The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between workplace bullying, the characteristics of workplace bullying, and sleep disturbances in a large sample of employees of the French ...working population.
Workplace bullying, evaluated using the validated instrument developed by Leymann, and sleep disturbances, as well as covariates, were measured using a self-administered questionnaire. Covariates included age, marital status, presence of children, education, occupation, working hours, night work, physical and chemical exposures at work, self-reported health, and depressive symptoms. Statistical analysis was performed using logistic regression analysis and was carried out separately for men and women.
General working population.
The study population consisted of a random sample of 3132 men and 4562 women of the working population in the southeast of France.
Workplace bullying was strongly associated with sleep disturbances. Past exposure to bullying also increased the risk for this outcome. The more frequent the exposure to bullying, the higher the risk of experiencing sleep disturbances. Observing someone else being bullied in the workplace was also associated with the outcome. Adjustment for covariates did not modify the results. Additional adjustment for self-reported health and depressive symptoms diminished the magnitude of the associations that remained significant.
The prevalence of workplace bullying (around 10%) was found to be high in this study as well was the impact of this major job-related stressor on sleep disturbances. Although no conclusion about causality could be drawn from this cross-sectional study, the findings suggest that the contribution of workplace bullying to the burden of sleep disturbances may be substantial.
An epidemiological retrospective study and a recent prospective study from Finland have both concluded that vitamin D3 supplementation at birth protects individuals from type 1 diabetes later in ...life. Moreover, it is thought that vitamin D3 supplementation, in particular its activated form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 1,25-(OH)2D3, may act as an immunomodulator, facilitating the shift from a Th1 to a Th2 immune response. The aim of this surveillance study was to measure levels of both 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25OHD3) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes as compared to normal subjects.
We measured plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 25OHD3 and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 by radioimmunoassay in 88 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes (mean age 14.6 years; diagnosis within the last week), and in 57 healthy age and sex-matched subjects (mean age 16.5 years) born and residing in the Lazio region of continental Italy.
Mean levels of both 25OHD3 and 1,25-(OH)2D3 were significantly lower in patients compared to controls (p < 0.01 and p < 0.03, respectively). There was no correlation between 1,25-(OH)2D3 plasma level and metabolic control status at disease diagnosis, age, gender, or most importantly, seasonality of disease diagnosis. This new observation endorses the findings of the Finnish study, even though Italy is a geographic area with more hours of sunlight than Finland.
These findings suggest that vitamin D3 may be an important pathogenic factor in type 1 diabetes independent of geographical latitude, and that its supplementation should be considered not only at birth, but also at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes with the aim of favouring a Th2 immune response and protecting residual beta cells from further destruction.
Peripheral benign nerve sheath tumours are infrequent tumours and affect major nerve trunks. Some authors have indicated a high and prohibitive incidence of neurological injury in resection of these ...lesions. The authors describe their findings in a retrospective study comprising 119 patients with spontaneous benign nerve sheath tumours of the peripheral nervous system. Seventy-three patients had a schwannoma, 41 had neurofibroma and 5 had plexiform neurofibroma; 25 of the 119 patients suffered from neurofibromatosis. All schwannomas were excised completely and the outcome of patients was 41.0% improved, 6.8% worsened, 52.0% unchanged. Twenty-eight neurofibromas were excised completely and 13 subtotally; the outcome for patients was 19.5% improved, 19.5% worsened and 61% unchanged. All plexiform neurofibromas were removed subtotally and the outcome for patients was 20% improved and 80% unchanged. The best surgical results at average follow-up of 6 years were observed in the patients with schwannoma, the worst in those with plexiform neurofibroma. Our results demonstrated that it is often possible to remove schwannomas as well as neurofibromas with an acceptable risk of injury to the nerve.
With the current increase in sexually transmitted infections in industrialized countries, we assessed the characteristics and plasma viral load of HIV-1-infected patients reporting sexual behaviour ...at risk for HIV transmission (SBR).
The study population consisted of 223 patients with primary HIV-1 infection who were enrolled in the French PRIMO cohort between 1996 and 2001 and who had at least 3 months of follow-up. Patients were interviewed on condom use at each visit according to the partner (gender, steady versus casual nature, and HIV serostatus). SBR was defined as unprotected sex with partners of unknown or negative HIV serostatus.
Sixty-one SBR were reported by 43 patients. SBR with casual partners increased from 5.1% in 1998 to 21.1% in 2001-2002, after a fall between 1997 and 1998. Reporting of SBR was more frequent among patients with casual partners, those with asymptomatic or briefly (< or = 15 days) symptomatic primary infection, and those who had developed clinical lipodystrophy or signs of anxiety/depression. Eighty-six per cent of patients reporting SBR had previously initiated highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART); plasma viral load was above the detection limit (200/500 copies/ml) in 41% of visits reporting an SBR. Viral load was similar in patients reporting SBR and other patients, suggesting that the patient's knowledge of his/her response to HAART was not a major determinant of subsequent SBR.
Our results confirm the recent increase in unsafe sex observed among HIV-infected individuals in industrialized countries. Levels of viral load of these individuals raise concern about the potential for re-emerging HIV epidemics.
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