Our exploratory analysis found an association between fluoride exposure in drinking water during childhood and the incidence of osteosarcoma among males but not consistently among females. Further research is required to confirm or refute this observation.

Background: There are many examples of physicians using treatments inappropriately, despite clear evidence about the circumstances under which the benefits of such treatments outweigh their harms. When such over-or under-use of treatments occurs for common diseases, the burden to the healthcare system and risks to patients can be substantial. We propose that a major contributor to inappropriate treatment may be how clinicians judge the likelihood of important treatment outcomes, and how these judgments influence their treatment decisions. The current study will examine the role of judged outcome probabilities and other cognitive factors in the context of two clinical treatment decisions: 1) prescription of antibiotics for sore throat, where we hypothesize overestimation of benefit and underestimation of harm leads to over-prescription of antibiotics; and 2) initiation of anticoagulation for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), where we hypothesize that underestimation of benefit and overestimation of harm leads to under-prescription of warfarin.

Researchers need to consider limitations of using a secondary data source to estimate fluoride in drinking water, particularly in studies where exposure to fluoride is the primary exposure of interest.

The cooperative behavior of 93 preschool children during first visit to a dentist was studied in order to assess the effect of being accompanied by day-care personnel rather than their parents. Due to external constraints on the study design, there were imbalances with respect to various predictive factors between the groups. Correcting for these imbalances, no difference was found for the children who came with day-care personnel. Age and the ability to communicate verbally with the dentist (i.e., in English) were found to influence behavior significantly.