Problem In Preventive Medicine Research Articles

Features of total and longitudinal body sizes in men with benign nevi

The use of anthropometric markers to predict the onset or severity of the disease is key to solving the problem of preventive medicine and can be an indispensable tool in preventive examinations in schools, universities and industries. The purpose of the study was to establish total and longitudinal body sizes in men of the first mature age with benign nevi. Anthropometry (determination of total and longitudinal body sizes) was performed according to Bunak’s scheme for men (aged 22-35 years) patients with melanocytic benign simple nevi (n=34), melanocytic benign dysplastic nevi (n=27), melanocytic benign congenital nevi (n=14) and non-melanocytic benign nevi (n=17). As a control from the data bank of the research center of National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya selected total and longitudinal body sizes of 82 practically healthy men of the same age group. Statistical processing of the obtained results was performed in the license package “Statistica 5.5” using non-parametric evaluation methods. It was found that the mass and surface area of the body in healthy men is lower than in patients (except for dysplastic nevi), and in patients with dysplastic nevi – lower than in patients with non-melanocytic nevi; the height of the suprathoracic, acromial and finger anthropometric points in healthy men is lower than in patients with nevi (except for the acromial point height in patients with dysplastic nevi), and the height of the pubic and acetabular anthropometric points – in healthy men is greater than in patients with simple (only pubic point) and dysplastic nevi; in addition, the height of the pubic and acetabular anthropometric points in patients with simple nevi is lower than in patients with non-melanocytic nevi and congenital nevi (only for the acetabulum height). Given the height of anthropometric points and the fact that body length between healthy and sick men has no significant or tendency differences, in sick men we observe a longer torso and shorter lower extremities (most pronounced in patients with simple and dysplastic nevi), which is a manifestation of “subpathological” constitutional types, which indicate a longer torso and shorter lower extremities.

Edward Ballard and the Practice of Epidemiology in the 19th-Century United Kingdom.

This article recovers the history of Victorian epidemiology through the career of British physician Edward Ballard (1820-1897). Ballard's career provides a useful window into the practices of epidemiology in the 19th century because he held notable public health posts as medical officer of health for Islington and inspector at the Medical Department of the Local Government Board. By the time of his death, in 1897, he typified the transition toward professional epidemiology. In exploring some of the most important environmental and health-related problems in preventive medicine in the 19th century, Ballard was part of a group of influential epidemiologists who studied infectious disease. In particular, he was noted for his research into typhoid fever and industrial health. Yet Ballard's career has largely been forgotten. In this article, I explore Ballard's work as a window into the everyday practices of Victorian epidemiology and suggest that the process of professionalizing epidemiology in the 20th century was about forgetting epidemiology's Victorian past as much as it was about championing it.

Software Implementation of Numerical Method for Optimal Control in Problems of Preventive Medicine

Software Implementation of Numerical Method for Optimal Control in Problems of Preventive Medicine

The clinical-genetic monitoring of cancer of female reproductive organs as a problem of preventive medicine

99mTc-MIBI is currently used, for cardiac investigations, for parathyroid thyroid imaging and evaluation of various tumours. It has been demonstrated that 99mTc-MIBI is specifically taken up by the human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBL), cells which are known to be highly radiosensitive. To evaluate the possible chromosomal damage induced on HPBL by their in vitro exposure to increasing activities of 99mTc-MIBI and also to establish whether HPBL undergo apoptosis or necrosis after in vitro exposure to 99mTc-MIBI. Blood from two healthy donors were irradiated, incubated in vitro with increasing activities of 99mTc-MIBI corresponding to absorbed doses ranging from 1 μGy, 100 μGy, 1 cGy, 10 cGy, 50 cGy to 1 Gy. The cytokinesis block micronucleus (MN) assay was used and the frequency of binucleated cells (BN) with MN (MNBN) was analyzed in cultured HPBL (in either the G0- or G1- and S1-phase of the cell cycle). The fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with pancentromeric probes was also applied to study the MN regarding whole chromosomes or acentric fragments. Apoptosis induction by 0.1 Gy of 99mTc-MIBI in HPBL was quantified using annexin-V test. The frequencies of MNBC were similar in control cultures and in HBPL cultures exposed to 1 μGy, 100 μGy and 1 cGy. However, they were significantly higher (P<0.05 versus controls and lower doses) after one treatment exposure to 0.25 mCi of 99mTc-MIBI (corresponding to 10 cGy) or more but the percentages of MNBN with 10 cGy, 50 cGy and 1 Gy did not differ significantly. The increase of MNBN was more pronounced (P<0.05) for cells irradiated during G1 phase than for those irradiated during G0 or S1. Using FISH, 80–90% of the MN were centromere negative. Although small, the absolute number of MN positive for centromeric signal and presumably containing whole chromosomes increased with doses. There is a statistically significant (P=0.001 and 0.006) increase of both apoptotic cells and necrosis, respectively, as compared to control cells in two times studied (24 and 36 h). Chromosomic damages can thus be demonstrated in HPBL after in vitro exposure of blood to at least 0.25 mCi of 99mTc-MIBI corresponding to one absorbed dose of 10 cGy, and for this dose, apoptosis and necrosis phenomenons were detected.

On the shoulders of giants: Molecular Biology in Public Health

We accepted with great pleasure the invitation by professor Walter Ricciardi,our friend and colleague, to write an editorial in order to introduce this special issue dedicated to Molecular Biology in Hygiene. We are delighted for two connected reasons. First, Carmine,as a former professor of Hygiene,has passed his concepts of Hygiene on to his family and, despite significant difficulties, keeps working on the problems of preventive medicine in the work environment and in geriatrics. Second, Gerry, raised in an environment of hygienists, has dedicated all his professional efforts to Molecular Biology. As these two distinct experiences have constantly mixed within our family over time, we appreciate the promiscuous intermingling of these two disciplines in this thematic issue. The result is a useful common effort aiming at understanding the problems of diseases in the work environment and in the human environment in general. These problems have a profound social meaning, for which it is necessary to create an essential collaboration with scientific research. This is the only way to benefit human society.

Stability of Specialty Preferences Among Medical School Graduates

To the Editor.— The article by Babbott et al 1 points out the substantial effects that medical schools have on specialty selection. While many will focus on the shift out of the primary care specialties, the most alarming shifts occurred in the field of public health. While 290 people indicated a preference for public health as premedical students, only 18 senior students indicated such a preference, a 94% drop. Moreover, the field had the lowest rate of stable preferences, 1%. Unfortunately, the authors do not comment on these results, which shed light on some of the current problems in preventive medicine and public health. Why is there such a mass turning away from public health as a career choice during medical school? One possibility is that students who believe in the value of preventive efforts to promote health are turned off from this as a career by the process of

Trends in the Therapy for Mild Hypertension

The management of mild essential hypertension is a fundamental problem in preventive medicine. Mild hypertension is defined as diastolic BP between 90 and 104 mm Hg. It occurs in an estimated 20% of the adult population or 75% of the 60 million Americans with hypertension. Data from various actuarial tables and the Framingham study¹clearly indicate increased cardiovascular risks in these subjects. Accordingly, one might predict that treatment to normalize BP would result in substantial benefit. Indeed, several large-scale clinical trials of pharmacologic intervention have shown reductions in cardiovascular and noncardiovascular morbidity and mortality. These studies²have frequently been cited as the rationale for aggressive pharmacologic treatment of mild hypertension. However, drug therapy is costly and frequently produces unacceptable side effects. The Australian trial³reported fewer cardiovascular complications in patients whose diastolic BP spontaneously fell below 100 mm Hg while receiving a placebo, compared with patients whose

47 THE EFFECTS OF PARENTAL COOPERATION ON MAINTENANCE CF WEIGHT LOSS IN OBESE CHILDREN

Maintenance of health behavior change is one of the most difficult problems in preventive medicine. The present study evaluated the effects of including obese parents as weight loss participants in the treatment of obese 6-12 year old children. Seventy-six families with at least one obese child and parent were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: Group I included both the parent and child as weight loss targets; Group II had only the child as the target, and Group III did not specify either as the target. Participants were provided an eight-month behaviorally oriented treatment designed to change both eating and exercise habits, and a two year follow-up. Child results showed highly significant (p<.01) changes from pretreatment to the 8 month follow-up in relative weight across all three groups, with Groups I (17.1%) and II (18.7%) showing superior changes compared to Group III (13.8%). At the two year follow-up, all groups were still significantly less (10%) than at pretreatment, with no differences across groups. However, very different patterns of maintenance emerged, with all the children in Group I who were non-obese at the 8 month point still non-obese (7/7), while 40% of children in Groups II (4/10) and III (2/5) were still non-obese (p<.05). These results clearly show that weight loss can be maintained in obese pre-adolescents, and that active parental involvement is an important component.

Smoking and Health: What Can Social Psychology Contribute?

The challenge cigarette smoking poses to preventive medicine is too familiar to require restatement; what is less clear is how prevention is to be achieved. As in many other areas of preventive medicine, success is likely to depend on both legislative and governmental action, on the one hand, and on individual behavior, on the other. Governments have available to them a range of powers by which, for example, the price of cigarettes could be increased and the advertising of tobacco products curtailed or prohibited, yet these powers are typically underused. (To what extent this is due to the political influence of the tobacco industry is not for this paper to examine.) In the absence of governmental action, members of the smoking public might be forgiven for assuming that if smoking were truly as dangerous as people say, the government would do more about it. In view of these circumstances, there is a real danger that research into methods of health education and persuasion may be little more than an expression of tokenism. Cigarette smoking is distinguishable from a number of other problems in preventive medicine in that its dangers are almost entirely self-inflicted. If a factory manager does not maintain his machinery in accordance with industrial health and safety regulations, it is he who is responsible rather than the individual operator who is injured. A family living in a town without proper public sanitation will be at risk from infection even if it personally maintains what elsewhere would be considered scrupulous standards of hygiene. But with cigarette smoking, it would seem, it is the smoker who chooses to smoke; and (with the important exception

Periodontal disease and prevention in children and adolescents

Clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that: 1. Bacterial plaque which accumulates around the teeth is responsible for chronic periodontal inflammation. From adolescence on, this inflammation is almost universal. 2. Gingivitis prepares the periodontitis, which is characterized by a migration of the epithelial attachment, pocket formation and progressive bone loss. 3. Calculus is formed by plaque calcification. Its rough surface allows bacterial retention and proliferation in contact with the epithelial covering. 4. The mechanisms of host resistance to parasitic plaque are mostly unknown. This resistance is variable and seems to decrease with age. 5. Periodontal disease in children and adolescents is a real problem in preventive medicine, because of its immediate or remote consequences on tooth loss. Thanks to fluoride, the prevention of dental caries is quite effective; the prevention of periodontal disease is on the contrary much more difficult. Mechanical removal of plaque is tedious and must be done again and again; however, it is not logical to separate prevention of caries from that of periodontal disease. Information of the public at large on oral health is of utmost importance, as well as a good cooperation of the teachers in preventive programs for schoolchildren. Every health department or service should try to apply the following measures: -Permanent employments for "school dental nurses" should be created, on a part-time or full-time basis. They should take care of the organisation and supervision of oral health programs. -In each school dental service, a dentist should be responsible for teaching the theoretical and practical aspects of periodontal prevention. -Caries reduction obtained by fluorides is no excuse to reduce the "treatment staff". This staff should be devoted to prevention at large and to refreshing courses. In a young population with regular supervision, prevention of periodontal disease can meet with considerable success. Initial periodontal disease is reversible: it is possible to avoid the degradation of gingivitis in progressive periodontitis, and this helps maintaining dental and periodontal health throughout life.

Clinical Problems of Preventive Medicine

(1975). Clinical Problems of Preventive Medicine. World's Poultry Science Journal: Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 104-115.

Hypertension Management Program in an Industrial Community

Detection and adequate management of patients with high blood pressure remain major problems in preventive medicine in the United States. We utilized community physicians, medical center planning, and organization of existing community resources to develop a model blood pressure control program in a rural area 200 miles from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. One thousand seven hundred forty subjects were screened for the presence of elevated blood pressure. One hundred four subjects were found to have elevated blood pressure after three determinations and were classified into groups for further treatment. Follow-up on 102 of these subjects showed that 88% saw their physician within two months and 86% were being followed-up regularly after one year by their community physicians. Eighty-six percent of the subjects with diastolic blood pressures greater than 100 mm Hg were still receiving drug therapy after one year follow-up.

Accidents—the foremost problem in preventive medicine

Accidents, heart disease, cancer and stroke are the four most important and unresolved problems in preventive medicine and, of these, accidents should be ranked first. We already know far more about how to prevent accidents than we know about how to prevent these diseases, but we are not applying what we know. This is a serious, major omission in preventive medicine on the part of all types of health workers. Accidents are considered under four main headings based on age groups: childhood, old age, teen-age and young adults, and the middle or “in-between” years. Illustrative accident problems common to all four, or largely limited to only one of these groups are described, with suggestions for positive action by health professionals. The consequences of continued neglect are implied; and the conviction is expressed that all health workers, and particularly preventive medicine experts, must greatly increase their knowledge, interest and endeavors in accident prevention.

The universal challenge.

While relatively few surgeons specialize in thermal injuries, rare is the surgeon who, at some time during his training or practice, has not been intrigued by a facet of the burned patient. Just what there is about thermal injury that makes its challenge so universal is often questioned. The actual number of deaths from burns is small in comparison to arteriosclerosis, and is even less than those due to other diseases such as cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, multiple sclerosis, or cirrhosis. The scientific mystery is certainly not as challenging as cancer, nor does burn research possess the Orwellian fascination inherent in the artificial organ and transplantation programs. It appears that the primary reason for the wide interest in the burned patient is in fact its universal challenge. From the obvious problems of resuscitation, shock, sepsis and plastic reconstruction to the less obvious, but equally important, problems of preventive medicine,

Leukemia as a problem in preventive medicine.

MY first choice of a subject for the Cutter Lecture on Preventive Medicine was naturally something from my own primary field of interest, viral disease. There was a disadvantage, however, that work on the public-health side of viral disease has become of rather minor interest in my own laboratory and not much that is new can be reported on our main topic of Murray Valley encephalitis.For the last two years, however, I have had to undertake the responsibility of acting as chairman to the Australian Government's National Radiation Advisory Committee, which is concerned with advising on the medical hazards . . .

A Pedigree of Multiple Polyposis of the Colon

Summary A kindred is described in which some 16 members are known to have multiple polyposis of the colon, with six additional persons very probably affected. The problems in preventive medicine raised by such families are briefly discussed.

Atomic energy in war and peace; medical aspects.

In this half-century year atomic energy has been available less than 10 years, but during that period it has grown to be a major force in research, in military strategy and in world politics. Hundreds of thousands of persons are concerned with one or another aspect of it directly, and hundreds of millions of persons are concerned with it indirectly. It is well worth while for the medical profession to take account of the situation today and, in reviewing some of the lessons that have been learned, to try to foresee some of the problems of the future. The development of the Atomic Energy Project, first in the Manhattan Engineering District and later in the Atomic Energy Commission, has given outstanding evidence that earnest and cooperative effort applied even to a virtually unknown problem of preventive medicine can result in the safe development of an enormous enterprise. By 1940 standards

THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL DISABILITY IN INDUSTRY

Physicians are fortunate that they have in the American Medical Association a forum before which they can discuss some of the diverse and interesting problems in the field of the protection of life and the preservation of health in industry. The Council on Industrial Health has served, and no doubt will continue to serve, in directing the attention and efforts of an ever increasing number of physicians to the important problems of preventive medicine in industry. There begins to be a fuller realization of the importance of these problems to the medical profession, industry and the nation as a whole. Under the chairmanship of Dr. Bartle, four phases of the problem of industrial ophthalmology are presented for consideration. The task set for me is an appraisal of the economic importance of visual disability in industry. Physicians are fortunate in having an opportunity to appraise this problem from several points of

DINITROPHENOL AND RAPIDLY DEVELOPING CATARACTS

Case Reports1 August 1935DINITROPHENOL AND RAPIDLY DEVELOPING CATARACTSW. W. BOARDMAN, M.D., F.A.C.P.W. W. BOARDMAN, M.D., F.A.C.P.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-9-2-195 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptChronic obesity decreases efficiency and shortens life expectancy, especially through the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The control of chronic obesity is therefore a definite and important problem in preventive medicine. Much has been written regarding the cause or causes of chronic obesity but, in the final analysis, obesity results from an excess of energy intake over the energy demands of the body. The control of obesity must lie in a reversal of this relationship with the creation of a deficit on the side of the intake as compared with the expenditure of energy.To obtain this result,... This content is PDF only. To continue reading please click on the PDF icon. Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: San Francisco, California*Received for publication June 24, 1935. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics Cited byZur Frage der Erzeugung der Dinitrophenolkatarakt im Tierversuch 1 August 1935Volume 9, Issue 2Page: 195-197KeywordsCardiovascular diseasesCataractsLife expectancyObesityPreventive medicine ePublished: 1 December 2008 Issue Published: 1 August 1935 PDF downloadLoading ...

Venereal Diseases: Part I: Syphilis

T HIS is not a treatise on venereal diseases; the subject is too broad and data too changing. Its object is to refresh the mind in regard to symptomatology and to focus attention upon the revolutionary aspects of diagnosis and treatment since the specific organisms which cause the infections have been isolated; also upon the need to stress, in the education of the general public, facts regarding the prevalence and menace of these diseases. Women especially have too long been kept in ignorance of their real nature. The nurse, whether a private duty, an institutional, or a public health nurse, holds a strategic position in this field of education because of her intimate contact with the family circle and the authority given her through her connection with the Department of Public Health. The venereal diseases are contagious diseases, all preventable, and at present they are considered a major problem in preventive medicine. In regard to their incidence, the New York State Department of Health, which co6perates with the U. S. Public Health Service at Washington, D. C., has issued a pamphlet through its Social Hygiene Division stating that venereal diseases headed the list of communicable diseases in New York State last year, and that they are most prevalent between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two, the very threshold of manhood and womanhood. From the Sanitary Code established by the Public Health Council of the State of New York we quote: