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- Gustafsson, Per E., et al.
(författare)
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Do peer relations in adolescence influence health in adulthood? : Peer problems in the school setting and the metabolic syndrome in middle-age
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - San Francisco : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 7:6, s. e39385-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While the importance of social relations for health has been demonstrated in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, few studies have examined the prospective importance of peer relations for adult health. The aim of this study was to examine whether peer problems in the school setting in adolescence relates to the metabolic syndrome in middle-age. Participants came from the Northern Swedish Cohort, a 27-year cohort study of school leavers (effective n = 881, 82% of the original cohort). A score of peer problems was operationalized through form teachers' assessment of each student's isolation and popularity among school peers at age 16 years, and the metabolic syndrome was measured by clinical measures at age 43 according to established criteria. Additional information on health, health behaviors, achievement and social circumstances were collected from teacher interviews, school records, clinical measurements and self-administered questionnaires. Logistic regression was used as the main statistical method. Results showed a dose-response relationship between peer problems in adolescence and metabolic syndrome in middle-age, corresponding to 36% higher odds for the metabolic syndrome at age 43 for each SD higher peer problems score at age 16. The association remained significant after adjustment for health, health behaviors, school adjustment or family circumstances in adolescence, and for psychological distress, health behaviors or social circumstances in adulthood. In analyses stratified by sex, the results were significant only in women after adjustment for covariates. Peer problems were significantly related to all individual components of the metabolic syndrome. These results suggest that unsuccessful adaption to the school peer group can have enduring consequences for metabolic health.
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| 2. |
- Gustafsson, Per E., et al.
(författare)
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The association between long-term accumulation of temporary employment, the cortisol awakening response and circadian cortisol levels
- 2012
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Ingår i: Psychoneuroendocrinology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0306-4530 .- 1873-3360. ; 37:6, s. 789-800
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Temporary employment is an increasingly common contract type, which has not been investigated in a psychoneuroendocrinological context despite previous observations of associations between adverse work and employment conditions and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulations. The present study aims to examine whether the 12-year accumulation of temporary employment is related to circadian cortisol levels, and if any association is independent of current employment conditions. Participants were drawn from the prospective Northern Swedish Cohort (n = 791, 74% of the original cohort). At age 43 years, retrospective reports of employments over the last 12 years and of current social conditions were collected by questionnaire, and one-day salivary cortisol profile was measured (at awakening, +15 min post-awakening, pre-lunch, bedtime). Results indicated a gradually higher magnitude of the cortisol awakening response (CAR) in subjects with no (0 months in temporary employment; mean CAR = 34%), moderate (1-25 months in temporary employment; mean CAR = 41%) and heavy (>25 months in temporary employment; mean CAR = 51%) exposure (p = .020), remaining after adjustment for potential confounders and for current employment conditions (p = .028). The higher CAR was explained by lower awakening rather than higher post-awakening cortisol levels. Cortisol levels at all times of the day except post-awakening displayed tendencies to negative relations to temporary employment; as indicated by a lower Area Under of Curve (regression coefficient = 5.0%, p = .038 after adjustment). This study thus suggests that the long-term exposure to temporary employment might confer HPA dysregulations in the form of increased dynamics of the CAR and circadian suppression. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 3. |
- Nygren, Karina, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Parents matter : but relations to parents do not explain gender differences in self-reported health in adolescents
- 2012
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. - : Wiley. - 0283-9318 .- 1471-6712. ; 26:4, s. 643-653
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the study was to explore whether parent-adolescent relations are associated to self-reported health of adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were performed on a cross-sectional data set consisting of 5060 adolescents, grades 7-9, from six municipalities in the northern part of Sweden. The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Umeå, Sweden. Results showed that, in both boys and girls, experiencing low parental demands as well as perceiving the relationship quality and the communication with parents as poor were significantly associated with having poor general health, somatic complaints and feelings of stress. In general, girls scored lower on self-reported health than boys, but our findings indicate that these gender differences could not be explained by relations to parents. In conclusion, relations to parents play an important role for self-reported health of adolescents. Although no causal-effect statements can be determined in this study, it is implied that there is a need for health professionals, such as school nurses, school welfare officers, etc., to pay special attention to parent-adolescent relations in their work with adolescents.
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| 4. |
- Waller, Göran, et al.
(författare)
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A cross-sectional and semantic investigation of self-rated health in the northern Sweden MONICA-study
- 2012
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Ingår i: BMC Medical Research Methodology. - London : BioMed Central. - 1471-2288. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Self-Rated Health (SRH) correlates with risk of illness and death. But how are different questions of SRH to be interpreted? Does it matter whether one asks: “How would you assess your general state of health?”(General SRH) or “How would you assess your general state of health compared to persons of your own age?”(Comparative SRH)? Does the context in a questionnaire affect the answers? The aim of this paper is to examine the meaning of two questions on self-rated health, the statistical distribution of the answers, and whether the context of the question in a questionnaire affects the answers.Methods: Statistical and semantic methodologies were used to analyse the answers of two different SRH questions in a cross-sectional survey, the MONICA-project of northern Sweden.Results: The answers from 3504 persons were analysed. The statistical distributions of answers differed. The most common answer to the General SRH was “good”, while the most common answer to the Comparative SRH was “similar”. The semantic analysis showed that what is assessed in SRH is not health in a medical and lexical sense but fields of association connected to health, for example health behaviour, functional ability, youth, looks, way of life. The meaning and function of the two questions differ – mainly due to the comparing reference in Comparative SRH. The context in the questionnaire may have affected the statistics.Conclusions: Health is primarily assessed in terms of its sense-relations (associations) and Comparative SRH and General SRH contain different information on SRH. Comparative SRH is semantically more distinct. The context of the questions in a questionnaire may affect the way self-rated health questions are answered. Comparative SRH should not be eliminated from use in questionnaires. Its usefulness in clinical encounters should be investigated.
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