Long term relations between earthquake experiences and coronary heart disease risk factors.

The authors analyzed the relations between a variety of earthquake-related experiences incurred in 1983-1984 (financial loss, evacuation, indices of disruption of social networks) and coronary heart disease risk factors (heart rate, blood pressure, total serum cholesterol) assessed in 1987 among 693 Italian male factory workers. Multivariate analyses (adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, and educational level) revealed no long term relations between the quake-related experiences and blood pressure or cholesterol level. However, higher resting heart rates were observed for individuals who reported financial loss, increased distance from family/friends, or decreased visiting as a result of relocation after the quakes. Findings were unchanged after further adjustment for self-reported psychological distress (assessed using the global symptom index of the Symptom Checklist). These findings, while limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data, suggest that a number of psychosocial consequences of relocation due to a natural disaster are unrelated in the long term to coronary heart disease risk factors, except for small but significant differences in heart rate among individuals who have experienced financial loss and/or social network disruptions.

Short- and long-term association between uric acid and a natural disaster.

OBJECTIVE: This paper analyzes the longitudinal relationship between serum uric acid level and a natural disaster. METHODS: The sample consists of factory workers who were participating in a longitudinal epidemiological study of coronary heart disease risk factors. Participants were seen in 1975 (baseline), 1980 (5 year follow-up), and 1987 (12 year follow-up). The 5 year (1980) follow-up examination was interrupted by a major earthquake and resumed 2 weeks after the quake. At this examination, participants seen after the quake had, on the average, significantly lower serum uric acid than those seen before the earthquake. In 1987 (7 years after the quake), participants were questioned whether or not (in their own perception) they were still suffering from damages due to the 1980 earthquake. RESULTS: At the examination in 1987, participants who reported suffering from damage due to the 1980 quake showed on the average significantly increased serum uric acid compared with participants who reported not suffering from damages due to the 1980 quake. The analyses of the data of 578 individuals who participated in all three examinations confirmed these findings and showed that they were independent from levels of uric acid measured prior to the disaster. CONCLUSIONS: The reason for this apparent different association with uric acid and acute and long-term exposure to the quake remains to be clarified but these findings are consistent with the existence of diverse patterns of physiologic response to different stressors.

Baldness and coronary heart disease risk factors.

The present report focuses on the association between baldness pattern and coronary heart disease risk factors in 872 male factory workers from southern Italy participating in an epidemiological study. Participants were divided according to presence or absence of baldness and baldness pattern. Participants with fronto-occipital baldness (male-type baldness) (n = 280) characterized by hair loss centered over the vertex with an m-shaped frontal-temporal recession had, on the average, higher serum cholesterol and blood pressure compared to participants with no baldness (n = 321) and/or participants with just frontal baldness (n = 273). For serum cholesterol, a significant interaction was detected between age and fronto-occipital baldness (i.e. the association between fronto-occipital baldness and elevated levels of serum cholesterol became weaker with age). No interaction was detectable between age and fronto-occipital baldness for blood pressure. The results of this cross-sectional study indicate that male-type pattern of baldness is associated with elevated CHD risk profile, and that this relation between age and serum cholesterol differs in younger compared to older men.

Short-term effect of natural disasters on coronary heart disease risk factors.

In this analysis of the data from a longitudinal study on coronary heart disease risk factors, it was found that participants screened a few weeks after a major disaster (earthquake) had a higher heart rate, serum cholesterol levels, and serum triglyceride levels than matched participants that were screened shortly before the catastrophic event. The two groups of participants did not differ with regard to their characteristics at the baseline examination carried out 5 years previously. The lack of difference in blood pressure between exposed and nonexposed participants could be explained by the lag-time between the earthquake and the blood pressure measurements. We conclude that the acute stress associated with major disasters can influence risk factors for coronary heart disease. Permanent elevation of these risk factors due to the disruption of the social environment of the individuals affected by major disasters might be responsible for the apparent long-term adverse effects on cardiovascular mortality discussed previously in the literature.