scholarly journals UK and Canadian Gulf War Veteran Mortality: Using A Fellow Military Cohort as a Comparison Population

Author(s):  
Elizabeth Rolland-Harris ◽  
Kate Harrison ◽  
Kristen Simkus ◽  
Lisa Baird ◽  
Kate Palmer ◽  
...  

IntroductionTo compare 1990-91 Gulf War Veterans (GWV) survival outcomes with a comparable cohort, UK’s Ministry of Defence and Canada’s Department of National Defence combined data from their respective cohorts. The survival estimates/comparisons emanating from this collaboration will be novel as they will control for healthy worker/soldier effect (HW/SE). Objectives and ApproachGWV cohort building and record linkage methods used by Canada and the UK are described in more detail elsewhere. To ensure comparability in mortality outcomes between cohorts, the following steps will be conducted prior to analysis: ICD-9 causes of death (COD) will be recoded to ICD-10; recoding by each country will be cross-validated by the other, to ensure high inter-coder reliability; CODs will be analysed at the ICD-chapter level; Calculated age- and sex-specific rates will be directly standardized using the WHO 2012-2022 Standard Population. Cox proportional hazards will be used to compare survival between cohorts. ResultsWe are currently in the process of completing this exciting cross-sectoral linkage study and expect to have preliminary results to present. To our knowledge, this will be the first time that mortality outcomes for two discrete Gulf War veteran cohorts (ascertained by record linkage) will be analytically compared, rather than comparing to the general population. These findings will not only provide a more recent evaluation of the health status of GWV in Canada, but will also be a rare opportunity to control for the HW/SE, using comparisons with non-equivalent cohorts (e.g., general population, other deployment) cannot achieve. Conclusion/ImplicationsBeyond evidence of a strong inter-sectoral research relationship between military nations, these findings also represent a feasible solution to controlling for the HW/SE. The ability to control for this will mean more accurate UK and Canada GWV mortality/survival estimates than either country can generate on their own.

JAMIA Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spiros Denaxas ◽  
Anoop D Shah ◽  
Bilal A Mateen ◽  
Valerie Kuan ◽  
Jennifer K Quint ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives The UK Biobank (UKB) is making primary care electronic health records (EHRs) for 500 000 participants available for COVID-19-related research. Data are extracted from four sources, recorded using five clinical terminologies and stored in different schemas. The aims of our research were to: (a) develop a semi-supervised approach for bootstrapping EHR phenotyping algorithms in UKB EHR, and (b) to evaluate our approach by implementing and evaluating phenotypes for 31 common biomarkers. Materials and Methods We describe an algorithmic approach to phenotyping biomarkers in primary care EHR involving (a) bootstrapping definitions using existing phenotypes, (b) excluding generic, rare, or semantically distant terms, (c) forward-mapping terminology terms, (d) expert review, and (e) data extraction. We evaluated the phenotypes by assessing the ability to reproduce known epidemiological associations with all-cause mortality using Cox proportional hazards models. Results We created and evaluated phenotyping algorithms for 31 biomarkers many of which are directly related to COVID-19 complications, for example diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease. Our algorithm identified 1651 Read v2 and Clinical Terms Version 3 terms and automatically excluded 1228 terms. Clinical review excluded 103 terms and included 44 terms, resulting in 364 terms for data extraction (sensitivity 0.89, specificity 0.92). We extracted 38 190 682 events and identified 220 978 participants with at least one biomarker measured. Discussion and conclusion Bootstrapping phenotyping algorithms from similar EHR can potentially address pre-existing methodological concerns that undermine the outputs of biomarker discovery pipelines and provide research-quality phenotyping algorithms.


Author(s):  
Anne Bukten ◽  
Marianne Riksheim Stavseth

Abstract Background People in prison have an extremely high risk of suicide. The aim of this paper is to describe all suicides in the Norwegian prison population from 2000 to 2016, during and following imprisonment; to investigate the timing of suicides; and to investigate the associations between risk of suicide and types of crime. Methods We used data from the Norwegian Prison Release study (nPRIS) including complete national register data from the Norwegian Prison Register and the Norwegian Cause of Death Register in the period 1.1.2000 to 31.12.2016, consisting of 96,856 individuals. All suicides were classified according to ICD-10 codes X60-X84. We calculated crude mortality rates (CMRs) per 100,000 person-years and used a Cox Proportional-Hazards regression model to investigate factors associated with suicide during imprisonment and after release reported as hazard ratios (HRs). Results Suicide accounted for about 10% of all deaths in the Norwegian prison population and was the leading cause of death in prison (53% of in deaths in prison). The CMR per 100,000 person years for in-prison suicides was 133.8 (CI 100.5–167.1) and was ten times higher (CMR = 1535.0, CI 397.9–2672.2) on day one of incarceration. Suicides after release (overall CMR = 82.8, CI 100.5–167.1) also peaked on day one after release (CMR = 665.7, CI 0–1419.1). Suicide in prison was strongly associated with convictions of homicide (HR 18.2, CI 6.5–50.8) and high-security prison level (HR 15.4, CI 3.6–65.0). Suicide after release was associated with convictions of homicide (HR 3.1, CI 1.7–5.5). Conclusion There is a high risk of suicide during the immediate first period of incarceration and after release. Convictions for severe violent crime, especially homicide, are associated with increased suicide risk, both in prison and after release.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milada Cvancarova ◽  
Sven Ove Samuelsen ◽  
Henriette Magelssen ◽  
Sophie Dorothea Fosså

Purpose Most studies on postcancer reproduction are limited in patient numbers and lack of control group. We have computed 10-year first postdiagnosis cumulative reproduction rates (10-PDRs) and hazard ratios (HRs) avoiding these limitations. Patients and Methods Six thousand seventy-one patients with cancer age 15 to 45 years at diagnosis, treated from 1971 to 1997, and 30,355 controls from the general population, all born after 1950, were observed from the true (patients) or assigned (controls) date of diagnosis for a median of 10 years (range, 0 to 35). The primary focus of the study was the 10-PDR before and after 1988+ based on data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Cox proportional hazards regression models were adjusted for age and calendar year at diagnosis, stratified by sex and prediagnosis parenthood. Results Across all cancer types, HRs of females were approximately 50% lower than those of the controls, the comparable percentage for male patients being approximately 30%, with some improvement after 1988+ for selected diagnoses. The highest 10-PDRs were observed in childless patients, with more favorable HRs in male than in female patients. In survivors with at least one child at diagnosis, the post-1988+ HRs improved significantly in patients with testicular and localized cervical cancer compared to pre-1988+ reproduction, with borderline improvement in localized ovarian cancer. Conclusion Postcancer reproduction is lower than that of the general population and influenced by sex, age at diagnosis, prediagnosis parenthood, and diagnostic period with more favorable rates in males than in females. Post-1988+ fertility-saving strategies may have improved the reproduction rates for select genital cancers.


Author(s):  
Ma Cherrysse Ulsa ◽  
Xi Zheng ◽  
Peng Li ◽  
Arlen Gaba ◽  
Patricia M Wong ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Delirium is a distressing neurocognitive disorder recently linked to sleep disturbances. However, the longitudinal relationship between sleep and delirium remains unclear. This study assessed the associations of poor sleep burden, and its trajectory, with delirium risk during hospitalization. Methods 321,818 participants from the UK Biobank (mean age 58±8y[SD]; range 37-74y) reported (2006-2010) sleep traits (sleep duration, excessive daytime sleepiness, insomnia-type complaints, napping, and chronotype–a closely-related circadian measure for sleep timing), aggregated into a sleep burden score (0-9). New-onset delirium (n=4,775) was obtained from hospitalization records during 12y median follow-up. 42,291 (mean age 64±8; range 44-83y) had repeat sleep assessment on average 8y after their first. Results In the baseline cohort, Cox proportional hazards models showed that moderate (aggregate scores=4-5) and severe (scores=6-9) poor sleep burden groups were 18% (hazard ratio 1.18 [95% confidence interval 1.08-1.28], p<0.001) and 57% (1.57 [1.38-1.80], p<0.001), more likely to develop delirium respectively. The latter risk magnitude is equivalent to two additional cardiovascular risks. These findings appeared robust when restricted to postoperative delirium and after exclusion of underlying dementia. Higher sleep burden was also associated with delirium in the follow-up cohort. Worsening sleep burden (score increase ≥2 vs. no change) further increased the risk for delirium (1.79 [1.23-2.62], p=0.002) independent of their baseline sleep score and time-lag. The risk was highest in those under 65y at baseline (p for interaction <0.001). Conclusion Poor sleep burden and worsening trajectory were associated with increased risk for delirium; promotion of sleep health may be important for those at higher risk.


Author(s):  
Lisa Nicole Sharwood ◽  
Taneal Wiseman ◽  
Emma Tseris ◽  
Kate Curtis ◽  
Bharat Vaikuntam ◽  
...  

IntroductionRisk of traumatic injury is increased in individuals with mental illness, substance use disorder and dual diagnosis (mental disorders); these conditions will pre-exist among individuals hospitalised with acute traumatic spinal injury (TSI). Although early intervention can improve outcomes for people who experience mental disorders or TSI, the incidence, management, and cost of this often complex comorbid health profile is not sufficiently understood. Objectives and ApproachIn a whole-population cohort of patients hospitalised with acute TSI, we aimed to describe the prevalence of pre-existing mental disorders, and compare differences in injury epidemiology, costs and inpatient allied health service access. Record-linkage study of all hospitalised cases of TSI between June 2013 and June 2016 in New South Wales, Australia. TSI was defined by specific ICD-10-AM codes. Mental disorder status was considered as pre-existing where specific ICD-10-AM codes were recorded in incident admissions. Results13,489 individuals sustained acute TSI during this study. 13.11%, 6.06%, and 1.82% had pre-existing mental illness, substance use disorder, and dual diagnosis, respectively. Individuals with mental disorder were older (p<0.001), more likely to have had a fall or self-harmed (p<0.001), experienced almost twice the length of stay and inpatient complications, and increased injury severity compared to individuals without mental disorder (p<0.001). Conclusion / ImplicationsIndividuals hospitalised for TSI with pre-existing mental disorder have greater likelihood of increased injury severity and more complex, costly acute care admissions compared to individuals without mental disorder. Care pathway optimisation including prevention of hospital acquired complications for people with pre-existing mental disorders hospitalised for TSI is warranted.


1999 ◽  
Vol 175 (6) ◽  
pp. 576-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Munro ◽  
Desmond O'Sullivan ◽  
Christopher Andrews ◽  
Alejandro Arana ◽  
Ann Mortimer ◽  
...  

BackgroundPeople prescribed clozapine for treatment-resistant schizophrenia have mandatory haematological monitoring through a case register for identifying reversible neutropenia.AimsTo quantify risk factors for agranulocytosis in subjects receiving clozapine.MethodData from 12 760 subjects registered to receive clozapine from January 1990 to April 1997 were analysed. Risk factors for agranulocytosis were quantified using a Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis.ResultsThe risk for agranulocytosis in Asian subjects was 2.4 times that in Caucasians (P=0.03). There was an age-related increase in risk of 53% per decade (P=0.0001).ConclusionsThe case register yielded valuable information for guiding research into the causes of the haematological reactions.


Circulation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengkun Chen ◽  
Ning Ding ◽  
Lena Mathews ◽  
Ron C Hoogeveen ◽  
Christie M Ballantyne ◽  
...  

Introduction: Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) is a marker of oxidative stress and inflammation and has been associated with several cardiovascular disease (CVD) phenotypes. However, conflicting results have been reported regarding the association of GDF-15 with incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in the general population. Hypotheses: Higher GDF-15 level is associated with increased risk of incident AF independent of potential confounders. Methods: In 10,101 White and Black ARIC participants (mean age 60 years and 20.9% Blacks) free of AF at baseline (1993-95), we quantified the association of GDF-15 and incident AF using three Cox proportional hazards models. GDF-15 was measured by SOMA scan assay. AF was defined by hospitalizations with AF diagnosis or death certificates (ICD-9 codes: 427.31-427.32; ICD-10 codes: I48.x) or AF diagnosis by ECG at subsequent ARIC visits. Results: There were 2165 cases of incident AF over a median follow-up of 20.7 years (incidence rate 12.1 cases/1,000 person-years). After adjusting for demographic characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors, log GDF-15 was significantly associated with incident AF (hazard ratio 1.42 (1.25-1.63) for top vs. bottom quartile) (Model 1 in Table ). The result was robust even further adjusting for history of other CVD phenotypes and cardiac markers (Models 2 and 3 in Table ). In Model 3, quartiles of high-sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) did not demonstrate significant associations with incident AF. Conclusions: In community-based population, elevated GDF-15 level was independently and robustly associated with incident AF (even more strongly than troponin). These results suggest the involvement of GDF-15 in the development of AF and the potential of GDF-15 as a risk marker to identify individuals at high risk of AF.


2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Pinkerton ◽  
Stephen J Bertke ◽  
James Yiin ◽  
Matthew Dahm ◽  
Travis Kubale ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo update the mortality experience of a previously studied cohort of 29 992 US urban career firefighters compared with the US general population and examine exposure-response relationships within the cohort.MethodsVital status was updated through 2016 adding 7 years of follow-up. Cohort mortality compared with the US population was evaluated via life table analyses. Full risk-sets, matched on attained age, race, birthdate and fire department were created and analysed using the Cox proportional hazards regression to examine exposure-response associations between select mortality outcomes and exposure surrogates (exposed-days, fire-runs and fire-hours). Models were adjusted for a potential bias from healthy worker survivor effects by including a categorical variable for employment duration.ResultsCompared with the US population, mortality from all cancers, mesothelioma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and cancers of the oesophagus, intestine, rectum, lung and kidney were modestly elevated. Positive exposure-response relationships were observed for deaths from lung cancer, leukaemia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).ConclusionsThis update confirms previous findings of excess mortality from all cancers and several site-specific cancers as well as positive exposure-response relations for lung cancer and leukaemia. New findings include excess NHL mortality compared with the general population and a positive exposure-response relationship for COPD. However, there was no evidence of an association between any quantitative exposure measure and NHL.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 1001-1010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel A. Silver ◽  
Ziv Harel ◽  
Eric McArthur ◽  
Danielle M. Nash ◽  
Rey Acedillo ◽  
...  

Mortality after AKI is high, but the causes of death are not well described. To better understand causes of death in patients after a hospitalization with AKI and to determine patient and hospital factors associated with mortality, we conducted a population-based study of residents in Ontario, Canada, who survived a hospitalization with AKI from 2003 to 2013. Using linked administrative databases, we categorized cause of death in the year after hospital discharge as cardiovascular, cancer, infection-related, or other. We calculated standardized mortality ratios to compare the causes of death in survivors of AKI with those in the general adult population and used Cox proportional hazards modeling to estimate determinants of death. Of the 156,690 patients included, 43,422 (28%) died in the subsequent year. The most common causes of death were cardiovascular disease (28%) and cancer (28%), with respective standardized mortality ratios nearly six-fold (5.81; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 5.70 to 5.92) and eight-fold (7.87; 95% CI, 7.72 to 8.02) higher than those in the general population. The highest standardized mortality ratios were for bladder cancer (18.24; 95% CI, 17.10 to 19.41), gynecologic cancer (16.83; 95% CI, 15.63 to 18.07), and leukemia (14.99; 95% CI, 14.16 to 15.85). Along with older age and nursing home residence, cancer and chemotherapy strongly associated with 1-year mortality. In conclusion, cancer-related death was as common as cardiovascular death in these patients; moreover, cancer-related deaths occurred at substantially higher rates than in the general population. Strategies are needed to care for and counsel patients with cancer who experience AKI.


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