| 1. |
- Liedberg, Gunilla, 1951-
(författare)
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Women with fibromyalgia : Employment and daily life
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: The major symptoms of fibromyalgia have been shown to severely impact everyday activities. As a consequence, many women have problems remaining in a work role. Not being able to fulfil valued roles influences quality of life. Moreover, consequences in terms of high costs in compensation for reduced work ability are also of importance for society. Today, the number of young women diagnosed with fibromyalgia is increasing.Objectives: The general aim of this thesis was to increase and deepen knowledge of the life situation of women with fibromyalgia; to examine how to manage a work role when in constant pain, and especially the situation for newly-diagnosed women.Subjects and Methods: 278 women with longstanding pain were included. The thesis includes five different studies, two of them with a focus on the work situation, two with focus on young, newly-diagnosed women’s life situation, and one investigating time-use and activity patterns in working and non-working women with fibromyalgia. Methods used are a postal questionnaire, instruments commonly used in fibromyalgia, a diary, and interviews.Results: Despite limitations in physical capacity, 48% of the women are working, full-time or part-time. However, most job loss is associated with the fibromyalgia symptoms, and the women report that the symptoms influence their daily activities during most of their waking time. There is a rapid increase in sickness absence in the newly-diagnosed women, and the young women in particular do not return to the labour market during the first year after receiving their diagnosis. The non-working women have a more demanding family situation, and are also less satisfied with their present situation than working women.Conclusion: When individual adjustments of the work situation are made and the women participate to a level that matches their ability, they are able to continue in a work role. In evaluating the women’s work capacity, the total life situation of the women should be considered.
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| 2. |
- Lindehammar, Hans, 1955-
(författare)
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Muscle function in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis : A two-year follow-up
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study of muscle function in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease that primarily affects the synovial membrane of joints. Muscle weakness, atrophy and pain occur in adult RA. This may be a consequence of joint pain, stiffness and immobility. Muscle inflammation and neuropathy occur as complications in adults. Muscle function in JIA has been much less studied.The aim of the study was to examine whether muscle weakness and atrophy also occur in children with JIA.This was a longitudinal study over a two-year period, where muscle strength and thickness were measured repeatedly in a group of 20 children and teenagers with JIA. Muscle strength was measured using different methods and in several muscle groups. Muscle biopsies were obtained and nerve conduction velocity studies performed.The study concludes that, compared to healthy people, children and teenagers with JIA have as a group reduced muscle strength and muscle thickness. For most of these children and teenagers, muscle strength is only slightly lower than expected, but a few have marked muscle weakness. This is most apparent in patients with severe polyarthritis where the weakness seems to be widespread. Patients with isolated arthritis may also have greatly reduced strength and thickness of muscles near the inflamed joint.There is a risk of decreasing strength in patients with polyarthritis and in muscles near an active arthritis.Minor changes are common in muscle biopsies, and findings may indicate immunological activity in the muscles.Atrophy of type II fibres, as in adult RA, was not found in JIA.No patient had signs of neuropathy.
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| 3. |
- Moore, Jason W., 1971-
(författare)
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Environmental crises and the metabolic rift in world-historical perspective
- 2000
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Ingår i: Organization & environment. - 1086-0266 .- 1552-7417. ; 13:2, s. 123-157
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article proposes a new theoretical framework to study the dialectic of capital and nature over the longue durée of world capitalism. The author proposes that today’s global ecological crisis has its roots in the transition to capitalism during the long sixteenth century. The emergence of capitalism marked not only a decisive shift in the arenas of politics, economy, and society, but a fundamental reorganization of world ecology, characterized by a “metabolic rift,” a progressively deepening rupture in the nutrient cycling between the country and the city. Building upon the historical political economy of Marx, Foster, Arrighi, and Wallerstein, the author proposes a new research agenda organized around the concept of systemic cycles of agro-ecological transformation. This agenda aims at discerning the ways in which capitalism’s relationship to nature developed discontinuously over time as recurrent ecological crises have formed a decisive moment of world capitalist crisis, forcing successive waves of restructuring over long historical time.
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| 4. |
- Sepa, Anneli, 1971-
(författare)
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The Stress Hypothesis : Implications for the induction of diabetes-related autoimmunity in children?
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Second to Finland, Sweden has the world’s highest incidence of type 1 diabetes. Experiences of serious life events have retrospectively been shown to constitute a risk factor for the development of this disease, probably via the biological stress response. Parenting stress and maternal attachment insecurity are other important sources of stress in early childhood.Psychological stress increases the need for insulin and may induce insulin resistance, which might add extra pressure on the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas (beta-cell stress).The aim of the current thesis was to propose and start investigating a stress hypothesis – namely that psychological stress may induce insulin resistance leading to beta-cell stress, which could trigger an autoimmune reaction towards beta-cells in genetically predisposed children. When all the beta cells have been destroyed, insulin can no longer be produced in the body and type 1 diabetes becomes manifest.Methods: Families from the prospective population-based ABIS-project, which follows approximately 17 000 children, participated in the empirical studies of the current thesis. The mothers completed questionnaires, including various measures of psychological stress (e.g. parenting stress and experiences of serious life events) and socio-demographic background, at the birth of the child and when the child was 1 as well as 2.5 years of age. Maternal attachment insecurity was assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview. Blood samples drawn from the children at 1 and 2.5 years of age were analyzed for type 1 diabetes-related autoantibodies towards Tyrosine phosphatase (IA-2) and Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase (GAD).Findings and Conclusions: Parenting stress and experiences of serious life events like divorce and maternal exposure to violence were associated with the induction of diabetes-related autoimmunity in early childhood, possibly via insulin resistance and beta-cell stress. The risk of developing diabetesrelated autoimmunity after parental divorce or mothers’ exposure to violence was about threefold. None of the results were explained by any of the potential confounding factors analyzed. These results support and strengthen the stress hypothesis, which warrants further investigation.Mothers’ attachment insecurity was not associated with the induction of diabetes-related autoimmunity in their infants. However, this lack of association was perhaps due to methodological constraints.The vast majority of the parents were calmed or unaffected concerning their participation in the ABIS-project, suggesting that large-scale medical screening-projects in the general population are not in themselves a cause for worry and can be performed without causing increased anxiety.
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| 5. |
- Wahlström, Helene, et al.
(författare)
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Herd-based monitoring for tuberculosis in extensive swedish deer herds by culling and meat inspection rather than by intradermal tuberculin testing.
- 2000
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - 0167-5877. ; 43:2, s. 103-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The effect of random slaughter and meat inspection as a tool to detect or eradicate tuberculosis in large, extensive deer herds in Sweden was evaluated. A computer spreadsheet model based on the Reed-Frost method was developed. Numbers of new infections and of infected deer slaughtered as well as probability of detecting tuberculosis or slaughtering all infected deer in a herd, were simulated. The model predicted that, given a 20% annual slaughter and that disease was introduced with one infected deer, the infection would be detected or eliminated in most herds (90%) after 15 years.
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