BACKGROUND Only a limited number of studies have analyzed the association between hip fracture incidence and socioeconomic conditions. Most, but not all found an association, and results are in part conflicting. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association between hip fractures and socioeconomic conditions in Germany, from 1995 to 2004, on a census tract area level. METHODS We used da...

In Vietnam, there are no accurate data on tetanus incidence to allow assessment of disease burden or vaccination program efficacy. We analyzed age structure of 786 tetanus cases admitted to a tertiary referral center in Vietnam for three separate years during an 18-year period to examine the impact of tetanus prevention programs, namely the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and the Materna...

BACKGROUND Lung cancer is the commonest cause of cancer death in the UK. Patients generally present to their general practitioner, but the pathway of diagnosis from first symptom to diagnosis has not been mapped. We performed a cohort study of 246 patients with lung cancer in Exeter, Devon UK. All patients had their cancer symptoms, referrals and diagnoses identified and dated using their docto...

OBJECTIVE To describe gun shows and assess the impact of increased regulation on characteristics linked to their importance as sources of guns used in crime. DESIGN Cross-sectional, observational. SUBJECTS Data were collected at a structured sample of 28 gun shows in California, which regulates these events and prohibits undocumented private party gun sales; and in Arizona, Nevada, Texas an...

AIM To evaluate scientific production among research fellows employed at the Zagreb University School of Medicine and identify factors associated with their scientific output. METHOD We conducted a survey among research fellows and their mentors during June 2005. The main outcome measure was publication success, defined for each fellow as publishing at least 0.5 articles per employment year i...

BACKGROUND Persons unaware of their human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection account for approximately 40% of ongoing transmissions in the United States. Persons are unaware of their infection because of delayed HIV diagnoses that represent substantial missed opportunities to improve health outcomes and prevent HIV transmission. METHODS Data from CDC's National HIV Surveillance System wer...

OBJECTIVE The authors analyzed suicide across the life cycle of different ethnic groups in an urban population equally divided between blacks (44.6%) and whites (48.1%). METHOD Two data sets were used: 1) all suicides in Fulton County, Ga., from January 1994 through December 2002 and 2) all U.S. suicides reported by the National Center for Injury Prevention in 1999 and 2000. RESULTS The pop...

BACKGROUND The majority of studies investigating stress in primary care have focused either on general practitioners (GPs) or practice assistants (PAs), but did not measure stress on a practice level. We analyzed the prevalence of chronic stress for both professional groups and on a practice level and investigated personal, practice, and regional characteristics. METHODS Chronic stress was me...

The present review is the first in an ongoing guide to medical statistics, using specific examples from intensive care. The first step in any analysis is to describe and summarize the data. As well as becoming familiar with the data, this is also an opportunity to look for unusually high or low values (outliers), to check the assumptions required for statistical tests, and to decide the best wa...

BACKGROUND Lack of appropriate reporting of methodological details has previously been shown to distort risk of bias assessments in randomized controlled trials. The same might be true for observational studies. The goal of this study was to compare the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) assessment for risk of bias between reviewers and authors of cohort studies included in a published systematic rev...