Stockholm County Council

About: Stockholm County Council is a government organization based out in Stockholm, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 1410 authors who have published 2429 publications receiving 78936 citations.

Female suicides and alcohol consumption during perestroika in the former USSR

Abstract: During 1984-1990, a decline in suicide rates of 32% for males and 19% for females took place in the former Soviet Union. The observed annual decrease in mortality from suicide was most marked for men in 1984-1986 and for women in 1984-1988. This article illuminates the hypothesis that the restrictive anti-alcohol campaign initiated by Gorbachev on 1 June 1985, in which prices of alcoholic beverages were raised substantially, had an impact on female mortality from suicide in the former Soviet Union. Data regarding alcohol consumption, female violent death (n = 451,537), suicide (n = 94,149), death due to accidental alcohol poisoning (n = 28,078), and undetermined death, whether accidental or self-inflicted (n = 23,982) were analysed for three Slavic (Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine), three Baltic (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and two Central Asian republics (Kazakhstan and Kirgizia). Regression analyses with alcohol consumption as the independent variable and female suicide rates and female violent-death rates as dependent variables showed that suicide and alcohol consumption, as well as violent death and alcohol consumption, were positively correlated. However, alcohol seems to have a lower explanatory value for female suicides and female violent deaths compared with male suicides and male violent deaths. The attributable fraction of alcohol for female suicides in the whole USSR (27%) is estimated at approximately half of that for male suicides (50%).

The costs of atopy and asthma in children: Assessment of direct costs and their determinants in a birth cohort

Abstract: The aim of this study was to estimate costs accrued by the health care of children with asthma in comparison to children with atopic eczema and seasonal rhinitis and to investigate cost determinants. From the multicenter cohort study (MAS-90), we selected children with an asthma, atopic eczema and/or seasonal rhinitis diagnosis during the first 8 years of life, and overall 8-year health care utilization was estimated retrospectively by reviewing medical records. Asthma treatment (n = 76) incurs an average cost of 627 US dollars per year, 44% due to hospital stays. Atopic eczema treatment (n = 91) cost on average 219 US dollars and seasonal rhinitis (n = 69) 57 US dollars per year. In asthma and atopic eczema, costs increase significantly with disease severity. Allergy diagnostics use accounts for only 1% of total costs. Costs for asthma and atopic eczema treatment are highest in those years when topical steroids are used for the first time, but decrease with every further year of steroid use. A remarkable 25% of asthmatic children with severe symptoms were not treated according to national guidelines, so that most steroid treatment was initiated during the first hospital stay. In the case of asthma, total direct costs increased until the 3rd year of the disease, and then decreased with further years of diagnosis, while steroid use continued to increase. These results indicate a 'learning effect' in the treatment of asthma and atopic eczema for each patient as well as considerable cost-saving potential by preventing severe asthma. Moreover, the importance of considering cost-driving factors and using cohort or longitudinal designs in cost-of-illness approaches is emphasized.

A population-based heritability estimate of bipolar disorder - In a Swedish twin sample.

Abstract: Twin- and family studies have shown variations in the heritability estimates of bipolar disorder (BPD). The current study uses an updated statistical methodology for heritability estimation in BPD by taking available time of follow-up into account while controlling for co-variates. We identified monozygotic and dizygotic same and different sex twins with BPD ( n = 804) or unaffected from BPD ( n = 91,604) from the Swedish Twin Register and the National Patient Register. We applied structural equational modeling with inversed probability weighting to estimate the heritability, taking into account censoring and truncation of data. Sex-limitation models were constructed to analyze qualitative or quantitative sex-differences in BPD. Heritability for BPD was 60.4% (95% Confidence Interval: 50.3–70.5) after age, sex, left-hand truncation and censoring of the data was taken into account. A larger proportion of females were affected from BPD (females 62.2%; males 37.8%, p