Observational studies suggest a longer duration of breastfeeding to be associated dose dependently with a decrease in risk of overweight in later life. The authors performed a comprehensive meta-analysis of the existing studies on duration of breastfeeding and risk of overweight. Studies were included that reported the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (or the data to calculate them) of overweight associated with breastfeeding and that reported the duration of breastfeeding and used exclusively formula-fed subjects as the referent. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. By meta-regression, the duration of breastfeeding was inversely associated with the risk of overweight (regression coefficient=0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89, 0.98). Categorical analysis confirmed this dose-response association (<1 month of breastfeeding: odds ratio (OR)=1.0, 95% CI: 0.65, 1.55; 1-3 months: OR=0.81, 95% CI: 0.74, 0.88; 4-6 months: OR=0.76, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.86; 7-9 months: OR=0.67, 95% CI: 0.55, 0.82; >9 months: OR=0.68, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.91). One month of breastfeeding was associated with a 4% decrease in risk (OR=0.96/month of breastfeeding, 95% CI: 0.94, 0.98). The definitions of overweight and age had no influence. These findings strongly support a dose-dependent association between longer duration of breastfeeding and decrease in risk of overweight.

DMP significantly enhance the quality of care for depression. Costs are within the range of other widely accepted public health improvements. Future research should focus on the effect of long-term interventions, and the compatibility with health care systems other than managed-care driven ones.

No abstract

Background: How smokeless tobacco contributes to non-neoplastic oral diseases is unclear. It certainly increases risk of oral mucosal lesions, but reviewers disagree as to other conditions. In some areas, especially South-East Asia, risk is difficult to quantify due to the many products, compositions (including non-tobacco ingredients), and usage practices involved. This review considers studies from Europe (in practice mainly Scandinavia) and from the USA.

A modeling approach termed 'nicotine bridging' is presented to estimate exposure to mainstream smoke constituents. The method is based on: (1) determination of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHC) and in vitro toxicity parameter-to-nicotine regressions obtained using multiple machine-smoking protocols, (2) nicotine uptake distributions determined from 24-h excretion of nicotine metabolites in a clinical study, and (3) modeled HPHC uptake distributions using steps 1 and 2. An example of 'nicotine bridging' is provided, using a subset of the data reported in Part 2 of this supplement (Zenzen et al., 2012) for two conventional lit-end cigarettes (CC) and the Electrically Heated Cigarette Smoking System (EHCSS) series-K6 cigarette. The bridging method provides justified extrapolations of HPHC exposure distributions that cannot be obtained for smoke constituents due to the lack of specific biomarkers of exposure to cigarette smoke constituents in clinical evaluations. Using this modeling approach, exposure reduction is evident when the HPHC exposure distribution curves between the MRTP and the CC users are substantially separated with little or no overlap between the distribution curves.

In AMI patients aged < or = 75 years, female gender alone is not an independent predictor of hospital mortality. Detailed, multivariate analysis reveals that specifically diabetic women demonstrate higher hospital mortality than do men. Special attention should be provided to these female diabetic patients.

Even after adjustment in multivariate analysis, women with acute myocardial infarction still demonstrate a higher risk for in-hospital death than men.

The assessment of cumulative exposure based on collecting information on the history of active cigarette smoking has been and is being undertaken in a variety of ways. While a very detailed assessment may be required for studies with a focus on particular aspects of smoking behavior and history, comparability of measurements and results across studies remains a primary concern. Addressing the problem of heterogeneity of exposure assessment across studies can be achieved by a core set of questions that cover the major dimensions of cigarette smoking, and yet comply with current criteria used for defining smoking history and status. In studies where no very high level of exposure assessment is required or where smoking is not the major subject of investigation, a practical standardized core set of questions appears to be of considerable value, in particularwith regard to making results more comparable across studies.