Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4)

The Epidemic of Obesity in Children and Adolescents in the World

Rena I. Kosti, Demosthenes B. Panagiotakos

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):151-159 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3398  

The prevalence of obesity has reached alarming levels, affecting virtually both developed and developing countries of all socio-economic groups, irrespective of age, sex or ethnicity. Concerning childhood obesity, it has been estimated that worldwide over 22 million children under the age of 5 are severely overweight, and one in 10 children are overweight. This global average reflects a wide range of prevalence levels, with the prevalence of overweight in Africa and Asia averaging well below 10% and in the Americas and Europe above 20%. The proportion of school-age children affected will almost double by 2010 compared with the most recently available...

Socio-demographic Status and Alcohol Drinking Patterns among Greek Healthy Adults

Pandelis Pazarlis, Davide Mauri, Ivan Cortinovis, Konstantinos Katsigiannopoulos, Paraskevi Alevizaki, Georgios Koukourakis, Giovanni Casazza, Konstantinos Kamposioras, Ioanna Chatziioannou, Athansios Milousis, Anastasios Papakonstantinou, Ioanna Karathanasi, George Alexiou, Anastasios Proiskos, Zoi Mitrogianni, Christina Peponi

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):160-167 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3392  

Aim: To analyze socio-demographic correlates of alcohol drinking among Greek healthy adults.Methods: Data related to alcohol consumption patterns of 5,500 adult individuals, coming from 26 Hellenic provinces were abstracted from SESy-Europe database within a framework of the nationwide Hellenic anticancer-trial PACMeR 02 study. Statistic: χ2 test and logistic regression analyses were used.Results: 42.5% of males and 82.5% of females did not consume alcoholic drinks. Among users, daily alcohol assumption was 28.50 g/day for men and 9.85 g/day for women. The mainland population presented higher proportions for both abstainers and moderate-heavy...

Molecular Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in the Czech Republic, 2004: Analysis of M. tuberculosis Complex Isolates Originating from the City of Prague, South Moravia and the Moravian-Silesian Region

Wolfgang M. Prodinger, Vladimír Polanecký, Bohumila Kozáková, Maria Müllerová, Lev Mezenský, Jarmila Kaustová, Carolin Lechleitner, Milan Kubín

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):168-174 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3389  

Objectives: To compare M. tuberculosis complex genotypes from representative regions of the Czech Republic in order to estimate changes in strain prevalence and in the extent of imported drug-resistant tuberculosis.Methods: Primary M. tuberculosis complex isolates (n = 155) and follow-up isolates (n = 15) from 155 patients from the first half of 2004 (98 from Prague, 37 from South Moravia and 35 from the Moravian-Silesian region) were genotyped by IS6110-RFLP, spoligotyping, and partly by VNTR-genotyping.Results: Based on IS6110-RFLP, 110 of 155 (71%) primary isolates were unique. Forty-five isolates (29 %) were found in 15 clusters comprising...

Tobacco Industry Documents from Outside Sources: New Perspectives on Industry Strategies on Local Levels

Heikki Hiilamo, Norbert Hirschhorn

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):175-179 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3391  

The internal tobacco industry documents have also been used to study tobacco industry operations outside the United States. The scope of the documents on a country outside the US is decided mainly by the extent to which documents and reports were transmitted from the abroad offices of the US tobacco companies to headquarters. We explored whether the material from a private archive of a Finnish public relation consultant to Philip Morris will augment or revise the earlier reports on tobacco industry manipulation in Finland. The private records add more details to previously published reports. The new information mainly concerned implementation of the...

Trends in Respiratory Morbidity of Children in Relation to their Passive Smoking Exposure

Lubomír Kukla, Drahoslava Hrubá, Mojmír Tyrlík

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):180-185 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3386  

Aims: Exposure of children to passive smoking is significantly associated with respiratory morbidity. Youngest children between 0-2 years are harmed in the most significant way, while, together with the growing age a decrease is observed of prevalence of respiratory diseases and influence of passive smoking.Methods: During repeated investigations of children from European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) it was assessed, whether and how in the period from the birth to five years of age varied the rate of children exposed to environment filled with smoke and what were the differences in the frequency of diseases among the groups...

Blood Pressure Response to Exercise Test and Serum Lipids in Normotensive Men with Positive Family History of Hypertension

Christo Deyanov, Katia Vangelova

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):186-188 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a1148  

The aim of the study was to follow the arterial blood pressure response to exercise test and serum lipids in middle-aged normotensive men with family history (FH) of arterial hypertension. 152 normotensive men, divided into two groups: I group - 92 men without FH for arterial hypertension and II group - 60 men with family history for arterial hypertension were investigated. The response of blood pressure to exercise test on bicycle ergometer with progressively increasing workload up to 100 W was followed up. Five minute recovery period was followed, too. The total cholesterol (TC), high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C and LDL-C)...

Orofacial Dysfunctions, Drinking Regimen and Quality of Life - Long-term Prospective Study

Alexandra Pilinová, Eva Matejičková, Erika Lenčová, Jana Foltinová, Jiří Píša

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):189-192 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3381  

The care for mentally ill patients with combined impairment deals with orofacial dysfunctions of the mentally ill, especially children suffering from Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.Objective of the study was to assess urine fluoride excretion in disabled patients with orofacial dysfunctions in relation to prevention of dental caries. The urine fluoride concentrations in disabled people were analysed to assess their fluoride exposure and possibly preventive contribution of fluoride intake.The patients for the study were recruited from the clients of three day-stay establishments from two regions in the Czech Republic. All the clients from...

Sexual Development and Behaviour Issues in Polish Teenage Magazines

Marek S. Kopacz

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):193-199 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3397  

Introduction: Adolescents often look to mass media for information regarding issues of sexuality. As one form of media, teenage magazines have long constituted a pervasive and effective element of adolescent media exposure. Teenage magazines discuss a number of aspects concerning adolescent sexuality. Considering their potential impact on health related behaviors, the information they provide and the message(s) they send warrant attention.Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to perform a content analysis of sexual development and behavior information presented in Polish teenage magazines. Social Cognitive Theory was used as a theoretical basis...

The Case of the Silesian Regional Sickness Fund - Did "Social Capital" Determine the Success of Health Reform in the Silesian Voivodeship, Poland?

Krzysztof Krajewski-Siuda, Piotr Romaniuk, Krzysztof Kaczmarek

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):200-207 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3383  

The paper is an effort to find what determined the success of Polish health reform implemented in 1999 in the Silesian Voivodeship. The problem has been referred to "social capital" proposed by R. Putnam; the first part of the article contains a short description of this approach. Then data concerning health insurance performance in Poland are presented, which confirm that the Silesian Regional Sickness Fund functioned most effectively. As a possible factor influencing present decentralised institutions performance, the situation of the Silesian Region during the mid-war period was described. Autonomy of the region, as well as tradition of social voluntary...

Almost a quarter of all disease is caused by environmental exposure.

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):159, 167, 188

HEALTH CARE 21 - CURRENT AND FUTURE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Jaroslav Volf

Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):207-208