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Background: 'Remigration bias' is often referred to when explaining low mortality outcomes among migrants compared with local-born. The hypothesis suggests that severely ill migrants tend to return to their country of origin, but it has hitherto not been tested in a large-scale epidemiological study. Consequently, we studied whether migrants with severe disease were more likely to emigrate compared with migrants without severe disease., Methods: A historic prospective cohort study was conducted based on all adult refugees and family reunification immigrants (n = 114,331) who obtained residence permission in Denmark between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2010. Migrants with severe disease were identified through the Danish National Patient Register. Emigrations during follow-up (1 January 1993 to 31 December 2011) were identified using the Danish Civil Registration System. Hazard ratios were calculated for emigration among migrants with different levels of disease severity, adjusting for sex, age and income., Results: Results showed progressively fewer emigrations with increasing disease severity. Migrants with low (HR = 0.92; 95% CI: 0.80-1.06), moderate (HR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.67-1.06) and high (HR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.55-0.90) disease severity had fewer emigrations to 'country of origin' compared with migrants without disease. For emigration to 'any country', results likewise showed fewer emigrations among migrants with low (HR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.78-0.95), moderate (HR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.62-0.87) and high (HR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.53-0.76) disease severity. This tendency was also observed by nationality and migrant status. On the disease-specific level, no uniform tendencies in emigration patterns were identified., Conclusion: The results do not generally support the hypothesis of 'remigration bias' but rather suggest the opposite. Accordingly, remigration bias does not appear to explain lower mortality of migrants., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate whether genetic polymorphisms in the FSH pathway (FSHB-211 G→T and FSHR 2039 A→G) affect serum levels of FSH, antimüllerian hormone (AMH), and age at pubertal onset. FSH secretion and FSH signal transduction are enhanced in carriers of FSHB GG and FSHR AA, respectively. Furthermore, the combined genotype FSHB GG+FSHR AA is the most favorable for male gonadal function, but the effect of this genotype has never been evaluated in peripubertal females. AMH is a marker of ovarian function and is negatively correlated with FSH in prepubertal girls., Design: Secondary analyses of a prospective cohort study., Setting: General community., Patient(s): We examined 78 healthy girls twice yearly for 6 years; the median age at baseline was 9.3 years., Intervention(s): None., Main Outcome Measure(s): Hormone levels were measured by immunoassays, and DNA was isolated from blood and genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism of polymerase chain reaction-amplified regions., Result(s): Carriers of FSHB GG+FSHR AA had higher FSH before pubertal onset (median 2.2 vs. 1.5 IU/L) and lower AMH (13.8 vs. 19.4 pmol/L) compared with carriers of other genotypes. In crude analysis, girls with FSHB GG+FSHR AA entered puberty earlier, 9.7 vs. 10.6 years. However, the difference was no longer statistically significant after including interval-, right-, and left-censored data in a probit analysis., Conclusion(s): The combined effect of FSHB GG+FSHR AA may potentiate the FSH pathway, which increases serum levels of FSH and reduces AMH. Common variations in genes regulating follicle growth may affect AMH levels independently of the number of resting primordial follicles., (Copyright © 2013 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The primary purposes of preventive child health care in Denmark are to help ensure a healthy childhood and to create preconditions for a healthy adult life. The aim of this study is to examine whether participation in age-appropriate preventative child health care affects the association between the socioeconomic position of the family and subsequent use of specialised health care outside the hospital system., Methods: The study population was children born in 1999 and living in Denmark between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2006 (n=68,366). The study investigated whether the number of contacts with a specialist in 2006 was related to participation in preventive child health care between 2002 and 2005. To control for the potential effect of difference in GP behaviour the data were analysed using a multilevel Poisson model linking each child to the GP with whom he or she was listed., Results: If the children attended any preventive child health care visits, they had the same probability of contact with a specialist regardless of the parents' income. However, children from low-income families not participating in any preventive care had a lower probability of contact with a specialist than children from more affluent families., Conclusions: Ensuring participation in preventive child health care at the GP may reduce the social gap in utilisation of specialised health care that exists between children from families of different income levels.

Objective: To examine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and semen quality among young men from the general population., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: Danish young men were approached when they attended a compulsory physical examination to determine their fitness for military service., Patient(s): From 1996-1998, 1,558 (19%) young men (mean age 19 years) volunteered., Main Outcome Measure(s): Semen volume (in milliliters), sperm concentration (in million per milliliter), percentage of motile spermatozoa, percentage of spermatozoa with normal morphology, total sperm count (in million), and testis size (in milliliters). In addition, serum reproductive hormones were measured., Result(s): Serum T, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), and inhibin B all decreased with increasing BMI, whereas free androgen index and E(2) increased with increasing BMI. Serum FSH was higher among slim men. After control for confounders, men with a BMI <20 kg/m(2) had a reduction in sperm concentration and total sperm count of 28.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.3%-47.9%) and 36.4% (95% CI 14.6%-58.3%), respectively, and men with a BMI >25 kg/m(2) had a reduction in sperm concentration and total sperm count of 21.6% (95% CI 4.0%-39.4%) and 23.9% (95% CI 4.7%-43.2%), respectively, compared to men with BMI between 20-25 kg/m(2). Percentages of normal spermatozoa were reduced, although not significantly, among men with high or low BMI. Semen volume and percentage of motile spermatozoa were not affected by BMI., Conclusion(s): High or low BMI was associated with reduced semen quality. It remains to be seen whether the increasing occurrence of obesity in the Western world may contribute to an epidemic of poor semen quality registered in some of the same countries. If so, some cases of subfertility may be preventable.