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Background Not having an established relationship is associated with an elevated risk of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection, but this might reflect selection into and out of unions. Although union formation and union separation are common events in reproductive age, little is known about changes in CT risk before and after these transitions. Methods We linked Finnish Population Register data to the National Register of Infectious Diseases and used fixed-effects linear probability models that account for all time-invariant confounders to examine changes in women's 6-month CT risk 3 years before and 3 years after entry into first cohabitation (n  = 293 554), non-marital separation (n  = 201 647) or marital separation (n  = 92 232) during 2005–14. Results From 3 years to 1 year before first union formation, the 6-month risk of CT increased slightly, peaking at 1.27% immediately prior to union formation (95% confidence interval 1.22–1.31). It declined sharply following union formation, being only 0.40% (0.34–0.46) 6–12 months after union formation with little changes thereafter. Among women separating from non-marital unions, the risk increased from 0.50% (0.42–0.57) to 1.45% (1.40–1.49) around the time of separation and decreased following separation. The pattern of findings was relatively similar for marital separation, although the observed risks and changes were smaller in magnitude. Conclusions Our results based on longitudinal data and individual fixed-effects models indicate that the period immediately after separation may be causally associated with an elevated risk of CT. This suggests that recently separated women should be identified as a high-risk group for CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several studies have shown that individuals with a history of suicide attempt form a high-risk mortality group. Completed suicide is the main cause of death among them, but excess mortality for other causes of death is much less studied. Furthermore, little is known whether living with others modifies the excess risk of mortality among suicide attempters. Methods: We evaluated an 11% sample from the population registration data of Finns aged 15 years and older in the period 1988-2007 with an 80% oversample of death records and a linkage with information on causes of hospitalisation. We estimate standardised mortality rates and Poisson regression models separately for the general population and those treated in hospital for suicide attempt. Results: Compared with the general population, all-cause mortality risk was ~10-fold among women and well over 10-fold among men during the first 3 months following suicide attempt. The risk for suicide was even greater, but in addition to external causes of death, mortality from smoking- and alcohol-related diseases was elevated. Instead, the proportion of alcohol-associated suicides was smaller among the suicide attempters. Among suicide attempters, the association between living arrangements and mortality was much weaker than in the general population. Conclusion: Premature mortality is extremely high after suicide attempt, especially in the first year. Our results do not support the idea that the resources provided by living with others ameliorate the effects of suicide attempt on subsequent mortality. Suicide prevention should focus on designing adequate aftercare following the attempt, especially for those with alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction This study assesses the effects of obesity, physical inactivity and smoking on life expectancy (LE) differences between educational groups in five European countries in the early 2000s. Methods We estimate the contribution of risk factors on LE differences between educational groups using the observed risk factor distributions and under a hypothetically more optimal risk factor distribution. Data on risk factor prevalence were obtained from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe study, and data on mortality from census-linked data sets for the age between 50 and 79 according to sex and education. Results Substantial differences in LE of up to 2.8 years emerged between men with a low and a high level of education in Denmark, Austria and France, and smaller differences among men in Italy and Spain. The educational differences in LE were not as large among women. The largest potential for reducing educational differences was in Denmark (25% among men and 41% among women) and Italy (14% among men). Conclusions The magnitude of the effect of unhealthy behaviours on educational differences in LE varied between countries. LE among those with a low or medium level of education could increase in some European countries if the behavioural risk factor distributions were similar to those observed among the highly educated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]