Search results for "DEMOGRAPHY"
showing 10 items of 2125 documents
Babies of the War: Effect of War Exposure Early in Life on Mortality Throughout Life
2015
There is increasing evidence that circumstances very early in our lives, and particularly during pregnancy, can affect our health for the remainder of life. Studies that have looked at this relationship have often used extreme situations, such as famines that occurred during wartime. Here we investigate whether less extreme situations during World War II also affected later-life mortality for cohorts born in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, and Norway. We argue that these occupied countries experienced a considerable deterioration in daily life situations and show that this resulted in strongly increased mortality rates and lower probabilities of survival until age 55 among civilian popula…
Finger ridge-count asymmetry and diversity in Andean Indians and interpopulation comparisons
1998
A separate analysis of ulnar and radial finger ridge-counts, obtained from 115 Aymara Indians (55 males and 60 females) of northern Chile, was performed. From these variables, directional asymmetry, fluctuating asymmetry, indices of bilateral asymmetry (square root of A2), and intraindividual diversity (s/square root of 5) were calculated for each sex. The results show that most bimanual differences for the ridge-counts are not statistically significant in the Aymara, except for radial counts in female first and second fingers (right hand means are larger), while most ulnar-radial differences are highly significant in both sexes (radial values exceed ulnar ones). Most sex differences do not…
Bichat's fat-pad: correlations with some anthropometric parameters.
1997
SummaryThe primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship between Bichat's fat-pad volume, visualized by ultrasonography, and widely used anthropometric measurements, in 60 women and 13 men, ranging in weight from 57 to 124·5 kg. The body of Bichat's fat-pad was significantly correlated with all anthropometric parameters, although the correlation was much stronger with weight (r = 0·94, p < 0·0001, women; r = 0·85, p = 0·0003, men) and body mass index (BMI) (r = 0·94, p < 0·0001, women; r = 0·91, p < 0·0001, men).
Age Identification: A Comparison between Finnish and North-American Cultures
1998
This study examined perceptions of age among Finnish males and females in three age groups; twenty-five to thirty-nine-year-olds ( n = 446), forty to fifty-four-year-olds ( n = 482) and fifty-five to sixty-four-year-olds ( n = 427). The age perceptions of the Finnish sample were further compared with those of a North-American sample with corresponding age groups ( n = 169, n = 187, n = 222) reported by Barak, Stern, and Gould (1988). Four age concepts used were chronological age, subjective age, ideal age, and disparity age. As expected on the basis of previous studies in age identification, no difference was found between Finnish males and females in terms of subjective age. Ideal age, ho…
Age-Related Differences in 100-m Sprint Performance in Male and Female Master Runners
2003
This study was undertaken to investigate age-related differences in the velocity and selected stride parameters in male and female master sprinters and to determine which stride characteristics were related to the overall decline in the performance of the 100 m with age.The performances of 70 finalists (males 40-88 yr, females 35-87 yr) at the European Veterans Athletics Championships were recorded using two high-speed cameras (200 Hz) with a panning video technique and distance markers at 10-m intervals. Velocity, stride length (SL), stride rate (SR), ground contact time (CT), and flight time (FT) during the acceleration, peak velocity, and deceleration phases of the 100-m race were determ…
Male facial attractiveness and masculinity may provide sex- and culture-independent cues to semen quality
2013
Phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis (PLFH) predicts that male secondary sexual traits reveal honest information about male fertilization ability. However, PLFH has rarely been studied in humans. The aim of the present study was to test PLFH in humans and to investigate whether potential ability to select fertile partners is independent of sex or cultural background. We found that on the contrary to the hypothesis, facial masculinity was negatively associated with semen quality. As increased levels of testosterone have been demonstrated to impair sperm production, this finding may indicate a trade-off between investments in secondary sexual signalling (i.e. facial masculinity) and fertilit…
Does Childhood Temperamental Activity Predict Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior over a 30-Year Period? Evidence from the Young Finns Study
2016
We examined associations between childhood temperamental activity, physical activity (PA), and television (TV) viewing over a 30-year period. The participants (1220 boys and 1237 girls) were aged 3, 6, 9, and 12 years in 1980 and were followed until 2011. Temperamental activity was evaluated by participants' mothers at baseline. The PA was assessed based on maternal ratings of the child from ages 3 to 6 and via self-report age from the age of 9 across all measurements. TV viewing was assessed using self-reports taken from 2001 to 2011. The associations between temperamental activity and the level and change of PA and TV viewing were determined using linear growth modeling stratified by gend…
Contribution of genetic and environmental factors to variation in body compartments--a twin study in adults.
2004
This study aimed at analyzing the contribution of genetic and environmental factors on phenotypic variation of various traits of body composition. Subjects were 30 same-sexed pairs of twins including 20 monozygous (MZ) and 10 dizygous (DZ) pairs, aged 19-62 years. Zygosity was determined by DNA typing and morphological diagnosis. Body composition parameters (fat mass FM, lean body mass LBM, body cell mass BCM, extracellular mass ECM, total body water TBW, extracellular water ECW, and intracellular water ICW) were estimated by tetrapolar bioelectrical impedance analysis. Potential environmental factors influencing body composition (number of children, sporting activity and smoking behaviour)…
Balantidiasis in Aymara children from the northern Bolivian Altiplano.
1998
Balantidium coli infection was coprologically studied in 2,124 Aymara children 5-19 years of age from the schools of 22 communities of the northern Bolivian Altiplano over a five-year period. Infection with B. coli was found in 11 of the communities surveyed, with prevalences of 1.0-5.3% (overall prevalence=1.2%). The prevalences observed are some of the highest reported and did not differ significantly among the various age groups or between boys and girls. These prevalences, the apparent absence of symptoms or signs of illness due to this parasite in the schoolchildren surveyed at the time of stool sampling, and the consistency of stool samples of the infected students suggest that they a…
The seroepidemiology of Bordetella pertussis infection in Western Europe.
2005
High titres of pertussis toxin (PT) antibody have been shown to be predictive of recent infection with Bordetella pertussis. The seroprevalence of standardized anti-PT antibody was determined in six Western European countries between 1994 and 1998 and related to historical surveillance and vaccine programme data. Standardized anti-PT titres were calculated for a series of whole-cell and acellular pertussis vaccine trials. For the serological surveys, high-titre sera (>125 units/ml) were distributed throughout all age groups in both high- (>90%) and low-coverage (<90%) countries. High-titre sera were more likely in infants in countries using high-titre-producing vaccines in their pr…