Subject(s)
Health Care Costs , Physical Fitness , Canada , Exercise , Government Programs , Humans , Life Style , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to determine if the Healthier People Health Risk Appraisal and the RiskPlan Report, two different methods for measuring health risks of an employee population, produce the same estimates of health risk prevalence. METHODS: The prevalence of each of seven risk factors, directly measured by the Healthier People Health Risk Appraisal and predicted by the RiskPlan Report using demographic and normative data, were compared for a group of 239 employees participating in a voluntary health screening. Further, the 239 participants and 426 nonparticipants were compared with respect to demographic factors gleaned from personnel records, and risk factor prevalence derived from the RiskPlan Report. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in the prevalence of six of the seven risk factors measured by the Healthier People Health Risk Appraisal and predicted by the RiskPlan Report. Also, risk factor prevalence predicted by the RiskPlan Report was not significantly different in the participants and nonparticipants although three critical sociodemographic variables were significantly different. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that the prevalence of health risks based on normative data and the demographic profile of a population are not similar to those directly measured, and some doubt is raised about predicting health risks based on these data.
Subject(s)
Demography , Health Promotion/methods , Health Status Indicators , Occupational Health , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Female , Health Behavior , Health Promotion/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Risk Factors , TexasABSTRACT
The projected incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in male firefighters was determined by the prevalence of current CVD risk factors and the use of the Framingham Study general cardiovascular risk profile in a probability sample of firefighters from two municipal fire departments. Hypercholesterolemia (60.9%) and obesity (56.0%) were the most prevalent risk factors. Significant age-related trends were observed for the prevalence of all CVD risk factors, except glucose intolerance (P = .21) and an abnormal resting electrocardiogram (P = .07). The projected incidence of CVD in firefighters did not differ from that of the general male population (relative risk, 1.0; 95% confidence interval, 0.7 to 1.4); similar risk estimates were observed in age-specific analyses. These findings are in accord with previous incidence and mortality studies that used circulatory diseases as an end point. The present method should be viewed primarily as a hypothesis-generating tool because of its limitations in assessing cause and effect.
Subject(s)
Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology , Occupational Diseases/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Cross-Sectional Studies , Exercise Test , Humans , Hypercholesterolemia/epidemiology , Male , Obesity/epidemiology , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Translation in vitro of messenger RNA obtained from preparations of active polysomes isolated from the epidermal basal, spinous, and granular cells of the newborn rat has provided evidence that in the context of differentiation in this tissue, control of protein synthesis is exerted at the level of transcription. The data supporting this hypothesis are reviewed.
