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Survey Of Food-Hygiene Practices At Home And Childhood Diarrhoea In Hanoi, Vietnam, Kumiko Takanashi, Yuko Chonan, Dao Quyen, Nguyen Khan, Krishna Poudel, Masamine Jimba

Krishna C. Poudel

A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the potential factors of food-hygiene practices of mothers on the prevalence of diarrhoea among their children. Mothers who had children aged 6 months–5 years were recruited in a hamlet in Viet Nam. The food-hygiene practices included hand-washing, method of washing utensils, separation of utensils for raw and cooked food, and the location where foods were prepared for cooking. A face-to-face interview was conducted, and data on 206 mothers were analyzed. The risk of diarrhoea was significantly higher among children whose mothers prepared food for cooking somewhere other than the table (typically on the …

Folate Deficiency, Hyperhomocysteinemia, Low Urinary Creatinine, And Hypomethylation Of Leukocyte Dna Are Risk Factors For Arsenic-Induced Skin Lesions, Richard Pilsner, Xinhua Liu, Habibul Ahsan, Vesna Ilievski, Vesna Slavkovich, Diane Levy, Pam Factor-Litvak, Joseph Graziano, Mary Gamble

J. Richard Pilsner

Background

Arsenic methylation relies on folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism and facilitates urinary As elimination. Clinical manifestations of As toxicity vary considerably among individuals and populations, and poor methylation capacity is thought to confer greater susceptibility.

Objective

After determining that folate deficiency, hyperhomocysteinemia, and low urinary creatinine are associated with reduced As methylation, and that As exposure is associated with increased genomic methylation of leukocyte DNA, we asked whether these factors are associated with As-induced skin lesion risk among Bangladeshi adults.

Methods

We conducted a nested case–control study of 274 cases who developed lesions 2 years after recruitment, and 274 controls matched …

Quantification Of Collider-Stratification Bias And The Birthweight Paradox, Brian Whitcomb, Enrique Schistermanb, Neil Perkins, Robert Platt

Brian W. Whitcomb

The 'birthweight paradox' describes the phenomenon whereby birthweight-specific mortality curves cross when stratified on other exposures, most notably cigarette smoking. The paradox has been noted widely in the literature and numerous explanations and corrections have been suggested. Recently, causal diagrams have been used to illustrate the possibility for collider-stratification bias in models adjusting for birthweight. When two variables share a common effect, stratification on the variable representing that effect induces a statistical relation between otherwise independent factors. This bias has been proposed to explain the birthweight paradox. Causal diagrams may illustrate sources of bias, but are limited to describing qualitative …

Nocturnal Isoprene Oxidation Over The Northeast United States In Summer And Its Impact On Reactive Nitrogen Partitioning And Secondary Organic Aerosol, S. Brown, J. Degouw, C. Warneke, T. Ryerson, W. Dubé, E. Atlas, R. Weber, Richard Peltier, J. Neuman, J. Roberts, A. Swanson, F. Flocke, S. Mckeen, J. Brioude, R. Sommariva, M. Trainer, F. Fehsenfeld, A. Ravishankara

Richard E. Peltier

Isoprene is the largest single VOC emission to the atmosphere. Although it is primarily oxidized photochemi- cally during daylight hours, late-day emissions that remain in the atmosphere at sunset undergo oxidation by NO 3 in regionally polluted areas with large NO x levels. A recent aircraft study examined isoprene and its nocturnal oxidants in a series of night flights across the Northeast US, a re- gion with large emissions of both isoprene and NO x . Sub- stantial amounts of isoprene that were observed after dark were strongly anticorrelated with measured NO 3 and were the most important factor determining …

Can A Health Clinic-Based Intervention Increase Safety In Abused Women? Results From A Pilot Study, Tameka Gillum, Christina Sun, Anne Woods

Tameka L Gillum

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been related to a number of adverse physical and mental health consequences. Research has identified relatively high IPV victimization rates among women seeking care in primary healthcare and emergency department settings. Studies have shown the potential usefulness of screening and intervention in these settings.

Methods: This article reports results from a pilot study designed to assess the effect of a clinic-based intervention on women’s engagement in safety-promoting behaviors. This study was conducted in a primary healthcare clinic for the uninsured in Baltimore, Maryland. Women who screened positive for recent IPV were randomly assigned to …