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Objective To examine the risk factors for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (MTI) among Greenlandic children for the purpose of identifying those at highest risk of infection. Methods Between 2005 and 2007, 1797 Greenlandic schoolchildren in five different areas were tested for MTI with an interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) and a tuberculin skin test (TST). Parents or guardians were surveyed using a standardized self-administered questionnaire to obtain data on crowding in the household, parents' educational level and the child's health status. Demographic data for each child--i.e. parents' place of birth, number of siblings, distance between siblings (next younger and next older), birth order and mother's age when the child was born--were also extracted from a public registry. Logistic regression was used to check for associations between these variables and MTI, and all results were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (Cls). Children were considered to have MTI if they tested positive on both the IGRA assay and the TST. Findings The overall prevalence of MTI was 8.5% (152/1797). MTI was diagnosed in 26.7% of the children with a known TB contact, as opposed to 6.4% of the children without such contact. Overall, the MTI rate was higher among Inuit children (0R:4.22; 95% CI: 1.55-11.5) and among children born less than one year after the birth of the next older sibling (0R:2.48; 95% Ch 1.33- 4.63). Self-reported TB contact modified the profile to include household crowding and low mother's education. Children who had an older MTI-positive sibling were much more likely to test positive for MTI themselves (OR: 14.2; 95% CI: 5.75-35.0) than children without an infected older sibling. Conclusion Ethnicity, sibling relations, number of household residents and maternal level of education are factors associated with the risk of TB infection among children in Greenland. The strong household clustering of MTI suggests that family sources of exposure are important. Objectif Examiner les facteurs de risque d'une infection a Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTI) parmi les enfants groenlandais afin d'identifier ceux qui presentent le risque d'infection le plus eleve. Methodes Entre 2005 et 2007, 1797 ecoliers groenlandais de cinq regions differentes ont ete testes pour le depistage de l'infection a MTI au moyen d'un test de detection de l'interferon gamma (IGRA) et d'un test cutane a la tuberculine (TST). Une enquete a ete proposee aux parents ou aux tuteurs a l'aide d'un auto-questionnaire standardise en vue d'obtenir des donnees sur la composition des menages, le niveau d'education des parents et l'etat de sante de l'enfant. Des donnees demographiques relatives a chaque enfant--a savoir le lieu de naissance des parents, le nombre de freres et soeurs, la difference d'age entre les freres et soeurs (suivant et precedent), l'ordre de naissance et l'age de la mere a la naissance de l'enfant--ont egalement ete extraites d'un registre public. Le principe de regression logistique a ete applique pour verifier les eventuelles associations entre ces variables et l'infection a MTI. Tous les resultats etaient exprimes en odds-ratios (OR) et en intervalle de confiance a 95% (IC). Les enfants etaient consideres comme atteints de MTI si le test IGRA et le TST etaient tous les deux positifs. Resultats La prevalence globale de l'infection a MTI etait de 8,5% (152/1797). On a diagnostique une infection a MTI chez 26,7% des enfants ayant ete en contact de facon averee avec une personne atteinte de tuberculose, pour 6,4% d'enfants n'ayant pas eu un tel contact. Globalement, le taux d'infection a MTI etait plus eleve chez les enfants inuits (OR: 4,22; IC a 95%: de 1,55 a 11,5) et chez les enfants nes moins d'un an apres la naissance de l'enfant precedent (OR: 2,48; IC a 95%: de 1,33 a 4,63). Un contact declare avec une personne tuberculeuse modifiait le profil, ainsi qu'un nombre eleve de personnes au foyer et une education peu elevee de la mere. Les enfants ayant un frere ou une sceur plus age atteint d'une infection a MTI risquaient davantage d'avoir eux-memes un resultat positif au depistage de MTI (OR: 14,2; IC a 95%: de 5,75 a 35.0) que les enfants n'ayant ni frere ni soeur infecte. Conclusion L'ethnicite, les relations avec les freres et soeurs, le nombre de personnes vivant au foyer et le niveau d'education maternelle sont des facteurs associes au risque d'infection par la tuberculose parmi les enfants du Groenland. La forte concentration de l'infection a MTI dans les foyers indique que les sources familiales d'exposition sont importantes. Objetivo Examinar los factores de riesgo de la infeccion por Mycobacterium tuberculosis (IMT) en ninos groenlandeses con el fin de identificar a aquellos estan expuestos a un mayor riesgo. Metodos Entre 2005 y 2007, se analizo a 1797 ninos en edad escolar de Groenlandia en cinco zonas diferentes para detectar la presencia de la IMT mediante un analisis de liberacion de interferon gamma (IGRA, por sus siglas en ingles) y una prueba cutanea de tuberculina (PCT). Los padres o tutores respondieron a un cuestionario autoadministrado y normalizado para obtener datos sobre el numero de habitantes del hogar, el nivel educativo de los padres y el estado de salud del nino. Tambien se extrajeron datos demograficos de cada nino de un registro publico (es decir, el lugar de nacimiento de los padres, el numero de hermanos, la diferencia entre hermanos (entre el que le sigue y el que le precede), el orden de nacimiento y la edad de la madre cuando nacio el nino). Se utilizo una regresion Iogistica para comprobar las asociaciones entre estas variables y la IMT. Asimismo, todos los resultados se expresaron como cocientes de probabilidades (CP) e intervalos de confianza (IC) del 95%. Se establecio que los ninos tenian la IMT en caso de resultado positivo tanto del analisis IGRA como de la PCT. Resultados La prevalencia global de la IMT fue del 8,5% (152/1797). Se diagnostico la IMT en el 26,7% de los ninos de los que se tenia constancia de un contacto con la tuberculosis, en contraposicion con el 6,4% de estos ninos que no habian tenido dicho contacto. En general, la tasa de la IMT resulto ser mas elevada en ninos inuit (CP: 4,22; IC de195%: 1,55-11,5) y entre ninos nacidos menos de un ano despues del nacimiento del hermano que les precede (CP: 2,48; IC del 95%: 1,33-4,63). La notificacion de un contacto con la tuberculosis modificaba el perfil para incluir el numero de habitantes del hogar y el bajo nivel educativo de la madre. Los ninos que tenian un hermano mayor cuya prueba de IMT fue positiva tenian muchas mas probabilidades de que su prueba tambien ofreciese un resultado positivo (CP: 14,2; IC del 95%: 5,75-35,0) en comparacion con los niSos que no tenian un hermano mayor infectado. Conclusion La etnia, las relaciones fraternales, el numero de habitantes del hogar y el nivel de educacion materno son factores asociados al riesgo de sufrir una infeccion de tuberculosis en ninos de Groenlandia. La gran concentracion en el hogar de la IMT sugiere que las fuentes familiares de exposicion son importantes., Introduction Although Greenland has experienced steady improvement in general living standards since World War II, tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem throughout the country. (1,2) Overall TB incidence in [...]

A study was conducted to investigate and evaluate the familial aggregation of pyloric stenosis, the most common condition requiring surgery in the first months of life, and the role of heritability in the disease. Results indicated that the disease found in Danish children showed strong familial aggregation as well as heritability.

Background Some 5%-15% of all women experience postpartum depression (PPD), which for many is their first psychiatric disorder. The purpose of this study was to estimate the incidence of postpartum affective disorder (AD), duration of treatment, and rate of subsequent postpartum AD and other affective episodes in a nationwide cohort of women with no prior psychiatric history. Methods and findings Linking information from several Danish national registers, we constructed a cohort of 457,317 primiparous mothers with first birth (and subsequent births) from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2013 (a total of 789,068 births) and no prior psychiatric hospital contacts and/or use of antidepressants. These women were followed from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2014. Postpartum AD was defined as use of antidepressants and/or hospital contact for PPD within 6 months after childbirth. The main outcome measures were risk of postpartum AD, duration of treatment, and recurrence risk. We observed 4,550 (0.6%) postpartum episodes of AD. The analyses of treatment duration showed that 1 year after the initiation of treatment for their first episode, 27.9% of women were still in treatment; after 4 years, 5.4%. The recurrence risk of postpartum AD for women with a PPD hospital contact after first birth was 55.4 per 100 person-years; for women with postpartum antidepressant medication after first birth, it was 35.0 per 100 person-years. The rate of postpartum AD after second birth for women with no history of postpartum AD was 1.2 per 100 person-years. After adjusting for year of birth and mother's age, women with PPD hospital contact after first birth had a 46.4 times higher rate (95% CI 31.5-68.4) and women with postpartum antidepressant medication after their first birth had a 26.9 times higher rate (95% CI 21.9-33.2) of a recurrent postpartum episode after their second birth compared to women with no postpartum AD history. Limitations include the use of registry data to identify cases and limited confounder control. Conclusions In this study, an episode of postpartum AD was observed for 0.6% of childbirths among women with no prior psychiatric history. The observed episodes were characterized by a relatively short treatment duration, yet the women had a notably high rate of later AD and recurrent episodes of postpartum AD. The recurrence risk of postpartum AD was markedly higher among women with PPD hospital contact after first birth compared to women with postpartum antidepressant medication after first birth. Our results underline the necessity of measures targeted at specific vulnerable groups, such as women who experience PPD as a first psychiatric episode., Author(s): Marie-Louise H. Rasmussen 1,*, Marin Strøm 1, Jan Wohlfahrt 1, Poul Videbech 2, Mads Melbye 1,3 Introduction Postpartum depression (PPD) is a nonpsychotic depressive episode occurring in the period [...]

In anticipation of licensure and introduction of rotavirus vaccine into the western market, we used modeling of national hospital registry data to determine the incidence and direct medical costs of [...]

OBJECTIVES. It is well known that children attending childcare have a higher risk of acute respiratory infections compared with children in home care; however, knowledge is sparse regarding how the excess risk of acute respiratory infection varies with age, time since enrollment, and other factors. METHODS. A national register-based study of 138 821 inpatient admissions to hospital for acute respiratory infection during 3 982 925 person-years of follow-up in Danish children aged 0 to 5 years. Data on child and family characteristics, childcare attendance, and hospitalizations were obtained from Danish registries. The outcome of the study was inpatient admissions to hospital for acute respiratory infection. Incidence rate ratios were estimated using Poisson regression. RESULTS. In children CONCLUSIONS. The increased risk of acute respiratory infection was most pronounced among 0- to 2-year-old children living with no other children during the first 6 months of enrollment. Our findings may suggest that it would be optimal to postpone enrollment into childcare until after 1 year of age. Key Words childcare, acute respiratory infection, morbidity, epidemiology Abbreviations ARI--acute respiratory infection DCRS--Danish Civil Registration System DNPR--Danish National Patient Registry ICD--International Classification of Diseases URI--upper respiratory infection LRI--lower respiratory infection IRR--incidence rate ratio CI--confidence interval, PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE consistently found that children who are taken care of in a childcare facility away from their home have a higher risk of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) than [...]

A study is conducted to evaluate the relationship between routinely administered childhood vaccines and hospitalization for nontargeted infectious diseases. The results of the study do not support the hypotheses that multiple-antigen vaccines or aggregated vaccine exposure increase the risk of nontargeted infections disease hospitalization.

A report on the association between the growth during childhood and the risk of breast cancer in a cohort of 117,415 Danish women is presented. It is concluded that birth weight and growth during childhood and adolescence influence the risk of breast cancer in woman.

Objective. To describe incidence and temporal trends of intussusceptions in Danish children during 1980 to 2001. Methods. A population-based cohort study was conducted of 1.67 million children who were younger than 5 years during 1980 to 2001 and were followed up for 6.66 million person-years. The Danish National Patient Registry was used to identify cases of intussusception in the cohort. Age-specific incidence rates were main outcome measure. Results. A total of 1814 cases of intussusception among children who were younger than 5 years were reported from 1980 to 2001. The incidence rate remained fairly constant during 1980 to 1990 but decreased by 55% (95% confidence interval: 43%-65%) from 1990 to 2001. The reduction was most pronounced among children aged 3 to 5 months. Conclusions. The incidence of intussusception among Danish children declined significantly during the 1990s, particularly among infants 3 to 5 months of age. Pediatrics 2004;114:782-785; children, incidence, intussusception, population-based studies., ABBREVIATIONS. NPR, National Patient Registry; ICD, International Classification of Diseases; CI, confidence interval. Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in children younger than 2 years. The condition [...]

Millions of children are vaccinated with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine annually and the safety of this vaccine is of prime concern to researchers with tests being conducted to estimate incidence rate ratios (RRs) following this vaccination. It was found that there is an increased rate of febrile seizures after MMR vaccination but the risk difference was smaller in high-risk children.

A diverse casual mechanisms is proposed to explain a possible link between childhood vaccination and type 1 diabetes. Three case studies from Sweden, Europe and United States found no adverse effect of childhood vaccination on type 1 diabetes.

Objectives. We sought to determine precise estimates of infant mortality rates and to describe overall trends in infant mortality in Greenland and Denmark from 1973 to 1997. Methods. We analyzed data from population-based registries of all live-born infants in Greenland and Denmark to calculate infant mortality rates from 1973 to 1997. Results. Between the periods of 1973-1977 and 1993-1997, neonatal mortality rates in Greenland declined from 20.9 per 1000 live-born infants to 15.7, and post-neonatal mortality rates declined from 20.9 per 1000 to 5.9. Infant mortality rates were significantly higher in Greenland than in Denmark, and the excess mortality was uniformly distributed over all birthweight percentiles. In Greenland, the risk of infant death was significantly lower if the mother was born outside Greenland. Conclusions. Postneonatal mortality rates in Greenland have decreased significantly during the past 25 years, but little progress has been made in decreasing neonatal mortality rates. Disparities exist among children with different maternal origins. (Am J Public Health. 2004;94:452-457)

Vaccines that contain thimerosal probably do not increase the risk of autism in children who receive them, according to a study of 467,450 Danish children born between 1990 and 1996. There was no increase in the number of children with autism in the group that received vaccines containing thimerosal compared to the group that received vaccines without thimerosal. Thimerosal is a mercury compound used as a preservative.

Children who were vaccinated with BCG vaccine as babies are just as likely to develop an allergic disease as those who are not. BCG is a tuberculosis vaccine. Doctors believed BCG vaccine might protect children from developing an allergic disease, but a study of 1,575 children in Greenland shows that this is not true. Greenland stopped vaccinating babies with BCG in 1990.

The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine does not cause autism, according to a study of 537,303 children born in Denmark between 1991 and 1998. The rate of autism was no higher in the vaccinated children than it was in the unvaccinated children.

Environmental factors may be a more important risk factor for schizophrenia than a family history. Researchers analyzed the records of 2,669 schizophrenics among 1.75 million people in Denmark. Having a family member with schizophrenia increased the risk about 7 to 9 times depending on the family member. However, only 5.5% of the patients had a family history of schizophrenia. Ten percent had been born in the early spring, the season of highest risk. Thirty-five percent had been born in an urban area. Although genetic factors cannot be completely excluded, environment factors appear to play a bigger role.

Anal cancer may be caused by the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV causes genital warts and is already strongly associated with cervical cancer. In a telephone survey of 417 patients with anal cancer and 1,088 without the disease in Denmark and Sweden, histories of sexual promiscuity, venereal disease, and anal intercourse were more common in those with anal cancer. Eighty-four percent of the anal-cancer tumors tested contained one of the high-risk types of HPV. This strong association, and previous research, implicate HPV as a probable cause of anal cancer, which means anal cancer may be preventable.

There appears to be no association between induced abortion and the risk of breast cancer. Danish researchers used a population registry and an abortion registry to see if there was a link between abortion and breast cancer. Among the 1.5 million women studied, there were 370,715 abortions and 10,246 cases of breast cancer. Women who had had an abortion had the same risk of breast cancer as those who had never had one. Scientists have speculated that abortion may increase the risk of breast cancer because full-term pregnancy seems to protect women from developing breast cancer.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2008.10.017 Byline: Nina Ayen (a)(b)(c), Gry Poulsen (a), Heather A. Boyd (a), Jan Wohlfahrt (a), Peter K.A. Jensen (d), Mads Melbye (a) Abstract: Time trends in congenital heart defects (CHD) by specific phenotype and with long follow-up time are rarely available for an entire population. We present trends in national CHD prevalences over the past 3 decades. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark (b) Center for Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway (c) Department of Public Health and Primary Healthcare, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway (d) Department of Clinical Genetics, Arhus University Hospital, Arhus, Denmark Article History: Received 22 September 2008; Accepted 23 October 2008