Search results for "Demography"

Breeding strategy and morphological characters in an urban population of blackbirds, Turdus merula

2001

Pairing patterns in monogamous birds are thought to be the consequence of mutual mate choice by males and females for characters linked to individual quality in the opposite sex. Although this may result in assortative pairing for a single character, there may be no simple match between male and female phenotype if the traits linked to individual quality are sex specific. For instance, in several passerine species, females tend to select males on the basis of territory quality or characters that may reflect health or vigour, whereas males benefit from pairing with females in good condition that breed early because early breeding increases reproductive success. We investigated pairing patter…

Different demography of friends and strangers: an experiment on the impact of kinship and familiarity in Clethrionomys glareolus.

1989

We examined demographic effects of familiarity and relatedness in the bank vole Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber) in four 0.5-ha enclosures in Central Finland. In two enclosures were mature voles which had overwintered together and some of their mature off-spring (hereafter referred to as “Friends”), and in the other two individuals of the same species captured from different localities near the study area (“Strangers”). The experiment lasted from June to September. The populations of Friends reached densities twice as high as those of Strangers with a significantly higher rate of recruitment and survival of the young. This may have been due to mutual familiarity decreasing antagonism towa…

Myopia and Level of Education

2014

Purpose To analyze the association between myopia and educational level in an adult European cohort. Design Population-based cross-sectional study. Participants A cohort of the Gutenberg Health Study, including 4658 eligible enrollees between 35 and 74 years of age. Methods We applied a standardized protocol entailing a comprehensive questionnaire; thorough ophthalmic, general, cardiovascular, and psychological examinations; and laboratory tests, including genetic analyses. We documented achievement levels in school education and post-school professional education. The spherical equivalent (SE) was determined by noncycloplegic autorefractometry. We fitted mixed linear models including age, …

Data Analysis of Epidemiological Studies

2010

Epidemiology is used to describe the distribution of diseases in the population and to analyze the causes of these diseases. One important objective is to identify risk factors and to quantify their significance. A risk factor can influence the probability that a specific disease develops. Risk factors include: Environmental influences (for example, exposure to radon) Predisposition (for example, genes), or Behavioral characteristics (for example, hormone intake). Epidemiological research employs various different types of study (1–3), depending on the question asked. The most important are Cohort studies Case-control studies, and Cross-sectional studies In cohort studies, persons exposed t…

2018

Summary Background Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of "leaving no one behind", it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods …

Author response: Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight

2020

2020

Importance Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with impaired educational performance. Previous studies on the disorder could not control for important measured and unmeasured confounders. Objective To prospectively investigate the association between PTSD and objective indicators of educational attainment across the life span, controlling for familial factors shared by full siblings, psychiatric comorbidity, and general cognitive ability. Design, Setting, and Participants This population-based cohort study included 2 244 193 individuals born in Sweden between January 1, 1973, and December 31, 1997, who were followed-up until December 31, 2013. Clusters of full siblings …

Epidemiologische Perspektiven der Migrationsforschung am Beispiel von Krebserkrankungen

2008

Epidemiologic research on migration and health in Germany is increasingly focusing on chronic diseases. Migrant studies can help to identify causes of diseases. They also help to identify health inequalities and can thus contribute to improvements in health care. With regard to cancer, descriptive studies among Turkish migrants and ethnic German immigrants from the Former Soviet Union have shown overall low, but slowly increasing cancer rates as compared to autochthonous Germans. For individual cancer sites such as stomach cancer, migrants appear to experience higher risks than the comparison population. Epidemiologic approaches studying cancer care and services for migrants, as well as ana…

Climatic and Pathological Rhythms in a Humid Tropical Area, the Case of The Philippines

1997

The fact that weather significantly affects yearly, monthly and daily morbidity in human populations has been documented for a long time by a number of individuals. They have illustrated very well some of the basic structure and underlying mechanisms of seasonality in morbidity. But until now almost all these efforts were carried out in countries with temperate mid-latitude climates. Furthermore, meteoropathological investigations have for the most part concentrated upon mortality statistics for the usual reasons of data availability and comparability. However, an important question that arises when considering the effects of weather on diseases is how the relationship varies under differen…

Is season of birth associated with multiple sclerosis?

2000

Objective - To compare the monthly distribution of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients' births with that of the Sicilian population. Background -Studies on the association between season of birth and risk of MS are scanty and controversial. Design and methods - Archives of the Institute of Neuropsychiatry of the Universities of Palermo and Catania were searched up to 1995 for definite MS patients (McDonald & Halliday criteria). The monthly distribution of MS patients' births (N=965) was compared with that of the Sicilian population (N = 5,608,307). Results -The distribution of births among MS patients compared with the general population was not different when tested by the X 2 statistic (P > …