Changed contact details (Andy P Dickens, 22 October 2012)
Please note that since publishing this paper I moved to the University of Birmingham and my email address is now: a.p.dickens@bham.ac.uk
read full comment
The Swedish ICD-8 was introduced in 1969 (Jonas Ludvigsson, 22 October 2012)
This is to inform the readers of this paper that there is an error in Figure 1.
The Swedish ICD-8 classification ("Klassifikation av sjukdomar 1968") was PUBLISHED in 1968, but ICD-8 per se was INTRODUCED in 1969.
Hence, ICD-7 was used throughout year 1968, and ICD-8 was used from 1969.
See also:
Björn Smedby, Gunnar Schiöler: Health Classifications in the Nordic countries. Historic development in a national and international perspective. NOMESCO, Copenhagen 2006.
Jonas F Ludvigsson
Corresponding author.
read full comment
Numerator, not nominator is top of a fraction (Ebm Audit, 27 September 2012)
The ankle brachial index is defined in the abstract by an invalid nomenclature despite being the center piece of the article. It is a fraction of arterial blood pressure values with a value representing the legs (ankle) on the top of the fraction and a value representing the arms (brachial) on the bottom of the fraction. In the English language, the numerator is the top and the denominator the bottom of the fraction. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraction_(mathematics).
A nominator is not a mathematical term. The verb nominate expresses, for example, to propose a person by name as a candidate or to appoint to an office. A nominator may be a person who enters a horse in a race. Reference: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominator.
read full comment
About language and validation of MAMAS (swapnil gadhave, 28 June 2012)
Article didnt explained which language version MAMS is used.If english version of MAMS is not used then , whether used version is validate or not what are the psychometric properties of used version.
Eight question medical adherence tool by morisky is already in use.Is there any perticular reason to use four item scale.
read full comment
Comment on: Ambaw et al. BMC Public Health, 12:282
The bigger picture on Foxconn working conditions and how they may influence worker mental health (andrew watterson, 01 June 2012)
The paper legitimately explores aspects of the Foxconn suicides relating to investigating temporal clustering and the role of the media. There are other aspects of these clusters which may be less familiar to BMC readers, however, that merit equal attention and public health action. These aspects may be one of the major underlying causes of the first suicides and they provide important contextualisation for the reported clusters. They include poor working conditions - hours, holidays and health and safety. A Fair Labor Association Report for Apple on the Chinese Foxconn plants was produced in 2012 after the Cheng paper was published in 2011. It reveals that in some plants , employees worked 60 hour weeks and 7% worked 60-70 hour weeks for several months. Also 7% of the workers in some...
read full comment
Comment on: Cheng et al. BMC Public Health, 11:841
On cognitive vulnerability of the COPD (swapnil gadhave, 01 June 2012)
The methodology section didnt give satisfactory explanation about which dimensions and how cognitive vulnerability of COPD is measured.please explain the methodology of measuring cognitive vulnerability of COPD
read full comment
Row and column percentage calculation (Namir Al-Tawil, 01 June 2012)
I have a comment on table 4 regarding the calculation of the percentages. When calculating the prevalence of any health problem, it must be calculated among persons of each of the categories of the studied factor. In our example, the author calculated the proportion of religion types among women experiencing violence. I think he has to calculate the proportion of violence among women of each of the religion category. For instance, out of 68 Muslim women, 35 experienced violence, so the percentage must be 35/68 X 100=51.4%, but the author put 27% while for Orthodox, 66 out of 266 = 24.8% instead of what was written (50%) which will give misleading results.
read full comment
Error in table 2 (Teresa Shamah Levy, 27 March 2012)
There is a typographic an error in the table 2 regarding the BMI Section the correct values must be: Females 18.0 (18.1, 19.9) and Males 18.3 (18.3,19.2) for the Intervention Group and
Females 18.7 (18.3, 19.1) and Males 18.8 (18.4,19.3) in the case of Control Group,
P values are 0.6 and 0.85 For Females and Males respectively. It is important to clarify that this error is merely typographic in and do not affect the interactions between variables nor the results interpretation.
read full comment
Economic impact of stroke (Maree Hackett, 05 March 2012)
Best of luck for a successful study. We have just completed a similar study looking at the economic impact of stroke on the household. Perhaps a prospective meta-analysis of economic results is possible on completion of your study.
Hackett ML, Glozier N, Jan S, Lindley R. Psychosocial Outcomes in StrokE: the POISE observational stroke study protocol. BMC Neurology 2009, 9:24, doi:10.1186/1471-2377-9-24.
Study of changes in the effect of marital status on cancer outcomes overlooks the way standard measures of association tend to be affected by the overall prevalence of an outcome (James Scanlan, 05 March 2012)
There is a common tendency, particularly in discussion of inequalities in cancer outcomes, and even with respect to whether those inequalities are changing over time, to talk interchangeably in terms of differences in survival and differences in mortality. The distinction between the two, however, can be a crucial one. For reasons related to the shapes of normal distributions of factors associated with experiencing an outcome, as an outcome generally increases, relative difference in rates of experiencing the outcome tend to decrease, while relative differences in rates of failing to experience the outcome tend to increase.[2-6] Thus, solely for statistical reasons, improvements in cancer diagnosis and care, with attendant general increases in cancer survival rates, will tend to reduce...
read full comment
Studies of effects of health conditions on self-rated health must consider the ways standard measures of health disparities tend to be affected by the prevalence of an outcome (James Scanlan, 14 February 2012)
Like virtually all other efforts to examine variations in the ways that persons of similar objective health status in different socioeconomic groups perceive their health, commonly termed reporting heterogeneity, the study by Delpierre et al.[l] suffers from a failure to recognize the patterns by which, for reasons inherent in the shapes of normal risk distributions, standard measures of differences between outcome rates (proportions) tend to be affected by the overall prevalence of an outcome. The most notable such pattern is that whereby the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing it and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it.[2-4] The failure to recognize this pattern is responsible for the perception, cited by...
read full comment
Efforts to appraise changes in inequalities in poor health over the life course must consider the implications of general increases in poor health as the population ages (James Scanlan, 12 January 2012)
Benzeval et al.[1] have endeavored to address some complex issues concerning whether socioeconomic inequalities in health increase or decrease with age. But, as with other research on the topic, the effort suffers from a failure to recognize the way that, for reasons related to the shapes of normal distributions of factors associated with experiencing an outcome, standard measures of differences between rates tend to be affected by the overall prevalence of the...
read full comment
Errata for Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:790 (Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, 12 January 2012)
There are four typographical errors in the final published version of this paper, for which the corresponding author accepts full responsibility. Page references are to the final PDF version....
read full comment
Errata for Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:724 (Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, 12 January 2012)
There are two typographical errors in the final published version of this paper, for which the corresponding author accepts full responsibility. Page references are to the final PDF version....
read full comment
Dog-walking and Non-Owners (Melanie Rock, 04 December 2011)
Thank you, Brian Perry, for posting your comments and suggestions. We did not ask non-owners whether they regularly walked a dog that does not live with them, and as you have pointed out, that is limitation of this study. In a recent literature review that may of interest to you, published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, we summarize the available evidence on this topic. This article is titled "Unleashing their potential: a critical realist scoping review of the influence of dogs on physical activity for dog-owners and non-owners," and it can be downloaded for free from: http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/8/1/46.
read full comment
Non-owner dog walkers (Brian Perry, 15 November 2011)
Thank you very much for your exellent article comparing the frequency of NRW of dog owners and non- dog owners. You should get down and kiss the dog friendly ground in Calgary. I'm trying to have our government (West Kelowna, BC) open more parks to dogs based on the conclusions such as those in your research. If I might make a suggestion for future research: I attend very closely to dog walking behaviour in my neighbourhood, and I have observed that the dog takes the owner and the owner takes a friend or neighbour for the walk. I understand the serious research implications of changing your cohorts, but instead of having dog owners vs non-owners, could the chorts be changed to be 'dog accompanied' vs 'non-accompanied' walking? I believe that the results would show the health benefits...
read full comment
Letter to the Editor: Marginal structural models and the healthy worker survivor effect (Ashley Isaac Naimi, 07 November 2011)
Ashley I. Naimi*, Alexander Keil
* Correspondence: Epidemiology, CB7435, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
We read with interest the article by Thygesen et. al. (1) on the quantification of the healthy worker effect in a nationwide study of electricians in Denmark. The authors sought to assess the magnitude of the healthy worker survivor effect in this cohort by comparing the mortality rate in electricians who left work to those who remained at work. They further sought to minimize the bias induced by the healthy worker survivor effect using several methods, including marginal structural models. However, we were concerned about two aspects of their analysis using marginal structural models: First, the...
read full comment
Studies of tends in the relationship of marital status to mortality must consider the implications of general changes in mortality (James Scanlan, 07 November 2011)
The study by Berntsen [1] found that between 1971 and 2007 among elderly Norwegian men and women relative differences in mortality by marital status increased for circulatory diseases but remained stable for cancer. The study also found that during the period examined deaths from circulatory disease decreased while deaths from cancer increased. But the study failed to consider the potential relationship of the patterns of relative differences in mortality and the overall changes in mortality rates.
For reasons related to the shapes of normal distributions of factors associated with experiencing an outcome, the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing it and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it. Thus, as...
read full comment
Errata (Philippa Howden-Chapman, 21 September 2011)
1. The predicted log GHQ was displayed in Figure 1 to normalise GHQ scores. The models used in the Figure were the same as reported in Table 2, Model 3. 2. At phase one of the study, 88% of participants were owner occupiers and 12% rented. 3. The cumulative impact of housing tenure on the inequalities in mental health in older people DECREASED (not increased) when we took into account housing quality and financial problems (Discussion, 1st paragraph).
read full comment
Study aim number 1 (Eli Fjeld Falnes, 12 September 2011)
Study aim number 1, page 5, second paragraph has unfortunately been omitted. It should read: “expectations and experiences related to the influence of mothers-in-law on disclosure of HIV positive status and choice, and adherence to infant feeding method”
read full comment
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Latest comments
Changed contact details (Andy P Dickens, 22 October 2012)
Please note that since publishing this paper I moved to the University of Birmingham and my email address is now: a.p.dickens@bham.ac.uk read full comment
Comment on: Dickens et al. BMC Public Health, 11:647
The Swedish ICD-8 was introduced in 1969 (Jonas Ludvigsson, 22 October 2012)
This is to inform the readers of this paper that there is an error in Figure 1. The Swedish ICD-8 classification ("Klassifikation av sjukdomar 1968") was PUBLISHED in 1968, but ICD-8 per se was INTRODUCED in 1969. Hence, ICD-7 was used throughout year 1968, and ICD-8 was used from 1969. See also: Björn Smedby, Gunnar Schiöler: Health Classifications in the Nordic countries. Historic development in a national and international perspective. NOMESCO, Copenhagen 2006. Jonas F Ludvigsson Corresponding author. read full comment
Comment on: Ludvigsson et al. BMC Public Health, 11:450
Numerator, not nominator is top of a fraction (Ebm Audit, 27 September 2012)
The ankle brachial index is defined in the abstract by an invalid nomenclature despite being the center piece of the article. It is a fraction of arterial blood pressure values with a value representing the legs (ankle) on the top of the fraction and a value representing the arms (brachial) on the bottom of the fraction. In the English language, the numerator is the top and the denominator the bottom of the fraction. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraction_(mathematics).
A nominator is not a mathematical term. The verb nominate expresses, for example, to propose a person by name as a candidate or to appoint to an office. A nominator may be a person who enters a horse in a race. Reference: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominator. read full comment
Comment on: Lange et al. BMC Public Health, 7:147
About language and validation of MAMAS (swapnil gadhave, 28 June 2012)
Article didnt explained which language version MAMS is used.If english version of MAMS is not used then , whether used version is validate or not what are the psychometric properties of used version.
Eight question medical adherence tool by morisky is already in use.Is there any perticular reason to use four item scale. read full comment
Comment on: Ambaw et al. BMC Public Health, 12:282
The bigger picture on Foxconn working conditions and how they may influence worker mental health (andrew watterson, 01 June 2012)
The paper legitimately explores aspects of the Foxconn suicides relating to investigating temporal clustering and the role of the media. There are other aspects of these clusters which may be less familiar to BMC readers, however, that merit equal attention and public health action. These aspects may be one of the major underlying causes of the first suicides and they provide important contextualisation for the reported clusters. They include poor working conditions - hours, holidays and health and safety. A Fair Labor Association Report for Apple on the Chinese Foxconn plants was produced in 2012 after the Cheng paper was published in 2011. It reveals that in some plants , employees worked 60 hour weeks and 7% worked 60-70 hour weeks for several months. Also 7% of the workers in some... read full comment
Comment on: Cheng et al. BMC Public Health, 11:841
On cognitive vulnerability of the COPD (swapnil gadhave, 01 June 2012)
The methodology section didnt give satisfactory explanation about which dimensions and how cognitive vulnerability of COPD is measured.please explain the methodology of measuring cognitive vulnerability of COPD read full comment
Comment on: Lou et al. BMC Public Health, 12:287
Row and column percentage calculation (Namir Al-Tawil, 01 June 2012)
I have a comment on table 4 regarding the calculation of the percentages. When calculating the prevalence of any health problem, it must be calculated among persons of each of the categories of the studied factor. In our example, the author calculated the proportion of religion types among women experiencing violence. I think he has to calculate the proportion of violence among women of each of the religion category. For instance, out of 68 Muslim women, 35 experienced violence, so the percentage must be 35/68 X 100=51.4%, but the author put 27% while for Orthodox, 66 out of 266 = 24.8% instead of what was written (50%) which will give misleading results. read full comment
Comment on: Feseha et al. BMC Public Health, 12:125
Error in table 2 (Teresa Shamah Levy, 27 March 2012)
There is a typographic an error in the table 2 regarding the BMI Section the correct values must be: Females 18.0 (18.1, 19.9) and Males 18.3 (18.3,19.2) for the Intervention Group and
Females 18.7 (18.3, 19.1) and Males 18.8 (18.4,19.3) in the case of Control Group,
P values are 0.6 and 0.85 For Females and Males respectively. It is important to clarify that this error is merely typographic in and do not affect the interactions between variables nor the results interpretation. read full comment
Comment on: Shamah Levy et al. BMC Public Health, 12:152
Economic impact of stroke (Maree Hackett, 05 March 2012)
Best of luck for a successful study. We have just completed a similar study looking at the economic impact of stroke on the household. Perhaps a prospective meta-analysis of economic results is possible on completion of your study.
Hackett ML, Glozier N, Jan S, Lindley R. Psychosocial Outcomes in StrokE: the POISE observational stroke study protocol. BMC Neurology 2009, 9:24, doi:10.1186/1471-2377-9-24.
Kind regards
Maree read full comment
Comment on: van Eeden et al. BMC Public Health, 12:122
Study of changes in the effect of marital status on cancer outcomes overlooks the way standard measures of association tend to be affected by the overall prevalence of an outcome (James Scanlan, 05 March 2012)
There is a common tendency, particularly in discussion of inequalities in cancer outcomes, and even with respect to whether those inequalities are changing over time, to talk interchangeably in terms of differences in survival and differences in mortality. The distinction between the two, however, can be a crucial one. For reasons related to the shapes of normal distributions of factors associated with experiencing an outcome, as an outcome generally increases, relative difference in rates of experiencing the outcome tend to decrease, while relative differences in rates of failing to experience the outcome tend to increase.[2-6] Thus, solely for statistical reasons, improvements in cancer diagnosis and care, with attendant general increases in cancer survival rates, will tend to reduce... read full comment
Comment on: Kravdal et al. BMC Public Health, 11:804
Rwandan men are *more* likely to have HIV if theyve been circumcised (Mark Lyndon, 29 February 2012)
2.1% of intact Rwandan men have... read full comment
Comment on: Gasasira et al. BMC Public Health, 12:134
Studies of effects of health conditions on self-rated health must consider the ways standard measures of health disparities tend to be affected by the prevalence of an outcome (James Scanlan, 14 February 2012)
Like virtually all other efforts to examine variations in the ways that persons of similar objective health status in different socioeconomic groups perceive their health, commonly termed reporting heterogeneity, the study by Delpierre et al.[l] suffers from a failure to recognize the patterns by which, for reasons inherent in the shapes of normal risk distributions, standard measures of differences between outcome rates (proportions) tend to be affected by the overall prevalence of an outcome. The most notable such pattern is that whereby the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing it and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it.[2-4]
The failure to recognize this pattern is responsible for the perception, cited by... read full comment
Comment on: Delpierre et al. BMC Public Health, 12:19
Errata for Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:724 (II) (Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, 20 January 2012)
Please note corrections to the following errors. Page references are to the final PDF version.... read full comment
Comment on: Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health, 11:724
Efforts to appraise changes in inequalities in poor health over the life course must consider the implications of general increases in poor health as the population ages (James Scanlan, 12 January 2012)
Benzeval et al.[1] have endeavored to address some complex issues concerning whether socioeconomic inequalities in health increase or decrease with age. But, as with other research on the topic, the effort suffers from a failure to recognize the way that, for reasons related to the shapes of normal distributions of factors associated with experiencing an outcome, standard measures of differences between rates tend to be affected by the overall prevalence of the... read full comment
Comment on: Benzeval et al. BMC Public Health, 11:947
Errata for Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:790 (Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, 12 January 2012)
There are four typographical errors in the final published version of this paper, for which the corresponding author accepts full responsibility. Page references are to the final PDF version.... read full comment
Comment on: Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health, 11:790
Errata for Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:724 (Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, 12 January 2012)
There are two typographical errors in the final published version of this paper, for which the corresponding author accepts full responsibility. Page references are to the final PDF version.... read full comment
Comment on: Mushtaq et al. BMC Public Health, 11:724
Dog-walking and Non-Owners (Melanie Rock, 04 December 2011)
Thank you, Brian Perry, for posting your comments and suggestions. We did not ask non-owners whether they regularly walked a dog that does not live with them, and as you have pointed out, that is limitation of this study. In a recent literature review that may of interest to you, published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, we summarize the available evidence on this topic. This article is titled "Unleashing their potential: a critical realist scoping review of the influence of dogs on physical activity for dog-owners and non-owners," and it can be downloaded for free from: http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/8/1/46. read full comment
Comment on: Lail et al. BMC Public Health, 11:148
Non-owner dog walkers (Brian Perry, 15 November 2011)
Thank you very much for your exellent article comparing the frequency of NRW of dog owners and non- dog owners. You should get down and kiss the dog friendly ground in Calgary. I'm trying to have our government (West Kelowna, BC) open more parks to dogs based on the conclusions such as those in your research.
If I might make a suggestion for future research: I attend very closely to dog walking behaviour in my neighbourhood, and I have observed that the dog takes the owner and the owner takes a friend or neighbour for the walk. I understand the serious research implications of changing your cohorts, but instead of having dog owners vs non-owners, could the chorts be changed to be 'dog accompanied' vs 'non-accompanied' walking? I believe that the results would show the health benefits... read full comment
Comment on: Lail et al. BMC Public Health, 11:148
Data set (Sumner Davis, 15 November 2011)
This study was fascinating and enlightening. Is there an available data set for analysis? read full comment
Comment on: Horst et al. BMC Public Health, 8:142
Letter to the Editor: Marginal structural models and the healthy worker survivor effect (Ashley Isaac Naimi, 07 November 2011)
Ashley I. Naimi*, Alexander Keil
* Correspondence: Epidemiology, CB7435, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
We read with interest the article by Thygesen et. al. (1) on the quantification of the healthy worker effect in a nationwide study of electricians in Denmark. The authors sought to assess the magnitude of the healthy worker survivor effect in this cohort by comparing the mortality rate in electricians who left work to those who remained at work. They further sought to minimize the bias induced by the healthy worker survivor effect using several methods, including marginal structural models. However, we were concerned about two aspects of their analysis using marginal structural models: First, the... read full comment
Comment on: Thygesen et al. BMC Public Health, 11:571
Studies of tends in the relationship of marital status to mortality must consider the implications of general changes in mortality (James Scanlan, 07 November 2011)
The study by Berntsen [1] found that between 1971 and 2007 among elderly Norwegian men and women relative differences in mortality by marital status increased for circulatory diseases but remained stable for cancer. The study also found that during the period examined deaths from circulatory disease decreased while deaths from cancer increased. But the study failed to consider the potential relationship of the patterns of relative differences in mortality and the overall changes in mortality rates.
For reasons related to the shapes of normal distributions of factors associated with experiencing an outcome, the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing it and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it. Thus, as... read full comment
Comment on: Berntsen BMC Public Health, 11:537
Funding source (Amit Arora, 04 November 2011)
This study has also received funding from Australian Dental Research Foudnation in 2012. read full comment
Comment on: Arora et al. BMC Public Health, 11:28
Errata (Philippa Howden-Chapman, 21 September 2011)
1. The predicted log GHQ was displayed in Figure 1 to normalise GHQ scores. The models used in the Figure were the same as reported in Table 2, Model 3.
2. At phase one of the study, 88% of participants were owner occupiers and 12% rented.
3. The cumulative impact of housing tenure on the inequalities in mental health in older people DECREASED (not increased) when we took into account housing quality and financial problems (Discussion, 1st paragraph). read full comment
Comment on: Howden-Chapman et al. BMC Public Health, 11:682
Correction of Table 2. (Lisbeth Slunga Järvholm, 19 September 2011)
We (authors) have unfortunately found an error/mistake in Table 2, page 5, first column.
The subtitles below Socioeconomic index (SEI) should be:
White-collar (low)
White-collar r (middle-high)
read full comment
Comment on: Norlund et al. BMC Public Health, 10:326
Study aim number 1 (Eli Fjeld Falnes, 12 September 2011)
Study aim number 1, page 5, second paragraph has unfortunately been omitted. It should read: “expectations and experiences related to the influence of mothers-in-law on disclosure of HIV positive status and choice, and adherence to infant feeding method” read full comment
Comment on: Falnes et al. BMC Public Health, 11:551