implications for subsequent life stages.
This study advances life course epidemiology, using administrative data to clarify the relationships among several measures of social behavior, cognitive development, and health. Analyses of temporal patterns can be useful in studying such other outcomes as educational achievement, teen pregnancy, and workforce participation.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The hyperconstriction of airway smooth muscle (ASM) is the main driving mechanism during an asthmatic attack. The airway lumen is reduced, resistance to airflow increases, and normal breathing ...becomes more difficult. The tissue contraction can be temporarily relieved by using bronchodilator drugs, which induce relaxation of the constricted airways. In vitro studies indicate that relaxation of isolated, precontracted ASM is induced by mechanical oscillations in healthy subjects but not in asthmatic subjects. Further, short-term acute asthmatic subjects respond to superimposed pressure oscillations (SIPO) generated in the range of 5-15 Hz with ~50% relaxation of preconstricted sensitized airways. Mechanical oscillations, and specifically SIPO, are not widely characterized in asthmatic models. The objective of this in vivo study is to determine the effects of a range of oscillation patterns similar to our previous acute study differing from normal breathing. Both healthy and sensitized mice were observed, with their responses to SIPO treatments measured during induced bronchoconstriction resulting from acetylcholine (Ach) challenge. SIPO-generated results were compared with data from treatments using the bronchorelaxant isoproterenol (ISO). The study shows that SIPO in the range of 5-20 Hz induces relaxation in chronic sensitized airways, with significant improvements in respiratory parameters at SIPO values near 1.7 cmH
O irrespective of the frequency of generation.
We use administrative data on a sample of births between 1978 and 1985 to investigate the short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of poor infant health. Our findings offer several advances to the ...existing literature on the effects of early infant health on subsequent health, education, and labor force attachment. First, we use a large sample of both siblings and twins, second, we use a variety of measures of infant health, and finally, we track children through their schooling years and into the labor force. Our findings suggest that poor infant health predicts both mortality within one year, and mortality up to age 17. We also find that infant health is a strong predictor of educational and labor force outcomes. In particular, infant health is found to predict both high school completion and welfare takeup and length.
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Many countries are currently studying the possibility of mass vaccination against varicella. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive picture of the pre-vaccine epidemiology of the ...varicella zoster virus (VZV) to aid in the design of immunization programs and to adequately measure the impact of vaccination. Population-based data including physician visit claims, sentinel surveillance and hospitalization data from Canada and the United Kingdom were analysed. The key epidemiological characteristics of varicella and zoster (age specific consultation rates, seasonality, force of infection, hospitalization rates and inpatient days) were compared. Results show that the overall epidemiology of varicella and zoster is remarkably similar between the two countries. The major difference being that, contrary to Canada, the epidemiology of varicella seems to be changing in the United Kingdom with an important decrease in the average age at infection that coincides with a significant increase in children attending preschool. Furthermore, differences exist in the seasonality between the United Kingdom and Canada, which seem to be primarily due to the school calendar. These results illustrate that school and preschool contact patterns play an important role in the dynamics of varicella. Finally, our results provide baseline estimates of varicella and zoster incidence and morbidity for VZV vaccine effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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